Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Stocking HSB in 100 acre lake with good LMB fishin

jdfish, welcome to Pond Boss, and we're glad you found us.

Wow, 100 acres! Crazy.

I'm not an expert, however, there are many here from TX and all over who can give more insight.

A few thoughts (and remember, it all depends on your goals!):
1) LMB and HSB do seem to live together well from my limited experience.
2) I don't think pellet feeding is an absolute necessity for HSB to thrive, but it certainly does help. HSB will eat any other kind of fish they can fit into their mouths in my experience.
3) As you indicated, it is said that HSB are more of an open water fish. Assuming that, they could impact your TFS population, and that should be considered
4) Any impacts can be minimized by the number of HSB that you stock. For 100 acres, it depends on how much you want to catch HSB to determine the stocking numbers. I would start low as you can always add more. The HSB don't spawn, so you can control their numbers. If you find them, and catch one, you can usually catch many, many more.
5) You would need to stock larger HSB, which are readily available, in order to minimize predation of HSB by the big 'ole LMBs.

Can anyone else give some input here?

Again, welcome aboard and hang tight. More to follow, I'm sure.