Originally Posted By: Matzilla
Very awesome! How many and what size for the SMB initial stocking?


Exciting day today!

Hartley Fish Farm of Kingman Kansas delivered my SMB today for this pond. 50 6"-9" and 40 4"-6" SMB were put in this RES pond.

Jerry Hartley told me the different size fish (I got all the larger size he had available) I was getting were all the same age. The larger fish were just in a different environment with a lot more minnows available for them to eat. Pictures below, but I did not get many pictures. I figured there would be several minutes for fish acclimation but they were just dumped right into the pond. He said this time of year when it is cold it was not needed. The fish swam away. So things went quicker than I anticipated.

After we placed them I came back in about an hour to feed the FHM's (likely the last day of the year feeding - going to get really cold tonight). I commonly see FHM swirls as I drive around the pond in my UTV and it casts a shadow over the water. You can see the minnows being spooked by the shadow. I think the FHM realized there is "a new sheriff in town". While I still noticed the usual scattered swirls from the UTV shadow, there were two complete schools jammed together swimming at the surface making a full school wake. One along side me going the same direction I was at the shallow west side of the pond and another headed right toward the first school from the opposite direction. Never saw this before in this pond. I surmise the newly introduced SMB were cruising their new home and the minnows were taking notice. Kind of cool.

Bob Lusk had suggested 50 SMB for control of my RES recruitment. My plan is to let these get enough size so my LMB in my main 3 acre pond can't eat them, then catch about 40 and transfer them to my main pond. Hopefully I can do that about next fall. I think they should have enough FHM and new RES fingerlings next spring to support the 90 till I get 40 removed.


Attached Images
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Last edited by snrub; 03/19/18 09:56 PM.

John

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