You guys have all changed focus to where I was pointing in a "not so obvious" manner.
Although I don't know the answer, I suspect several problems that were induced.
1., Adding adult bass is not good. (I agree with Lusk and advise the same)
2., adding adults in an existing body with healthy fish present could be an immediate stressor for all parties.
3., The amount of fishing pressure has been extremely heavy-additional stress.
4., the 1 fish I pulled otolith from (if I am correct in my observation of cut sample) was 7 years old, possibly near life's end.
5. ALL morts so far have been female-all had eggs, but I have been unable to determine if these fish were part of the 120lbs of additional biomass or not.
6., Fishinrod, don't cut yourself short, research has shown internal issues can at times cause mortality without external evidence and "usually" flares up in early spring from what I can find..
7., As smart as I "think" I am, I only can speculate there is a limit certain species of crowding will tolerate.
8., I am somewhat concerned about the high number of extremely aggressive trout added last fall and may be playing a part.
At this point, I don't think I see a clear answer, but I am sometimes blinded by non traditional management (adding extra adult bass) as I was not asked if this was advisable because My gut tells me that's not been a real good thing in a fairly good pond.
I'm not a chemist, but I can say the chemical properties I've checked are not out of the normal range. Nitrates are about 22, Nitrites and ammonia appear to be nearly unreadable.
The smartest thing I've done so far was have him pull the 3 morts last night and freeze in individual bags in a floor freezer, as I will be sending these to WADDL for testing.
I hate to say I don't know, but in this case, "I don't know" because I can't prove anything yet.
The ideas and discussing helps me to look at different view points and I'm appreciative of the input.
My initial thought was overcrowding-overnight-with a possible tie into the trout. My thought was induced problem by introducing adults combined with heavy pressure, then the thought -or question-came to mind of just how many lbs of 1 species would survive without evidence of negative impact.
When he told me about adding the fish, I fully expected to start seeing reduced body condition, but that didn't occur as I thought it would.
This will be an expensive test (monetarily for me) and a loss of time having a decent pond for him.
