Hi all. I posted a little while back about having a GSF problem. I did some experimental stocking this fall. Quick specs, my pond is 3/8 acres in size, receives about 15 GPM during low flow, and up to 100 GPM in spring; I also aerate. Max depth 7.5 ft., avg depth 4 ft. Temps never exceed 70 F in summer. I had about 30 trout left from a stocking 2 years ago in the 15-18" range. Also, very few bluegills, pumpkinseed,and redear sunfish were present...all species stunted and loads of 3" green sunfish...nothing else. I stocked 30 brook trout and 25 rainbow trout this fall in the 10-12" range. I also stocked 25 6-7" CC , 25 6-7" WE, 100 4-5" perch and 1,000 FHM. I also put in 8 HSB in the 15-18" range to take out those GSF. I feed pellets as well. Any thoughts?

I am very interested to hear how your stocking plan works in the future. I am very interested in how the GSF population survives the predation. Please return to keep us posted about the results.

I like everything you stocked except the catfish. I cant catch enough of them to keep them in check and they eat everything!

How big of a YP can an 18 inch HSB eat?

Edit:

I went back to an old thread on HSB mouth gap. Extrapolating the data in that thread puts the mouth gap of an 18 inch HSB around 1.6 inches. So how "tall" is a YP 4 to 5 inches long? Many times on the forum I have seen folks post something to the effect, "you can stock predators but you can't tell them what to eat!" I would worry your little YP would have a preferred shape to your little GSF and might be targeted by the HSB.

I have the "tall" (body depth) data for most YP. Generally a 6" long YP is 1.25" "tall"; easily edible for a 18" HSB.