Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Striped Bass reproducing??

I built a new 6A lake and stocked it 16 months ago. I put 500 HSB, 500 LMB, 1500 brim,and 40 lb FHM.I have been catching 1 1/4-1 1/2 lb, 13 in bass. Friday I caught 2 5 inch HSB. They looked completely normal and not stunted. I have a picture but do not know how to post it. My lake is in upstate SC. They are feed trained and I have a solar feeder set up. Could the HSB be reproducing?? Thanks for any advice

Not likely. See this thread on HSB reproduction.

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.ph...=true#Post84636

Wayne, I don't know the stocking recommendations for your area, but it sounds like you are a bit over stocked on LMB and HSB and way understocked on their forage, BG.

The HSB are small and barely surviving due to very little forage prooduction for them to eat.

With that many HSB you'd need to be feeding pretty heavy to keep their growth up. How much are you feeding monthly? What brand of pellets? I feed my 120 HSB 100 lbs/mo April-Oct in a 3 acre pond and could probably increase that another 50%.

I hired a guy that raises LMB & HSB to advise me on stocking rates and put the fish in. Maybe he needed to sell more fish, but I hope not. I will have to check to find out how much we are feeding. I would guess about 200 lb. We are feeding floating catfish feed. I ordered a bag of Purina LMB large pellets. It takes my dealer two weeks to get it in. Where do I find out stocking rates?? We are finishing contruction on a third lake that will be about 7 acres
Again, thanks for any and all help

Wayne, Catfish feed, especially store brands are notoriously low quality feeds. Some include sand as fillers. Some are decent though. Regardless, CC feed is an omnivorous blend and not suitable for your fish to grow on...Most HSB are probably not even eating it. HSB and LMB are carnivores.

If it were my pond, I would remove about 100-200 larger bass and any that appear skinny. Add at least 100 pounds of 4"+ golden shiners and another 1500-2000 4-6" BG.

If the Shiners establish, I would not be surprised to see your HSB triple in lenght and Bass double in weight by next Fall.

I feed HSB AM 600 , GFC and AM LMB plus they have BG/RES ,FH and Tshad to eat . However as noted at the PB iv conv. HSB are one species that can digest and metabolize carbs and they don't need high protein. They can do ok on 32% catfish food but tend to get obese and have health problems.

I know a couple of producers that swear there is some reproduction of hybrid striped bass albeit in very small numbers. Whether that is the case I cannot verify it.

Feeding AM LMB to HSB is a hoot and a half - sounds like m80s in the water. A few of my SMB are also in on the act now too.

An HOA lake four miles from my place stocked HSB same year as my initial stocking but feeds very infrequently. His fish average 14-16" around 80 WR is my guess. My AM 600 and LMB pellet trained fish from that initial stocking are 22"+ and I think I've got a few pushing 24" all with WRs well over 100. I don't know if everyone has similar results, but my pond would be a perfect case study for Purina. The owner of the development couldn't believe the difference in our fish - neither could I. Purina has spoiled me for sure.

Hi Cecil. Have you really been on a 5 month long adventure? Great to see you again! Did you bring us back anything good from your travels?

Dependent upon the size of stockers, 500 HSB in a 6 acre lake sounds about right to me � providing you have proper management to prevent overpopulation and a good feeding program.

I added 100 of these 10-12 inch HSB to normal pre-drought 2-acre pond on Wednesday.



Your HSB will do well on AQMX 600 � I would not feed catfish food to HSB.
I love HSB � a hoot on a fly rod and good table fare as well.
Good luck !

Nice fish George !!!

I think I remember someone posting here about a year or 2 ago about HSB reproducing in their pond. That could be the only reason why they had a few small ones. Who it was, I can't remember.

Thanks for all the advice. I would assume I would wait until spring to put in the shiners and BG. I will switch over to 600, sounds expensive to feed that to the BG
When do you stop feeding the LMB and HSB?? Or do you feed in the winter in Upper SC?? I have ordered some large pellet Purina Bass feed
Thanks again

Wayne, welcome to the forum. Before I say what I'm going to say, I want you to know, I do not work for, or sell Purina products.That said......I started feeding AM500 and AM600 this summer. When figuring dollars spent on this higher end food, it can take you back a bit. If you have the funds to do it, believe me, you will not be sorry. Your bluegill will grow very impressively. 32% catfish feed runs about half price what I give for the Aquamax. As I've stated elsewhere, I'd rather feed one bag of AM to 2 bags of the CC floater.

When I started my feeding program, I was catching lots and lots of 2-3 inch sunfishes. Now it's most usual to catch mostly sunfishes 5" and larger to 7". All in approx. 4 months.

Esshup and Wayne here is the link you ask about (by Stubby Steve). It is IMO , based on the facts, the 1 in 200,000 event.

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=177647&page=1

If maybe 1 in 200K HSB reproduce in a pond, seems to me those babies would be pretty valuable.

The ratio could be tweaked to be a little better in each generation of offspring. Someone really dedicated could develop a strain of fairly reliable reproducers. Now that would be a HSB I would be interested in!

It is not that 1 in 200,000 will reproduce - rather its a 1 in 200,000 chance that the right conditions will exist to allow it to happen. They are not hard to create in the hatchery with the parents (striped and white bass) and millions are created for aquaculture.

I know for striped bass to reproduce the water has to be more salty than a normal freshwater pond or lake.

It's a funny thing I just saw this thread. About 3 days ago, Steve came to work and told me he found another HSB fingerling (I'm learning!). He's been cleaning leaves out of the pond daily and I think that's when he netted one. It was the very first week of Nov. a few years ago when we drained the pond and found all those babies. Same time seeing them this year! Over the past few years we've caught HSB that are much smaller than any we've ever stocked. So, we are assuming at least some of the babies are growing well!

Very well said and with an economy of words.

Thanks Sniper. Stubby has the 1 in 200,000 right conditions. Stubby also has some good bait pellets. This summer I caught 25 near 1 lb CNBG on 1 pellet. That was all I wanted to harvest or I probably could have caught twice that many on 1 pellet. I would guess that one pack of 20 pellets would catch as many BG as 1000 crickets.

ewest, I agree. Those things are great!