I put in (25) 4-8” HSB in my pond on April 27th, 2015. Haven’t caught one yet. I believe I saw a group cruising out near the middle last spring, but I’m not sure. Quite often I see lots of minnows (some tiny fish) jumping out of the water in bunches though, and usually followed by a big swirl or wake. I suspect these are the SMB feeding, but it could be my HSB. I’ve caught lots of the SMB, but not a single HSB. Some day I’ll get one. I see activity at the edges of the feed pattern when the feeder goes off that looks like something Big is feeding on the minnows pushing the feed around, but I’ve never seen any HSB come up to take floating feed. I just hope they are working over my GSH, and not my YP..
9 yr old pond, 1 ac, 15' deep. RES, YP, GS, FHM (no longer), HBG (going away), SMB, and HSB (only one seen in 5 yrs) Restocked HSB (2020) Have seen one of these. I think that's about all I should put in my little pond. Otter attack in 2023
