Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations 3" Bass

I built a 4A pond last May. It was partially filled
by draining from a smaller pond. As this was happening, I notice 100's of tiny fry (1/4") going into the new pond. When I was fishing yesterday, I caught a few 3" bass. Would these be the same fish?
I thought that they would grow more than that in
about 9 months. I know that I didn't stock this "by the book" but many situations (boring) prevented that. I did stock 3-4000 fatheads and about 1000
bream and some larger bream (7-8") and five 1 l lb
LMB. My question concerns the 3" bass - is that normal growth for a spring spawned LMB?
Thanks, Randy

Randy,
Send me an emial if you like. I'm concerned your headin' in the wrong direction with the numbers you just gave. It is better to correct now than waiting 3-5 years for a situation that might be screwed up. 3" bass is very strange size for GA this time of year. How did you catch such a small fish?

I think your 3" bass could have easily been those fry that you saw entering the pond last spring. Overcrowded conditons with less than adequate food can result in the growth rates that you describe.

BC,
I strongly disagree with that observation. I have never seen a 3-inch bass in GA in February. This is why I ask how did he catch it. Now a 6-inch bass is beliveable poor growth. With our growing season that bass should be 10-12 inches or better. BC I can believe it up north but no why down here. Randy something is up???

Greg & Bill,
I caught the 3" bass on a green 1/2" artificial
grub - close to shore. I feed the fish and see many 4-6" BG. I caught a 9" bass 2 weeks ago. Computer is about to explode so I want to post this quick.
Thanks, Randy

Greg - I agree with you, BUT how else do we explain the presence of 3" bass in Feb. in his pond?. Bird traffic?

Five one pound LMB stocked in May? Possible late spawners with slow growing genetics due to spawning climate? Just throwing another idea out there to solve the mystery of "who dun it." Maybe a little far fetched but...

Randy,
I don't mean to sound like a smart... but a 3-inch bass would be hard pressed to get its mouth around a lure. A 6-inch bass is tiny. Anyway this is my guess. IT was small but longer than 3 inches. I guess I'm more concenred about the stocking in the pond and subsequent "balance" as a result.

Greg,

Believe it or not, I've caught a fair-hooked, legitimately measured three-inch largemouth on a small rooster tail spinner. It is possible. I've got a great picture of the fish.

Just so you know...if you catch a three-inch fish, when you get the photo hold the fish way behind you, the same way if you catch a big fish you stick it out toward the camera. It's hilarious. The fish looks microscopic!!

Bruce

Thanks for the great input. Greg, I promise you that they were 3" and I caught them on those small grubs.
When this pond was "stocked" there were 3" bass then
and like Bruce, I've caught many on Rooster tails too. The late spawn idea is a posibility. This 4A pond has an interesting story behind it, I'll try to supply the "Readers Digest" version later if possible. It'll make interesting reading and make all of that do things the right way gasp in horror.
Randy

i had my 5 acre pond shocked last year(oct) and they found about 60 small bass in the 2-4 inch size.they told me that some of my bass had a late spawn due to enlarging pond.they told me that since we added on to pond sometimes fish will have a 2nd spawn because the area got bigger for them.sound reasonable to me so i thought it was correct.

As a taxidermist I took in a 7 lb. bass that was supposed to have been sitting on a bed in September. The weather was really screwy that spring with lots of cold temps. Maybe the weather messed this fish up? Or the fish was not really spawning just in the vicinity of an old bed. Who knows?

I know for a fact that I had a very late LMB spawn in '04. The spring was abnormally cold and rainy. Some of the spring rains raised the level of my pond by 5' plus with chocolate milk-like water.

In Sept '05, I saw swarms of LMB fry in the 1" range, so I feel somehow there had been a late spawn by at least one LMB.

I think at this point it would be safe to assume those 1-pound bass were of maturity and could have spawned outside what is considered the normal breeding time. Or another way to look at it is “early spawners” for 2005. If the females deposited the eggs late fall they may not be able to spawn again until late 05 or early 06 since their egg growth cycle may be off for a few years. Obviously I’m only speculating with limited information but since there are more than a few 3” fish those 1-pound bass seem to be the parental origin. If it was a late fall spawn coupled with a slow growing winter climate and a limited winter food source than 3 inches is reasonable for February.

Bill or Greg does this seem plausible in your estimation?

I think the late fall spawn is the answer thanks.
Here's my pond story: Last March 31, 2004, I bought a 34 A farm w/house and 1/2A pond. Nobody
had lived in the house for a couple of years or fished in the pond for probably 8-10 years. First time I fished it, I caught about 10 bass
on a plastic worm (1/2-2 lbs). Didn't see any signs of bream, and didn't figure there could be many with what appeared to be many bass,so I added minnows caught from a creek on my property. Then I decided to build bigger pond, but didn't want to enlarge the small pond since I didn't know what was in there. So, we started building the 4A pond, and at the same time seined
the small pond. Well, we caught a couple of 2 lb bass, many smaller ones, a basketball size snapper and a 7 1/2 bass, and about 150 7-8"
bream plus many smaller ones too. These were all taken to a friends lake, except for a few of the big bream which we put in parts of my lake that had water. There were still many more bream, and one more big bass when we finished that night. I don't live at the farm yet, and left and came back a week later to check on things and someone had come back and taken all of the remaining big fish in the pond. At this point we decided the break the dam and drain what was left of the water into the big pond. That is when I noticed the hundreds of small 1/4" fry (bass?) going from the small pond to big pond. As the pond filled I went to my friends pond and caught about five 1 lb bass and many bream from his lake and put them back into mine. Since then I repaired the original 1/2A pond and have stocked it with fatheads, bream, a few small bass and just about anything looking for a home. If that wasn't enough, I built another 1/3A pond and stocked it with about 500 bg and 2000 fatheads -my forage pond. Everything is full and appears ok, but someone please stop me before I dig again! I really love the property, it also backs up to a river which is always fun to fish.
Sorry for rambling on, but I've enjoyed hearing all of the other stories, and just wanted to share mine. I know that I haven't done much "by the book", but mother nature will nudge things back on course where I have messed up. I'm going down to the farm tomorrow for a few days. Life is good.............Randy