I'm sorry to hear about your loss Tracy. Hopefully, you have a good number of others still remaining.

I think you could continue the ladder stocking. It may be wise to set a max harvest length where when they attain that length they are harvested for eating. A 22" HSB weighs just under 6 lbs at standard weight and is a dandy fish. Don't know but maybe that length, given you know you can grow them to that length, would be an appropriate length of harvest.

Seems like Bill C. mentioned harvesting at 20" because of high mortality after release. Not all will be caught, of course, so there is still a chance to grow and catch larger fish.

It isn't what we don't know that gives us trouble, it's what we know that ain't so - Will Rogers