Using ewest's chart, I estimate that on the low side (higher vulnerability to angling) that you went from 21 LMB/acre three years ago to 5 LMB/acre. That's a difference of 16 LMB/acre. So, have you removed around 48 LMB? On the high side (lower vulnerability to angling), that you went from 34 LMB/acre to around 8? 26 LMB/acre removed (78 total)? How many LMB have you removed?
Have you been seeing LMB YOY these past 3 years? It would not surprise me if you hadn't seen many or none at all.
Do you think that removing bass is delivering what you were told it would? Why wouldn't it work in your particular circumstance? Do you believe ewest? That you have lots of LMB but that they just cannot be caught? See how convenient that is? Let's say you have removed most of your LMB and now there are hardly any. That can happen too ... even if ewest were to say it can't. But with the hard to catch story, see how convenient it is? No matter what ... he can never be wrong. One thing is for sure. Unless you free up some potential for the YOY that you aren't producing ... it will be more of the same. If you keep removing LMB, I think it will only get worse from here.
Just to demonstrate that ponds can be over-represented in forage that is too large to eat ... below is a chart of the metrics of 42 Oklahoma ponds (actually those that had LMB populations). These ponds exhibit the spectrum of possibilities with regard to F/C ratio. This is the biomass of Forage to the biomass of LMB. Above 10, the forage is over-represented. This happens when the forage standing exceeds 65% of the forage potential. Notice how LMB standing weights decline when forage standing weights are a high proportion of the forage potential? I've left off the ponds that had no LMB. It's unknown whether the ponds with no LMB .... ever had LMB ... but if they did ... they were extirpated.
What percentage of these ponds exceeded 65% of potential? More than half did. It's not uncommon for too many large forage to squeeze out LMB biomass.
It isn't what we don't know that gives us trouble, it's what we know that ain't so - Will Rogers
