Bill,
I accept and embrace that any stocking strategy has a corresponding management strategy. Heck, even the tried-and-true LMB/BG combo involves culling a lot of LMB to keep them in balance. I just understand that some predators and some prey are more well matched than others. A more effective predator demands a less vulnerable prey. Right? I want to do a reasonable amount of culling & stocking, and to have a predator-prey combo that isn't terribly difficult to keep in balance. My first assumption is that any predator I can buy for stocking is going to be less aggressive than LMB. My second assumption is that YP are more vulnerable to predation than BG. Are those two assumptions somewhat correct?
Your list of fish that can overpopulate seems to include almost every prey fish and almost every predator fish that can reproduce in a pond. Bluegill are on that list, and that is the quintessential prey fish for ponds. In my mind I use BG as a benchmark with which to compare other prey fish. BG are great because they have high fecundity, the yearlings are vulnerable to predation, the adults are not so vulnerable to predation, their small gape means they don't compete with the predator fish, and they eat pellets. I would use BG except I don't like to eat them. Eating the prey fish is not a primary goal, but you do hook them occasionally and I'd rather have to option to eat them.
I've never had CC in a pond that didn't also have LMB. We always attributed the lack of reproductive success to lack of suitable spawning sites. Should we have attributed it to the LMB eating all the CC fry? From what I understand, CC fry hatch later in the season than other fish and are highly vulnerable to predation.
