Anthro - how old are your bass in the pond? More that 5yrs? Topping out at 7lb in a 7 acre pond highly suggests that that 6-7 lb individuals are hitting a food and competition growth wall. This is likely due to still too many bass eating the limited food base or to a lesser possibility the right abundance and sizes of food are not there or present at high enough density for those top end 7lb bass.

In East TX those bass if well fed should be growing at least 1 lb per year and better fed individuals could be growing 1.2-2 lb per year. What are the electro harvest analyses saying for number of LMB catch per hour? Electro survey should be capturing numerous smaller LMB per hour of effort (CPUE). IMO I would do two things: increase the number of feeders to 1 /ac or 1.5feeder per ac. How fast do the pellets get consumed.??

Dean - Often but not always when the total hardness is low the alkalinity is low. Usually the two parameters are closely related because both are express as CaCO3. Bicarbonates, carbonates, & hydroxides represent the major form of alkalinity and other small amounts of salts of weak acids can be present for alkalinity..Whereas total hardness is caused primarily by calcium(Ca), magnesium(Mg) & strontium (Sr). It will be interesting now to hear what the alkalinity is when your T hardness is 11.

Having to add BG or other forage to keep LMB well fed is a big sign there are WAY too many 'foxes in the chicken house'. In a balanced community the forage should be able to keep up or maintain good numbers without having to add forages.