In just a few weeks I will be stocking my first predator fish...lmb. They will prob. be about 2 inch long and will stock about 100 in my 2 acre pond. My cnbg are on their second year and it is jam packed stocked from 1 inch to 9 inch!! Here is my question... To help stop the bass from getting eaten where in the pond should I release them and should I release them all together(safety in numbers) or scatter them around? If I place them near the best cover that is also the same cover the cnbg use. Should I place them as far away from the feeder as possible? Maybe out in the deepest water away from most of my bluegill. Maybe just "chunk" them and let nature take it's course. What do ya'll think? I just don't want to be throwing away money.I have found a place for larger bass but they are 10$ each!!

People have said stock them at night. Not sunset or sunrise, and maybe load up on minnows at the same time, a gallon of fh with and before?

Flame, I cant speak with certainty, but Im pretty sure our CNBG ate the 2inch fingerling bass we stocked. However, we restocked at the end of summer (30) 8-10in bass, just in case, so we are good now.

Ultimately, no matter when/where/how you release them if the perch are going to eat them, then they will eat them.

Although, im sure we had some make it out of the initial stocking just to be safe maybe you can stock a few larger. You know as well as I do some guys on here will have great advice!!

I added 85 fingerlings per acre to my pond last June. Survival was low one yr later. The fingerlings were healthy looking and I saw many of them over the next 4 days in the same area of the pond where they were added. I am not sure why the low survival. Could have been the larger sized Bg, or the cranes that walked the shoreline, Kingfisher birds or the darn Cormorants that showed up this past January or the Bald Eagle that took up residence for 3 months. or something else. But I would add more fingerlings than you posted. I like the idea of culling (reducing numbers) more than I like adding more and larger fish next year. Another note, is when having large numbers and sized cnbg will reduce and may eliminate lmb reproduction when and if you have survival of the lmb fingerlings for next yrs lmb spawn.
Just my thoughts

Tracy

Some fish farms have 4 to 5 inch bass by late September.

Go with fewer but larger LMB even if you have to wait until fall. To much risk IMO with guessing at LMB survival rate. If they get eaten then you don't have enough left but if you have high survival you have way to many.

You could go tj's route and cage them until they get a little bigger.

When I stock trout fingerlings in my pond (usually when the last age group is 5 yes old) I through in fh/bnm too the minnows never make it but we have quite a few trout that do. And I do always do it in the day and try and catch some at that moment too.

I like this idea over adding 2 1/2" fingerlings to a pond with 7 to 9" CNBG. You might fence off a small area. using a net, and take some of these fingerlings and then see if you can feed train some of them. It might be like training them to hit Top Water I bet there are some here who can make suggestions on how to feed train lmb fingerlings.

Tracy

Caging the fish will do a few things. 1) get them acclimated to the pond, and acclimated fish seem to "stand out" less, therefore drawing less attention from potential predators 2) If they are feed trained, it will reinforce the feed training. 3) allow you to verify how many LMB survive the initial fish transport.

If the LMB aren't feed trained already, it will be hard but not impossible to get them feed trained. You will have morts though, so if going this route I would add at least 50% fish to the order. Once they are feed trained, and ready for release in the fall, you can verify the stocking numbers. IF all survive in the cage, I would NOT stock them all, just the "shooters" and enough of the non-shooters to meet your stocking goals. Either find homes for the others or make them into coon food.

esshup, if one starts out with small 2 or 2.5" fingerling lmb, what are they eating when @ the fish supplier? Fish food?' I understand some of these fingerlings are cannibals and will or attempt to eat each other, but will they learn to eat fish food or starve? Or can one feed worms, or something to get them to lets say 5"?

Tracy

You will have to talk to your particular fish supplier to see if the LMB are feed trained or not. If they are, that makes life a lot easier. If not, then it's work.

Remember, if you have to feed the fish live food, it will cost more $$ and take a LOT more time, as you can't keep live food in a bag in the pole barn. You will have to go get it every few days or once a week, then keep it live....

If you have 100 LMB, and you are bringing them from fingerling size to 8 oz each (used that figure for easy calculations) then you will have to feed them 500 pounds of live food.....

Some will learn to eat pelleted food, some won't. The more fish in a cage, the faster they will learn to eat due to competition. BUT, then what do you do with the excess fish if more than what you want convert to pellets??

Sounds to me it would be easier to attempt feed training over live or at least in the beginning @ 2,5" sized lmb. We were talking and wondered what size pin would work best? We talked of hanging one off his pontoon doc. Any thoughts on that? And if he added some small FHM's (trapped from his pond), will that mess up his feed training, if using fish food? And he and I both have used cargills 1/8th" feeding brim, so would you break it up to smaller sized or as is?

Thanks

Tracy

Wow! I'm surprised you can't find some 4+ inch LMB for a lot less than that.

Bill , a 10 to 12" might run @ or near #100.00 per fish when looking @ a certain lmb type or females, and so a 5" could easy run $10.00 per fish

Tracy

Interesting. 5 to 8 inch are $5.10 at the fish farm I use but they are just generic Northern LMB.

Tracy, about 50-75% of the LMB fingerlings will starve before trying pelleted feed.

Feed-trained LMB are much pricier because it takes a LOT of time, expensive "natural" feeds (often Krill), food mixing, etc before you'll get the fingerlings onto pelleted feed, plus you lose about half the fish in the transformation/training.

All that said, some are having better success than others, feed training LMB. Higher density holding pens encourage natural competition to eat anything that moves, and reduces mortality while speeding the training, yet one little mistake made in high density holding pens, and every fish in the pen can be dead in minutes.

High risk, high labor, and high losses, equals high prices.

I'm currently working to re-open a fish farm with a guy that is having phenomenal success raising feed trained LMB, currently, over 100,000 in the 6-10" sizes...it has taken him 5 years of losses on his annual tax return through capital investment and fish loss before he finally got into the black last year

$100 for a 12" LMB? I don't know what strain/genetics you're looking at, but I'd damn sure look elsewhere!

Retail for a 10" northern LMB will run $4-$8ea and over 10". most are sold for $8-$15/lb. Florida genetics and F1's will run about 30% more, on average for quality fish.

2" fingerlings will almost certainly get eaten quickly after stocking, and be a complete waste of money.

I'd stock no smaller than 4" LMB, and would highly suggest no smaller than 6" be stocked. At 6", 10# of FHM adults would be a good investment while the LMB transition to eating your CNBG.

Don't skimp on your fish!!! Consider all the $$$ you invested into the fish home!!! Do you want to build an upscale home for quality fish, then stock with just anything that happens to be around??

I recently quoted a customer who wanted Female only LMB (Northern strain) $15/lb. for 1-3 lb. LMB.

Plus delivery, plus "X" per hr. that it takes to physically verify that the fish are female. There is a small window up here now to reliably sex LMB. I have to tranquilize fish, catheter each one to verify sex, revive. That alone takes 4 holding tanks. It's a long, labor intensive process.

There u go Flame, two experienced guys have added some good information for you to think about. I think it is doable, but again, from the look of things, you will need more fingerlings than your original plan. Or maybe not. Ha, here we go again "it depends"

Tracy

Flame , make a trip over to my pond and catch and haul all the 6-12" bass you want and stock your place. Mine aren't pedigreed but they bite and grow

Once you get one spawn off you will be fine

Pat, What u talking bout Willis? Texas pedigreed bass, born and raised in Texas

Tracy

Tracy I'm thinking these might be a Florida mix cause some got big eyes. I showed one to Overtons guy and he said " good looking bass" .
The little ones hang close to bank destroying the gambusia population all summer long, perfect food sourse fer them

Again stocking 2 in LMB into an existing adult fish population can result ( documented scientific results) in survival from anywhere between 97 % to < 3 % . Good, info and suggestions in this thread . IMO the biggest risk ( most damage) is if you have high survival of LMB to first spawn. That is very hard to fix .

That is a fun statistc!

Excellent example of "It Depends..."

Well its simple really he only put 3% in one pond and the rest in the other! Haha, maybe that's misinterpreted a little

Bill D got it. It really does depend and can be a real risk. You can avoid most of that risk by using 4-6 inch LMB in smaller numbers.