Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations How fast should they grow ?

I built a 5 acre lake 35" deep in 2014.
Stocked it with 30,000 FHM and 10,000 CNBG in the spring of last year.
I added 500 F1 baas last summer

I have a outfit hired that comes out and checks water quality and fertilizes as needed.
I feed about 1000 pounds of feed per year.

My bass are a little over 10" and look skinney

The bream are all sizes and the older ones are butter ball fat.
I guess around 8" on the bigger ones.

My neighbor has a 10 acre lake that is 5 years old. He feeds nothing and has never fertilized.
His bream are 10" and almost round they are so fat.

How long before I catch up?

I just love catching his bream on my fly rod and really look forward to having mine big enough to catch.


I suppose what I'm after is how long does it take a bream to reach full size ?

How much cover (for the fish to hide in) is in your pond? Tell us that amount as it is compared to the surface acreage of your pond. And tell us the water depth that the cover is in.

i.e. is the cover for the fish to hide in 5% of the surface acreage? 10%? and "X" % of the cover is in water that is "X" feet deep.

What size were the CNBG and LMB that you stocked?

I am assuming that the lake is 35 feet deep, not 35 inches.

How fast do the sides of the lake taper off? I.e. are the sides built on a 2:1 slope, 3:1, etc.

Oops, I forgot to ask. What is the alkalinity, hardness and visibility of the water in your lake?

Cover... not much in the main part of the lake.
I left all the timber standing up one creek.
It is about 60' wide 10' deep in the middle maybe 1/2 acre.
I put two large brush piles out in the middle of the lake that is 35' deep. i added 16 of the store bought balls with pvc sticking out around the lake in about 6 to 8' of water.

The sides are really steep. I damned up between three large hills I would guess around a 45 degree slope on most of the lake.

The fish were maybe 2" long

Not sure on the chemistry.
I put 40,0000 pounds of lime down before it filled up and a fellow comes 3 or 4 times a year to test the water and fertilize

It sounds to me that there might not be enough spawning areas for the CNBG, and that there isn't enough useable cover in the pond for the LMB to use as ambush points.

The LMB are swimming around too much for the food that they are eating. Think of marathon runners eating vs. couch potatoes eating.

If they are testing the water and fertilizing, then you should have test results from the tests, at least the next time they test, post the numbers here.

If the lake isn't aerated, then any of the water volume that is below the thermocline that sets up in the summer isn't useable to the fish, so the deep brush piles are only useable during the winter months.

Ideally you should have roughly 20% of the surface area of the pond/lake in cover that the fish can utilize. There is a good thread in the archives about what cover to put in a pond, where it should be placed and what types of cover are best for different sizes of fish.

thanks

The people who are providing the services should be reporting back to you. What have they said?

If you want large CNBG then feed more and watch the LMB overpopulate. IMO you stocked too many LMB (100 per acre) to sustain a balanced population after 3 years. That is you will have big CNBG and small skinny LMB (and a few very large LMB) over time. That plus additional feeding will lead to large CNBG.

20 CNBG per LMB is about the minimum number that I would stock, and that would be for a more balanced pond. After they spawned, I would be yanking out 20 to 30 pounds of their offspring per surface acre per year.

is it possible he did not wait long enough before stocking predators after stocking forage. Perhaps the forage was just gobbled up before number could exponentially grow.

Bobby: Maybe, it all depends on the size of the predators.

I just assumed that the fish that were stocked were all fingerlings except the FHM.

They tell me I worry too much.
They tell me that the bass being 10 to 12" in the first year is OK and that my CNBG are fat and happy.

We over stocked everything as the lake did not end up nearly as big as the dirt contractor had predicted

They should give you the facts so you could decide if you need to worry !!!

What are your goals ?

Its not the first year you should worry and plan for but the years that follow.

Here is a relative weight chart for LMB. It starts at 12". Catch some, weigh and measure them. They might weigh less than the chart if they just came off of spawning.

http://www.fish.state.pa.us/images/pages/fishin1/weightlength3.pdf

He said he added the bass last summer. That's not a ton of growing time. Knowing nothing else, growth from 2-4" to 10" from last summer doesn't seem unreasonable.

I have the equations, if someone wants charts for smaller sizes/other increments, I can generate. I think I posted a small sizes LMB chart in the archive thread.

Edit: Found one of my tables in archive. Only 1" increments. Can refine if a demand.
Len(in) Wt (lb)
6 ==== 0.10
7 ==== 0.16
8 ==== 0.25
9 ==== 0.36
10 ==== 0.50
11 ==== 0.68
12 ==== 0.90
13 ==== 1.16

Edit2: Thought I'd worked up a better one for the little LMB.

Buff, you're in pine tree country(I think) and may have to lime for the fertilizer to be of any use. What is the Alkilinity and PH of the pond water?

Agree with Ewest about stocking the 100 per acre. I'd prefer 50.

DNick is also right. Your length isn't very far off but the general body condition(skinny) isn't good. The bass needs prey that is 1/4 to 1/3 it's body size. You might be short on 3 inch bluegills.

The fatheads are useless to the bass by now.

Buff, I fish Lake of the Pines and I know they area where you are located. Sounds to me you have a nice pond. When I built my pond, I planned on bigger, but I'm happy with what I have as I am sure you r also. Many here know I am no expert when it comes to ponds and I ask a lot of questions here. It's always nice to see another here from our area of the USA. It sounds to me your pond is headed in the right direction. Have patients grasshopper Ha, it's easier said than done. I have no patients when it comes to my pond and I hate the fact I can not see under the water, but I like having a fertilized pond. I have made some mistakes when it comes to the fish, so I can pass along what not to do

Tracy

Tracy
I tried sending you a PM
I think it worked about as well as my trying to post pictures
give me a call
903-576-1951

TBH Buff?

Based off my LIMITED experience, I think all is good but you will have to really start harvesting LMB heavy based on relative weights next year. If you want large CNBG you want smaller overpopulated LMB, if you want large LMB you want to harvest all the smaller bass(under SW and male). Time to determine which direction you want to go.

Yes TBH Buff


A pond full of 4 pound bass and 1 pound bream would make me a happy camper

Brian L, yep that's him and Brian L you go by same name there? your handel on TBH? I think I remember your post there by the same name? And Buff, yes you did it correct, I received your pm.
TBH is Texas Bowhunters for those that don't know it.

Tracy

Yep I have the name same over there too.