Someone (sorry that I an 100% sure who) suggested that removing 50-60 BG per acre was a way to favor a sustainable population of eating size BG, and that removing a dozen or so eating size LMB also provided benefit to obtaining larger LMB. It seems that after quite a few years of this practice, my pond has both. I don't have a negative control pond to compare with, but I do not think that it is doing any harm. Its not really about how many eggs or smaller fish there are, but how many make it to the size that is being harvested. Just like managing a deer herd for trophy bucks. Lots of fawns die every year due to predation, but that does not negate the value of removing does to encourage dominant bucks to sire a greater percentage of the young.
