If you are wanting to add diversity to your pond or lake Hybrid Striped Bass (AKA Palmetto Bass, Sunshine Bass, or Hybrid Stripers) can be a great option. They are a fast growing and hard fighting, open water predator that are a lot of fun for all ages to catch on a rod and reel. They have an aggressive nature and will eat many varieties of lures such as topwaters, spinners, and soft plastics.
Typically we recommend stocking hybrid stripers at a rate of approximately 200 per acre. With an established feeding regime, utilizing a 45% protein pelleted fish food, individuals can grow upwards of 12 inches in their first year of life and can easily reach 5 pounds once they get older.
Habitat Requirements
Hybrid Stripers are open water predators who prefer to chase their prey down. They are very strong and fast fish that are most effective in open water situations and love to travel in large schools to help chase down their prey. If you have a pond with little structure, hybrid stripers will do great in it.
Harvesting and Restocking
Hybrid stripers, unlike many hybrids, do remain fertile and have the capacity to reproduce. With that being said, however, any reproduction would be very limited and often will not reproduce successfully in your pond. This is important to keep that in mind when stocking and harvesting them. Because hybrid striped bass do not reproduce, restocking will be required periodically to replenish those taken out of the population in order to maintain a sufficient population. Once they get around the 5 pound range, you want to start harvesting those fish so that they don’t just die in your pond. These fish can also be great to eat, so once you start catching and cooking them up, you should consider restocking them.
Food requirements
As mentioned before, these fish have excellent growth rates when they are fed a 45% protein floating fish feed. Although this is the best way to get them to grow faster they are much like any other predatory fish and will eat anything that they can fit into their mouth. But if they are fed a 45% protein feed along with the minnows and bluegill present in your pond, this will help to alleviate predation pressure off of your baitfish in the pond, thus leaving more food for your bass to eat.
So if you are looking for a great way to add diversity to your pond and fishing experience, you should consider stocking some hybrid stripers. They are fast growing and hard fighting fish that can add great experiences for you and all that fish your pond!
If you have any questions about stocking hybrid stripers or anything else, give us a call or send us an email at askapro@pondking.com.
Thank you and we will see y’all down at the pond!
