Hi Mark,
I saw your post shortly before leaving town and thought some of the pros would answer your question.

You guessed it � gone fishin�.
I fished some of your home state waters � the Hiwassee River right in the heart of the Cherokee national Forest � beautiful country and quite an experience for a flatlander.
Caught lots of rainbow trout on wet flies in the morning and dry flies in the afternoon.

Returned yesterday and my first priority was to check on our baby hybrids that we stocked 4 weeks ago.

I can only tell you what I have learned from my research and from the professionals and pond owner members of this forum. They have been very helpful on my ongoing hybrid striper project. It is much appreciated!

First of all, I was advised to stock 25 � 30, � to 1# hybrid stripers/acre but could not find a supplier. I was worried about predation of fingerlings, but Greg Grimes, a Georgia fisheries biologist and PB contributor, advised stocking 200-400 fingerlings/acre to avoid predation.

After locating a supplier, he tried and failed to find 8 � 10 inch stockers, and staying on the conservative side, we decided to stock 100, 4-6 inch fingerlings, and restock another 100 in the spring.

My supplier advised against this plan and recommended adding another 100 as soon as he could find them, because the original stockers would feast on the springtime fingerlings.

Bill Cody has been very helpful in advising aeration and feeding advise and it is most appreciated. We now have bottom diffuser aeration and automatic feeding Aquamax 500 feed at the present time. We will go Aqmx 600 this spring � or maybe a mix of the two?

As far as I know, we are the only pond owners in our N.E. Texas area stocking hybrid stripers, so it has been an interesting learning experience.

I fly fish for striped bass on Lake Texoma and they are tackle busters!
I look forward to raising them in our pond.

Hope this helps,
George Glazener