I thought I could fish a little during our E. Texas winter and determine the sex by seeing females with eggs and males without eggs. Will, not so much, and being a lmb fisherman for most all of my life I thought I could tell the difference. All fish caught @ 15 to 18" was easy to tell they were females. But 14 to 15" not so much. I could not tell if they had full bellies from eating or from eggs. I may have to have a lab at the ponds shoreline in order to tell the difference. All lmb caught in the 14 to 14 1/2" were 7 to 8 oz over the American Fisheries Society RW charts.

You've done very well, Tracy. Hope my BOW ends up with LMB RW like yours!

Thank you Frank. I just feel like I need to do some thinning out even though the lmb are on the + side. The 14 to 15" size removed makes less mouths to feed so the larger might continue to be really nice lmb. Plans are to remove males but I am finding out it is not as easy as I thought it would be. Most everyone says to remove the males. It makes it even harder to do when the 14 to 15" weights are above the RW chart. Is it full bellies or small amount of eggs in these smaller sized lmb?

Tracy,

I might have this wrong, I often do, but weren't you struggling with poor LMB recruitment a year or so ago?

Yes Bill, I had problems getting a lmb spawn or survival for a couple of years, not sure which one it was. It was most likely caused by high numbers of bg. So, the last three years I added yoy lmb. Two additional stocking's, one each spring, of Florida and one stocking of FT Northern lmb last spring. I saw lmb on the nest last spring and did see some schools of what I thought was 1 to 2" lmb fry along with some larger sized fry along the shoreline last June. I am now attempting to keep my lmb in the 100+% range. Stay ahead of the game and not look at RW's and say to myself the lmb are now below the 95% weight charts. In my thinking, that situation would put me behind the game plan and I would be playing catch up.

I need a faster way to measure, weigh and then look at vents to determine what sex the smaller 14 to 15" lmb are. I can't tell by looking even though I thought I could. It takes me to much time keeping the fish out of the water too long trying to look at all of that And even looking at the vents, I am not sure it is so easy to tell what sex these sized fish are. I have herd, PULL the males, it is not as easy as it sounds

Get a measuring board or tray set it on a scale push the tare button then put the fish in it and you get the weight and length pretty fast then examine the vent and return the fish to the pond.

From http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.ph...true#Post157197

Here is the preeminent thread on LMB with pics. Be sure to see the article Cecil posted - copied below.

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=103583&fpart=1



These are tilapia but you can get an idea of what Todd is saying.

Male on left , female right.

Thanks Eric. I knew you could give a squeeze to a bg and spot urine in males but did not realize lmb did the same. I also had it backwards, thinking the females had pear shaped vents. Now I know to look for a round vent for female lmb.


Thanks for that info.

Species Profile

Largemouth Bass

http://aquanic.org/publicat/usda_rac/efs/srac/722fs.pdf

Broodfish are usually more than 2

years old and weigh at least 1.5

pounds. Very large fish are harder

to handle and less dependable as

spawners. Sexing of broodfish is

most easily accomplished in the

spring when ripe females should

have distended abdomens and

males freely emit milt when

stripped. Bass larger than 13 to 15

inches usually can be sexed by

examining the scaleless area

around the urogenital opening.

This scaleless area is almost circular

in males but more elongated in

females. The surest way of sexing

is to gently insert a capillary tube

into the urogenital vent to remove

eggs or milt.

you can't easily tell LMB sex by shape/size of vent so don't go by that..unless spring and eggs are ready

canyon, I was pretty sure I could tell the difference in the lmb sexes, especially during the spawn. BUT, now after growing my own lmb maybe not so much. Our spawn is just not that far off from now depending on water temps, daylight and moon phases. Mid to late February is a possible spawning time. Then again it might be the first of May. Our lmb in the pond that are over 15" look to be full of eggs and most fisherman would say "Yep, that's a female". And RW charts are not they best way to judge your lmb this time of year because of the females being full of eggs. And my fish are 7 to 15 oz over the charts. So, when I look at the lmb that are 14 to 15" I can't tell if they are full of eggs or just full of forage. And now I read different facts, opinions on what to look for round or pear shaped scale less areas. Like I said in this titled thread, it's not so easy to select the males and remove them from the pond. Ha! by the time I weighed, measured and stuck a catheter up the vent my fish would most likely be DEAD.

The new Pond Boss magazine Jan-Feb 2019 has an article by Bobby Mays fisheries biologist of American Sport Fish about stocking, raising, growing Female largemouth bass. "All-Female Bass: A Tale of Trophy-Size Fish". I have not read it yet. Pictures indicate exceptional growth. Impressive. I will try to report back with a summary after I read and index the article.

The experts tried that on a small state lake in GA and in 3 years they had 2 year classes of small LMB. Not an easy job even for the experts in the lab setting sorting fish.

I could be mistaken, but I thought I read where the all female lmb ponds have not fared all that well. Or maybe I just remember reading and remembering the ones that did not see the goals they were hoping to see.


I have come to the conclusion that pulling males during prespawn can be hard to do. My thoughts were, I could tell by looking when the fish have eggs. Well, not so much! And to be mostly successful you would need to hire a shock boat, have a marine biologist on the boat and check the fish and run a tube up its rear end to look for eggs or sperm. I am sure Bob Lusk or Todd Overton would do it but they don't come cheap and I would not expect them to be cheap. After all, they are educated and experienced. My second choice would be to catch the males when they are guarding the nest. It may not be the best way but right now I am thinking two benefits. One, reducing the fish population by disturbing the male who guards the nest and that would reduce the new fry survival or by catching/removing the males on the nest and that is the other choice. Not sure I like that whole nest deal.

For those that fish for nest guarding LMB in shallow areas during the spawn, are the males oozing white milt when the abdomen is gently squeezed?.

Tracy that is one way to help reduce LMB spawning success - there was an article in PB mag on that concept.

Eric, PBM is a great magazine for not only pond owners but also for fisherman. I think anyone who likes growing or catching fish should enroll for a subscription. It's time for me to renew now or I will miss an issue. For me, I am now considering lmb nest fishing because it seems to be my best bet on reducing males from the pond. Bill D. brought up a point about my pond where little to no lmb spawns until the third yr (last spring). This situation along with me not catching any lmb under 14" makes me lean toward not bed fishing. I did see lmb males on the nest last spring, for the first time. But not sure I had any survival since I have caught no small lmb. The pond is good right now but I'm not sure where to go from here. All I read is pull the males, and I am finding out it is not so easy.

When the LMB get ready to spawn, see if you can get some Gender Studies majors to swim near the beds. I hear they are toxic to masculinity!