Thanks for the growth numbers. One thing I am confused about is the late date in the season I will be getting the fish. She said call back first of June so I would say likely it will be mid June or July before I get the HSB. How much will they grow before winter? I worry a little about winter kill as this small pond is only 8' deep in one small spot in the middle of it. My intention would be to go as late as I could in the fall then try to get at least part of the fish out and transfer to other ponds even if they had not grown terribly big. If I could get them up to 6" or so I think they would have at least a decent chance for many to escape predation. Or is that an issue?
My thinking is that as soon as some of the fish reach about 6" start taking some out to make room for the remaining to grow. Get a bunch out by winter then let the remaining over winter in the forage pond. This would kind of hedge my bets. Would have some fish transferred to larger ponds but would be subject to predation. Would have some fish left to get bigger in the forage pond for later stocking but at a higher risk of winter kill.
I think you should expect a mid-June delivery based on nedoc's thread. This should be plenty of time to get them to 6". Seems like nedoc's ranged a bit with 6" being the largest and most common of his growout. His experience was what I was working with when suggesting a average length of 5 1/2 inches. Because of the FHM, I think your grow out might produce a little better lengths. I think I would move them this fall as you are planning. You might lose some HSB but I don't think many if they have attained a minimum length of 5.5 in. Just a humble opinion, but I think because HSB spawn at lower temperatures than LMB or CC they will be more active than these predators during the winter and difficult for these predators to capture relative to BG.
Last night after posting, I modified a CC grow-out spreadsheet for your grow-out and I will link it below after posting. It is a feeding plan to reach a goal of 6" by Oct 31. The gray squares are inputs that you can change and it is protected by password to prevent accidental deletion or alteration of the formula fields. I have filled these with data that I think will approximately reflect growth that you would observe. Based on NEDOC's experience, this isn't pie in the sky, he's shown one can grow them to 6" in the first year. The plan estimates that you will need 80 lbs of feed but considering the FHM, I think you might get by on only 70. It would work like this ...
For June / July you need 10 lbs of feed sized optimally for 2 1/4 in HSB. For August you need 10 lbs sized optimally for 3 1/2 in HSB. For the remainder you need one 50 lb bag sized optimally for 5" HSB.
Last edited by jpsdad; 03/20/2010:37 AM. Reason: add attachement and clarify additional about attachment ; Corrected October Feed Weight column to sum in pounds
It isn't what we don't know that gives us trouble, it's what we know that ain't so - Will Rogers
