CAW, I stocked about 25 HBG in my pond with about 250 BG in October of 2002 and early spring of 2003. I have only caught 3 HBG/BG crosses and no apparent HBG/HBG offspring. Standard BG will likely outgrow the HBG by year three and recent research shows that ultimately, standards of both sexes will outgrow hybrids. I think they're kinda neat for a bonus fish but 50 would be more than enough for a pond your size.
Wasn't there a recent article in the mag that for big bass more like 2000 BG per acre was better?
Caw, keep in mind that it takes roughly 10lbs of forage to grow a pound of bass. If you stock 50 two pound wild fish your going to have to seine/buy 4500lbs of forage fish to grow the stockers to 5lbs. Fatheads are good for startup but won't last once the HBG get big enough to eat them. I think a much more reasonable option to meet your goals would be to get standard BG to produce more forage and 12"+ feed trained LMB and feed pellets, Aquamax largemouth for the bass and appropriately sized pellets for the bluegill. Roughly 2lbs. of Aquamax largemouth would grow a pound of bass. You'll have keeper size bass this year and be set up for maximum growth for years to come. You can still add seined forage as needed, more as supplemental to in pond production.
