John, should you decide to manage around the hybrid recruits instead of start over, a person can make a significant dent in the population with a few minnow traps with some fish food in them. I trap a lot of GSF and bullhead out of my old pond and along with some fishing have made a significant dent in their populations. A big enough dent they got hard to come by for a while so I quit, but now have started back up as some of the very small ones have got up to 3-4" where I can trap and catch them again. I've just used a single minnow trap on the one acre pond but if a person had five or even ten of them, a person could take out a lot of fish in a short time. The GSF really seem to go for the food in the traps and I would assume the small hybrids would also. In my big pond have also used a minnow trap to catch 2" BG.
The trap a person uses makes a big difference. I have a white plastic one that does not work at all for the GSF and bullheads. It will catch adult FHM, but not the sunfish of any quantity. I think the opening is too small. The trap that works for me is the black expanded metal minnow trap.
I kind of actually enjoy walking around the bank with a #10 cricket hook and catch the 3-4" GSF. Caught about 100 one day within a couple hours.
Remember that HBG are not recommended for the forage base for LMB ponds because they don't produce enough offspring. So while it may look like you have a lot, it may not be as many as you imagine. I would think the trick would be to find a way to remove the ones that get too big for your target predators to eat. The small ones might make ok forage. Just my ideas. I'm certainly no expert and thus not making recommendations.
Last edited by snrub; 09/07/14 11:07 AM.
