Supposedly if you stock pure strain BG into a pond with HBG eventually the pure bluegill become the dominant panfish of the two types. However expect to see some type of HBG at scarse, rare, or occassional density as the fishery ages. I have never done this, so I have no first hand experience with this technique. Other members may have good advice. I've just read about it here on the forum. Recent research that I read indicated that HBG have poor success mating with pure strain BG and produce few if any offspring (Reproductive Isolation Between a Hybrid Sunfish and Its Parental Species. by Brunson & Robinette. 1987. Prog.Fish.Culturist 49:(4) 296-298). The authors did mention that backcrossing success of the HBG could vary in different parts of the US due to origin and genetic history of the parental stock.
So if you can get the HBG significantly reduced and then stock some larger BG you should see improvement. Remember - stocker LMB need to be at least 3 times longer than the HBG you expect them to eat. Do some length measuring of the HBG that you are trapping and catching angling for proper sizes of LMB to stock. I would keep removing HBG until trapping and angling catches only the rare HBG. Then get your stocker LMB. Now is the time to locate the stocker LMB so you know where to go when the time comes. Others may advise about number of larger bass to add in a 1/2 acre. I think that once you get your HBG noticably low, if you initially stock 20 to 30 LMB, that should be enough to maintain a low number of HBG. When you stock the LMB it would be a good time to also add the adult pure strain BG. You may have to look pretty hard to find the proper sizes of stocker LMB and BG. Some Texans here may be able to advise you where to get larger bass in your region.
Note - As an idea of how many F2 HBG you could have in your 1/2 acre pond, the study that I noted above found that in ponds with HBG and no bass there were an average of 866 F2 hybrids per acre.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 04/26/13 09:40 PM.
