Thank you for your efforts on this matter. I think your suggestions are exactly what is needed and are what I was hoping Gator would pick up on by my post on this topic dated 10-12.
I do not think you are being harsh at all. This is the only way we will know the science behind the GG and that is the only duty owed to the forum -- the scientific truth.
Every study I have seen says that LMB when stocked properly with HBG will control (eat) 95% + of the original HBG's offspring. Of course the HBG offspring are 95 % male. I assume the GG will have a lower % of males and thus have a potentialy higher reproductive output over time. If this is so then it is more important to have a very good predator like LMB rather than HSB. Further when BG and LMB are stocked together from the start ( 2in. BG in fall and 2in. LMB in the following summer) the LMB do not prey on the stocker BG for several years. The LMB growth rate is not fast enough to catch up with the BGs faster growth rate until year 3. By that time the stocker BG are to big for all but the exceptional LMB to eat. In our ponds a 3rd year BG is 7-10 in. and that would take a 16in. + LMB to eat it. It is rare for us to grow a 16in. + LMB in 3 yrs. remembering that the LMB is a year behind. That is the entire reason for the standard stocking program -- the BG create a sustained forage base because the LMB can't eat the original BG until after they have created a viable population usualy after year 3.
Please help us keep this topic science based and our focus on just that the science. Thanks . ewest
ps : This test should be about testing the reported growth rate of GG as Gator stated.
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