JC, Cliff Notes: "Trophy" BG can be had if you have a dense LMB population, which limits the recruitment of YOY BG, leaving more food for the remaining BG. With lots of weeds for the BG to hide in, that puts a crimp on the LMB catching and eating the BG. Lots of LMB 16" and under will get you on your way to having trophy BG, but that precludes catching large LMB from your pond.

The Chara probably isn't growing in the deeper water because of limited light transmission. If you can get the plants whacked back enough to get a good bloom going, and keep water clarity (when measured with a secchi disk) to 18"-24", that will limit the plant growth to (ballpark) 36" deep water or less.

Regular BG will grow larger than the HBG, if you are feeding, it is generally about year 3 that they surpass the growth rate of the HBG.

Chara is hard to kill once it gets old and has the brittle covering that older plants have that are growing in harder water. If you manually remove the plants, and when new growth occurs, the new growth is easily whacked back by Cutrine plus. Since algae grows fast, you might have to whack it back on a monthly or 6 week program, but you can keep the areas that you manually clear out clean by that process. (manual removal and them treating the areas when you see new growth)

Manual removal will help the pond be removing nutrients bound up in the plants.

The Whitecap needs to be a certain PPB for a certain amount of time. I'd raise the level of the pond, making note of how long it takes to raise before overflowing. If you can drain the pond down, apply the whitecap, and have enough time to keep the pone at the correct PPB before it overflows, you're golden. If not, then probably Cutrine and Diquat based herbicides would be the best route to take.

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3/4 to 1 1/4 ac pond LMB, SMB, PS, BG, RES, CC, YP, Bardello BG, (RBT & Blue Tilapia - seasonal).