possible fish hatchery - a question
 

This is an informal survey of sorts. I'm talking with a man I know who has some land and is considering starting a fish hatchery. My question is, if you had a pond, and you were looking to buy largemouth to stock into it, would you rather have northern-strain bass which have been proven in studies to hit lures better than Florida-strain (or F-1's, the cross between Floridas and northerns), or Florida-strain that don't hit lures well but get much bigger on average? Some of you probably know that Shellcracker Lake at Williamsport has Florida-strain largemouth in it.

I'd rather catch fish!

Most of the time, they don't keep what comes out of a pond anyway.

Cost being equal, IMO, most think that they want a trophy pond. Reality is most would better served with northern strain (as owners tend to not want to do the heavy management needed for a true trophy pond).

x2

No doubt that a trophy bass pond takes far more work - just as a trophy bluegill pond does - than a pond managed for middle-of-the-road goals (or one not managed at all). I have talked to several pond and lake owners over the past few years who have F-1's, and in some cases very large ones, but are frustrated because they rarely are able to catch them. But the other side of the coin is, the top fish hatchery in Texas specializes in pure Floridas that have been selectively bred for fourteen years and produced a fifteen-pound bass three years ago, and they seem to have a lot of demand for those fish even though the price on them is exorbitant.

I've been leaning toward the northern-strain simply because most bass fishermen want to use lures, and the Floridas can be pretty humbling to that approach.

Can the F1's thrive here in small ponds that may freeze over the winter? I understand in lakes but I would think the freeze or extreme cold would be a problem. My uncle has a pond in very southern MS and has huge FL strains in but but its a large pond and it rarely if ever freezes.

We are currently in the process of purchasing a piece of land in college grove with a large 5 acres or so pond on it. I think Im in the middle and want the hybrids. I've always found pond bass easier to catch anyways.

What other species (crappie or bluegill) do you put in there for the bass to feed on??

Backdoc, F-1s definitely thrive in our area - I have stocked them in several ponds and they get huge. Under the right conditions they can grow to ten pounds in three years.

For forage, I stock coppernose bluegill as the base, and feed them supplementally so they spawn more and grow faster to ideal forage sizes. Then I stock golden shiners and, depending on pond size, threadfin shad. A five-acre pond is big enough for threadfin, and they make a big difference if you don't mind the fact that when we have rough winters like we have had lately you'll probably have to re-stock them the following spring. Tilapia are also good to stock for extra forage but of course they have to be re-stocked every year since they're tropical and kick the bucket when the water temps get into the forties.

I would not recommend stocking crappie into a pond you want to manage for big bass as they compete with the bass for food. There is a way to manage smaller ponds now specifically for crappie, but if you're after big bass, I would skip them.

Large Gizzard Shad. That is what trophy bass eat. I have a 2 acre pond with trophy bass in it. I stock a thousand Gizzards in there through out the year. If you can get 12"+ Gizzards they may take hold and reproduce in the pond and not need to be restocked. Threadfin do work but a good population of bass can eat them up quick. Plus like stated cold winters can wipe them out.

Gizzard shad can work under the right circumstances. More often, however, they hurt the fishery rather than help it. They can grow to 18", bigger than any bass can eat. I just finished draining a five-acre pond that had hundreds of gizzard shad over 12" - and not a single one small enough for the bass in the pond to eat. The biggest bass in the pond was three pounds.

If it were my pond I would like a happy medium. A pond that grew big bass, but could catch on artificials. Florida/Northern strain

Keep the responses coming, guys, this is very helpful!

Im with ya on that one...if ya cant catch em on typical baits, you just invested alot of time and money into an aquarium.

Jeremy, when you say Florida/northern strain, are you saying you would want F-1s, which are a cross between Florida- and northern-strain and hit lures better than Floridas but not as well as northerns, or are you saying you would want to stock some each of Floridas and northerns? Just wanting to make sure I understand exactly your preference/vote.

If you were to put in both Florida strain and northern strain in a pond, would they naturally cross breed eventually and you would end up with F1s anyways? Just curious.

Yes, they would cross-breed. Some pond owners stock that way intentionally. You likely would not get as many F-1s that way, as fish of a specific sub-species have been observed at times to prefer others of their strain when bedding; but there definitely would be some intermingling.