Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Managing a 4 Acre Pond

I fish at my friends 4 acre pond that has only Brim and Bass I'm pretty sure. The pond is at least 30 years old, and EVERY time ill go I catch bass 8-12 inches, some skinny and a few a little chunky. I've seen like 1 bass that looked in the 2-3 pound range while it was full of eggs. How can i increase the size of the bass in the pond without spending money? How do i know how many bass/what time of year to remove them? Because when people say you have to remove so and so pounds a year, how do they know if theres that many pounds in the pond itself? I don't want to have someone tell me to remove every bass i catch because then I feel like i won't have any left?

Remove every bass you catch... You won't catch them all. Trust me, in 4 acres, unless you have piles of other guys helping you fish, you will never remove too many.

Where in VA are you?

I'd go with remove every one you catch this year. If you really, really don't want to do that, then get yourself a good scale and a measuring instrument. Then go to the archives (common pond Q&A) and print out the relative weight chart for LMB. Measure and weigh every LMB you catch. If any are equal to or greater than the weight on the chart for the length of the fish, return that fish to the pond.

I'm in The Central/Northern Va. area. I'm not sure, because the bass are reall easy to catch. There are a few normal weight 12 inchers and the big one, but other than that most are skinny...

Wouldn't removing a lot of bass ruin the genetic pool?

Nope. Besides, without genetic testing, how will you determine which genes are "better"?

The only other way to get the LMB larger is to pour the food to them. Since they aren't pellet trained, you'd have to add live forage for them. At a conversion rate of 10# of forage to put 1# on ONE LMB, I don't know if your pockets are deep enough. There's probably a couple hundred LMB per surface acre in that pond. Multiply that by at least 10# each and you can see how large the numbers of live forage can get expensive quick. If you can afford the forage, then you'd most likely run into carrying capacity limits and water quality issues.

In the end, the best way is to remove all the LMB that you catch, or take the time to check Relative weights and only return the best growing fish. That'd be one way to improve the genetics too. Then once you get the population back in balance and the forage base recovers, you can put together a plan to improve the genetics in the pond.

This is what is suggested by Dick Anderson - the Prof who wrote the book on PSD.

Keep taking <12 in bass until the number 8-12 equals number 12-15. Ideal pond structure is 40% 8-12, 40% 12-15 and 20% 15+

This assumes good fish condition.

Another suggestion is take out all the fish in poor condition in all size groups. Note the size group that is stunted will have a much higher % of fish in poor condition.

These are all correlated to the concept of RW mgt.

Here are 3 archive links with a ton of info on the subject.

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=255372#Post255372

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=255359#Post255359

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=92492#Post92492

If the only method of removal is hook and line then you need to consider the catchibility issue which underlies your question about genetics.

Look for threads here on catchability. The info is here as is the research.



Here are a couple with links

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=274175&page=1

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.ph...true#Post200220

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.ph...true#Post260622

What is the structure of the BG Population regarding size classes? What is the water clarity and what does the habitat consist of? Any pellet feeding occurring on this pond? What is the annual harvest rate of all species? Do you have any relative weights - condition factors of the bass or BG you have been catching?

Ok....So i just keep removing and removing the skinny 8-12 inchers? because thats pretty much the whole population of bass in the pond.

Haha problem is theyre ALL 8-12 inches so id end up removing all

You wont remove them all. Impossible in a pond that size. You need to thin the population significantly.

Basically you have two choices:

1. Remove a lot of the bass population which leaves more "food" for the remaining bass which will let them grow. This is lower cost because it just cost you fishing time.

2. Add a significant more amount of forage. This is not sustainable unless you have very deep pockets because as the bass continue to grow they will continue eating the forage until it is gone.

Another way to look at it is to take out 25 lbs of LMB per acre per year.

Another consideration. Are you sure the owner is okay with you managing the pond to your goals. Stunted numerous bass can be very beneficial to young and inexperienced anglers who can catch lots of bass quicky and it is great fun. Changing the fishery to large bass, results in a lot fewer catches per hour of fishing; CPU drops way down. It is not your pond so be respectful of the owners wishes, plus educate them as to the repercussions of your actions. Big hook smart bass are pretty hard to catch once the population is "adjusted" and the owner may not like what you did to his pond.

yes he is. so what im getting from this is remove all the underweight bass i catch? for a certain amount of time or until i start seeing improvements

Normally fed bass in your area should be growing 1" per year. You will know if there is a good ratio of forage to bass when you see the LMB getting larger. At the same time you should also be monitoring the forage fish population as to numbers and sizes available.