As I try to bring my pond (3 acres & 40 y/o)back into balance, I made the assumption that the greatest number of healthy >9" male & female BG would produce the most forage fish. Big BG males defend the spawning bed & establish the best areas to spawn. Big females produce the most eggs per female. The more healthy large BG the more fry produced to grow into the most forage fish.
I have reduced the number of skinny LMB so that the fish/hour is .16. I now see more smaller BG <6" but still not the numbers I would expect in a balanced BG population. Most of the BG caught & observed are >8".
From what I have gleaned from your summary, I should now reduce the numbers of the large BG so that the smaller brooders can do their thing & quickly increase the numbers of smaller forage fish as the .5 lb fish are the most productive? While I can't get to that ideal level of 20 lbs/acre of smaller brooders a reduction of the larger >9" would be helpful?
