Originally posted by GW:
Maybe the way to approach this is more like a trophy LMB strategy with the GSF filling the basses role and a traditional or non-traditional selection of very small forage fish. These could be gambusia or maybe some of the super small sunfish.
I'd like to go into this idea further because there is a lot of information about raising trophy LMB using smaller sunfish as a forage base.
To clarify about the small sunfish I mentioned above I'm thinking of species that don't get more that a few inches long. In other words, at their maximum size they would still represent forage for mature GSF. I would exclude any fish that might cross breed with the GSF.
I'm picturing my 1/2 acre pond with several species of small indigenous fish, none of which grow beyond a few inches, and GSF playing the role of apex predator.
The more I think about it the more I'm beginning to believe that GSF behave much like LMB. They are aggressive ambush hunters and older fish are territorial about feeding ground. LMB-like, right? Their body shape is really more like a LMB than a BG to my eye.
If you manage for trophy LMB in a small pond isn't a key issue controlling their numbers? I assume that a pond this size couldn't support many 10lb + fish. Here's where a big advantage of GSF comes into play. Using the same ratio of biomass/water volume you could have 10 good size GSF for every 10lb LMB you don't have. We are fortunate because we will have the 5 acre pond for trophy LMB.
Other advantages over LMB are that GSF are super tolerant of bad water conditions including low DO, high temps (over 100 degrees F), and toxic chemicals to name a few. They don't seem as likely to become hook shy as LMB, partly because there would be 10 X more individual fish than the same total weight of LMB.
Like any well fed apex fish I know they would need aggressive population control. What about regular trapping/transfer of small and medium GSF to the larger trophy bass pond? I would also move large females as recommended by Dr Bruce, which is also beneficial because male GSF get larger. Essentially the Greenie pond might serve as forage production for the LMB pond.
This article got me excited about the different indigenous fish I might collect for this pond:
http://www.nanfa.org/articles/acgeorgia.shtml Here are some of the fish that guy collected in road side waters in my area:
Banded Sunfish Pirate Perch Sharpfin Chubsucker Bayou Topminnow Grass Pickerel Brook Silverside Pygmy Sunfish Lemon Killifish Fliers Okay, I know I'm getting carried away, but that article got me excited about what I might do with my little pond. When I was a kid all I did on warm days was play in creeks and ponds. I can't wait to get back at it.
