Just to be sure ... When I said ...
What you may need to be concerned about with this approach is LMB reproduction which could be completely curtailed by BG in the early going
I wasn't speaking of the stocking rates scampbell was considering. I think this would be a problem if the BG were stocked as a small number of brooders. There may have been a bit of confusion there and I want to clear that up. Was just mentioning that one does have a choice about the BG. The BOW could serve as "forage pond" in the first year producing a carrying capacity of 2" to 3" BG which will serve to feed the LMB in the second year and inhibit LMB recruitment. The following spring the LMB will consume them and they (the BG) would start recruiting well as they are cropped.
Large LMB are an outcome of limited LMB numbers and the initial growth should be excellent at 60/acre whether stocked first or second year. To be sure, if stocked in the first year, they will overcome the food chain sooner as they have a head start. But regardless of when one stocks, this initial stocking must experience mortality (preferably harvest) if exceptional ultimate weights are a goal. Only females will be trophies so if one has 30 females/acre weighing an average of 6 lbs that is 180 lbs/acre of LMB. In almost any BOW this requires feeding and prey fry production from outside the system just for maintenance of the LMB. The point here is that
without any LMB reproduction the initial 60 LMB can easily outgrow the BOW's ability to support further growth.
The challenge will be keeping the number of LMB limited. Four years down the road the BOW will require some annual mortality of the initial stockers or the LMB will stop growing and stunting will then quickly ensue. A sustainable trophy fishery can only produce 2 to 4 trophies of >8lbs/LMB per acre per annum because a sustainable trophy fishery will have >14" LMB representation in small numbers across each year.
