Eric:

IIRC (and what could I possibly mean by that, George? :p ) Scott has 2 (maybe 2 1/2?) year classes of BG in the pond now - small stockers, large stockers, and quite likely offpsring from the latter.

I bet Scott's pond will fill and stay full this Summer. While many of our friends down South have been suffering from lack of rain, we Ahians have had a pretty wet June and July this year (I keep worrying about my fish suffering from the effects of the high humidity ).

One question that needs answered (to me at least) is how fast is the bottom end of his food chain becoming established? By this I mean the life from plankton up to invertebrates for the FH, BG, and RES to eat. I don't remember enough from my own pond start up to do any predicting on this - I just shoved in FH & Shiners and waited a year (forgive me, I was pre-PB then :rolleyes: ).

But if Scott's pond has greenish water, numerous small insects/invertabrates, and active, growing FH (and maybe BG) fry/small fingerlings, I would judge it to have a good foodchain becoming established already. In that circumstance I feel he could definitely figure on adding a significant number of predators no later than this Fall; I think small numbers could be added this Summer as they could be caught and carefully transferred from other bodies of water (i.e. catch & stock some this Summer himself, professionally stock additional numbers this Fall when it's cooler).

IIRC (thanks to George I now know this acronym can be used in any occasion ) Scott should stock the SMB first his year and follow with YP next year - isn't that a BG/YP/SMB stocking strategy I have seen heartily endorsed here by names I trust?

Does that all make any sense?

It would be real good to have input from YP/SMB experts like Bill Cody or Sunil or Eric in Rochester on this (and anwering SMB spawning questions).

"Live like you'll die tomorrow, but manage your grass like you'll live forever."
-S. M. Stirling
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