jpsdad - I fully agree with it would be good to pair HSB with something else as a "bug" consumer and possibly reproduce enough to provide some added forage fish.
Apparently I made my "HSB Only" post TOO lengthy. Actually truth be known, if one really "knows their stuff" a short article could be written about each one of my HSB items that I posted above (A - CC.). FYI - I have edited my 'HSB Only' post above at least 6 times since it was created.
Quick readers can easily forget specific items in a lenghty post. That is why Bob Lusk likes to keep his Pond Boss magazine articles relatively short. Although my philosophy is - 'lengthy' is better IMO,, as one can easily go back and review the details of "lengthy" as homework and refreshing their memory and info. IMO one really needs to read long posts several times and at different times to refresh one's memory about all the benefits of any topic and using mainly HSB by themselves or with possibly selectively chosen other fish for stocking in a mainly swimming pond that can also serve as a very good quality fishery. I do these same similar pond stocking suggestions frequently to new pond owners in my region who want their new pond for goals of aesthetics, swimming, domestic house water usage, and only very limited angling. I have several local pond owners who stocked their pond with only smallmouth bass (SMB). Those fisheries thrive.
Note above in my HSB lengthy post the items that I singled out as noted below, it included several items that suggested the option of adding other fish to the pond to stay with the intended goals of the owners Jim & Jo and anyone else wanting good pond conditions for swimming with some occassionally good angling.
Items:
D. They (HSB) could thrive with just redear sunfish (RES) as a forage fish. Learn all the Pros and Cons of RES.
Z. They (HSB) are not the best predator to use with reproducing sunfish(BG), although I have seen them also thrive in a pond with standard hybrid BG and or yellow perch (YP) or redear sunfish (RES). Additionally,,, IMO SBS is now another good option to use with HSB.
AA. They (HSB) should grow well to sizes larger than 13"-14" stocked with golden shiners (GSH) as a forage fish. Add or remove HSB to obtain a desired self perpetuating GSH population. GSH can sometimes live 6-8 years. Thus with good and careful HSB management the largest GSH of 8"-10" long will eventually die of old age and leave behind smaller individuals. This assumes the HSB population has the correct size classes to heavily crop the 6" shiners and the numbers of the largest GSH coming into the fishery are minimized. Learn about "ladder stocking".
BB. If one first starts the pond stocking with just HSB other fish species such as BG, RES, HBG, YP can later be added whenever desired providing the new fish are big enough to avoid predation by the HSB. The forum has a thread that provides the mouth gape of HSB so the best size of forage fish can be paired with the current body lehgths of HSB depending on one's goals for adding the new fish specie.
Also make note that I, near the end, I mentioned adding only male bluegills. Just several male only BG are capable of each year eating thousands of bugs, and invertebrates. However with male only BG, no reproduction and recruitment of small forage type fishes will occur. Another option for adding fish as "bug" consumers, the pond owner can each year buy some shiners or forage minnows. We know of many, many pond owners each year who buy minnows to feed the "bass". Those bait fish will comsume a lot of small invertebrates before they become fish food.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 12/14/25 04:34 PM. Reason: clean up edits & new items
