LRunkle,
My advice would be to stock when your water temperature is reliably 60 degrees or above. In my area this year, that was April 1. Lower temperatures than that and you run the risk of a sudden cold front lowering your water temperature to the 55 to 50 degree killing zone.
I don't have any data yet on the other end, i.e the "unstocking" or die-off. My water temperature in East Texas has yet to fall below 61 or 62 degrees so far.
As a result of the "long" growing season, I've have weighted 2 pound fish and believe that 3 pounders are present from the original stockers. I can tell you a 2 pound Tilapia on light tackle is a blast...but also a very infrequent occurence unfortunately as they prefer vegetarian diets.
