Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Hbg first

Ok i got my permit to kill my fish in sep. i have 1/3 acre pond average depth 5 foot. Deep end of pond is down to 10 ft full. I got a vertex airerator on the way hope to have it going by end of this week. I am planning on feeding my fish too. Was wondering thoughts on putting hbg in to start out get them growing good to have fish to eat soon. Should i put regular bg in with them or wait a year. How many fish u think i can support with feed and air. Thanks

I'm not an expert and have only been managing my pond less than three years. So take what I say with a grain of salt.

But something in my minds eye is that HBG have a fairly large mouth (they inherit that from the GSF genes). So if you stock HBG and feed them, in a year you are going to have 6" or 7" fish with a mouth big enough to eat any 1-2" BG you are talking about stocking later. So if you do as you are talking, you would need to buy advanced size BG for stocking the second year. (or else the BG you stock most may become an expensive snack for your HBG) HBG are VERY aggressive fish (a good thing - makes them easy to catch and hard fighters)

So my opinion is to not do it that way.

If you want both HBG and BG, stock them both at the same time.

I like HBG. I did not intentionally stock any, but in the 1500 original BG stockers, about 40-50 ended up being HBG. They were the fastest growing and easiest catching fish in the pond.

So from my perspective, in that size pond, I would likely only stock HBG and forget the BG. But if you want BG, stock a lower number and stock them at the same time as the HBG.

My non-expert opinion only.

Sprkplug is the HBG guy on this forum. I'm sure he will weigh in with some good advice.

Forgive me, I didn't go back through your posts to see exactly what your goals are, and what you would like to accomplish. When you say eating, are you talking recreational eating once in awhile, or counting on these fish to supply a good portion of the menu quite regularly?

You can stock the HBG first, but like snrub stated, if you want BG later you will want >3" fish. That shouldn't be a problem to source. What else is going into this pond by way of predators? Aeration and feed will boost the fish numbers, but water quality issues and vegetation will probably be your next hurdles. You do know that HBG are usually managed as a put and take fish?

Ya i was gonna put in fhm didnt know if they would eat them or not. I wasnt gonna stock hbg but think in the long run if i want fast growing fish and lots to eat that might be my best option. I will have to replace what i catch out im good with that. I was after bg only at first thought but dont think i am skilled or got enough water to have pleantiful pure strain bg. My 2 year old is already casting and actually caught his first bass on his own so i kinda switched to thinking hbg might be best for action and eats. I will have to add bass but really dont care about growing big bass.

I may open a can of worms here, but if someone has actual experience with Georgia Giants I would like to hear about it.

If you read on their web site, they say the GG hybrids will breed true and sustain a population without reverting to less desirable fish. At least that is what I thought I read some time ago.

That basically goes against everything taught and talked about here on PBF. Here on PBF it seems most see a hybrid is a hybrid is a hybrid and they are all GSF female X BG male. There are other ways to make hybrids and other species that can be used to create hybrids (RES to name one). Of course since the cross is claimed to be proprietary, the creators of GG's are not telling what their cross is. So maybe is is nothing more than the old GSF female x BG male which lives so well and transports well on fish trucks so the fish farms like to sell them. But maybe it is not. They claim it is not.

I'm contemplating on building another pond this fall (if I can ever get the dozer back from cleaning up other farm stuff that actually makes us money). I've played with the idea of getting some GG's just to find out for myself (I have come to really appreciate hybrid sunfish and am delighted when I catch one). I got this crazy idea in my head that a GSF/BG female crossed with a male RES would be the cats meow for a hybrid, and have wondered if the GG's are not something along this line. But I'm a complete amateur and just hypothesizing with very little experience.

I am trying to get some RES/GSF cross naturally.

Anyone with real hands on experience with Georgia Giants hybrid sunfish???????

Edit: this is not an attempt at a thread hijack. Tucker14 might actually want to know about GG's for his hybrid sunfish selection if someone has had good experience with them.

In the old days GG topics were good for multiple pages of content, thinly veiled skepticism, photos of a single, tired, recycled fish, stories of misshapen and deformed specimens, spin-off discussions over the viability of breeding true, secret and proprietary recipes for creating superior hybrid bluegills, and a stalwart few who remained convinced the fish had potential. Those were the days.

Now, I think most believe the subject has been pretty thoroughly hashed out, barring the release of any new information....which I feel is unlikely.

LOL

Ahhhh but there is always a new supply of fresh meat........ er I mean "PBF members" that have not heard the valuable information. And maybe even someone new who has tried raising GG's more recently.

Guess I need to do some searches for old threads.

Tucker 14 I'm finding a bunch of old threads about hybrid Georgia Giants sunfish. I'm going to post the thread links someplace.

You want me to go off on that tangent here in this thread? Or create a new thread specific to GG's?

Ok, I probably need go no further than this old post. So I will link to it and forget about trying GG's. If Bruce could not make them work for him, I know I can't. Thanks for what I know was a post you really did not want to need to make Bruce.

One person's experience with GG's

I know I have searched for GG info in the past, but for some reason never had seen the above linked thread. Maybe it was time to bring it up again. I've been on the forum a couple years and did not know the information contained therein.

I did not realize such people were in the fish selling business. I thought that type had all gravitated to politics and international banking.

Now.............. back on topic to help Tucker14 with his stocking question.................

Ok so i dont know anywhere to get gg so im not to interested in them anyways. I realize hbg will be put and take im good with that. From my experiences in my pond i have had bg in since 2009 and have not cleaned one since. My hybrids been in last two springs and are as big as my pure bg. My fish biologist said karmex messed my inverterbrates up but i have been feeding all along ang my hbg are surpassing my bg. So i am thinking starting with hbg. I have searched every photo on them and they all look different in ways. More photos of big hbg would help me out. I just dont like the looks of mine as they look like gsf alot. My grandpa always said they were bad and everyone i caught i removed. So now i got mixed emotions about stocking them. But maybe its where i got them from.

I would recommend starting right here: http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=256325

Lots of info, and many, many spin-off links.