My story begins in earnest this past February. This land has been in the family several decades. The pond used to be an old gin tank. Thinking there were no fish in it, I stocked FHM, BG, Res, and CC, then 3 months later I stocked Tilapia. We hand fed them and they would bubble the water. Me and Mom well we don't see all that well, so wife comes down while we are feeding and takes pictures and video. Not knowing any better, we thought those fish we stocked had grown great! Showed the pictures here and rut-row, what we had coming to eat was GSF! We started fishing and sure enough we had some whoppers! I'd have to look back in my thread, but I had several nice sized ones, I think I caught somewhere around 40 of them in sizes 8"-11".

Fast Forward to present, We fished this week and caught CC, and several GSF in the 3"-4" range, but nothing larger. I'm hopeful a few BG survived, but deep down, I really doubt it.

I have embraced the GSF, they are a blast to catch.