I have a 5 acre pond in middle GA. My question is can this be done? I am also looking for details so I can determine budget and if this is something I really want to try and do? The pond currently has RES,BG, and LMB. I may be draining and starting from scratch since the pond has been neglected for quite a few years now. Thanks in advance for your replies

Yes it can

What species you want trophies of determines your management plan

Before you decide to drain and start over you may want to do an electroshock survey

Hang on for expert input

Yes you can. I have an existing lmb population. Added 1 pound hsb 2 years ago. Up to 9 pounds now with supplemental feeding. Contact Matt,Greg, or Josh at http://lakework.com/site/ They'll hook you up.

doc what is the size of your pond holding 9 pounders?

HSB seem to grow better and faster even in smaller ponds. I have a 1 acre pond I put 15, 8 inch HSB in, in April, and I already caught 1 that was 12 inches. They say in the right situation HSB can gain up to 2 pounds a year or more. A 5 acre pond would make for a sweet HSB pond. Thats just my 2 cents anyway. I know George has shown some on here that have come from his 1/4 acre pond that were a good 18 inches. Now with that said could you imagine what you could do with 5 acres!! Nice line breaking rod bending HSB is what I am talking about!!! Good luck and keep us posted ZEP.

Trophy definition varies... I would say most pond owners would define any HSB in the double digits to be trophy fish.

Smaller HSB can tolerate warmer water with lower levels of dissolved oxygen. Once they begin reaching trophy size, they have much high requirements for lower water temps and higher dissolved oxygen levels. That is why few pond owners grow HSB over 12 pounds. It's about that size when they really need cool water and DO in excess of 6 ppm.

Having a pond that stays cool enough and has DO level high enough to support HSB in excess of 12 pounds would not be common in most of GA.

So aeration and depths over 8' would be a must CJBS2003?? I'm planning to add some as soon as the weather cools a little.. I willbe running 3 feeders in 3.5 acres with the water level as low as it is my deepest water is prolly 8' I aerate 12/hrs a night.. Do I have trophy potential (over 10lbs) and if so what kind of top weights could i expect.. Sorry to hijack your thread but I'm pretty similar to original poster..

Trophy hsb, like "beauty, lies in the eyes of the beholder"
Texas state private waters record for HSB is 5.99lbs....

Dang I need to check on nc records

I will say I've had 4 over 8 pounds to die this year after being caught. Don't catch them in the hot summer.

Mine won't be catch and release, I like the catch and eat motto

doc, rig up an O2 Igloo cooler live well - I have revived them up to 8lbs - never lost any but like you say - "Don't catch them in the hot summer."

Thanks for all the great info guys. What would stocking rates look like with LMB population or with the HSB being the only predator species? I understand supplemental feeding would be a must. Could I feed enough with one feeder to accomplish my goals or would I need multiple feeders?

You could feed alot with one feeder or a little with many.. One is better than none.. And you'll be rewarded by growth..

I hand feed mine aquamax largemouth every morning. They explode on it. Along with the lmb and smb

I would say the deeper the better with night time only aeration. Keeping water temps in the mid to upper 70's and DO in the 6 ppm range would keep the stress down. Obviously some ponds are are just too small and shallow to keep the temps that cool. There is a reason the private pond Texas record is so low...

If your truly going for trophy HSB I'd keep stocking rates low. 20-40 or so per acre depending on overall circumstances. Supplemental feeding is good but can lead to too much eutrophication and lower DO. So be careful... I would also build a healthy forage fish base of GSH and in bigger southern waters tshad. Once you are getting a fair number of HSB in the 8+ pound range gshad can be considered. However just like with LMB, make sure you have plentiful larger HSB to effectively prey on the gshad. It takes a much larger HSB to have the mouth size to swallow a big shad.

BG are NOT a good HSB forage. Shiners and shad are... In larger southern waters I would also look at silversides as a forage option. The inland silverside is utilized heavily by HSB and pure stripers in many southern reservoirs. A few hatcheries sell them. In northern waters if you can source brook silversides, they'd be a winter hardy option as well.

The other key not mentioned in this thread is high hardness. We have extremely soft soils. Lime heavily. Also we are excited to have grown 7000 out in GA water so we will transfer these to similar waters instead of shock coming from Ark where hardness is 200 or higher to our hopefully 20-40 hardness levels. Stock forage as CJ mentions. One feeder is fine for HSB.

Also on the heat just flew back in from IL grow out pond water was 94 but the HSB seemed to be doing fine and only 4 feet

Would adding additional aeration, say additional diffusers, larger aerator, offset the DO needs during hot weather?

It's a happy balance of cooler temps, but also higher DO. HSB under 4-6 pounds can handle very warm lower DO waters. However when they start approaching double digits, their needs almost become as extreme as trout. I think the depth and sheer water volume is the key. The sheer water volume of a very deep pond means it'll take longer for the water to heat up during a heat wave when you'll aerate only during the cooler hours of night time. You may have to play with it some and consider only aerate when air temps are below say 72 or 70 degrees... Depending on your common night time lows for your area, this may mean you aren't able to aerate enough. You may be able to tweek aeration so that you don't have a turn over in the deepest parts of your pond, just in the shallower areas. In doing this, you leave the deeper part of your area as a cold water refuge, but aerate the shallower areas bringing up the DO. You'd have to consult someone who was an expert in aeration to decide if this is even possible.

The main reason that the Texas State record HSB from private waters is so low is because Texas PondBossers don't submit their HSB catch for record ... James Holt has his hit or missed several 10 pounders and others have been reported.