Just a little update for anyone that may try this. I received these fish from Keo Fish Farms (great place!!) last June 21. I'm guessing they were 1.5" at most when I received them. You can see the process of raising them above. Last fall I stocked 30 of them in my yard pond, which is 2/3 of an acre and has a dense FHM population. I stocked around a thousand in my other lake. They were fairly quiet all summer, but lately have come to the feeder in a significant way. Last night I finally caught one in my yard pond. And it was an amazing 13.5". That's 12" of growth in 15 months.
Dandy fish. 12" of growth but what amazes me is that the weight gain was in the neighborhood of 72900%. You know I bet you could do that annually without restocking minnows if you could get all the HSB out each fall. Minnows might even be self sustaining in a situation where the HSB persist year round but in that situation they might need protection like a portion of the pond that the HSB can't get into. Makes one wonder about the possibilities ...
It isn't what we don't know that gives us trouble, it's what we know that ain't so - Will Rogers
