I'm looking for some suggestions on how to stock Threadfins into a lake I just acquired.

- 35 acres, up to 22 feet deep
- healthy population of bass, previously overmanaged (owner took out all bass caught 3 lbs and under), so bass population may be a little low. Bass that have been surveyed are all overweight.
- crappie population is unknown but will be working towards removing as many as possible
- great bluegill and sunfish population
- lots of standing timber in middle of lake with large areas of open water

The biologist suggested stocking threadfins as an additional food source for the bass and to occupy the open water niche to increase carrying capacity of the lake. I want to go about it in the best way possible to establish a long term population the first stocking.

Fish farm is recommending the following options:
option 1) stock 250 adult TFS per acre in March after fertilization and assume that there are plenty to get through spawning a time or two without heavy predation
option 2) stock 500 juvenile TFS per acre in July and hope that they can reproduce a time or two before winter and that they can make it through to the next spring
option 3) stock 10 lbs an acre of tilapia to take the pressure off of the TFS, then stock 500 juvenile TFS per acre in July. This method assumes there will be more TFS that make it through spawning in the warm months.

Does anyone have any advice or knowledge on how these three options would play out in reality?

Last edited by Ryan Darr; 09/28/20 04:06 PM.