50 RES & 25 YP in the fall & hand feed. I want to take a page from Augie's book & see if I can get the RES pellet trained.
3) stock 10 or so SMB that fall, along with 5? HSB as well?
Don't wait until fall to stock the RES if you're going to attempt pellet training. Buy them as fingerlings June/July timeframe. You'll want a small
pellet for this - Optimal Starter #3 is good - call them and see if you can get a 10lb bucket. A 40lb bag will go rancid before you can use it up.
If you get the pond done before spring go ahead and start the RES next summer. If your minnow population is good by the end of summer put
the YP in Oct/Nov. If you can source some advanced (8"-12") YP they should pull off a spawn spring of '23. Then you could add your SMB/HSB
fall of '23, but would be better to hold off until fall of '24. If you can't find advanced stocker YP I would definitely hold off adding the bass until '24.
If you feed a quality pellet, the original stocker sunfish should be hitting 8"+ by the time they're a year old. The YP will also take to pellets, so
you ought to see very nice growth out of them as well.
