Originally Posted By: CJBS2003
I would say the deeper the better with night time only aeration. Keeping water temps in the mid to upper 70's and DO in the 6 ppm range would keep the stress down. Obviously some ponds are are just too small and shallow to keep the temps that cool. There is a reason the private pond Texas record is so low...

If your truly going for trophy HSB I'd keep stocking rates low. 20-40 or so per acre depending on overall circumstances. Supplemental feeding is good but can lead to too much eutrophication and lower DO. So be careful... I would also build a healthy forage fish base of GSH and in bigger southern waters tshad. Once you are getting a fair number of HSB in the 8+ pound range gshad can be considered. However just like with LMB, make sure you have plentiful larger HSB to effectively prey on the gshad. It takes a much larger HSB to have the mouth size to swallow a big shad.

BG are NOT a good HSB forage. Shiners and shad are... In larger southern waters I would also look at silversides as a forage option. The inland silverside is utilized heavily by HSB and pure stripers in many southern reservoirs. A few hatcheries sell them. In northern waters if you can source brook silversides, they'd be a winter hardy option as well.


Would adding additional aeration, say additional diffusers, larger aerator, offset the DO needs during hot weather?

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