Bill-
my heart is not set on smb, I just thought it would be different than what most ponds around here have. That’s why I was thinking res or hybrids as I didn’t think they were as prolific spawners as sunfish. My father has a pond with hybrids and lmb and I love the ease of catching and seeing those 1lbs gills. He has not done a good job of controlling the population though as his hybrids have all started to die off and his pond is overrun with small lmb( pond is prob 12 years old or so). I wouldn’t be completely agains leaving out bg or maybe just some hybrids so they don’t repopulate much? But will the smb need more minnows if it was just smb/perch? Or say I did have some Hsb magically appear in my pond would that be enough to help keep bg population in check? I wanted to do lmb and smb but have been reading how that doesn’t work well either.
Theo- can I go to a hatchery and say I just want all male BG or do you have to buy them all and sort them out?
I'm not Theo, but as a fish hauler/seller I wish you luck on trying to get all male BG from a hatchery. A couple of problems that you will run into. 1) The fish won't be large enough for you to reliably sex them. 2) The hatchery won't have the time for anyone there to try to sex them, nor will they want to handle the fish that much before selling them. - The ones that aren't Male might develop fungus issues from the extra handling and maybe die, and that would be a loss fro the hatchery.
You can buy "X" amount of BG and sort them to just get "mostly" males, but you'd better have a fillet knife ready for the others, and see #1 above.....
Also in Mi. I don't know of anyone that sells regular BG, just HBG.
In Mi, IF your pond has a permanent inflow or outflow, even if it dumps onto a pasture, the pond owner has to get a pond stocking permit from the state. The state will tell you want fish you can or cannot put in your pond. The fish hauler has to have a copy of that permit in the truck when they cross the state line if they are coming from out of state, and probably have to have the permit in the truck even if they are within the state of Mi. Unless you have a piece of paper from the state saying that a stocking permit is not needed. The fish truck guy can get in the same amount of hot water that the pond owner will get into for not having the proper permit.
For instance in Ohio, there are certain parts of the state where you cannot stock HSB. Every state has it's own laws. In Illinois you cannot legally stock Tilapia in ponds. If you get caught in Illinois doing that, it could be a $250,000.00 fine and it is a violation of the Federal Lacy Act.....
I would go for it if it was legal. If the SMB/HSB cannot control the BG numbers, then add more HSB. If the BG in the pond surpass the gape of the HSB, then it's up to you to keep the population under control by fishing or trapping the excess numbers of BG.
