Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Hybrid Catfish in a recreational pond.....

After a discussion with TJ last night I think I'm leaning toward growing out and stocking some HBC in my pond next year. I don't really have any particular goals in mind other than attempting to get rid of carp and developing a trophy catfishery. Mostly I'd be doing this out of curiousity.

Presently the pond has some channel cats of varying sizes (up to 8lbs), a gazillion common carp, and a miniscule population of crappie. This fall I plan to add 200 8-10" blue cats. The pond is 18-20 acres and I would grow them out for one season in a grow out pond.

My questions are:
1) Does anyone have experience with them in a recreational pond and do they have the growth advantages in a recreational pond setting (with feeder) that they do in an aquaculture setting?

2) Are they more like a CC or BC in their feeding behavior? In particular, are they extremely piscovorous in nature like the BC?

3) Has anyone had them in a pond long enough to know how big they get? Do they get as large as a BC or top out at a smaller size more like a CC?

Any info on them is appreciated. Thanks.

Corey here's the extent of my knowledge based on previous research on bc hybrids:

They tend to revert more towards bc characteristics than cc meaning they should be more pisciverous in nature.

I think I've read they grow faster than either cc or bc (not sure how-hybrid vigor?) but will not grow as large as bc top end. I'm guessing you'd see them topping out at the 20-25# mark.

The f1 fish aren't sterile, but I believe like the hbcp f2 fish are inferior and will grow slowly rendering them vulnerable to predation and making population management less of an issue with which to contend.

You don't want a herd of fhc in the pond as you'll likely have management issues down the road when the carp are hammered, but after considering the size of your bow and degree of your carp issue I'm starting to rethink fhc as a management strategy. They will take more and larger carp than bc or hbc and if your end game allows for rotenone anyhow, maybe fhc stocking in conjunction with bc and/or hbc would be appropriate. I'm talking maybe 2/3 fish per acre.

What do you think?

I'm glad you chimed in on the FHC issue because I wanted to bring that up last night. I had been planning on getting some large FHC as our friend that you met last night, Jason, has a good source for LARGE ones and at a very reasonable rate. Unfortunately, after reading up on them I have a few concerns... 1) Getting enough to make a large enough difference and 2) them hurting my CC, HBC and BC numbers.

I had read a post by Bob Lusk I believe stating that they are a very territorial fish and often times kill other fish just for the sake of killing rather than eating. I'd hate to put effort into a trophy catfishery establishment and then have a few large FHC ruining my efforts. I think if I go with FHC I need to go all or nothing, as they will hurt my other apex predators (BC and HBC) that I likely can source an endless supply of. Does that make any sense? Maybe I'm not wording it properly.

Edit: I guess ultimately my concern with FHC would be the logistics of getting the numbers I need to make a difference in my carp numbers. I also like the fact that, while BC and HBC aren't the top apex predator that a FHC is, I could also grow them on pellets to a piscovorous size, whereas with FHC I would not be able to support them in that regard.

1-3/ac would be 20-60 - if you go on the low end, 20 should not be enough to impact your fishery negatively IMO. I fished Beaver lake in Plattsmouth many years as a friend lived there. They had good LMB, BCP, WE, and HSB fishing despite having a pretty robust FHC population. Friend caught several 30s, and a couple 50s released. Once the carp population is under control, you can target FHC specifically angling or with jug/limb/trot lines baited with big BH or BG and can probably catch many, if not all the fish. Just some food for thought.

Excellent. That's why I wanted to run it by you last night. Thanks. I'll still plan on the BC and HBC in addition to the FHC. I think this will be a learning process for myself and the board. It should be fun.

Now I just need to come up with a successful method of trapping carp to help the cats out.

Electroshock or gill net I think is your best bet for Carp collection.

I had been leaning toward a gill net for carp but I'm afraid of mortalities to my catfish. After talking to a gentleman at fishnetco I'm leaning more toward a fyke/hoop net. More research is needed on my part I believe at this point. I'm hoping for input on this forum actually.

I know some species of fish are more prone to collect in a fyke net than others. Read reports neither LMB/SMB nor HSB are collected in fyke net, and my experience suggests the same. I have collected WE, YP, BG, RES, and BCP in mine, however. I also read that turtles are often collected - imagine a 20# snapper can make a major mess of things. Scott has some interesting stories regarding extracting them from the net.

Bottom line, I don't know if carp are prone to capture or not...hopefully someone can weigh in on this. Scott?

"I had read a post by Bob Lusk I believe stating that they are a very territorial fish and often times kill other fish just for the sake of killing rather than eating."

True, but with today's underwater video technology, this could be...........................AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!

"Bottom line, I don't know if carp are prone to capture or not...hopefully someone can weigh in on this. "

That's exactly what I'm hoping to get feedback on before I spend 600$ on a net. I've read it works on Asian carp, but I have no idea on CGC (common german carp). Do you have one I could borrow, or know of anyone that would? I love the thought of using a fyke net to cull carp from the pond and monitor catfish growth.

See this # 190

https://srac.tamu.edu/index.cfm/CategoryDetails/whichcategory/3/

Thanks ewest. I hadn't read this before........

"the C×B hybrid is about twice as easy to catch by hook-
and-line as the channel catfish, a trait that has important
implications for fee-fishing and recreational fisheries."

That sure seems to indicate they would be of interest in my pond. And I wonder if its an indication of increased piscivorous diet as compared to a CC.

I read HBC behave more like BC than CC parentage, so that would infer pisciverous nature would apply.