I put some small Rock Bass I caught into my pond over the last two years -maybe 20 of them in a 3-4 acre lake. Is this a fish that I do not want in the pond? Want to have good size SMB and LMB in the pond. Have put some of those in too.

Rock bass are probably not the best forage fish. Not real prolific and will compete pretty heavily with small LMB and SMB. As a bonus fish they could be okay if you are willing to have fewer LMB-SMB and lower recruitment. Don't expect your SMB to produce small ones that result in more adult smallies. Smallies have a very difficult time with in competition with LMB esp in ponds.

It been my experience their spawning requirements are similar to SMB. They rarely spawn well in ponds.

Question: I have what I believe to be warmouth bass in a shallow pond on my place (along with other species). How do they compare with rockbass as a desirable species (size, reproduction, compatability with other species, managemnet, etc.)? If they breed ibn this pond, would SMB also breed?

My stupidity - I thought that a Rock Bass was more like a SMB than a sunfish. Thought it was a predator not a forage fish. If they have issues spawning then it might night impact the pond much with the 20 or so I put in. My pond has been a 3 phase pond with me selling sand to the county each year in exchange for the pond getting bigger. Right now they are finishing off the last phase. Will stock with Hybred BG, LMB and Catfish in the spring.

The Rock Bass have been fun to catch as the canal at my cottage has lots of rocks which the hide in. I do not have any rocks in my pond but will be adding some.

From reading I see that Rock Bass do not get very big like a SMB and LMB can. If I catch any should I get rid of them if I want the LMB and SMB get bigger?

I doubt that 20 or so will impact the fishery much, if at all with LMB in there.

You might need to stock regular BG in there for forage for the LMB. Depending on the numbers of LMB stocked, the HBG won't reproduce enough to feed LMB if the LMB are stocked at the regular rates.

Plus if you don't harvest the LMB in the following years, the LMB will start eating themselves out of house and home without BG in the pond.

There was a great article in this months magazine about harvest.

I have put probably 900 BG in already that I caught from my dock of all different sizes. I know many say do not put fish from another lake in a pond but I wanted to see if they would make it over the Michigan winter which they have. I keep adding size to the pond and the last phase is going on right now. I have been holding off buying fish until it is all done and plan on buying them in Spring. Would it be advised to add some FHM now?

The pond is 15 feet deep at its deepest point but it recently got dropped 6 feet to dig the final phase. I feel it will go up at least 3 feet before the freeze.

I know fish are breeding as there are minnows in the pond. Will have to figure out how to identify what kind of fish they are. I have zero structure in the pond right now but do have some plants and weeds growing for the smaller fish to hide. All the bass I have put in the pond so far (maybe 40) were very small and now I see much larger ones swimming around. Also put in 20 or so perch that were finger length and have caught ones that were twice as long this summer. So it appears the fish are growing good.

I do realize that I will have to harvest fish including bass. Still nothing large enough to harvest.

I thought the reason to stock HBG is that they will get bigger than regular ones?

They don't. They grow faster but have no other advantage.

sigh.

They do have advantages and disadvantages, depending on your goals. I've seen them grow quicker than BG for the first 2 years, then BG catch up and pass them size wise.

They don't produce as many offspring as BG. They are great for a kids fishing pond, their larger mouth lets them eat larger things than BG, including larger hooks and worms.

I'll let Sprkplug fill in the blanks that I left.

Well, since you asked .....

Positive aspects of HBG, as perceived by me:
*They are far less likely to over-reproduce and become stunted when compared to native BG. I believe they should still be stocked together with a predatory species, however.
*As esshup stated, their larger mouths permit them to utilize additional prey items, if such forage is available.
*I find mine not always willing to bite, contrary to widely held beliefs. However, when they're "on", the bite can be hot and heavy.
*They grow faster than native BG initially. I have noticed growth rate slowing down after two years.
*Pound for pound, they are brutes on light tackle, and will put my native BG to shame.
*They will consume more of their own offspring than a native BG will. That's a win-win situation in my book. Less competition, more protein!

Negative aspects:
*They must be restocked by the pond owner as they are removed. A perpetual cash outlay.
*Most folks want a balanced pond, with multiple species present, usually including LMB. These fish will not provide enough forage to grow numbers of Bass to the sizes usually considered desireable.
*They don't grow larger than native BG. True. But can they grow to the SAME size?

Many studies report that native BG will outgrow HBG, as far as ultimate growth potential is concerned. However, several of these studies were conducted in carefully controlled, indoor grow out tanks. Hayward and Wang, found that: "The more rapid growth of Bluegills that continued through fall and into winter in the laboratory, in contrast to the BxG hybrids, would NOT have occurred in ponds at most latitudes due to suboptimal fall/winter growth temperatures."

So, under highly controlled lab conditions it seems probable that BG will outperform HBG. Under the real world conditions that most northern pondmeisters face, well, I think I will just observe mine for a couple more years.

Or you can have a pond like mine that I stocked with HBG, and later some BG since I added bass and they needed more food.

Then come to find out my pond was full of GSF, well that is all the food the LMB may have needed for a while.

So I have HBG, BG, and GSF as forage or to take and eat. Most have to restock HBG, but I think I will have plenty of wild hybrids since the GSF were present and the pond is small it will be hard to tell what FX cross I will have, first I was upset, but now I just look at it as a place to take the kids to catch as many fish as you can, as they hit the work as soon as the water splashes.

I wanted to grow the sunfish out to nice large sizes but may be hard to do with the over crowding. I have thrown some on the bank, but noticed the last few times I kept some fat little GSF, and they were only in the 5-7 inch range (most were gut hooked), but they had more meat on them when I was down then the 8 inch BG I caught.

I have now decided to just buckle down and take my time cleaning the small guys as they are tasty and the pond is full of them, plus once thinned out my pond should benefit.

Did I mention I tossed a few Red Ears in as well for good measure (this was in 2009) and finally caught one about a week ago, along with one of my grass carp which was caught on chicken liver.

If I ever catch any rock bass or warmouth, I will be happy to drop them in my pond as well, just to see how they would make it, or take to feed, the worst thing is they get eaten by LMB or die and the CC take care of them.

I have 2 long ear sunfish in my pond as well and have caught both of them, they are some meat headed little things; I think they have taken to the AM.

Are the Rock Bass good to eat? The little ones I put in are already big enough to eat as I caught 4 this past weekend.

We catch and eat rock bass all of the time. They taste a lot like BG, but with a little thicker filet. Tehy get easily to 10 inches, and I have caught ones as big as 14 to 15 inches in northern michigan.

The ones I caught were getting close to 10 inches and if they could get to 14-15 that would be awesome. Would be pretty meaty as they are pretty fat.