When feeding this evening it appeared to me that there are far too many large CNB so culling them makes sense. My pond is only 1.75 acres (when full) so it can't support enough lunker LMB to justify huge numbers of large CNB, correct? I've found that culling 8-12" LMB is something that I need to do continually - otherwise I end up with a bunch of skinny ones at that length. Overton, given your input I'm thinking that the best course of action is to begin harvesting large CNB and to possibly increase the upper limit on my LMB slot.

I'm thrilled with the effect this drought has had on my lunker LMB but that also represents an imbalance in the population. I'm reticent (actually horrified) at the prospect of harvesting 4+ pound LMB but what would signal the need to do so?