big_pond,

I agree completely with George. As to the threadfin shad, it is a risky venture depending on your location. We are in East Texas a couple of hours from Houston and have tried multiple times with very limited success to establish a threadfin shad self-regenerating population in my 3 acre pond. This year to provide additional forage (besides coppernose and fatheads)to the HSB and LMB, I stocked Tilapia. The results are very encouraging so far.

Follow George's advise and also start a feeding program. The fatheads are greatly underestimated in my opinion. I stocked them once three years ago and still see good numbers of them even with a lot of predators.