These observations you made probably do indicate that the LMB should not have been harvested. Removing any HSB would have given more food to the LMB. You might have been justified to harvest HSB for that reason alone but even if you had the event would likely have taken some fish.
These observations suggest that you have had very good populations of intermediate sized bluegill in addition to the larger BG. In a situation where the predator population doesn't support harvest, or harvest is not prudent, there would be no other population to target other than the forage adults.
There isn't any 20/20 hindsight and no way to know if the event you encountered would have left you with any more fish than you have now even if you had you harvested. Counting harvest and the possibility of fish losses from the event, the final outcome might have been very similar. I would like to know more about how the standing weights going into events like this may exacerbate or lessen the severity. By this I mean "Is dip of carrying capacity of the event more severe if standing weights are higher going into the event?" I think this question isn't adequately answered and until it is we don't know that harvest will help one carry more fish through an event like this. Harvest may allow one to influence what survives a fish kill event and put one in favorable position have a more favorable population structure after a limiting event but we can't take that for granted.
The carrying capacity is always less the than potential standing weights that occur during favorable periods. This is especially true for ponds with above average or exceptional fertility. Here in the south, late summer is probably most limiting where in the North it is the winter. Every year fish are lost to these limiting periods and standing weights are restored to carrying capacity. Carrying capacity isn't the same year to year either and a person should manage around the norm as opposed to the exceptions.
Last edited by jpsdad; 10/31/20 04:11 AM.
