g-dub, a couple more related thoughts from el dorado.
for the past year, those lunker GSF of mine you admire have been the apex predator. with my relatively clear water situation, i've seen no evidence yet of cross-breeding, but everything is still very young. i too am hoping that the species remain distinct but realize i've set myself up for a potential lepomis mutt pond cross-bred situation. despite this, the younger GSF (now over 5-inches) are growing at an alarming rate, extremely bloated bellies and very very aggressive. the ranchpond lunkers are adding alarming girth. i attribute this to having a good gam population, GSF fry, BG fry, and small BG for the large GSF. i am extremely happy with this situation as long as it lasts, but will be watching closely as the biomass nears carrying capacity. at the first indication of any underfed fish (namely the BG), i'll probably put 10 to 20 adult same sex LMB in the pond. i would hate to decimate the GSF, but in my size pond, so few non-breedding bass and having weed cover should allow the GSF to continue to trophy sizes. my current thinking FWIW.
