Originally posted by GTS:
So has anybody stocked HSB in the southern united states with sucess? ... are there any special things I must do to prepare the lake? Deepwater? Aeration? What type of forage do they need?
GTS,
First question, yes several of us in Texas have successfully stocked, raised, and harvested HSB. I'm one of them and will use my experience to try to answer your other questions and then address a concern which you touched on.
Deepwater? HSB prefer open water. As you know, their predecesors were open salt water predators and they do hang out in the deeper open waters of my pond. They prefer to ambush their forage in open water. They are a very fast swimming fish, in my judgement, much faster than LMB and they can best use this speed to their advantage in open water. If you have large open areas of water, your 8 foot depth should be fine, IMHO.
Aeration? Yes, I have aeration and I do believe it is very important with HSB, particularly in summer temps, to keep the DO as high as possible. More on temps later.
Forage? I have threadfin shad, gizzard shad, Tilapia, Gambusia, Fatheads and BG. Of these, the Tilapia, BG and gizzards contribute the most to the HSB, I believe. In a separate post, I cautioned you on overwintering Tilapia effects on LMB fry, buy of course, on HSB, you don't have to worry about that. I have witnessed HSB literally slaughter dozens (hundreds?) of Tilapia as the Tilapia approached death in the cooler temps, so I know they eat Tilapia. Much has been written about their appetite for gizzzard shad. I suspect they don't eat as many BG as long as shad and/or Tilapia are readily available.
The concern...summer temps. My concern would not be about the absolute value of the summer temps...we get as high or even higher water temps in East Texas as you do in central Florida. The temps are not a problem as long as DO is sufficient. The problem, or really concern is how you plan to utilize the HSB.
Let me explain...in my pond HSB are a "put and take" operation. I have definitely noticed that in summer when caught the HSB react very negatively to the stress. I do use fly fishing equipment and that contributes to the stress. The HSB fights with the heart of a champion. They never quit, unlike LMB. That's good of course, but in the summer on fly fishing equipment the HSB may very well not survive being caught. If you plan "catch and release", then you need to be careful about your tackle and not over stressing these wonderful fish. In my estimation, they fight so hard they will literally kill themselves when hooked. For me, except when I accidently hook one, it isn't a problem, because I'm "put and take". I do think it is a concern for "catch and release". I would be very interested in others chiming in with their thoughts on HSB vulnerability in high temps to survival after being hooked and released.
GTS, I've tried to address your questions but have been a bit long winded. I hope this information is useful to you. I love HSB, think they are just a terrific pond fish, and wish you the best with them if you decide to go that direction.
p.s. now is the best time to decide when your pond is free of large predators, you can stock small, cheap HSB instead of the larger more expensive versions which are required to survive LMB predation.
p.s.s if this response is also deleted that's it for me...it just takes too much time to have your post deleted. I'll go elsewhere.