It would be really interesting to quantify the differences in growth rates between your caged fish, and my fish that lived in the lined pond.
My fish, which were the top 1%, averaged 5.26 inches on May 1, and ended up averaging 7.95 inches.
Your fish, which were the next 2-3%, went from 4.36 inches to around 7 inches.
I suspect that your weight gain, as a percentage of starting weight was greater in the cage, but I'm not sure.
All of your CSBG will be "reproductive ready" next year. I may have to think about it more, but my first inclination is to use only one sex of the Baird fish, but I don't think it would matter if they were males or females. I think either way your bigger, older fish would be included in the next generation genetic mix. This would keep you from getting mostly Baird X Baird crosses. Good question.
Regardless, you'd better have some crumble feed available soon after they hatch. They WILL be hungry.
