Lots of good points. Maybe Dave Willis will see this and tell us about the HBG at Lake Hendricks.
It seems that HBG used to be considered the be all and do all. Then it swung completely the other way to where we should avoid them completely. I think there is a good middle ground.
In another thread, we are discussing "Keeping things simple". One possibility is a predator only pond. If we can do a predator only (LMB) pond, then the low reproductivity of HBG shouldn't matter. Also, we shouldn't have to worry about hybrid depression as the predator would eat almost all of the HBG offspring.
We have HBG along with northern BG in our 4-acre lake. I've seen HBG on nests many times but have never seen any surviving offspring. I like the color, agression and size of HBG. If I could get HBG large enough to avoid predation, I would stock some every year.
