Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Hbg first

I'm not an expert and have only been managing my pond less than three years. So take what I say with a grain of salt.

But something in my minds eye is that HBG have a fairly large mouth (they inherit that from the GSF genes). So if you stock HBG and feed them, in a year you are going to have 6" or 7" fish with a mouth big enough to eat any 1-2" BG you are talking about stocking later. So if you do as you are talking, you would need to buy advanced size BG for stocking the second year. (or else the BG you stock most may become an expensive snack for your HBG) HBG are VERY aggressive fish (a good thing - makes them easy to catch and hard fighters)

So my opinion is to not do it that way.

If you want both HBG and BG, stock them both at the same time.

I like HBG. I did not intentionally stock any, but in the 1500 original BG stockers, about 40-50 ended up being HBG. They were the fastest growing and easiest catching fish in the pond.

So from my perspective, in that size pond, I would likely only stock HBG and forget the BG. But if you want BG, stock a lower number and stock them at the same time as the HBG.

My non-expert opinion only.

Sprkplug is the HBG guy on this forum. I'm sure he will weigh in with some good advice.