Jbass,

Heavy blooms can limit fish activity if DO is in the margins. That is counter-productive to growth because there will be less consumption under such a condition. I have seen a study on strike radius for SMB in turbid water. It is reduced by turbidity. Success per predatory strike was not affected by turbidity (evidently SMB will not launch a predatory strike unless the there is a good chance of success). So when visual reach is reduced, the chances per unit time are lower than when water is clearer. If reduced visual reach is a consequence of bloom, it is at least to some degree offset by higher prey density. But for fishing? I could see it making an impact ... just don't know what that would be for sure. Sometimes, ultra clear water is difficult to fish, so it is probably a balance.

Two of life's biggest mistakes are thinking "it will be different this time" and "ignoring your gut". Ultimately, you are captain of the ship (your wonderful lake) and are the only one who will accept responsibility if something goes wrong. Also, it would be you paying the price not only for the cause of what went wrong but also paying the consequences of it. Not just the loss of population structure but all the costs of remedy.

Use your best judgment and follow your gut is the best advice I can give you and the only advice that I will.

That said, I will share my philosophy and what my goals will be for my pond(s).

Water is a beautiful and I wouldn't want to be at war with it. A new pond is usually very nutrient poor and it may have water parameters that are not conducive to native nutrient mobilization and uptake. A new pond really needs assistance so that it can support a good biomass of fish. It needs good water parameters, it needs a combination of fertilization and feed (even only one or the other).

With fertilization only, a pond is going to be limited to around 500 to 600 lbs of an LMB/BG combination. If one has other fish that feed lower on the food chain than BG, then this weight can be higher. If one's feeds the BG, then combined LMB/BG weight can exceed the weight that fertilization alone would support.

A bloom is self-shading, so I understand that there is a limit to the amount of food that can be generated by fertilization alone. My particular goal for support of an LMB/BG biomass? About 1/2 to 2/3 of that. If nature itself can only achieve 500 to 600 lbs at the limits of fertility ... then I would personally want to have some room for natural eutrophication to bring the pond to that limiting hyper-eutrophic condition (over many years) and I would not want to hurry that along. In fact, if I could, I would try to remove nutrients to slow down eutrophication once the native nutrients could support the goaled standing weight.

This is a very conservative philosophy and it isn't shared by many here. Most are trying to get every little bit they can from their water and some are trying to get much more than that (more than water could support by fertilization and self-shaded blooms alone). I am not being critical of this approach of pushing water past its natural limits. Just from your description, I know that your water supports more LMB/BG than what nature could support with a self-shading bloom. This may be goal, and if it is, then you are doing what you should be doing to achieve that goal.

On the other hand, if you are doing all these things for a different goal, then I would question the wisdom of keeping the water at this trophic level. For example, let's say all you want to do is grow some fish into the 8 to 10 lb range. You can do that with much less expense and risk by managing the population to balance that goal with the current status of native nutrients.

One thing I know, if I were to push my water into hyper-eutrophic condition. It's all on me, the expense of it, the risk of it, the cost of remediation of it. The only one with no risk and all the profit is the one selling me on the idea of pushing my water hard. Something goes wrong? A profit opportunity that wouldn't have otherwise been there for the person selling me on the idea of pushing my water hard. It's always going to be on me, the cost and the risk and it will always benefit the person making the sales (unless I give up). So your advisor really needs to be worthy of your trust, especially when he profits if you fail.

Back to the only advice I am giving you. Follow your gut and use your best judgment.

It isn't what we don't know that gives us trouble, it's what we know that ain't so - Will Rogers