ewest,
Thanks for your reply.
Yes, "near" optimal temperature conditions throughout the year are the best for raising trophy LMB, which is why Florida and California and south Texas will always lead.
I will refer to the fall period heading into winter, and the early spring period coming out of winter as the "shoulder months".
Ponds away from Florida and CA spend much more of their annual cycle in the shoulder months. The north Texas members have a chance of replicating the Florida conditions for Florida-strain bass some years, but in other years the weather can diverge greatly from the optimum. This problem increases moving north to the Oklahoma ponds, and then increases again moving to the Kansas ponds.
The Kansas ponds spend LOTS of time in the shoulder months! We can have water temps reach the level for spawns to start and then get hit with a big snow storm.
I believe that helping the LMB gain weight during the shoulder months would have a significant impact on their total weight gain. (I also think I stated my question poorly in my initial post.)
Any advice on helping any bass species in the sub-optimal periods have forage for their consumption that helps them gain weight more in alignment with the optimal periods?
Maybe the best advice is to maximize the conditions for the bass's "best" forage throughout the year. But perhaps there is a supplemental non-traditional forage that could help even more during the shoulder months, WITHOUT detracting from the production of the main forage?
P.S. Thanks to everyone that has taken the time to type up a reply. Especially since this is a theoretical discussion, rather than helping someone solve a specific pond problem!
