Can you expand on your experience in the form of a recommendation for the initial year?
I'm in the undecided category for recommending TP in 1st year which would likely mean I could share my experience and that's about it. I could be completely wrong on my lack of YoY BG from tapping, I just wasn't able to locate much of a qty of them in the sets I made.
Another question might be, were they necessary to control FA this year?
We did have a little bit of FA started in the pond before I stocked the TP. I had zero FA floating mats in the pond this year though we would see a little bit of it on rocks or submerged vegetation and trees in the water.
Our stocking of TP was to both keep the FA from overwhelming the pond (had family stuff going on at the property with dad's passing), everything I read was they were a great forage option and one of their key benefits was that they outproduced BG which ultimately saved the BG as forage for later in the year.
*** Perhaps the YoY TP have pushed the YoY BG to a different area of the pond or habitat and they are present but I'm not seeing them.
*** Perhaps my stocking rate wasn't high enough to provide a dense enough forage base for the LMB to really key in on them.
*** Perhaps my traps were just not the right style for the YoY BG.
*** It is possible that you are correct that LMB are more effective at catching the TP once the LMB get to the 12"+ size and they pick off smaller TP as their optimal forage.
*** Very likely that some of the growth we saw in the LMB is attributable to the TP being present. I can't imagine a scenario where none of the YoY TP were eaten. As they are seemingly shorter in numbers now I can only guess that the LMB are starting to pick them off with the cooler fall temps.
Sadly, my perhaps above won't be answered this year. Once the TP are gone from winterkill I suspect that the fish will be in deeper water which will also prevent visual efforts to locate and I assume that trapping them in cool temps would have the same results as stocking them at low temps ultimately leading to death of trapped BG. My suspicions, assumptions, and guesses left me with a conclusion that I would need to supplement forage to make sure there were no hungry mouths to feed over the winter. Hopefully giving the fish time to correct any issue with a shortage of YoY BG before it manifests itself with low RWs.
To be sure, there should be no regrets, but would you repeat this recipe with another pond?
I have no regrets in trying to find ways to "push" the fish this year on growth. I think if a pond owner is going to push LMB growth he or she is going to have to make calls along the way based on what the pond and the fish are telling them. In my initial samples of the fish I was seeing an avg RW of 162% (3 fish Aug 3rd - 12th). Those RW's changed to an avg of 124% (4 fish Sept 21st - 23rd). In the second set all the fish seemed to generally have the same appearance of thick back, filled out tail and a little thin on the belly. My call based on the notable reduction in RWs between the above dates and visual condition of the fish was to bump the forage. Reposted a pic of the fish from previous that needs to eat a supersized value meal!
So as we approach the winter period it is worth asking if the TP have better prepared you for the forage needs that will take place after the TP die off. In your opinion, did TP fulfill the promise of increasing survival of YOY BG? If not, what are your thoughts on the reason?
I have no proof to offer here other that what I've stated above. My personal belief is that the TP didn't fulfill the promise of increasing survival of YoY BG. The only thing that makes sense to me is that the BG were easier to prey on. There could be several reasons for this however. One that I have spent time pondering is - If the YoY BG and the TP didn't occupy the same habitat then the YoY BG were displaced into areas that may have made them easier to prey upon as the YoY TP were at all of the complex structure, and shallow water riprap (inlet and outlet).
My feeling of lack of successful use isn't in anyway changing my plan to use them in 2025. In fact I'm looking forward to trying them again next year at the same 10lb rate and size if there is no LMB spawn. If there is a LMB spawn I'll likely double the TP to 20lbs. I'd love to see if there is any difference with the amounts of TP produced through the year. If it's less production I would guess that there's been increased consumption which is a good thing.
