Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations harvesting the right size LMB

Last year this site told me to harvest 40 lb of lmb a year to grow big bass. I was also told to harvest 12" and under. The problem is that I can't catch anything 12" and under. Everything I'm catching is 15-16 and some better. Should I meet my 40# by taking these instead? My pond is 2 1/2 acres and 4 yrs. old.

If you do you might want to selectivley harvest those bass with just an "average" body condition and release those with an excellent body condition.

The answer to your question really "depends" a little more information.....

If the body condition of all your bass in that size range are just average or below average then I would definately think about harvesting some of LMB's in that 15-16" size class. If they are all in excellent body condition then I would be cautious on harvesting LMBs in that size class. Is there a good size range of bluegill for the LMB's to forage on? Have you seen any young of the year LMB's since the pond was stocked? Are there green sunfish or anything else in your pond limiting reproduction of the LMB's?

Mike are the LMB you catch in good condition or thin? If there are no LMB in the 8-12 in range (not catching any) you may have a problem with LMB reproduction/survival. At 4 yrs old you should have LMB from 1-18 in. assuming you stocked 2in. to start with. What about other fish in the pond ? What part of the state are you in (was your pond effected by the hurricanes)? Do you have a fertilization program or feed the fish?

Mike here is the post from 2 years ago:

http://www.pondboss.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=7;t=000105

and form 10 mths. ago :

http://www.pondboss.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=7;t=000225#000000

Is this the same pond?

Mike, I do know that early last year I did not catch any young LMB's in our pond for the first two months after ice out. Everything was 15-17" and nothing shorter. I was really beginning to wonder if there were many smaller LMB's in there after the fish kill we had in the summer of 04.

Anywho, a few weeks before the LMB's spawned I started to catch a few, as the water warmed I started to catch plenty of young LMB's. They were there, I just wasn't catching them until the water temps got well above 60 degrees. In fact, after it got warm I started to wonder where all those 15-17" LMB's were. It makes me wonder if you may be expeirencing the same sort of thing. Any idea what your water temps are right now?

Thank you all for your reponse. Ewest, the first post of Mar 04 was mine but not the second post. Answers to ??: the fish are very healthy and stocky....the hurricane did not affect the pond...I do feed and fertilize (I will say I have not gotten a good bloom in 2 years, I added lime but last summer pond never cleared enough for sun to reach through)...only forage fish is blue gill, plenty numerous and large range of sizes........I have seen a few fingerlings but no 3" to 10"... the initial stock was blue gill fingerlings in Jan 01 and bass fingerlings in Aug 01.....I have taken some blue gill out but probably not enough....fishing has not been great for bass, I have to work to catch two or three but I hope upcoming spring will get better.

Mike :

I saw your other post so I moved this one up so others can join in.

I am having trouble getting straight your situation from 2 years ago to now so I will try this which may help some. Go to the link below -MSU pond mgt. book and start on pg.10 -13. There are 2 charts with questions which lead you to an answer to your situation. If you do not have seine results then substitute what you have seen from watching for the seine results. I think that will put the matter in perspective and then tell us what you think. It is often hard to give a good answer to how did I go from this to that with out historical data and seeing the pond to assess it in person.

http://msucares.com/pubs/publications/p1428.pdf

Mike Wrote:
Based on those two statements, you probably do not have a overcrowding problem with your LMB yet. If you did have an overcorwding problem then you would probably not be seeing a large size range of BG, you would be seeing BG that are very large or very small with very few mid-range size BG in your pond. Also, when LMB get overcrowded they tend to be very agressive and easily caught, the fact that you have to "work" for them means they probably have plenty of forage to eat at the moment. Granted, this is based on limited information but it looks like things are on track for the moment for a healthy bass population.

Thanks to you both. Good suggestions. I'll read the MSU material.

Generally 40lbs of Bluegill and 10lbs of Largemouth bass is the recommended harvest per acre. Harvest more bluegill and little or no bass for trophy bluegill ponds and little or no bluegill and more bass for trophy bass ponds. The 40lbs and 10lbs is just a basic guideline. It could be as much as double for more fertile ponds or less for heavily infertile ponds.

Besides bass stunting at 10"-12" I've heard of similar situations on this forum where bass stopped growing at 16"-18".

As bass grow they need appropriate sized meals. If something drastic changes midlife cycle or there simply isn't enough bigger prey they'll slowly stunt depending on how much food they do or don't get. My lake has bass with decent body condition throughout the year. But they hit an upper limit around 12"-13" but I also catch some bass that are obviously been stunted for some time. If none of yours are obviously stunted and they are not fat they may be feeding only enough to maintain their present weight.

While it could just mean you only use baits that target 15"-16" bass more likely it could mean your bass don't have access to enough prey in the size class they need to pass that size ceiling.

How is your bluegill population, numbers and size wise? Any other prey species show up yet? Also excessive cover such as weeds could make largemouth feeding tough.

I have a good assortment of blue gill. My bass aren't stunted at 16-18" as I have caught up to 5# LMB. The issue is that I'm not catching anything under 15-16". From the MSU report(above) I may need to quit harvesting bass or add some 8-10" to the pond. Of course the MSU chart didn't really give the exact scenario that I have.

Mike :

Are you seeing any LMB from 1 in to 14in. and if so what have you seen and when ? It would be a good idea for you to learn from the MSU book or here how to do a seine survey. Easy to do and gives good info base when coupled with catch records to assess pond status.

I haven't seen any 1-12" lmb. I haven't got the equipment for the seining. I saw the WL&F do it at the Crystal Springs garden fest with no results. I don't have a lot of confidence in the wildlife & fisheries electric-shock as I have seen them do it with vague recommendation I could hire it done by an independent. I think I will wait until after the Spring spawn to see if I can't catch a better sample of the lmb that I have.