Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Stocking Floridas

I spoke to Overtons last year about buying some Floridas - they said to wait until May to do so.

My pond is established with tons of bait fish. I have native bass of various sizes up to 4 lbs. I am in Central Texas

Has anyone done this and what were your results? Thanks

My experience wasn't great with Fla LMB, but that's mostly because my pond is infertile & I didn't get lots of forage fish reproduction before introducing the bass.

I suspect that if we keep having winters like the last one, with temps down to 10F where I live, F1 or northern LMB might do better than pure Fla anyway.

Now that I have added some 1.5 to 2 lb northern feed trained LMB, I'm loving their aggressiveness. They also help reduce the stunted bass population. While I like 10 lb plus lunkers as much as anybody, the truth is that a 4 lb bass that hits lures is better than a 12 lb bass that won't hit anything.

Yea they say that if the Florida strain is getting all the food it wants and has all the forage it wants it is a very difficult fish to catch. The Florida bass in the wild are a little easier to catch bc being in the wild they go thru periods of time with no food and get a little more opportunistic hitting new things. But if they are completely content and have all the food they need like a well managed pond should be they are very hard to catch. It seems like a lot of ppl in the south like to mix it up. Have some pure Florida stain, have some northern strains, and some even seek out F1 hybrids which have a mix of both genetics. The advantage to doing that is the genetics that thrive the most in your pond will succeed and continue to breed. If those happen to be more of the Florida stain genetics they will probably get really large but be a little more difficult to catch. But hey what makes a trophy a trophy is what you had to go through to get it!

Todd has some excellent Florida's. I don't believe there are any better ones out there. And if you want big lmb then you have to have Florida's. But, there has to be enough food(forage) for them to grow.

Yes but you have to habituate any new small fish put into a pond with existing adult predators. Lots here on the subject.

Since 90 percent of my Fla LMB were stunted, 8 inches or less, I had 12 - 13 inch feed trained N LMB stocked. Benefit: They ate some of the smaller abundant Fla LMB, they were too big for all but the very largest Fla LMB to eat, and they were past the biological roadblock that kept most LMB from growing past 8 inches.

That will work. Just a heads up for folks that stocking 2-3 in fish into water with adult predators is usually not productive. I also tend to stock advanced size fish to avoid the problem. Not much predation on 12 in LMB added to ponds.

so to ask again - I have native bass in my pond with tons of bait fish - if I mix some Floridas or northern bass in will the native bass still thrive? I want big fish but I want to be able to catch them at times.

Where do I find and buy northern bass? I would only stock larger bass - not small ones

Tim, your native fish are most likely northern strain, unless you've caught several 10lb plus lunkers! If northern, then you'd want to add either F1 hybrids or pure Fla strain.

I got both my pure Fla LMB and northern feed trained LMB from Overtons and have had no problems with what they stocked. My issues came from a lack of fertility & forage, which is 100 percent my fault.

If I were in your shoes, I'd most likely go with pure Fla LMB rather than F1, just because pure Fla LMB will cross with what you have to make excellent F1 hybrids, rather than less desirable F2 hybrids you'd get from crossing with F1.

awesome thanks

Eric that's exactly after trial and error where I arrived. First couple of years I stocked lots of small fish...of which many probably got eaten...expensive fish food!..now I spend the same money....but only stock 10-12 inch fish...who have a much better chance of not getting eaten. Less fish, but much better survival rate. Less is More!

overtons website shows they are out of stock - any ideas on where else to find them?

Mr. Pondboss Bob Lusk might have some ideas! In fact, now that I think about it, I got the original Fla LMB through his efforts.

Correction: He recommended F1 bass, but I ended up going with Fla LMB.

overtons responded - they will have small Floridas in June and July but nothing larger. They said they could get some FLoridas 10-14 inches but minimum of 100 at $25 per fish. I think that is too many for an acre and a half pond

If Bob Lusk can't help, you might consider talking to local folks who have Fla LMB already. Maybe you could buy some from them, or convince them to give you some if they are trying to control the numbers.