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..
I would be VERY tempted to electro fish that pond to see if any HSB show up. Make your own with a 12V battery and a generator.
4/2015 until 7/2018 would be too much for me to wait.
Half acre 30 year old farm pond, Mebane NC. Aeration & feeder. LMB, CC, SC, BG, HBC, two no account welfare carp and nine seasonal Tilapia that all the other fish are terrified of.
