Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose If you could get either one which would you choose

I would guess we're in about the same latitude, my pond is about 2 miles north of I40, so fairly similar at least. Having said that, TFS in this zone are at risk for winterkills, even in big bodies of water, and especially in ponds.

I am far from an expert on TFS, but have stocked them in two ponds, one ~3 acres with preexisting LMB, and one about 3 acres with preexisting SMB. Neither were able to establish for the long term, though those in the LMB pond made it for a year, which I attribute to the very large size of the TFS stocked [many were 5-6"--they looked as big as gizzards], and the nature of the pond, which is very deep [~40 feet], has very steep sides, and a fair amount of very open water. My experience makes me think that it is unlikely that you'd be able to establish the TFS, and would be paying for a lot of high cost snacks.

I have also tried to establish GSH in the 3 acre smallmouth pond-I put in about 20lbs of really beautiful 4-5" fish I got from Rex a few years ago. Same experience; lots of temporarily happy SMB. So I'm not sure that the GSH are going to fill your niche either--and you want really big, 3-4 year old shiners for your top end LMB.
[As an aside, I've been stocking large numbers of spotfin shiners in the SMB pond this year--and they seem to be thriving; they are exceptionally active minnows and can avoid SMB predation pretty effectively, it appears.....time will tell if that works over the course of the year. But these guys top out at about 5", so I'm not sure they hold an answer for you].

Are tilapia legal in Arkansas??