Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations What size is your fish

Please post the adverage and largest size of Large Mouth Bass you catch in your lake.

Note, Please add where you live and how big your pond is.


I wish to find the adverage of bass sizes to figure out what my goal for large mouth bass should be.

You should probably add:

What are you managing for? Big bass, big bluegill, etc...

The local lake: 5# just shy of 22"

My pond: 17" and I'm guessing at a bit over 3#. There is an 18" 2.82# LMB in there that I just transferred from another BOW.

My pond is at 1 year old now, after the renovation last year. The LMB in the pond are roughly 4, maybe 5 years old at the most.

The age of the pond should be a part of the equasion.

30 miles South of South Bend, In.

Oops. Pond was 1/3 to 1/2 ac, now is 1 to 1 3/4 ac depending on the time of the year.

Thanks, now if we can get some more members to post..........................

Southeast Nebraska 41 degrees N latitude. 15 acres, the pond is about 44 years old.
Only owned the pond about 9 months and the largest we have caught so far have been 16 inch.
There could be bigger ones in there but we're not that good of fishermen.

T: It's nice to know what you can expect in terms of potential size, but that is not a relevant question unless your water is 'right', your forage base is 'right', and your structure is 'right'. If you ignore ANY of those three abolute ingredients, potential size of your LMB isn't important cause you'll never get there anyway.

God grant me patience ----NOW----RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!!!

First things first, my friend.

As I said before, right here in SE Missouri, I stocked 25 8-12" bass in my 3/4 A pond in May/June of this year and my grandson caught one just over four pounds this past week end. Sounds unreal, but I promise you it happened.

If I had put those 8-12" bass in the pond in May/June without an extremely strong forage base started LAST YEAR, they may be 12-14' now.

Forage base this fall,(FHM, BG, RES, mixed with some 7-9" adult BG/RES)), 8-10" LMB late next summer, AFTER your BG, RES spawn. In 2011 you'll be catching some really nice bass, and it will only get better.

Thank you. Jimmydee is quite right.

2 acre, 3 yr. old pond in Indiana. Stocked 30# FHM, 1100 BG, 400 RES in the Fall of 2006. Sept. 2007 introduced 100 8-11" LMB. I feed Aqua Max 600 six months out of the year using approx. 50 lbs. every 3-4 weeks. The LMB are very aggressive pellet eaters. The longest LMB to date is 17" 2 lbs. 2 oz. The heaviest to date is 2 lbs. 4 oz. at 16".

Jimmydee, are you sure the pond didn't have any bass in it prior to stocking this year? I don't think there's ever been a recorded instance of a largemouth bass growing three pounds in four months - I don't think that's biologically possible. A couple pond managers on here have had tiger bass, which grow several times faster than northern-strain which I'm guessing you have in your pond, grow three pounds a year - twelve months, not three - in Alabama, which of course has almost twice the growing season you do.

Hey,New here
I have a small lake in central oklahoma 98 acres.Constructed as
a flood control lake in the 50s. Owned the property about ten years. The average bass 4 lbs between 1 lb and 8 lbs.The largest
has been 9.2 lbs. ? Should I be managing this lake ,I've done very little and the fishing seems to get better every year.

First, welcome to the forum...

Second, the vast majority of the regulars on this forum are at the somewhat annual Pond Boss Conference. So you may not get many answer until they all return. That should be sometime tomorrow or so when things get back to normal.

Third, 98 acres is far from a small lake on this forum! 98 acres would be big in our book! IMO average bass being 4 pounds with them getting up to 9.2 pounds in excellent. With a lake of that size, you always have room for improvement. It really depends on if you are happy... It also depends on how much money you wanna shell out.

If you are looking to improve your fishery and are willing to spend some money to do so, I would contact a professional fisheries biologist. There are several good ones in your areas. One of them happens to be the co owner and head honcho on this forum, Bob Lusk.

I may also recommend that you make a separate post of your own so more people see it. Think about if you are happy with your lake, or are their areas you want to improve. Post what you are looking for and the many experts here will give you better advice. To include if perhaps who you can seek professional assistance on how to better manage your lake.

Hello OkTex and welcome to Pond Boss! A 98 acre lake? WOW. The answer to your question is, IMHO, yes you should be managing the lake. A BOW is constantly changing and in order to keep the fishing good and the water quality good you should at the very least be keeping records of the fish being caught. Record the species of fish, the length of the fish and the weight of the fish. Compare the weight of the fish to standard weight tables to assess the relative weight of your fish. This will help you assess the health of your fish population.

Post photos of your lake when you can and hang on for an expert opinion (as opposed to my dribble). Thanks for posting, we're glad you found us!

98 acres, nice lake . Please post some picts and more info.

I was out mowing,goodo to see some responce.More information. I own 95% of the property surrounding the lake. there are two other landowners bordering it.I am pretty happy with the production thus far.In about a year I'll be retired and can spend more time up there. currently live in Texas and only make it up about 4 times per year. I cant control what others do on the lake so I'm not sure what help I can give it.There are crappie, catfish and bream in there as well. Will try and post some pictures later.

If you have a relationship with the other owners you may be able to put together a management plan that you all can agree on. But dealing with multiple parties can be challenging at times.

I second this sentiment, and also nominate it for the understatement of the century.