George,
Was your question in relation to your 1/4 acre pond or 2 acre pond or both? I was trying to answer thinking it was your 2 acre pond, but looking back maybe you were only talking about the 1/4 acre pond.
HSB as an open water fish has little or no meaning in most 1/4 acre ponds. There just isn't any significant "open water" in my 1/4 acre pond. Also, I doubt threadfin shad would have any chance at all in a 1/4 acre pond filled with HSB.
However, a 2 acre pond is diffferent. By open water, I meant several feet (at least 5 or 6) away from the shoreline in areas generally greater than 6 feet deep and containing little structure where the HSB has long "runways" where it can herd and attack bait fish.
I repeat, I have never caught a HSB in my larger pond outside of that open water zone. If you routinely see them and catch them outside that zone in your 2 acre pond, then yes our situations are very different.
Bruce, I would be interested in your experience with HSB in ponds. The behavior in large reservoirs may or may not be indicative of the behavior in small ponds. Do you also, apparently like George, catch HSB routinely in those areas outside of what I have described as "open water", i.e. in what most would describe as LMB shallow structure water? If so, then I must have an aberrant situation. I guess it wouldn't be the first time.
At any rate, the question from George was how we felt his HSB would do in the absence of artificial feeding with a Tilapia/BG forage base.
In the 1/4 acre pond, I don't have experience and don't know. In the 2 acre size pond, I believe they will do fine, but would greatly benefit from a threadfin shad forage base, in addition, because, in my ponds, both HSB and shad prefer open waters. Thanks.
