Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Observed these HSB last evening ...

I didn't know where to post this so I figured it would be fine here since I did observe this last evening.



50 HSB went in last night. Blaine, thanks for the heads up on Mark. Nice guy to deal with. I had them delivered and his driver was a super nice guy too.

George, I took your advice and went with the bigger fish. 6"-8", but most were at least 8".

Fish were in really great shape and very lively. I saw a few swimming with the LMB less than an hour after releasing them.

I liked this picture too. It looks like he is seeing his new home for the first time and he likes it! I think he is smiling.



Thanks for all the help guys. I'll keep you posted on how they do. I hope to see them taking some pellets tonight.

Nice looking fish FCM. Keep us posted!

Glad it all worked out Mickey. Good looking fish! We'll have to keep a comparison on growth rates between the HSB in our two ponds. I've forgotten, how big is your pond? I average catching one of those buggers once per week. I wish they would hold off until they get bigger.

My pond is around 2 acres. It was just finished last year, so I am waiting on Google Earth to put up a new picture so I can trace it out and get an exact number. 2 acres is really close though. 12 feet at the deepest. Probably averages 5 feet. Haven't calcualted that yet either. Man, I have been slacking!

Anyway, I think I saw some coming up last night for food. They don't seem to hover around like the LMB or BG. They seem to dart up from deeper water and get a pellet and then head straight down again. Here are a few things I have observed since I put the HSB in last Wednesday:

1. They dart up to grab a pellet and then head for the depths again.

2. They seem to get more active right at dark.

3. I am seeing more activity as the pellets float into more open water.

4. I am seeing more aggressive strikes on pellets than I have in the past. Almost like they are striking live minnows on the top.

5. I am seeing minnows being chased more in the open water. I never noticed this too often before. I think it is the HSB chasing out there. I always see LMB around the edges chasing minnows so it is something new since Wednesday.

Is this what everyone else observes that have HSB in their ponds?

Blaine, it would be fun to see how growth rates track in our two ponds. We have not caught any yet, but we have only fished once since they went in. I am sort of hoping not to catch any until next year. But I would like to get a look at them once in awhile.

Yep, those are all HSB behaviors...

And it should be noted with 2 acres of water it will take them longer to find the pellets to get conditioned to them on a daily basis. But when they do...

If you got these fish from Mark Eikenberry and they were in floating cages they should be extra conditioned to feed on pellets. I've noticed this with my fish that are in cages after I release them. The largemouths rarely go off the pellets. (Once you're on welfare long enough it's hard to go off. At least that's what I've been told).

Yes, I did ge them from Mark. the LMB I have in there are really coming to the feed. I got those from Laggis. I have at least a dozen waiting for me when I get out to feed them. There are far more than that feeding, but some make it obvious they are starving to death

We got about 2.5 inches of rain yesterday so the pond is a little stirred up. It did not affect them eating this morning though. Cecil, did you get a lot of rain your way?

We got about 4 plus inches so far in the last two days.

Dan Laggis' bass both largemouth and smallmouth are definitely good pellet feeders. I never have to worry about them not taking pellets if I get fish from him. I got some smallies from another supplier once and they acted like they had never been pellet trained even though the supplier said they did.

They took awhile to get onto the pellets. I think they saw all those minnows and thought they were in heaven. Once they figured out the minnows don't stand still like the pellets, they went back to the easy meal.