Thought I might chime in on this one, too. Big fish farms raise millions of fish, literally. It's not in their best interest to keep big numbers of fish over the long haul. Grow them, move them, cash the check, pay the feed bill and hired help. It's good business to move fish fast. They can't benefit by selling stunted fish. Reputation is critical to longevity in this business, as any business. Try as they might, the big fish farmers do their best to supply a steady market...mostly re-sellers. Most of the big fish farms sell to the smaller farms. Small farms, if they have much business at all, cannot keep up the pace of sales with their own fish, all year long. So, don't worry too much about buying "stunted" fish, except fingerling bass in the months of Jan-April. It's a common practice of fish farmers to get as much production as possible from their ponds, and that often means big numbers of small fish early spring through late fall.
Meadowlark, there are possibly three fundamental reasons you lost your hybrid striped bass. Personally, I suspect number three. One, mishandling in the beginning. If those fish were not handled delicately, hauled efficiently, tempered and introduced into the pond properly, they can die in less than a week. Two, "habitat" issues. (We talked about that at D/FW). Shallow, hot-tub hot bath water is not good for hybrid stripers. But, the most obvious one to me is a single, solitary, lonely, hungry three pound largemouth bass with a smug smile on his bucket-shaped face.
