Chuck,
Imlay City is okay to get fish from. Don does have yellow perch, smallmouth bass & walleye if you are interested in them. I am not sure if the Imlay fish are pellet trained or not. Sometimes yes, sometimes no; ask before ordering. Imlay often has larger sized bgill to allow you to more quickly separate male bgill from females. Our May-June article talkes about other ways to get larger male bgill.
A place to reliably get fish pellet trained perch and SMB is Laggis Fish Farm Gobles MI near Kalamazoo 269-628-2056 (no web site that I know of). Dan Laggis always has very good quality fish. Always call to place an order and to make sure he has what you want. Note be careful of his hyb bgill sales pitch.
I see that Spring Valley has good quality high protein fish food (Zeigler) at a better price than Pond Guy and Spring Valley is close to you.
Generally most fish farms supply plastic bags, water and oxygen for transpsorting fish home. You just need several 5 gal buckets or larger cardbord boxes the put each fish bag into. Fish during April and May can travel 4 to 5 hrs with no problem in the trunk or shade. Easily longer if weather is cool and cloudy. If you tell them how far you are traveling, sometimes they will put fewer fish in each bag so they travel better with less stress. Always know what you want before going to a hatchery and don't allow them to sell you extra fish. Always think it over and discuss it with good second opinions before modifying your stocking plan.
Sometimes it is good to buy at least some fish food 5-20 lbs at the hatchery so the fish are used to eating what food they have been raised on.
