Just a update on my 2 acre pond. I stocked only 50 Florida pellet trained lmb at 5 inch long. Stocked May 15th, 2016.This morning I caught one that weighed right at 2.25 pounds and was 16 and 1/4 inch long!! So..16 inch in 16 months!! I believe I may have some larger ones but have not caught them. Not huge but so rewarding to see my plan working. I think that's pretty good growth for that amount of time isn't it??
Sounds like you are on track. The trick is to manage the offspring as that is where the problems first arise.
Great to see a plan come together. Well done!
Thank you!! Tho I guess technically because they were 5 inch when I stocked them... they have grown over 11 inches in the last 16 months. Oh well, I am pretty happy and boy do those Florida bass fight. Hit a buzzbait right by the boat so I had to short line him!! What a strike and what a fight!! I suppose I should have 3 pounders by next spring. To me a good 3-4 pounder puts up the best fight. And I have caught several in the 10-11 pound range. Just my opinion.
Congratulations! Hopefully I have some bass about the same size, but haven't really fished or sampled the pond much this year. For sure the TP and CNBG have done well, though, as I can see around the feeders.
Did I understand correctly that you have feed trained Fla bass?
Flame,
Like Frank, I did not realize your advanced sized fingerling lmb were feed trained. And did you add the brush piles along the shoreline for the cnbg fry survival? Did you see any benefit or more fry survival to feed your lmb?
Congrats James- nice fish. Now the work starts managing the offspring.
Yes those bass were supposed to be feed trained. I bought them from Todd at Overtons. Tracy, I did put a bunch of artificial brush piles near the shore and many stacks of wood pallets. And a big plus now is I have a beautiful stand of sawgrass growing all around the pond edge and into about 1 foot of water. You can throw a little feed into the grass and watch the tiny cnbg come out of hiding and go to work on it!! I have seen at least 4 spawns of cnbg every year. I see 1-2 inch cnbg all around the dock so I guess it is working.I have no idea if I have any offspring from last year (first year) spawn. No evidence of it yet. Over the last 16 months I have caught maybe a dozen lmb at various stages of their life. Don't know if I have caught any of the same ones twice. Heck, out of only 50 fish I might have stocked all males or all females!! During last year spawn time I did not have near the shoreline cover I have now so everything might have gotton eaten by the thousands of cnbg. We'll have to wait and see.
Bet ya you got a ton of LMB younguns around. They good at surviving.
ewest makes a very good point: "The trick is to manage the offspring as that is where the problems first arise."
Offspring will slow the growth of the original stocked bass. Pay close attention to number of young bass and focus most all your efforts on removing young bass and your original stocked bass will keep growing at a great rate toward 8 and even 10+ pounds in a few years. Please keep us updated on your pond's progress in this interesting thread.
I will keep you updated Bill. I honestly don't think I will see a 10 lb. lmb but that sure sounds great!! Pat, sawgrass is the same shallow water grass you see in the Florida swamps and down by the coast near Lake Charles, Port Arther. It only grows in shallow water and gets about 5 ft. tall. Birds love the seeds they produce.In all your coastal fishing you have seen plenty of it but you may have just called it something else. Gets its name from being able to run your finger down a shoot or blade of it one direction and it wont hurt you. Run it down the other direction and it is solid tiny teeth or barbs all the way down. And it will cut the crap out of ya. Thus the name. Pretty stuff. I couldn't have asked for a better shoreline cover for my little pond. I will try to remember to text you some pictures. Have no idea how it got all around my ponds edge??
I think a few 8 to 10 lb Florida bass are possible in a 2 acre FL pond if you keep the offspring bass to a minimum and food amounts high. Are you feeding the bass pellets and seeing bass eat them?. Consider using some Aquamax largemouth sized pellets to get those bass to the 4-7 lb range. Ample numbers of large BG will move those 6-7 lb bass to the next level or size plateau.
Bill, I have been feeding Cargill feed since day one of stocking cnbg.2 sizes, 1/8th and 3/16th both floating. %45 protein %12 crude fat. When my water was clearer I could see a few 12 inch lmb cruising with the cnbg and eating feed. I have thousands of cnbg in 5-8 inch range for larger bass.If any bass fry did survive a first spawn this past spring (March) how big should they be in 6 months?? At feeding times now the only lmb I see are blowing up on 1-3 inch cnbg and not the feed!!!
LMB born early last March could be anywhere from 6 to 10 inches , possibly bigger in your situation. They could be eating 3 inch BG.
I put 20 LMB in my brood pond late this spring, and the size range ewest mentions is what I'm seeing right now. Our LMB are starting to come up and feed on small CNBG when I throw food.
Wow, I hope I have some that big. Thanks guys. I will keep you updated.
Well fed BG 6 months old Apr1-Oct1 (180days) could be 6" maybe some 7" long with lots of food in fertile water. Keep in mind that for later spawns all summer long those BG will be shorter. Well fed BG in warm water can grow 1" per month.