Bill and ewest are obviously correct.

However, based on my reading of many Pond Boss posts and conversations with many fisherman, the term "trophy" can have a very wide range of meanings. (I think Bill alludes to it by saying a "TRUE trophy".)

In my (limited) experience, I think "trophy" probably means a little smaller fish for a private pond newbie than it does for the pond professionals on the site.

A guy from Minnesota with a previous LMB personal best of 5#, might think catching a 6-7# LMB in a Texas buddy's pond would be landing a trophy. Likewise, a 9# LMB would break the Minnesota state record, but would not even be considered a big bass, much less a trophy, in some Texas private waters.

I believe I have seen the best responses and repeated engagement from new posters, when the experts have explained what is required to reach a trophy in the poster's geographic area AND also make some concrete comments about carrying capacity. Only then can the OP realize some of the trade-offs involved for "big fish" versus true "trophy" fish.

It took me a lot of reading on Pond Boss (and the books and the magazines) before I was even knowledgeable enough to ask the proper questions for my topic of interest.

For example, I now understand that everything in ewest's post is true. However, I still don't know how to dial back the expected top bass size for a 3-acre pond in SE PA, to something that would be achievable by an active, but non-professional pond manager - presumably on a budget with reasonable limits.

I do love the discussions on Pond Boss that draw a lot of comments about improvements and trade-offs on the margins that help determine the long-term outcomes of a managed pond.

A big thanks to all of the Pond Boss experts for their continuous help and advice!