Snipe - I don't know much about the biology, food web, and ecosystem of your pond other than some of the things that you have mentioned on the forum. Based on your fish sampling results, I suspect the YP growth is as good as can be expected based on the species present and their respective population structure and density. You should be able to produce some decent YP, although it may take a little longer compared to pellet fed perch or perch in a pond dominated by minnows(FHM, BNM, etc), a strong invertebrate community, and crayfish.
For making the YP a primary panfish in a pond, one has to focus on having less competition from other species and or focus on increasing the percentage of pellet trained YP. More numbers of pellet trained YP helps a lot to insure those fish get ample food each day despite the lack of natural foods and an increased interspecies competition. As our mentor BobLusk says "every day a fish does not eat is a day it does not grow". The only thing I would add to this is the fish not only has to eat but it has to daily eat significantly more than a maintenance diet otherwise RW is reduced and growth is slower. Reducing competition usually results in better body condition and improved growth rate of remaining fish.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 10/17/19 02:30 PM.
