Rod,
Tracy is spot on regarding difficulty in catching. As fishing hours accumulate if becomes increasingly difficult to catch LMB that have "been there" and "seen that".
A trophy bass is the investment of multiple years of growth. It is rather expensive and inefficient when you think of it in this way. Generally, when the structure of LMB is comprised of larger LMB, the size structure of BG produces larger quantities of BG so the ultimate sizes are not generally as large as when LMB are numerous in smaller sizes. With regard to good fishing, LMB that are concentrated in small sizes provide more action and can be harvested at greater rates. The BG can too. That was Swingle's definition of good fishing (LMB harvested around 1 lb) and those stocking rates are still common today.
It is possible to grow trophy bass even in a pond like that ... only it can't be done the old fashioned way. So one could have cake and then maybe eat some of it ... within reason. So lets say you want to grow a 10 LB LMB every 6 years or so AND have very large BG and numerous small bass. You would have to separate the trophy recruits from dependence on the food chain and supplement their feed. 20 lbs of high quality feed annually (lumps to prevent BG from eating)would be sufficient to support 15 lbs of LMB and grow them a little. So you could have a 1 lb recruit (current year), a 5 lb recruit (stocked 3 yrs prior), and a 10 lb recruit (stocked 6 years prior). This isn't a heavy load of feed and if supplemented with BG chunks or injured BG > 3" but less than 25% their length ... hey you are growing some BIG fish in pond that would otherwise not support them. You need to be able to stock 1 feed trained Female once every 3 years to accomplish this. Instead of fishing for them, you would have them as pets and every 3 years you would open the season on the largest until you caught the monster
. This is sustainable and introduces only a small amount of nutrients that very effectively and efficiently support the LMB on trophy track.
