Yesterday, while thumbing though a January/March issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife publication “Outdoor Magazine of Texas”, I discovered an interesting pond management article.
What caught my eye on the double photo page were three large fish pictures – no not a Largemouth Bass, but a photo of a couple of cute kids holding a big stringer of Blue gills, couple of guys, one holding a big Grass Carp, and a beautiful young lady holding a huge………..
HYBRID STRIPED BASS!
The caption reads –
“an increasingly popular stocking option”! I almost fell out of my chair, remembering the day I sat down with some TP&W fisheries biologists to discuss stocking Hybrid Stripers in our new N.E. Texas pond.
I was advised they would not survive in Texas farm ponds.
That must have been somewhere about 2001/2002 IIRC .
Not taking no for an answer, I asked Bob Waldrop of Tyler Fish Farms if he knew of a supplier of HSB and he said he would check for me.
I found Todd Overton’s name on the Internet as a fish vendor - he was a recent TAMU fisheries graduate biologist, still located in College Station. He told me he would help me as soon as he got settled in his newly acquired fish farm in Buffalo Texas.
Waldrop found a wholesale fish supplier who delivered 100 ~4 inch fingerlings.
All of you old time Pb’ers know the rest of the story!
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.ph...ite_id=1#importAfter the mistake of stocking expensive fish food for our LMB, in February 2004 we decided to build a “forage/grow out” pond. After a healthy population of CNBG and FHM forage base was established, we contacted Overton and he provided 100 4-6 inch HSB fingerlings, which we grew to 8 inches by early winter.
Overton took it from there, accepting our grow-out success and began his successful Hybrid Striped Bass program.
To date, he has reported several of his customers have caught 10+ lb Hybrid Stripers.
I took a lot of slings and arrows at times but it was worth the effort!
I can now catch a couple or so HSB each trip to our pond – they will outfight a LMB many times over – greatest freshwater fish that swims IMO!
It’s a “feel good” moment to have the satisfaction of achieving a long-term goal – thanks to Todd Overton and to many of my PondBoss friends who have helped along the way!
George Glazener
