Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Coppernose or standard bluegill for NE Oklahoma?

I just went through making this same decision. I want BIG bluegill. I made lots of phone calls and spent a lot of time on here. John Stahl at the Byron Fish Hatchery in NW Oklahoma raises coppernose. I live about 20 miles north of Tulsa, at about the same latitude as the Byron Fish Hatchery. He was sure that they would be fine in my pond. He had nothing to gain by telling me this. He was about the only person that seemed confident that they would do well.

Seemed like for every person I talked to that thought they would do well, three would tell me they doubted. I did not like the idea of getting three or four years into it and having a winter like we had in 2010-11. The hatchery I bought my fish from told me they had tried them in the past and suffered significant winter kills. That was enough for me because the hatchery is only 30 miles from me. I went with Hybrids.