Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - Considering Stripers - opinions please

Hi Team, have a 1 acre pond with clear water averaging 8 ft deep in Northern Ohio. Initial stocking of 50 cats, 75 LMB, 500 BG and 200 RES. All are doing well with the bass pushing 14 in, cats 17 and panfish 8. Both bass and BG spawned this year. Cats are harvested and replenished in the long run. There are large numbers of shiners and minnows too. I also feed daily.

I’ve been reading with great interest about adding hybrid stripers. Seems to me that they would provide good fishing opportunity, good occasional table fare and wouldn’t interfere badly with my current mix. If I get them I will switch from 32% protein food to 45%.

Here are my questions?

General comments?

How many on initial stocking?

Should I get them this fall or wait til April?

Thanks, Tony

HSB? Fast growing when feed, a blast to catch, find a better way to cook them than I ever did if you eat them.

When predator and prey frequently interact, it is highly likely the predator is feeding on numerous nearby prey. However I do not know of any published research on this topic of HSB eating a lot of small pelagic stage crappie. Ewest our Pond Boss librarian can search his resources for this or a similar topic. IMO probably the best way to determine this information would be to do gut analyses of open water HSB when crappie are in the pelagic stage of life. This to me sounds like a very good college level research topic for MS or PhD students.