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Joined: Jun 2012
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OP
Joined: Jun 2012
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I fish at my friends 4 acre pond that has only Brim and Bass I'm pretty sure. The pond is at least 30 years old, and EVERY time ill go I catch bass 8-12 inches, some skinny and a few a little chunky. I've seen like 1 bass that looked in the 2-3 pound range while it was full of eggs. How can i increase the size of the bass in the pond without spending money? How do i know how many bass/what time of year to remove them? Because when people say you have to remove so and so pounds a year, how do they know if theres that many pounds in the pond itself? I don't want to have someone tell me to remove every bass i catch because then I feel like i won't have any left?
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Joined: Jan 2009
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Ambassador Field Correspondent Hall of Fame Lunker
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Ambassador Field Correspondent Hall of Fame Lunker
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Remove every bass you catch... You won't catch them all. Trust me, in 4 acres, unless you have piles of other guys helping you fish, you will never remove too many.
Where in VA are you?
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Joined: Jan 2009
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I'd go with remove every one you catch this year. If you really, really don't want to do that, then get yourself a good scale and a measuring instrument. Then go to the archives (common pond Q&A) and print out the relative weight chart for LMB. Measure and weigh every LMB you catch. If any are equal to or greater than the weight on the chart for the length of the fish, return that fish to the pond.
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Joined: Jun 2012
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I'm in The Central/Northern Va. area. I'm not sure, because the bass are reall easy to catch. There are a few normal weight 12 inchers and the big one, but other than that most are skinny...
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Wouldn't removing a lot of bass ruin the genetic pool?
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Joined: Jan 2009
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Nope. Besides, without genetic testing, how will you determine which genes are "better"?
The only other way to get the LMB larger is to pour the food to them. Since they aren't pellet trained, you'd have to add live forage for them. At a conversion rate of 10# of forage to put 1# on ONE LMB, I don't know if your pockets are deep enough. There's probably a couple hundred LMB per surface acre in that pond. Multiply that by at least 10# each and you can see how large the numbers of live forage can get expensive quick. If you can afford the forage, then you'd most likely run into carrying capacity limits and water quality issues.
In the end, the best way is to remove all the LMB that you catch, or take the time to check Relative weights and only return the best growing fish. That'd be one way to improve the genetics too. Then once you get the population back in balance and the forage base recovers, you can put together a plan to improve the genetics in the pond.
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Joined: Apr 2002
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What is the structure of the BG Population regarding size classes? What is the water clarity and what does the habitat consist of? Any pellet feeding occurring on this pond? What is the annual harvest rate of all species? Do you have any relative weights - condition factors of the bass or BG you have been catching?
Last edited by Bill Cody; 06/15/12 09:32 AM.
aka Pond Doctor & Dr. Perca Read Pond Boss Magazine - America's Journal of Pond Management
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Ok....So i just keep removing and removing the skinny 8-12 inchers? because thats pretty much the whole population of bass in the pond.
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Joined: Jun 2012
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Haha problem is theyre ALL 8-12 inches so id end up removing all
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Joined: Jan 2012
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You wont remove them all. Impossible in a pond that size. You need to thin the population significantly.
Basically you have two choices:
1. Remove a lot of the bass population which leaves more "food" for the remaining bass which will let them grow. This is lower cost because it just cost you fishing time.
2. Add a significant more amount of forage. This is not sustainable unless you have very deep pockets because as the bass continue to grow they will continue eating the forage until it is gone.
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Another way to look at it is to take out 25 lbs of LMB per acre per year.
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Joined: Apr 2002
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Another consideration. Are you sure the owner is okay with you managing the pond to your goals. Stunted numerous bass can be very beneficial to young and inexperienced anglers who can catch lots of bass quicky and it is great fun. Changing the fishery to large bass, results in a lot fewer catches per hour of fishing; CPU drops way down. It is not your pond so be respectful of the owners wishes, plus educate them as to the repercussions of your actions. Big hook smart bass are pretty hard to catch once the population is "adjusted" and the owner may not like what you did to his pond.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 06/15/12 09:36 PM.
aka Pond Doctor & Dr. Perca Read Pond Boss Magazine - America's Journal of Pond Management
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yes he is. so what im getting from this is remove all the underweight bass i catch? for a certain amount of time or until i start seeing improvements
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Joined: Apr 2002
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Normally fed bass in your area should be growing 1" per year. You will know if there is a good ratio of forage to bass when you see the LMB getting larger. At the same time you should also be monitoring the forage fish population as to numbers and sizes available.
aka Pond Doctor & Dr. Perca Read Pond Boss Magazine - America's Journal of Pond Management
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Algae
by Boondoggle - 06/14/24 10:07 PM
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