Budget is not that much of a factor. It is much easier for me to go with the smaller fish and play the numbers game though. It seems like the math still works out in my favor once i start looking at delivery fees, considering i can pick up the smaller fish. Was just curious as to how many I should buy to compensate for predation/survival rates.
Just remember when you pick them up, how many to put in each transport container. Smaller fish need more O2 than larger fish given the same weight of fish in a given container. i.e. a 20 gal container that has 10 fish @ 1# each needs less O2 than a 20 gal container that has 200 fish that weigh 10# total. Be VERY aware of the water temp in the 10 ac pond vs. the transport water. You want the water to be within 5°F of each other at a maximum, the same water temp is much better. With HSB, I wouldn't change the water temp faster than 5°F per half hour, so plan ahead to make sure that there is plenty of O2 for the fish.
Depending on the size of the predator fish in the pond and the stocked fish, you could see 30% or more predation, and the more comes into play the more stressed the small HSB are. The more stressed they are, the slower they will move and the easier they are caught by the LMB.
In your situation, I'd stock the biggest HSB that were available to minimize predation.
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