I have a pond that had a bad die off of lmb because of a 80%+ coontail infestation. It's original planting was lmb, res and bg. Now you catch bg, more bg and even more bg. I'd say they are 95% of the carrying capacity, or current population. DIED was kind enough to let me take a couple hundred dink GSF from his pond. Some up to 6", many between 1-2". I am relocating them to that pond, and removing the same amount or more of bg. My reason for this is GSF are notorious competitors of bg. You will not find an abundance of small bg in a GSF pond. But at the same time, I am replacing the die off LMB. Mostly 5-7" with one new pond trophy 5 lb+. This should keep the newly added GSF in check as well. My long term attempt is to try to get a balanced ratio of bg/GSF and RES. Also try to boost the average size. But the ultimate goal is to reestablish a dominant single predator species pond, for the LMB. Four dozen crawdads and about 1,500 bullfrog polliwogs. Also 200 5-8" hybrid carp. This is for biological vegetation control.

My rule of thumb on introducing a new species is a long hard look where they fit, and what will be thier impact both short and long term. Hybrids in nature are not even an aftethought to me. So that is no factor. Also I try to do a pro and con, or do the benefits outweigh the potential detriments?. You have to take a long thought about this, as if you do indeed introduce GSF, there is no turning back. I tend to use GSF as a third spoke in the sunfish and bg population wheel. And only if there will be a dominant predator species, so they are forage when they are small. Exercise caution.

Last edited by The Pond Frog; 06/27/10 10:47 PM.