I'm hoping this isn't a hijack of this thread. Hopefully, it should add to the discussion of HBG vs. BG.

I'm at a serious crossroads in my thinking and planning for the next few weeks. As many know, Lynda and I are going to be putting our place up for sale sometime this calendar year.

I have about a 1/3 acre "put-and-take" pond of HBG, HSB, some RES, CC, one very pretty koi about 18 inches, and one very healthy LMB that was put in at about 4-5 inches, and is now about 15-18 inches.

Because we'll be selling the place, I'm not sure what to do with this pond regarding BG vs. HBG. Normally at this time of year I'd stock another 25 4-7 inch CC, about fifteen 8-10 inch HSB, and I'd put about 100 HBG into a cage or my secondary grow-out pond to grow to at least 5-6 inches before releasing them into the general population.

The HBG grow very fast during the first one or two seasons. They truly cause feeding frenzies when the feeders go off. They are incredible fun. We harvest all we catch over about 9 inches. Most of those have been in the pond for two years. I love them because they don't get hook shy and because they grow so fast in the first couple of years. Then they seem to grow about the same as regular bluegill -- but the regular bluegill are nowhere as near as feisty. This is all just from observation, and nothing scientific.

I have two land-locked brood/grow-out ponds that are odd-shaped. I'd say they each have about 200-300 square feet of surface area, with maximum depths of four feet. They have flat bottoms can be drawn down for seining.

Earlier this season, I put a total mix of about a fifteen fish that include some RES, BG, and several mutt fish that are 2nd or 3rd generation HBG into one of the grow-out ponds. It is just kind of a crazy experiment. Assuming they spawn, I'm not sure what I will do with the final product.

But, I don't really know what to do with the put-and-take pond. I have no idea of what kind of people might buy our place. I don't want to ruin a great fun pond for them, if they are pond people. If they aren't pond people, should I leave them with a second pond good for reasonable LMB/BG/RES/CC?

If so, I would add a bunch of regular BG and a reasonable ratio of LMB to the mix. I wouldn't add HSB or any more CC.

My 0.7 acre pond is already a decent LMB/BG pond.

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