All HSB from hatcheries are raised on pellets. The larger the HSB from a hatchery the more habituated they are to pellets.
Bill: Exactly my point, I stocked with the youngest HSB possible, and have tried to offer the most desirable forage to increase the chance of these HSB's prefer forage over pellets. If it makes any difference, Todd thinks the plan has a chance with the right number of HSB's...................Budster
Bud, I believe you are on the right track with your stocking program and especially liming your E. Texas pond. With abundant forage and smaller size HSB, my experience says they will become forage trained.
See link:
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.ph...8&site_id=1Because of my experience of feeding my expensive 4-6 inch HSB to adult LMB, we built a ¼ acre “grow-out pond” in the spring and stocked with FH, CNBG, and RES. The following spring the water was black with FHM and CNBG when we stocked fingerling HSB - they NEVER became pellet trained - thought they were all dead until fall and this what we began to catch!
