Those are a lot of excellent points, ewest.

That is why I believe the "stock" answer of HBGs is the correct choice for stocking a small pond with the goal of quickly and efficiently moving to eating size panfish.

I was trying to speculate that if under certain very specific conditions there was a way to beat that option - but it certainly looks like a difficult option to improve upon.

Downside? The only downside I can think of is that a pond owner would be more likely to get some GSF in with a load of HBG, compared to a load of pure BG. After all, there had to be GSF in the ponds at SOME point to create the HBG.

At what length of stockers do our experts think the average pond owner could hand sort GSF out of HBG?



P.S. Lots of people worry about a few "invasive" fish sneaking through in their stockings. This thread makes me a little less worried about a few GSF in a BG heavy pond.