Ok, im learning all the time. Im a newer here and am doing my best. My pond is approx 9-10 years old. I had it built. I have never seen any surface type of fish, IE bass bluegill minnows ect until this year.

Last year I caught three, (9-12) smallmouth bass from a private pond and put them in my pond.

I still have access to this pond and when time permits I had planned to go get some more. My pond is approx 2 acres maybe a bit less in size when full and get smaller as the summer progresses but even now is 12 ft deep in spots and is down.

I own a small paddle boat and recently we are seeing lots and I mean lots of small fish that follow us when we float watching the water. They look like smallmouth bass fry but I need to catch one and make sure. At times I see what looks like 100 in one spot.

Is it possible that just those three bass produced all these fry in a year? I have no idea if I even had a male and female in the three.

I have a minnow trap and have thrown in out in an attempt to catch one to confirm but no luck.

I dont own a small net to try that. But can buy one that is recommended?

Tomorrow I will attempt to get some pics. They look like they have a dotted black line that runs the length, maybe I just have minnows but their sizes vary.

thanks

RUMBLON

try microfishin 0see Bill Codys links in the new pond-need help) for one for a pic. Long shank #10 or 12 hook tipped with a 1/4" piece of red worm. An ice fishin bobber or tight line.

I didnt think about actually fishing for one. I Guess I wasnt thinking about actually fishing for one, I was thinking they were too small.

Dave

At 9-12", I would guess smallies would not quite be ready to spawn, yet if they went into a pond with no other fish, I believe they may be prone to spawn earlier.

Are there any fish/crustaceans in the pond for the smallies to feed on??

there are all kinds of small snails, tons of bugs ect. and about a bazillion frogs poly-wogs.

I have been tossing a minnow trap out daily but no luck catching any. i see them from shore and tried different depths too.

THESE ARE THE BEST PICS WE CAN GET OF THEM IN THE POND. ANY IDEAS
DAVE

Those look like largemouth bass fingerlings to me, the horizontal stripe is the giveaway.

Here are a couple of pictures of a SMB fingerlings for comparison.

ok, so i have hundreds of these and I HAVE ONLY PUT THREE BASS IN HERE. I guess they could have been large mouth bass.

these.

Looks like a LMB to me.

shorty, so I am serious, approx 1 year ago caught three between 9-12 inches from a farm pond and threw them in here. UP until that time I HAD NOT SEEN ANY FISH IN HERE, except a a dead catfish once. I THREW A HAND FULL OF CHANNEL CAT FINGERLINGS IN HERE MAYBE FIVE SIX YEARS AGO.

Now these fry and EVERY WHERE! How many LMB can a pair of bass produce in a year? And who can tell me the survival rate thats typical for them?


Dave

I don't know the answer but can share my experience of my daughters pond.

I refurbished it by digging out all I could of the old pond and expanding it to about triple original size. There was a small BOW that I could not drain or get cleaned out. It was stagnant, nasty and as far as I could tell all I could see in the one thousand or so gallons left were some Gambusia. I assumed there were probably some GSF but never really saw any around the bank. I assumed no LMB could survive in what was left of the water (assumptions are always a bad thing).

I stocked the new portion with FHM, BG and a few RES of various sizes from my pond. The old portion of the pond and the new portion I stocked did not join together till about a year later because of drought and little runoff to fully fill the pond. So the stocked fish had a chance to spawn and establish.

That was a couple years ago. Fast forward to about April of this year. I strolled out around the pond to see what I could see. Saw some smaller BG and a nice 8" or so BG. No minnows which surprised me. Was afraid I had maybe waited too long to stock predators and the pond would be over run with BG. But did not seem to be. Then along came two LMB about 10-12" long pretty as you please.

So in a puddle only maybe a couple feet deep with very bad quality water there must have been LMB left.

The pond stocking turned out ok. Unfortunately my daughters husband suddenly came up with cancer a couple months later and died and he would have been the angler. So the pond is mostly for aesthetics now anyway although my daughter does enjoy walking around it and feeding the fish sporadically. So the fish that are in there are "good enough" to serve her purposes.

Point being, just because you never see nor can catch any LMB, does not mean they are not there.

On a #10 long shank cricket hook (thin wire) I have caught a FHM, not to mention lots of 2-3" BG back when my pond was young. If you do a web search for "micro fishing" there are people that fish for the tiniest of fish. Key is small hook, small bait. And you can also catch surprisingly large fish with that combo also!

maybe you put largemouth in instead of smallmouth?

Sometimes there are mixups. One land developer I know thought he had CC stocked, but turned out to be BH!

Possible, but with the pond being 9-10 years old, that is a long time someone could have slipped a few LMB in via bucket stocking or other means.

+1 on LMB

Yup, LMB!!

http://www.noble.org/ag/wildlife/largemouthbass/



Recruitment / survival is usually pretty low but without predators present you will see a lot of recruitment of fingerlings. If it were me I would be looking looking for 5-6" BG to stock asap and would work at removing as many LMB as you can from this years hatch.

Absolutely LMB fry

My problem is this. In order to get 5-6 inch BG I have to get a state pond permit. In order to get that I have to install a system for making sure no fish leave my pond, even though my pond is underground spring fed and run off and I have no stream or water source to it. And to be honest I want nothing to do with having the state come on property when ever they want to check it. And I cant afford the cement barrier to begin with.


I will ask around about other farm ponds to see if anyone has BG. In Idaho its illegal to catch fish from a public water way and transplant them, but with a written note from a land owner of a private pond you can transplant from one pond to another. Thats what I did with these bass. I guess what your saying that I need t worry about the bass taking over? I do have other predators, bull frogs, lots of them, birds, snakes, ect.

Dave

You can do a LMB only pond. It will not be great but does happen.

One other option might be to use a cage or blocking net to block off a portion of your pond and raise smaller BG there till they get big enough to release.

I dont mind trying to get some bigger BG if I can. I have my feelers out for private pond BGs.

But I do think there are some bigger catfish in here as I found one dead, 14 inch or so one last year.

I know there are some private ponds with catfish in them.

Dave -

I second cage rearing some BG or seining off a section. If you feed the penned BG food they will grow quickly. They're pigs at feeders.

With respect to the concrete barrier - have you considered cinder blocks, rebar, and quickcrete? Maybe you won't like the look and I don't know the size of the wall, barrier or pond, but I've built some pretty big things using these three component and they weren't expensive. Just rent a mixer (I used a 5 gallon bucket with a stir stick and another bucket adding water...).

I would just bucket stock as much bluegill as I could.

Right now, the existing adult LMB (maybe only three or so) have to eat something. What that is, I'm not sure, but the new YOY LMB are on the menu too.

I don't think you're in any kind of fatal situation.

What you said about the catfish is another issue. Maybe it was a bullhead?

CATFISH WERE CHANNEL FOR SURE.