Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait Growth rate of Golden Shiners?

I have a bait pond (1/4 acre) that I will use solely for GS.
Today I stocked it with 18# of "brooder" sized shiners. They were 5-6" and thick, solid looking rascals.
In the past, I've only been able to buy no. 20's, and these new shiners put them to shame.

Anyhow, I plan to feed them cottonseed meal and small 40%(?) pellets.

I live in East Texas, just west of Shrevepory,LA; got a pretty good growing season.

Question: If all goes well, what is an expected growth rate for the baitfish? I'm hoping to get some honest 8-9" fish and use them for rod/reel fishing for big blue catfish.

The experts should reply soon. I will offer this, in my limited experence, the GSs need better water quality than FHs or goldfish. I lost some GS in a small holding tank while the others did fine. Watch your water and don't overfeed esp in warmer weather this summer. Aquamax 400 worked well for me. My guess is 8-9" will be doable by the fall.
Have u fished below Livingston for those monster blues?

Thanks for the reply!
No, I have not tried the Livingston dam area (although I would be interested in a Fall trip and would bring the bait!).

I have a couple of spots on Lake Fork out from the dam where we get some really nice blues and channels. And we catch some big bass, but (and I never thought I'd say this..) we consider the bass a nusiance when we are after the cats.

But we use large circle hooks, practice C&R, so it's all good!

I'm interested in this also since I will also be setting up a small pond for the same thing except for feeding my LMB.

Any pro's out there to reply?

Based on my GSH expereince, I think they ought to match ahvatsa's above expectation down in Texas.

Is it likely that someone could get the GS to spawn in a 300 gal tote?