I will concur that harvest concentrated in female BG will diminish BG fry swim up and probably help reduce recruitment. It's something I practice in the ponds I am trying increase BG size. Even so, I can find nothing that reliably quantifies the effect. I have never seen this practiced in a vacuum, that is, without other very important management actions. Most importantly, without also managing a population of small LMB. Harvesting female BG reduces competition for food leaving the faster growing and larger males to grow larger. Still there must be sufficient predation of YOY or they can accumulate and intercept the natural foods slowing the growth of larger BG.
There is a natural inverse relationship between the relative size potential of predator and prey. Though not a physical law per se, it is at least descriptive of the nature of ecosystems with predator and prey interaction. Artificial feeding cannot undo it though I would agree that it can benefit the pellet hogs with greater weight and growth along with the unwelcome consequence of shorter life. IMHO, no matter what one does to grow bigger BG, they always benefit from a population of LMB concentrated in lengths < 12".
Last edited by jpsdad; 05/23/20 09:01 PM.
