I'd use the barrels. The other fish will be fine bagged but the hsb from harrisons need some extra care.
I moved 175 hsb from their truck to my pond (1/8 mile down a steep ravine) with roughly 15-20 fish per 6 gallon bucket - it was no fun. I can tell you that those were by far the hardest fish to move to the pond due to how active they were. Once they get in the bucket they go nuts - I couldn't imagine stocking them from bags. Anything you can do to reduce their stress during transport is going to pay off big time when you put them into the pond. I had about 10 stunned when put in the pond due to my cool water temps at the time - if you have a way to acclimate them go for it. Mine were 10-12" HSB maybe the smaller ones will be easier. I know when they brought the truck to my pond the HSB had a huge area in the tank compared to my YP, RES, LMB and WE. They load the HSB into the truck last, and they were unloaded last to reduce stress.
Harrisons were very helpful, even hauled down half my fish to the pond, always nice on the phone, and stuck around to bs after we finished up. The quality of the fish was excellent
Last edited by Matzilla; 04/18/18 10:41 AM.
