Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Bass Culling...HELP?

My lake is around 10 acres and was recently built and is starting to fill SLOWLY! I am trying to put a management program together for all those allowed to fish it! I am stocking no catfish and hoping to grow big bass by stocking 50/50 northern:florida's! If all goes right and I dont harvest any fish the first 2-3yrs and theres plenty of forage...what is a good rule of thumb on bass harvest numbers per year of 8-12" fish? I have heard 25 fish per acre! Also how long would I continue to do this if growth rates are good?

As has so frequently been written here, "It all depends".

You have a large, exciting, ambitious project, and enough water to have a real chance at a trophy fishery. It would probably be best to invest in a little shocking action as the lake matures to really nail down the number and size of fish that need to be removed.

In the meantime, do everything you can to encourage your forage base-fertilize, consider feeding, etc.

If you've already posted this, please forgive me, but what fish do you have in the lake so far?

25 fish per acer might be ok if your taking out 25 1 lb fish. You can take anywhere from 10-30 lbs per acre per year in a LMB pond. how many will depend on your goals. Since you want a Trophy pond I would lean toward removing more rather than less.

your best bet is to watch relative weights and take good records. If Rw's are high you might not have to remove as many LMB if they are low you need to remove more and maybe try stocking some more forage.

good advice so far Brett is right Wr results will dictate how many lbs to remove but so does fertility level. if fertile this number may be up to 40 lbs/acre if fertilie and low Wr. Also my advice is to start sooner. Take bass that are not making the cut.

If stocking bass June 09 then begin summer of 2010 and see if some bass are not as big as others, remove up to 10/acre. Then late summer 2011 start putting hammer down. Begin with again lesser than avg bass at 20 or so total bass/acre. This will be both smaller bass spawned in April or so of 2010 and larger but no doing as well original stock bass. Begin summer 2011 and beyond with harvest plan as described above and yes it all depends.

Also not sure if too late but we gave talk last night on stocking for trophy bass pond. You can stock much more forage and less bass numbers to grow bigger bass. Feel free to email if you like.

I think it was Ray Scott who said to take out every bass you catch under 12 to 13 inches. Don't worry; you won't catch enough to hurt your water hole.