BIll,

Thank you again for the information. I do have a couple of follow up questions/statements.

I searched the forum looking for a post that would assist me with converting average size of fish and number of fish to pounds, but was unable to find anything. I did of course look at the RW Post in the FAQ, however I cant seem to find anything that relates to Bait Fish. You mentioned in your post to stock 4-7 lbs per acre of GSH and I want to try to get an idea of how many fish that actually is.

Along those same lines, is there a post or thread that discusses the reputable fisheries to source fish from in various states/regions? My question is two fold. One, I reached out to my current fish stocker about the Northern Crawfish as well as to get more RES and he said he would not have any Crawfish until a month or 2 and did not have an abundant number of RES available. I want to find a company locally (Central Kansas near Hays and Great Bend) to get these into the water at the pond while it is still too cold for the fish to spawn to try and take advantage of a spawn this year. The 2nd reason is that this forum has put the fear of God into me about properly selecting the 25-30 LMB I am going to stock this spring. I know my current guy of course has LMB, but I dont know his level of expertise on making sure I get 8-10in Jumpers that specifically are about a year old and not from a prior batch. Plus of course I will stock a few HSB this fall as well. As mentioned, I only get one shot to get it right and I want to start doing my research so I am prepared for this Fall.

Also, is there a recommended fish scale to use to determine RW of the fish? I was out in Wichita this weekend and stopped by Bass Pro, however I am concerned that the scale they sell off the shelf is designed to weight much larger bass and other fish then I will have in my pond initially. I want to begin measuring RW of both Bass and BG starting next spring so I would like to find a scale that has a wide enough measurement range to cover the smaller bass and BG as well as the adult sized ones.

As I mentioned above, I like the idea of diversifying the forage base. I think adding the GSH as well as RES and GSH is a great idea to do immediately. It is just a matter of finding the proper source.

Thanks as usual.