So, by not harvesting 8-year-old Bass, you're hurting the growth of the rest of your Bass?
The way to look at it is this. At a given annual ladder rate the longer one allows them to grow the more bass one will be trying to carry. So if we are talking about a sustainable structure at a limited carrying capacity the extra maintenance comes at the expense of growth. An earlier harvest just leaves fewer fish to grow and so they have access to more prey due to reduced competition
I think there are a lot of variables that can't be plugged into an Excel Spreadsheet, such as the weight of each BG consumed. Larger bass can eat larger BGs, therefore requiring less of them to be consumed daily. Is "Prey LEN" in the graph supposed to be Prey Length?
The Prey LEN is the assumed mode of the "Prey Length". Mode is the most frequent size consumed and this according to the data accumulated from several DOW is about 18% the length of the LMB. So this column is calculated from the Geometrical Mean of the standard length over the growth period (one fall to the next). In nature, 95% of the realized prey as determined by evidence collected by the aforementioned reference fall between 10% and 25% of the length of LMB. Evidence suggests that only 2.5% of prey consumed exceeds 25% the length of LMB.
If you noticed the columns on the number of BG consumed, I estimated this number by dividing forage requirement total by the standard weight of BG at the estimated Mode of Prey Length. This is an estimate but it is a not a WAG it is a SWAG that probably isn't far from reality if the projected growth is realized. Take note of the stunted example. It suggests that a little over 3 daily are required for maintenance. If those 3 were 20% the length of the LMB, this would increase growth. The SS is very sensitive to LMB population and this factor drives growth and ultimate weight within the limitations of carrying capacity.
The scenarios demonstrate how limited recruitment must be to grow large fish. Because LMB eat prey that is proportional to their length/weight, and because growth rates are higher for small LMB, it is clear that even only 8 new 0-year LMB recruits will eat as many BG as all the other bass combined (in the 8 year example with 8 trophy path fish). Notice in every scenario, the consumption of BG/year is greatest for the smallest of LMB. So just one bumper crop of LMB YOY can completely destroy the food chain for trophies.
