Guys, thanks for the comments and advice. I am encouraged despite the qualifications on HSB flavor. I go striper fishing here in Casco Bay, and love the filets. Plus I've read there's growth in commercial production of HSBs. So I just sort of assumed a firm, flaky, white filet of fair-to-decent taste. Hey, enough lemon, butter, and fresh ground dill and even shoe leather gets pretty tasty. Throw in a bit of minced garlic.
So what's the downside? Lots of fun catching these things, from what I understand.
I'll be putting a plan in place to convert to HSB next spring.
o Locate a supplier. Read on another thread of one in Delaware.
o Purchase at a small enough size to overnight? Is it possible? But if I had to do a road trip to Delaware that would be okay, too.
o I've been using Silver Cup high protein trout feed. But I suppose I'd go to the Aquamax you folks rave about.
o Put them in sometime after ice-out next spring, in a cage until they get to 6 inches or so? I'll probably have something like 30 trout in the pond... But then they have shown themselves to be pusillanimous pansies as predacious predators. (Yeah, I had to look it up, too) So they probably would not bother even the six inch HSB?
I'm getting excited!!
One other thing. I have a massive crayfish population. I've lined the sides of my pond with field stone pretty much top to bottom. Laid over commercial-grade mesh weed barrier. So what I did was to create a massive crawdad condo. I put a crayfish trap in there and it fills up with crayfish in a few hours. I'm betting the HSB would tear through the shiners and crayfish pretty well.
You know, it's kind of strange to root for the top predator with such unabashed enthusiasm. I feel like one of the Roman mob cheering on the lions against the christians... Go, go, go! YESSSS!!! (Where are my morals?)
In case you guys don't remember, here's pics of pond when I was seining this spring (didn't work very well). Everybody loves pics.
