Yep, I may have to control lmb numbers but for now it's too early in the game. In the past my hsb, lmb and bg along with other native life did all of the culling necessary. For once my pond might be like others.
I don't think it has to be. It takes time to get in the condition you refer to above. But now you have observed recruitment that you can respond to now before these recruits take over.
We shall see, but plans are to bump Bg and Tp numbers up pretty high come early spring. And I think they help to keep lmb fry survival low. I like the fast growth they provide.
BG will especially keep LMB fry survival lower. What you want is a large quantity of 3" to 4" BG present during the LMB spawn. But I don't think I would rely on BG alone for a number of reasons. The recruitment you had last year may have been enough on its own to overpopulate the pond. They may be in sufficient number to ruin your pond and delay the desired population for years if you do get on this task right away. Good RW can give one the sense that everything is on track but yet be an illusion. Were it me and I was focusing on returning the water to trophy status I would begin the culling before the spawn ... but ... I would do this by first doing a selection of trophy recruits.
You know that the pond will support only so many of them so you could just select that many. You could work out how large you want them to grow and divide that by the standing weight of LMB you want the pond to have. Now you are managing a goal-weight of LMB. In the prespawn period, when temps get into the 50s, is the time I would go on a selection/culling rampage the likes none may have ever seen. I wouldn't give the recruits a fighting chance to intercept the food chain for my trophy recruits. Just so there is no confusion, to me a trophy recruit isn't just an LMB with good RW, it is one that is marked (eg a fin clip) to be spared for the purpose of growing large. Once you have selected your recruits, you need only kill EVERY OTHER LMB that you can catch. You don't really need any recruits but trophy recruits. Everything else is preventing the goal not facilitating it. You could purchase recruitment if necessary in adult female F1s in the 1 to 1.5 lb weights that are 1 year old. Your needs for recruitment are very small.
I would use live bait this pre-spawn. I would start with the largest appropriate sizes to catch 3 lbers and I would probably use large shiners for bait if available otherwise BG would do. If I couldn't catch enough 3 lbers I would finish the selection with smaller fish. I would proceed killing everything else I could catch all the way through the spawn. I would not fertilize yet. Leave the water clear through the spawn as much as it will be clear. If you find any nesting males, attempt to catch or cast net them. Be determined to ruin every nest you see. LMB as small as 9" can reproduce. After your selection reduce the size of bait and try to eliminate every non selected bass (which isn't possible but a very large dent can be made). Your pond needs your help getting its large bass heavy structure back.
I think my favorite part of your pond is why you are doing it ... to give young people the great memories of catching big bass. Others have benefited and so it's only right they help with this effort. Its an opportunity for shore based fish fries in a community effort that will yield strong benefits going forward not the least of which are those intangibles of bonding and friendship.
Another plan is make sure I have a bloom and not let it get as clear as it was at the end of last winter. I have a bloom going on now with some olive green water. I may have to fertilize even if it bumps the plants. Most everyone says don't fertilize if you have plants so we shall see
I have mixed feelings about this. As you know I always speak my mind and that is something you can count on. The situation is that I am not sure if this is the best path. What this doesn't consider is that ... when we are talking about the risks of catastrophic vegetation die offs ... it doesn't really matter what kind of submerged vegetation you have. Even if you replace the BPW with phytoplankton you can develop unwieldy standing weights of photosynthesizing biota. These can crash too. With sufficient bloom, the phytoplankton will have all nutrients available plus what your are putting in to jump start them.
One quote that I like very much is credited to Einstein by some and it goes something like this. "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result." So what I am trying to say by that is maybe its time to rethink management and exploit your knowledge and experience to get more out the pond without pushing it so hard. Try where you can "to pull" instead of "to push" and you will get sustainable and perhaps even better results.
