Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations How long to see results from harvesting?

Had a quick question I thought I'd run by you guys. How long does it take to see the results from a corrective fish harvest. I have a 7acre, now 5 acre due to drought, that we are managing. It was still on the bass heavy side especially due to the loss of water so we bumped up our harvest. The norm for the last couple years is 15lbs per acre. Last yr we took out 38 lbs per acre. That was pretty much every fish we caught under 5 lbs.

This spring we haven't done much fishing yet but the fish we have caught don't appear to have changed much in Wr since last year.

So that's what im wondering. How long till you see the effects to know what we need to do in the future like this season.

One important factor is what has happened to or with the forage base while you've been doing the LMB culling.

If you've amped up the forage bass during this process, I would think you would see progress within 6 months to a year.

But let's see what others have to say, as this is just my guess.

You might have to wait for your forage base to reproduce to have YOY and smaller fish in the size range that the remaining bass can eat. If you have BG as your base they still probably can not eat the larger BG. Once they start spawning there should be less compition on this years hatch.

IMHO

You can have results within a year or it can take many years. As usual, the answer is it depends. Removing 38 lbs per acre per year in some cases can do wonders, in others it could not be enough and in others too much. The WR of your fish will tell you. If the WR's increase then it is working, if not, you need to harvest more. Of course increasing the food chain would do wonders.

We have seen great results with a bass heavy lake by harvesting 20 lbs to the acre. But we also pumped 300 lbs of tilapia and added 15,000 threadfin to a 30 acre lake for 3 years in a row. In this particular lake we went with average Wr's in the low 80's and 12 inch fish to Wr's in the upper 90's with average fish of 16 inches in 3 years time. But, we saw progress in year one.

ok,

A year was what I was thinking really. I've been adding bluegill every year for 2yrs now. We have growout ponds and i'll probably have around 4000 2-6" fish to go in around the end of may.

Also this year im looking at killing off my coontail problem with whitecap, hopefully i'll get a bloom out of that.

Finally im setting up a brooder pond for tilapia to grow tilapia up to atleast 2-4" then move them throughout the year as they fill up the quarter acre pond.

Chad "This spring we haven't done much fishing yet but the fish we have caught don't appear to have changed much in Wr since last year."

Time of year makes a big difference in RW (condition). Have your LMB started to spawn?

Drawdowns (on purpose or by drought) should give the LMB a bump up as food is easier to get. If you did not get an increase in growth then harvest more LMB in the crowded size range.


Chad you still have to harvest LMB or they will just keep reproducing and eating the additional forage. Harvest is a key just as forage is a key. Have you made progress yet with your RWs ?

Ewest, you don't have to worry about us not harvesting. Basically I haven't thrown a bass back since 2009 unless it was over 4 lbs, or a tagged florida bass. we don't catch many over 4 either.

Here is the lbs of bass taken out. lake started out at 7 acres. now its at 5.

2009 20 lbs
2010 15 lbs
2011 11 lbs
2012 36 lbs
2013 7 lbs so far based on 5 acres.

In reality the Wr haven't really changed since we started. With all the fish taken out, and CNBG put in They are pretty much normal bass, not skinny but not really fat either. I've been blaming it on the decreasing surface acres of the lake.

I started putting in lots of CNBG that I grow around 2011. I am making progress there as used to all I saw was regular BG, Now when I feed I see probably 60% CNBG and 40% regular. I will say I've put tons of CNBG in this lake and would think the lake would be crawling with them but its not. They are making a slow comeback and I do see more every year but they are obviously getting ate up pretty good.

Another note worth putting out there is to answer one question above the bass have already spawned. What I notice every year is the bass have a huge successful spawn. seems like there are bass fry all over the place, and there definitely bass. not much I can do here Im afraid.

Is that the pounds of bass taken out per acre, or total for the pond?

Assuming those are per acre harvest figures then the only year that would be enough to remedy an overcrowded LMB situation is 2012. IMO a minimum amount to take out is 25 lbs per acre. The 15 to 20 lb #s are maintenance levels. That 25 lb + harvest amount plus supplemental stocking of adult forage (BG > 5 inches) or tilapia in TX will bring things in balance generally over 3 years. That does not mean the RWs on existing LMB will ever approach the 140 range you often see in newly stocked ponds with lots of forage from day 1. Over time the small/new LMB may reach that level. The existing large LMB will not likely get there but will improve a lot.

Yes the numbers are lbs of fish taken out per acre.

Chad you have been adding bluegill this allows more survival of bass so this means you have to also take more out. If your goal is larger bass then try to hit 40-50 lbs/acre this year then major improvements with your forage stocking should result in quick growth. Following years is less work. Go big or go home. Agree with Eric those other years were just enough to keep it from getting worse not enough to make it better.

Greg I saw Matt yesterday and told him the lake we stocked was fished by a cuz last week. In 5 hours he caught 40 LMB between 3.5 and 8 lbs.

Whoa Eric that is a fun fishing day. glad to hear the bass are doing so well.