Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose can smallmouth bass live in east Texas pond?

Tracy - good meeting you at the conference. Per our chats, I strongly encourage you to launch the SMB experiment, and you're getting great stocking strategy advice here by allowing the SMB to gain a foothold prior to stocking LMB. Worst case scenario you can always supplementally stock adult SMB from Texoma to keep the population viable.

Have you considered simply making it a SMB fishery, and see if you truly miss LMB before stocking them? You can turn a SMB fishery around in a hurry by stocking a few LMB...just saying - you can't go back once you start - might be cool to see if you can live without the LMB. Just an idea.

Cody note: HSB would also be a good fish to add in with the SMB since both do well and get along well together even when both are pellet trained.

TJ Note: Can't believe I forgot to suggest - thanks Bill. Tracy consider stocking HSB with SMB and see if you really miss the LMB at all. I own such a fishery and it's an absolute blast, and manage several for clients and they are all very happy with their decisions. If you miss your LMB, walk 1000' in any direction in TX and you can probably fish to your heart's content for all the LMB you can handle. If you wanted a truly unique piece of Canada in TX, you could also experiment with other northern species, like WE and YP. Both would require supplemental stocking to keep populations viable, but YP aren't expensive and WE numbers wouldn't likely be too high. I believe Sauger or even the Saugeye may be more tolerant of higher water temps, just not certain of their availability commercially. You could also consider utilizing Muskie in your fishery...they are the most tolerant large Esox species of warm water IIRC and might make it down there, you know, as a "destroying your light tackle drag screaming" surprise. If you're unhappy, stock some CNBG and LMB and revert your fishery to a more traditional TX fishery.