Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait Tilapia or Threadfin Shad

Pinetar, TFS MIGHT survive a few years, or die the first winter. That is a crap shoot. TFS also have to spawn often, and have very fertile blooms to provide forage. Tilapia WILL die each year, but if I had to guess, Tilapia would produce 5-10 times the annual forage TFS will. Given your location, you might be able to stock more Tilapia than you think. TFS will cost you 1200-1500 per "load" and that "load" may be as little as 50 pounds, or as much as 150 pounds of TFS. 100 pounds of brooder Tilapia will produce well over 1000 pounds of fast growing forage for all size LMB. I doubt 100 pounds of fully gravid TFS would produce even 400# of forage in a year, and be mostly feeding unwanted smaller LMB until, and unless TFS establish well.

Tilapia fry/fingerlings become the primary forage for both CNBG and LMB, so after the fall die off, you will have far more CNBG YOY to take up the forage slack over the winter. Win, Win, Wins with Tilapia as a forage producer over TFS.

I'd suggest culling any LMB that is under a 85-90 WR. At 78, you've already lost considerable growth potential from those fish.