Thanks for the replies! We will definitely be following the advise of the professionals and holding off on stocking. I called the hatchery back and they said to expect 5-10% of the fish to be in the 4-5" range. Not enough to take the risk in my opinion. I heard back from the guy on electrofishing and he said he normally starts back up March-April. That gives us time to work on our structure plan and be ready come spring.
John, there is an established GSF population in this pond for sure. We see a bunch of 2" but have caught a few hand sized and 1 giant. I didnt think GSF got big but I think he was pushing a pound. Wish I would have measured him. I think the electrofishing is going to be interesting to see what all comes up. Would they normally cull any GSF that come up in the survey? Thinking about GSF as predators for the 2-3" CNBG, we may have to stock larger fish or get a nursery pond set up to stock 2" and raise to 6" before transferring them. I may be calling on your GSF experience in the future!
Thanks for the link, Ewest. I had browsed through that looking for ideas and I will probably end up with a mix-n-match from a few of them. Great info throughout that thread and the others linked there.
Whats everyones thoughts on the pipe for transition cover? Should the inside of the pipe be filled with limbs to create dense cover for fry moving from bed to deep? How deep will the fry go, assuming I have a cluster of standing Christmas trees in 8-10' water? I was thinking of starting with the pipe upside down and filling it Christmas tree limbs. Put something across the bottom to hold the limbs in and flip it back over to put pvc limbs on the outside. I dont have any of the corrugated pipe yet so I can't make one for show and tell.
I have another idea I'm working on as an alternative as well. I will share that as soon as I can get it all together.
