Have the Bluegill spawned in the pond yet? I would recommend a 50/50 mix of Optimal Bluegill Jr. if the majority of Bluegills are still <6" and Optimal Bass food. If the BG have spawned already I'd feed a 50/50 mix of Optimal BG and Optimal Bass food. I'd also get a bag of Optimal Bluegill Jr. and hand feed (every day, same time, same place) in shallow water near cover where you can target your smaller BG population AND they will feel safe eating away from the predators.

You can use the Optimal BG Jr. to hand feed the fish in the forage pond.

How will you catch the fish in the forage pond to transfer to the main pond?

The feed is the key to getting the BG in the main pond large. For growing the bass, IF they stay on feed, once they get to 3# or so start feeding them the Optimal Hand throw feed. For the fish in the forage pond, you want to grow fish that will be approximately 1/4 to 1/3 the length of the LMB that you want to target with the fish. Golden Shiners can grow up to 10"-11" in length, and bass will eat them even if they are that big. Fatheads will only feed bass up to about 7"-9". BG will feed LMB of all sizes, depending on the size of the BG and the LMB.

You can grow a 6# LMB in your pond on Optimal food and BG, but it's always better to have a more diverse forage base. The Golden Shiners will also help the HSB grow in the pond. No need to harvest many of them until they get to a size that you want to eat, they won't reproduce in your pond.

I would just start growing Golden Shiners in there for now, because they can be used to feed all sizes of Bass and HSB. Remember, once the LMB spawn in the pond, you will want to remove around 20# per year to ensure that there is enough food in there for the remaining LMB to grow. You want to leave the original stockers in there, just take out the LMB that have hatched in the pond. I'd also stock a few of the hand painted BG in there just because they look so cool. If you start to have problems with white grub, yellow grub or black spot disease, then stock 5# of fingerling RES in there.

Keep monitoring the BG and forage fish population in the main pond. If you see a certain size/species of forage fish start to go down in population numbers, start growing them in the forage pond to transfer.

I would keep a pair of scissors or kitchen shears in your pocket when you fish the pond this year. If you can tell the difference between the F1's that you stocked and the Gorilla LMB that you stocked, you can fin clip the left pelvic fin for one species, and the right pelvic fin for the other (on the stocked fish). That way you can tell the stockers from the fish that spawned in the pond. Re-clip the fin if you catch one where it's growing back. That will ensure that you can tell if the LMB that you catch is a stocker or one that was hatched in the pond when it comes time to start harvesting LMB. If you can't tell the difference, I'd still fin clip as many of the ones that you stocked as possible.