Well I'll take a stab at this.

! have a 1 acre pond. I have HSB and LMB and they seem to fair well together. Keep in mind HSB like more open water tho so they don't really interfere to much with LMB as far as in your face if you will.

I believe my top predator is still my LMB but my Larger HSB do eat smaller BG. I have one I just caught yesterday on a 3 inch BG and it was 6.5 pounds. My smaller HSB are also doing fine they are in the 14 inch range now but doing great. Look great!

My pond is only Max 10 feet at full pool. So mine are living and thriving in 8 foot of water for the most part.

The cool thing about HSB is they don't spawn on you so if you put 12 in there your not gonna end up with 1200 one day! lol. Heck I think even the late great George has them in a 1/4 acre pond and had some NICE ones!!! They are a great bonus fish and a blast to catch.

I cant say I have ever caught one on a top water bait but I know guys that have! I catch most of mine on shiny rooster tails and small spinners, a bobber with a shiner. If you feed them you can catch them on fish food once in a while.

They can also stand some pretty warm weather/water it gets pretty darn hot here in Arkansas and I have not had any die from the heat that I know of, but I do have air in my pond keeping things nice and full of D.O.

Hope this helps give them a try you wont regret it.
I believe Ewest lives in Missouri and he has some real nice HSB. I'm sure he could fill you in some too.

RC

The only difference between a rut and a Grave is the depth. So get up get out of that rut and get moving!! Time to work!!