RLewis,
I don't know what is typical, but can describe my experience with an ongoing experiment with F1's...
Completed the renovation of a 2 acre pond one year ago, stocked with CNBG,fatheads, and 1 grass carp. F1's stocked this spring along with Tilapia. No artificial feeding whatsoever. No fishing whatsoever, either, but careful observation has shown very fat, consistent 12 inch F1's this fall. Nothing but natural forage, no fertilizers either. Thus far, at least, I've shown myself that artificial feeding can be replaced with forage, e.g. Tilapia supplementing CNBG.
My main reason for this pond was to try to find a way to raise an aggressive LMB that was catchable, unlike the Florida strain LMB in my much larger artificially fed pond, which are uncatchable.
The consistent rapid growth without any artificial feeding that I've seen thus far in the F1's is most encouraging...but the other part of the test, on catchability, won't be exercised until next year.
