sodajones,

It certainly is not a dumb question...in fact is a question that has no general answer. The right answer depends on the body of water, what other fish are present, and what the best use of that water is, i.e. fishing objectives.

I build, manage, and stock my own ponds. In that setting, and with lots of predators including largemouth bass and hybrid striped bass, I allow no BG to be taken when the ponds are in balance. They are the fundamental forage base which the predators utilize. If I see too many small BG, I generally will first try to improve the predators numbers rather than remove BG. If I see all sizes of BG including very large ones, my pond is in balance.

If I'm hungry for BG, okay I make an exception, but not often.

The myth that BG need to be harvested is generally misdirected..if there are too many small BG, there are not enough predators in that particular body of water. It's the predators that need adjusting, not the BG.