Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Natural balance

DC - If you desire a little more diversity, in my opinion HSB would be better than channel cats primarily because c.cats could spawn and young could survive in your pond due to abundant habitat. Less risk with HSB compared to c.cats. You have more control of the fishery with a non-spawning predator such as HSB. You could try a few HSB as a bonus fish, unles you have a strong desire to clean&eat channel cafish. If you do, then you should be eating the larger bullheads; taste and texture is similar to c.cats.

HSB have been found in some studies to have only a low or moderate competitive impact on LMB. But since you do not have a forage fish that lives primarily in open water the HSB will eat primarily the same food items that would have been eaten by some of the LMB, so at least some competition for natural food items between the two will occur. As worst case, I would plan to lose one LMB in the future for every HSB that you stock. With a loss of each LMB, that will mean you will likely see a few more bullheads survive since their habitat or niche is commonly similar to that of LMB. HSB in your pond will no doubt eat some LMB fingerlings that frequent the open water or its edges. HSB are noticably faster swimmers than LMB. Implementing a feeding program will reduce the HSB competition with LMB.

PS. You should be keeping track of the condition factors and sizes of LMB that you catch because you are managing as catch&release. This form of management without occasional harvest of appropriate sized LMB usually results in an over abundant and skinny population of LMB. You want to be aware of this and try to avoid it from happening.