Laggis no longer has HSB. He decided they were not a good fish for his goals. I don't think anyone in MI sells HSB. YOU will probably have to get them from Ohio.
If not feeding the fish pellets they will resort to natural foods. If you only feed the fish pellets occassionally they may not dependably eat the food. They are cratures of regular habits.
Keep in mind that with HSB you will have 3 predators SMB, HSB and perch. Perch have a high percentage of fish in their diet after the reach 6"-8". SMB will each year probably add some new fish whereas HSB will not. It could be easy for the pond to develop too many predators based on how many forage fish are present. Small fish as food shortages will cause slowed growth of increasing numbers of predators. Balance of predator and prey becomes important as predators reproduce, so predators keep growing well. Thinning the numbers of predators is almost always necessary to maintain adequate numbers of forage fish. The other option is to always add forage fish to try to maintaing adequate numbers of them. That gets you into a viscious cycle of adding forage fish to keep up with increasing numbers of predators.
Advice has been correct. Jumbo perch are yellow perch. Jumbo is a promo to make you think the perch are guaranteed to grow big. Just about all if not all hatchery fish in MI have the potential to grow to jumbo size. Rarely do hatcheries sell 10"-12" perch which are considered jumbo sized. Most perch will grow big if they get enough food.
If you just use FH as forage fish they will not last long after the first year if that long. I've seen many ponds where just perch alone without bass eliminate the FH. If you do not plan to feed the fish, I suggest that you first add FH and or shiners (spring) and wait till fall or the next year to add predators. I have used the option of add minnows and perch. Do not add SMB until the perch reproduced once and provided small perch for bass, then add bass. That worked okay in the few instances it was tried.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 12/20/07 09:31 PM.
