BD,
That's what makes this pond stuff so much fun to me...nothing is "black or white"... its all in-between.
My view, if you want LMB and you want them to grow large, and you would like to be able to catch them more than once or twice in their lifetime, the F1 is the clear choice.
If you want a game fish that grows large quickly, fights better than LMB, tastes great, and can be completely controlled in terms of numbers in your pond, you should consider the HSB.
That's what I'm doing and George and probably several others....we are moving toward a "put and take" HSB fishery in which we can forever eliminate the problems of stunting LMB and uncatchable LMB and LMB that must be caught, etc. Maybe we will fail, for sure we will make mistakes, but hell we are having a Ball!
One thing for sure, if someone tells you they have all the answers, you better run from that person because he/she doesn't know what they are talking about. Much about ponds and the fish we place in them has not yet been discovered...in spite of what some textbooks or experts would have you believe. Show me a book on LMB management that has a chapter in it on Tilapia...and yet Tilapia may be one of the greatest pond management tools available to the small pond owner. Texas A&M, no less the recognized source for knowledge on ponds in Texas, conducts a so-called Bass 101, Bass 102 etc. course. Guess what...nothing on Tilapia...guess what they told me when asked about Tilapia...something like "well we don't recommend them, but some folks have had some success with them"
Welcome to ponding, where the ponds (or nature if you prefer) control the environment and we are just passengers trying to find our way.
