Originally Posted By: anthropic
Eric, would it be helpful to place new feed trained LMB stockers in a forage pond full of natural forage, particularly CNBG, for a week or two? No good long term due to overcrowding, but maybe they'd get the idea faster than just being thrown into the main BOW.


Yes that has worked in studies and in practice - see the upcoming article. If you are thinking about this approach seek out a good hatchery that raises the stocker fish first on pellets (most do so for economic reasons) that then places them in ponds with both natural food and pellets for rearing until sale. This has been shown to make a big difference. Still need to habituate them to predators before or in conjunction with stocking.