Late to the party, but my take. Anthro, how are your CNBG doing? That is the base of the LMB food chain. What are your HSB eating? Are they competing with the LMB food chain? They can and do also eat LMB.
In east Texas you will pretty much always have northern strain LMB as they are native. We live on one of the first lakes in Texas to stock Florida LMB as it was the home lake and lab for Charlie Inman, one of the TP&W pioneers on Floridas. We stock 3000 or so pure Florida LMB fingerings every year to keep the genetics coming. We figure if we get 10% survival we're doing good. We have also stocked a 100 or so Camelot Bell LMB in the 2# range a few years ago. We take 14" survey culls from managed pure Florida lakes in the area. We stock TFS every few years and get some recruitment. Our bluegill base is top notch. Tons of minnows. Try to keep the crappie fished down and in the freezer. Fight with the flatheads, otters, cormorants, and herons. Have a few remaining grass carp that need to go (20 years old). 50 acres, decent cover, deepest 19 feet, average 8-10. We catch one or two LMB over 10# in any given year (lake record 15#+), but the majority will be 6-9# for big fish. We never seem to be overstocked on LMB, either from fishing results or from shocking survey. Personally, I think you're expecting too much from a small BOW to think you will get multiple 10#+ LMB. A 10# LMB is a monster. We all know 20# fish exist, but how many vs the millions of fishermen and fishing hours invested.
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