Thanks again for the very valuable advice. I completely agree with you; the local standards here are different than the ones in other areas. Just to note, not sure if there was a misunderstanding earlier on in the thread, but my pond is in central Ontario, Canada, not Maine. Regardless, the local standards are very different, and I so believe that the experts here think that 10-12" bass are perfectly acceptable. So, to them, that is not considered overcrowded or a big problem. The advice here would help me grow larger fish which I would like to do one day, so I will be accessing my pond over the next few months and years to determine if that's something I want. At the end of the day, it does come down to goals as you said. If I want big bass than my current plan will not be effective. If I don't care about size, than I shouldn't need to touch the pond at all in terms of the fish. The pond experts are basing their advice on a goal of just having a pond as if it didn't even have bass, if that makes sense. As in, how can we not work on the bass and still use the pond like it was used before. I'm sure if I said that I wanted big bass they would have different advice.
I would like to have YP, but at the moment, they are not logistically possible, as they are hard to get and apparently sold out at the local farm. I will reassess that decision in the spring.
