Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Stunted bass growth???

How long does it take to stunt a LMB growth?Is it reversable?How long in inches does a healthy bass get?Thanx for any help.A fishin buddy in Myrtle Beach

I'm wondering about reversing the effects of stunted growth myself, MbBass.

I'm *finally* beginning to thin the bass enough in one of our ponds so that they're gaining weight (and length).

Logic says that they can never get that initial growth time back that they already lost, but I know they're already getting bigger and I'll be curious to see how well they recover.

To answer one of your questions, a healthy bass can get as big as the conditions allow. It depends upon the type of bass, age, geographic location, forage availability, and all the various pond factors discussed at length on this site, among other things.


Stay tuned until the experts chime in! I'll be curious to hear what they say about reversing the effects of stunted bass, and how long it takes for a bass to become stunted.

Yeah i was hopeing for more replies but everyone must be busy.Wish i can figure out how to get my pictures from my phone to computer.My uncle has a pond that is so over run with bluegill so i started putting big LMB in.Today i put 42 lmb from 12inches to 20 inches.I had been getting my blurgill from there cause i stocked a pond bassackwards.

But i righted the wrong real fast there was forage in the pond that i am stocking but in the past week i put 450 bluegill allllll caught by hand i was goin to use a cast net but didnt.Boy do my hands show it.And after today my hands are so tore up.Weightless senko is the way to go.LMB love them.Well hopefully we will get some anwers to my question and we will both know.Later and tight lines.

stunting- what is the definition? to me it means slowed/no growth. This can occur from day one if in a high density situation with lack of food. Typically it means, in most bass crowded ponds, when a bass reaches 10" and competes with too many other year classes of bass for same preffered food item.

They will snap out of it as soon as energy efficeint food is avail, whole topic on that subject. yes davasta they loss those years.

Say your bass are "stunted" wonder how old they are many are surprised when we find out the 11 inch bass is 4 years old. ANyway you harvest bass, stock forage, fertilize, supplementally fed, etc. mucho $ They start to grow and the bass can get very fat, she gains a 1-lb per year. Now the bad news she will die when 9 years old at 5.5 lbs and very fat. yep she wasted the first four years.

So having said these we now have more agressive harvest rec. b.c we are more concerned with the new bass coming up that we will make sure have plnety of preffered food all theri lives, they will hopefully die at 9 years old weighing 14 lbs.
Hope this helps.

BTW a bass can easily get to 27 inches or so if healthy. sorry for typos gotta run.

If i am reading right a LMB when growth is stunted its head is way out of proportion with its body.And this may take a couple of years to stunt their growth.I think?I am reading so much on pond management my head is spinning and i am looseing some of my childhood memmories retaining this new info,lmao.

mbbass, using relative weights is probably the easiest way to determine if yer fish are becoming stunted...everybody can tell a skinny underfed fish from a fat stuffed fish, but by using relative weights you can monitor the tweeners and tell which way the fishery is going...







p.s. thanks to ewest for this info sometime last year!!

Thank you dave for that chart.That let me know that the fish i have been stocking are ahead of the chart and very healthy.Sheew thats great news.A few fish that i caught had red lips when i took the hook out but by the time i released them the red was gone.Has anyone else noticed this??Some of the LMB had the redest lips kinda funny lookin.I was jokein around and said yeah thats a lady LMB.But i doubt that was right.

Here is the recreated stunted LMB info lost with the links problem. Archives now fixed.

harvesting LMB
http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthread...=true#Post25675


stocking an old pond
http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthread...=true#Post51107


http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthread...=true#Post66768


Theo Gallus
Lunker


Registered: May 14, 2004
Posts: 6032
Loc: Central Ohio
(130.76.96.19) WRT stunted bass growing:

If bass numbers are reduced and forage base is present, both sufficiently, those stunted bass will resume growing. But there are a couple of caveats to go with this.

The stunted bass presently in the pond probably will not ever reach the size that bass in a never-stunted pond will. They've already used up part of their lifespan, and won't live long enough to grow as big as a yonuger, 12" non-stunted bass.

Secondly, there's a lot of thought that if a pond stays in a stunted condition for a sufficient amount of time, the fish may become genetically selected for their stunted state. In a pond managed for big bass, we remove the small bass and retain the large ones, rewarding fast growth and large size with enhanced reproductive rights. In the stunted pond, these (artificial) genetic selectors are not present. There is no penalty for bass which grow just big enough to reproduce and then stop growing, instead expending all their energy on spawning and none on growth.

Perhaps over time this produces bass predisposed to stunt; I certainly think the longer a pond has had stunted bass, the better the chance that it has happened.

IIRC, the course of action usually prescribed is to reduce the overpopulation of bass and improve the foarge base (if needed), then to consider adding fresh LMB genetics (with fish large enough to survive predation from the exsiting bass).



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http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=83919&fpart=1


Cody
http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthread...=true#Post92478

Bill Cody
Lunker


Registered: April 18, 2002
Posts: 3242
Loc: Malinta OH
(64.31.96.79) Many ponds experience the problem of slow growing or stunted largemouth bass (LMB). How can the pond owner reduce this problem and get these bass growing again? Some wonder if these bass will even be able to start growing again if pond conditions are improved. The following link which provides hints from three advisors, two of them professional fish guys, will help you get started with solving a problem of slow growing bass.

Commentary - Any fish that has experienced less than optimum growth has lost the amount of growth that would have occurred if the fish had been eating properly or at optimum levels. In other words that slow growing fish will always lag behind in size of its same aged siblings who annually ate optimum amounts of food. However, it has been proven numerous times that a stunted fish will again start growing when food becomes available in surplus quantities. Depending on the length of time that this fish endured slow growth, it may not live long enough to get to the ultimate trophy size, but it could very likely reach a respectable size and produce numerous healthy offspring who with adequate food will grow to become new trophies.

The initial question that stimulated this archive is from Mark Z who lives in southern Indiana: I am at the end of my 2nd year trying to get my 1.5 acre pond in balance. Started with lots of stunted LMB, some crappie, and pretty nice BG. After removing all crappie and 100 LMB I am seeing nice weight gain on the remaining LMB. I am seeing all sizes of BG that I was not seeing in the first year. I take that to mean I have a decent food supply for the remaining LMB.
My question is: What is the growth potential for previously stunted LMB? Will they start growing again at normal rates for my area or are they somehow "handicapped" after having a lack of food for some indefinite length of time? I assume that their actual age will control how much more they will grow, if they can grow. Would it be wise to add a small number of new LMB to the pond to shake up the genetics at this time?

several of the bass i've caught out here in various reservoirs have red lips that i have always attributed to rooting around bottom surfaces for crawdads and other forage (i'm pretty far from san francisco, so it cant be anything else )

I frequently see red lips on LMB caught in cooler water (say 45-50 deg F). IMHO they act perfectly normal.

And i was hopeing i caught some sexy ladies.LOL.Going by the chart i think i got bass that were growing right for there length.Wish i could find a chart like that for southern ponds or south carolina ( hint hint ).Ewest or dave.Thanx for all the info you guyz gave me you have saved my butt.This all started out just cause i wanted a fishing hole at my house and around me.In a 2 and a half acre pond.

Then i did the right thing and started reading about the fish i love and want to keep healthy.That led me to this site.That led to all these questions.That errased some of my childhood memmories to retain all this new info.But since all this i found there is prior forage and quickly put in 450 bg.To take care of my 32 bass that are 12 to 23 inches.Can i add more LMB with the amount of bg i have half are 4 to 7 inch.

But i had to right the wrong and i am getting help and another 250 bg was added by my friends.And if i was reading right i am going to add another 300 to 400 bg just befor march, before they spawn.I hope that is early enuff here in myrtle beach, south carolina.

Again everyone that has responded to my questions and posts i cant repay you for your info that you gave me.This is top notch site with helpfull people.Glad to see nice people are still out there as messed up as the world seems to be geeting around us.
Richard Brown
coastal pressure and window cleaning
in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

Richard, the Wr chart was designed from fish all over the country. It works just fine in the SE but like I always say it is ok for now but really wonderful over time. It is an index so best calculated to see where the fish are headed. The true value may be diff in the diff parts of the country but he rise or fall is what you need to be loking at. If your goal is larger bass I would not add any until you see how the bass are doing.

I just went out to the pond today and caught 3 fish and they were on the heavy side, based on the charts.I plan to try this evry week.I am trying to leave them alone for right now untill after spawn so they are nice and cozy.I am currently makeing records of the fish i catch in my new pond.

I wont add anymore adults for awhile.Cause i still plan to add another 300 to 500 bluegill that are 3 to 6 inch range right before they spawn in late march early april.It has been so warm here for awhile now i wounder if they wont spawn sooner than later???Lows middle fourties highs aroun65 to 79 today!Thanx for the help