I know next to nothing about this topic, but wouldn't "ladder stocking" of the grow-out BG perhaps work better?
As you move some 1.5-2" BG over to the main pond, then the population pressure on the food and space resources in the grow-out pond should be somewhat reduced. Would that help the remaining BG population more rapidly move to the 3-3.5" range?
You could even do several partial transfers.
That way you get lots of BG over to the main pond, and also get a significant number of larger BG over to the main pond.
(Just thinking out loud and reading what our experts say.)
Every time you seine fish you stress them. The OP would have to run ALL the fish through a grader to transfer smaller fish. (seine, remove fish from seine, grade inside a holding tank, return larger fish to the grow-out pond) I'm lazy, why go through the extra work and stress the growing fish when there were no recommendations from the biologist to stock the smaller fish in the bigger pond? Also, I'd only put in 20 pair of brood fish in the 1 ac pond for the first hatch. Less fingerlings would equal faster growth, and not having the brood fish stay in the pond will reduce predation. The surviving >3" fingerlings can be counted upon 1st transfer to determine if more or less brood fish are needed for the next hatch. Using the ditch to transfer the fish is a good idea, but for the first few transfers, they need to be counted to see what quantity is actually getting produced and moved.
Hopefully the OP will come back and shed more light on his quandary.
![[Linked Image from lh6.ggpht.com]](http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6_-SgakQ9co/S3Nx1jGAJWI/AAAAAAAABKU/DJIy4ZnF1t0/s800/I_subscribe.jpg)
