"Ryan, why do you think the bass overate their food source?" They overate their food source because that is what bass do. Bass are pigs!
While that is true, as Ryan stated a lack of protection (structure) in his pond probably severly limited the opportunity for his BG to survive. He has two significant predators, LMB and Channel Cat, both are eating machines and the lack of places for the fingerlings to hide probably made for easy hunting. Ryan's stragegy is working for him. Look at his fish - the relative weight of them is fantastic!
What Jeff is doing is probably safer and maybe even better but just like most people I want more and so I feed.
My management strategy is founded on the principals of lethargy.
(Lethargy: a deficiency in mental and physical alertness and activity, sluggishness, drowsyness, dullness). It's not that I don't care, it's just that I live 500 miles from my pond. I can't feed, aeration is out of the question (no electricity on the property and I've looked into a solar aeration system and that cost big bucks and a windmill system doesn't seem to be a good option in my particular area). Like everyone else I want more fish and bigger fish but some of us don't have an option to have a hands on management approach. And the Lethargy Management Approach is not without it's faults. Last year (due to a series of unfortunate events) I didn't thin the Elodea out of my pond, it multiplied uncontrollably and when it died off it caused a massive fish kill. But that was through my negligence.
It's all about balance. You have to find a management strategy that will work in your life. As I said before, I'm not critizing a more hands on management approach, lord knows if I lived at the pond I'd be messing with it everyday, I'm simply saying that a person can have a very fun fishing pond without a lot of management time and expense.
