Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Will Stunted LMB "Unstunt"

A friend of mine has a pond that is overrun with stunted LMB. He says we could catch a bunch and transfer them to my pond once I stock it next year. My pond is small and freshly drained, dugout and rebuilt - no fish in it. I plan to try to set the pond up as a BG pond using LMB as the population police. My questions may be moot because a stunted bass population is what I am after, but...

Will my friend's stunted bass grow larger if given the environment to grow further?

Will their offspring have "small genes" which would limit their growth regardless of environment?

With my plans for the bigger BG pond, I could save a few bucks, have a good day of fishing with my friend and help his pond out (a little maybe) by removing some biomass.

Your thoughts?

Yes, they will grow larger given the proper environment(food) but will not recover the growth that they lost.

Just remember that the bass that you stock from the other pond can also bring in external parasites if you don't treat them first with a salt dip, and if he has any invasive plants in the pond there is the possibility of getting them in your pond if you put any of the pond water in your pond.

Also, make sure the bass that you stock from his pond are not large enough to eat your recently stocked fish.

A Largemouth will eat fish up to 1/3 it's length, and possibly longer fish if they are fusiform shaped.

Don't do it.
Not worth the consequences.
You get one chance to properly stock a pond in the beginning. One of my pet peeves...If you take bass that are 'stunted'...yes they can grow. But, your originally stocked fish will be the ones with the very best growth potential. If they've lost even half a year, they cannot make that up. The backside of their lives will reflect what they lost during the early part. Better to fillet your friend's fish, make ceviche, deep fry the little darlings, or saute them in olive oil than put them in your pond. Build the food chain, stock young, healthy fish from a known origin and nurture your pond. You spent good money to build it, use the best fish you can buy to stock it. You'll be glad you did several years down the road.
I can't tell you how many times I've looked at a fishery over the years where the landowner did exactly what you are proposing, only to find an out-of-balance fishery with small adults, too many young fish with too little to eat and a puzzled landowner who thought "free fish" was a good idea.
Just say "No" to the stunted bass. You'll be glad you did when you tie into a hearty 4 pound, two year old bass, growing up in your lake because you were thoughtful all the way through your chain of thoughts and actions.
You'll still have your big bluegill and achieve what you set out to do, plus some. Don't scrimp because they are free.

I'll add one thing to Bob's post, and Bob stocked my pond. Of everything I bought, the bass were the cheapest thing I purchased to date. I spent 10X as much stocking the CNBG & RES fish as I did the bass, so trying to save money thru bass doesn't make sense. At a $1.50/bass and only needing 20 or so bass.......

There are several ways to manage for BG in addition to stunted LMB. They include harvest , by fishing , seining , electroshock , food mgt (feeding and fertilizer if needed) and others. You also have to account for natural mortalities of BG which can be a huge variant which impacts your population. In other words your predator is only one factor to reaching your goal. For example you could also use WE , SMB , HSB ,trout and YP. You cant practically add those if you have lots of stunted LMB.

Another issue would be the LMB genetics(adaptation) over long periods of stunting. By doing that you are stocking genetically inferior fish with who knows what other genetic traits. Often long stunted populations are sickly and have other problems. A healthy fishery is your best bet to manage for your goal. Done properly you can get good genetic LMB to overpopulate (it happens all the time with no help) and help control your BG. Plus you have the ability to change course if you want without worrying about poor genetics.

I am thinking of using my existing CC population to control BG. After 13 months since stocking at 6", most of the CC are now around three pounds, and some are larger. I am still on the fence about whether to stock LMB next summer or not.
I have too many CC and need to catch some more out.

JohnF - If you use CC to control the BG please keep us updated about the success of this BG-CC combination and BG balance. We need more good information about how well CC control BG.