You've harvested 3. Were you able to determine sex when cleaning them?
As for the number. I actually didn't recommend a number. It does depend on how many are there. They should be right about balanced with forage production in this moment. IOWs the standing weight should be in the neighborhood of what the pond can carry. So of the original 50, how many survived before removing 3?
Survival is variable and especially so for the first year of life. I'm trying to remember where I heard/read this but for stocking 2" fingerlings ... IIRC ... 70% survival is considered good for the first year. So for you that was 5.31.25. That would have been 35 fingerlings surviving their first year. At 10% annual mortality, that number would be 34 remaining now almost 4 months later. 30% of that is 10 fish. You've removed 3 fish already ... sooooo ... 7 more fish would achieve the harvest. But again, how many LMB survived the original 50 LMB stocking? Taking a total of 10 fish would put you at 24 LMB using our assumptions of natural mortality. At their current sizes, this density should lead to close to maximum growth. But if we are wrong about the number the growth could be a bit slower (albeit it should still be good). So imagine there are 10 more fish than we think are in there. In that case we miss the harvest target by just 3 fish.
Keep in mind, if there are more fish than the estimate from assumptions of natural mortality, then the pond supported a higher standing weight than the assumptions would imply. Failing to remove 3 fish will have less negative effect on growth than if we failed to remove 3 fish and the assumptions were correct. Let's suppose there really are 10 more fish than we assumed and we missed the harvest goal by 3 fish. We have 34 fish but should have only 31 had we harvested those additional three. We just divide 31 by 34 and estimate the downward bias (for not harvesting those 3 fish) to be -9% to the average of weights one year from now. So not a great big adjustment.
As for LMB less than 12", I doubt there are any presently less than this length from the original stocking. Fish of those lengths in 2026 presumes that there is recruitment next year and that they would reach sizes that you would be inclined to harvest. I will make no estimate for this.
I am definitely not saying to harvest fish > 15" in any particular number. IMHO, you need to focus harvest on those fish that are performing at the lowest apparent potentials. I judge potential by annual weight gain. Where it is evident that a fish is significantly underperforming ... I think that fish can always come out. If you believe a fish needs to be there in its place ... then a sexed female replacement can be purchased to replace that fish.
It isn't what we don't know that gives us trouble, it's what we know that ain't so - Will Rogers
