On Overton's website, it says that the 6-8 inch fish are available, but they are feed-trained. I can certainly call and ask though.
Bill, I looked at that same article last night and, referencing the bass, read that they'd prefer real prey over pellets. I'm assuming that by 6-8 inches they've learned to eat pellets well and they'll retain that behavior for a long time, but can't I expect them to still effectively prey on the GSF and BG?
I have been spending some time the last few months trying to get my arms around the "pellet trained fish do not do well on natural forage," statements.
Here is a thread I just started that you might find useful:
FWIW my answer to your question is, with what I've learned so far, IMO I would go ahead and stock the 6 to 8 inch pellet trained LMB.
My rationale:
1)You feed pellets to your GSF and BG already so the LMB will not starve if they don't immediately attack the natural forage.
2) You have an abundance of appropriate forage with the smaller GSF and BG to support 6 to 8 inch LMB
3) There is little/no competition from existing "wild" LMB in your BOW although you probably have large enough GSF to compete in the beginning.
I still believe non-pellet trained LMB would be best in your situation where you are looking for a predator to cull smaller GSF to get you that trophy but, IMO, you have an excellent chance of achieving a good result with the pellet trained ones and their offspring.
I am not a pro, just my 1 cent....
Bill D.
Last edited by Bill D.; 01/22/1709:21 PM. Reason: Clarification
I made the trip to Buffalo today and picked up 40 6-8 inch lmb, as recommended earlier in this thread. I was very impressed with the setup Mr. Overton has, and the quality of his fish appears to be excellent. There was one mortality from shipping, but I'm thrilled considering they were in the bag for four hours.
I also bought 16 blue catfish, thinking that even though they will compete with my green sunfish for feed, they will also prey on smaller fish. I believe that right now these smaller fish compete much more with the potential trophy fish than blue catfish until they reach larger sizes (5+ lbs?), at which point the catfish will be great fishing to try and remove.
I realize that these catfish have the potential to really do some damage on my stocker fish population later, but this is at least two years down the road assuming a growth rate of 2 1/2 lbs per year. At this point some stockers will begin to die due to angling mortality and old age anyways. The goal would still be to remove as many of these catfish as possible before they are large enough to eat the largest GSF.
I hope that by the end of this summer before I leave for college, the broodfish in my aquaponics system will reach 8 inches, eventually replacing some of the fish from the original stocking that die or are eaten.