I like observational evidence. Until feeding, I'd never caught a CNBG or BG exceeding one pound. Now me & my buddies catch one plus all the time, top weight over 1.5, and they're still growing.
That's just one person & one pond, you say? Well, consider Bob Lusk, who has seen hundreds and thousands of ponds in his career. He comments how rare it was for him to ever see a 2 pound BG until BG feeds came on to the market. Since then, he's held hundreds. If you don't believe the representations of the feed companies, I hope you believe him.
In the debate over fertilization vs direct food effects, this should be an easy thing to check. Have a number of similar ponds, some fed, some fertilized with the same amount of nitrogen and phosphorus as contained in the feed. Heck, do the same study on high protein vs low protein feed.
Feed fertilization effects are real, even for the feed that is eaten. However, Richmond Mill Kingfisher results indicate that direct feed impact is greater, as fertilization is minimal in that situation. To a lesser degree, my infertile pond shows the same.
I have fished many ponds like yours where the only difference was no one was feeding and no one was managing the water. Indeed on most trips to OK I visit a pond where I catch very few BG & HBG under 9". Lots of small LMB too. Its only about 1/3 to 1/2 acre but I usually catch more than 4 BG over 10". Its a hoot. Al, its an old pond, at least twenty years older than me. Been around a very long time and I very much doubt it have ever experienced a fish kill. So my brother lives near it and I could encourage him to go down and feed the pond every day.
I know the BG would grow larger and get fatter if he did that. That is because the pond is in balance now. It my bro fed it a 1/2 a bag a month for six months he could add 75 lbs of weight to the BG in it. Probably, same goes for next year. But as old as the pond is this would only hurry it on its way to its first major fish kill. It would probably make the existing weeds much worse. I just don't think I would enjoy it nearly as much ... even if I were catch a few 2 lb BG. There are many BG which have grown to 2 lbs without feed in other waters though probably not many or possibly none in that pond. But if feed gets the credit for growing the 2 lb BG ... shouldn't the feed get the blame for its eventual destruction?
And what about your situation where you dreamed of having trophy bass? Does feed play a role in LMB recruitment that has made this dream difficult to achieve? Normally an environment that is favorable for BG ultimate size leads to abundant small LMB. What are your thoughts? How does feeding affect the recruitment of LMB?
As I said before I never just look at one thing and then claim a cause and effect as a single causal variable. We are dealing with systems. But its very easy to predict that if a one acre pond that carries a food limited 300 lbs of BG is fed 200 lbs of feed that they will gain 100 lbs above the existing carrying capacity. That isn't rocket science and it is much easier than removing 50 lbs of BG and fertilizing the replacement nutrients for that harvest. Indeed you get two times the growth and don't need to harvest anything. I understand what the path of least resistance is and its hard to fault people for doing that.
The facts are and have always been ... that I have never been against feeding lean water. I have always encouraged it. All I have ever done is try to encourage people to think about the duplicity of truth. A lean pond is benefited by feed but rich pond isn't. So it depends, requires some budgeting of the nutrients, and careful thought.
Hey, I don't enjoy conflict. Just ask my kids who I am always telling to be kind to one another. The sounds of them talking, giggling, and just having fun ... no matter how loud ... has always been music to my ears. But when they fuss ... it's like someone screeching a blackboard. I haven't enjoyed any conflict here.
When James and I get our cell together we have a lot of projects planned. We'll be doing pilots and experiments as many 3 or 4 annually. We're going to grow GAMs, RSH, Cambarellus, Anostraca, Notostraca, BG-RES hybrids, maybe even try to spawn some catfish. The very last of my interests is learning how good or how bad my catfish food is or isn't. I have come to an epiphany. I am not going to concern myself with the misinformation that is here. If I were getting more dialog then I would reconsider. But I don't want to be single voice on such matters and I'd rather focus on enjoying my family and our projects.
