jpsdad,
If warmouth have a much lower recruitment rate, that would explain two of the data points in your research. First, that they don't do well in ponds with lots of other panfish. Secondly, that they are less prone to stunting in small ponds.
If that is all true, then perhaps they would be a good choice to put in a small pond as the only predator species? (Even though that goes against our PB conventional wisdom?)
A family might be able to properly manage their small pond just by fishing. If they kept good catch records with relative weights, then they could know when to eat a few more warmouth, and when to do more catch and release.
Maybe they could be a predator only option, I am not sure. With regard to conventional wisdom, keep in mind that predator only scenarios have been advanced and applied to true piscivores for quite some time now. Prominently, LMB and SMB have been successfully managed as a single species pond. With either of them, they don't as single species produce enough YOY to supply all of their energy needs. So invertebrates also play a role. To me, the question of whether they can be managed by fishing alone is answered in just how effective they are as piscivores. If they will consume sufficient quantities of YOY such that adolescents (1.5 years of age) can grow at near maximum rates of growth and in manageable quantities... then yes ... fishing could possibly be the only necessary management tool to keeping them thriving with good rates of growth.
Balance in a single predator scenario is the balance of adults to YOY. There needs to be enough adults to crop the YOY to a manageable number that will grow to a minimum size for cropping at 1.5 years of age. At this age, some proportion should be recruited to replace older adults that are being harvested or dying of natural causes. Whatever else can be cropped as an excess of production that could hinder growth into ages 2 and beyond. To better understand what to release and what to keep, I would employ a marking system for catch and release fish (but even these can be cropped limitedly). Any fish that is unmarked and of harvestable size can be removed. For marked fish, they can be kept up to an annual allowable but not more than that.
Take a look at the spread sheet below. It's based on a carry of 100 lbs (which can be adjusted of course). In this scenario, fish are marked when exceeding the gape limit of the largest fish. This occurs after they are 1 years of age at around 4" in length. 100 per 100 lbs standing weight (in this particular scenario also 100 per acre) is needed at the second anniversary. So with 10% natural mortality at this stage I would select 111 fish >4-5" in mid to late summer by clipping a bit of the rear portion of the posterior dorsal fin to stand for selected in 2025. From that point forward, I would only keep that fish if my quota of clipped fish had not been filled for the year. Any unclipped fish would be slaughtered if exceeding 5" (0.10 lbs). Each year is a repeat of selecting recruits. If a pond will support the 100 lbs standing weight and the mortality of 90 lbs/acre year ... then this is a possible scenario based on the average curve I replied to RAH with.
![[Linked Image]](https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=download&Number=21025&filename=Boone%20County%20WM%20population.jpg)
For someone doing an initial stocking. The adult population number (287) plus anticipated natural mortality to 6" lengths would be the correct initial stocking number. This particular growth is the average of males and females growing at maximum climate adjusted growth.
I think warmouth would be an even better choice if they would take supplemental feed and you could grow them out a little faster.
jpsdad (and others): Anyone have any data on warmouth learning to take pellets?
Not clear how well they would take pellets. But I think feeding in twilight and/or feed training as Augie has with RES might be worth a try.
