Pond Boss Forums PHOTO GALLERY Image Gallery HBG Stocked in March 2013

HBG stocked as 3"ers on 3/15/13. I think this is pretty good growth for 4 months! Feeding them the "game fish" pellets.

That's healthy looking, high WR HBG Gareth. Well done.

Yeah the HBG really pile it on out of the gate. Their growth will slow down as time progresses.

Good looking fish!

That is a beautiful and well conditiond HBG. Those pellets agree with him (90+% of HBG are male). Well done.

The thing about these HBG's that is blowing my mind...is I think (I know)they have already gone on bed and spawned! The beds are clearly visible and their aggressive behavior in defending them points in one direction. And a couple of days ago, mixed in with the fathead minnows and skeeter fish, I swear that I saw some tiny "bream type" fry also. Is that possible!!!

I know the offspring will not be a hybrid and I stocked a good ratio of LMB to handle them, but...Babies already!

Yes, that fish is plenty big enough to spawn. Keep a vigilant eye on aquatic vegetation, don't let it become excessive.

I've had the same thing happen. My HSB could not keep up with the spawn. I had to add SMB to the party. The numbers seem to have declined. I placed 4 minnow traps with Melba crackers inside and was pulling out hundreds a day. Not sure why the Sea salt Melba chips worked so well. I tried saltines and could not catch very many.

I found a small slow flowing creek that's loaded with Chain Pickeral 6 to 8" long. I plan to add a half dozen of those to supplement the LMB for offspring control! It'll give me a little angling diversity at the same time.

Gareth- Come back and Keep us advised over the next few years how the fishery progresses.

It's been several months since my last post, we've been busy with the new home construction, but we are now living just a couple of hundred yards up the hill from our pond, and it is SWEET! The new home turned out better than we could have asked, and the pond and fish are doing pretty good. We have had regular visits from an Osprey and several wading birds, so I know I've lost some stock to them, but hey, what's a boy to do! There is some green stringy stuff starting to grow in the shallow sections that seems to be "rooted" to the bottom, and the water lilies I planted are being munched on by the turtles that have found their way to the pond. I'm thinking if I can get rid of the sliders the lilies might get going and shade out the stringy stuff, let me know what y'all think about that.

The next project is to raise the windmill and get it operational. Not that we have needed it this year in the Florida Panhandle.

I'm going to try and attach a couple of pics to show our progress, wish me luck...

Hopefully the pics will attach here.