Hello to all,

Have about a 1.75 acre pond that is now filled, location is Colorado County, TX.

I would like to stock with hybrid blue-cats for the use of my girls and their friends to fish. Was looking for good initial feeder fish when I was not there to feed them with pellet food. I was also wanting to seek advice on how many and size of cat's to stock as well.

The pond dimensions has a deep end of 125' x 125' about 17' deep, then tear drops for about 60 yards starting at 125' from the deep end, then goes to 9ft in depth to 1 ft at the entrance. I also have T-Posts at the spillway with both galvanized 2" wiring with 1/4" platic coated wiring...only thing that can get thru are the smallest of minnows. I also have an electric fence around the whole pond to keep out the cows...even in the worst of TX droughts, the deep end has never had anything less than 8ft of water.

Thank you for your help.

How big do the Hybrid blue/CC get? I've googled them and there is more info on aquaculture than sports fishing.

See this link.

https://srac.tamu.edu/index.cfm/event/getFactSheet/whichfactsheet/252/

Several interesting bits there. I thought the hybrids were sterile, but it appears that they are variably fertile. The article also states that the quality of the hybrid is fairly dependent on the parent strain of blue/cc, possibly making it harder to select a supplier. The article states that the hybrid grows faster than either parent, but does not comment on maximum size.

Should it be assumed that the maximum size is between that of a blue and a channel catfish, or that the hybrid can potentially get as big as that of a blue?

Wow deadwood...I saw that link too but only read the first 2-3 pages..it seems to focus on commercialization of raising HBC= HybridBlueCatfish...I will read the entire article

thx

deadwood, look up "hybrid vigor". The potential is there for the hybrid to be larger than either of it's parents.

I think that may be true when talking about parent species that are of a similar size, e.g. a Liger being bigger than a lion or tiger.

I am not sure that is true when discussing hybrids of parents that are of disparate sizes. A mule isn't bigger than a horse. A more relevant example might be that a tiger muskie isn't bigger than a muskie.

Sorry to keep asking the same question/focusing on the same point. I just find it interesting, and the internet isn't forthcoming with data.

In any case, unless you want a big predator pond, I am not sure a blue/channel hybrid makes sense. They are more voracious eaters than either parent and are more efficient at converting food into body mass. May as well have a pond with Muskie, Pike, or Flathead. Perhaps they could make sense for a pond with an established Gizzard Shad problem.

I've read over that article a time or two, but definitely didn't notice it stating the possibility of reproduction to F2, even if the parent genes take back over. Interesting stuff. Unlimited food source would probably greatly affect final growth.