ML, I've never really pushed the landowner for great detail, he just told me that the pond was (re-)stocked back in the 70's and the fish, both LMB and BG...(as he callem them) came from another nearby (and larger) ranch pond that i have never been to.
I have never weighed the LMB, i really ought to get a small digital scale or something, but the rare larger LMB appear to have a normal mass to length ratio (good thick pudgy stomachs), and the 8-14-inch LMB are defintely on the skinny side with normal heads, although I wouldnt say they dramatically exhibit the large head tiny body of classically stunted fish.
I have not seen mosquito fish in the ranch pond, although the landowner said they had been there in the past, and to my observation and knowledge he never planted any other forage (i.e. FH, GS).
An interesting side note....the GSF/(hybrid?) fry run the creek above ranchpond every winter (i guess they think they're full grown salmon) and onto my property where i dug out a pretty good size pool (~1-6 foot deep, 30 foot long). the pool holds water almost all year (the creek is basically the shallow water table), and right now its got at least 50-75, 2-4 inch fish in it (they've been growing). i want to get a bait net or small seine and check them out in more detail, and possibly move em up to my pond before herons and whatnot get them. they probably run up there to escape the LMB predation, or maybe its just in their blue jeans.
