Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Pellet-trained bass

Has anyone had any experience with stocking food pellet trained bass in their lake or pond?? I am considering stocking some in my lake. Currently, we have Florida bass only and the big ones are just about impossible to catch. I understand that the pellet-trained bass are northern strain fish. Does anyone know of any disadvantages involved with the feed trained bass? Seems like we would have some F-1 offspring after a few years.
Thanks, Bill

The feed trained bass are great! The only disadvantage is they may top out at 6-7 lbs. A legit bass this big is great, but if trying to grow a world record not the way to go. Yes you will have a mix of genetics once they bred with the FLA subspecies. Give 'em a shot. Got a good feeder?

Good morning, Bdoug.

I just wanted to add a note of caution. I realize that your question primarily was about genetics. However, there is another issue with pellet-raised bass. Typically, they do not survive as well as bass raised on some type of live food. In fact, the best place for them may be a new (empty) pond where they can learn, survive, and grow without competition from wild fish.

There is a top-notch fishery biologist at North Carolina State University, Rich Noble. When he was working at Texas A&M University, he compared survival of pellet-reared and live-fish-reared largemouth bass, and the difference was great. The pellet-reared fish apparently do not have the skills needed to forage in the wild, or at least need some learning time, compared to the bass raised on live fish.

Dave

Thanks for the response. Greg I have 2 automatic feeders (Sweeney brand)on two docks to feed the fish. I have a quote of $9.50 per pound delivered and plan to stock 200 lbs. The bass average 1.5 lbs each and are going to be stocked in a couple of weeks.
David you mention a survival problem. Is this an immediate problem or more of a long-term survival problem? Has anyone else noticed this problem?
Thanks again for the responses.

Bill

Bdoug -- I probably didn't give you enough background information. I DON'T have personal experience with this. We just have a general concern within the fisheries profession.

Say that you decide to add largemouth bass to a pond that already has existing populations of both predator and prey fishes. In this case, you decide to stock 6-inch fingerling bass. If you buy bass that have been raised exclusively on pellets, they may not survive too well. Their entire lives have been spent in a circular tank or raceway, and they gather to feed on pellets several times a day in a feeding frenzy. You can expect some to be so naive that the resident predators eat them right away, and there go some of your expensive fingerlings. Some may learn predator avoidance, but then they don't know how to feed on wild prey fishes, so at first they are pretty unsuccessful. So, some of these may die in a month or two, while some learn.

Now, let's say that you stocked the pond with 6-inch largemouth bass that came from a commercial producer who raised them in an outdoor pond. They learned to catch insects, and they learned how to chase, handle, and feed on prey fishes in that pond. They may even have learned that they need to avoid their larger brother or sister that became a cannibal. These fish would be expected to survive the first month or two after stocking at a much higher rate than the pellet-reared fish.

Hope that clarifies my minor note of "caution."

Dave

I have used pellet raised bass in several scenarios. If you intend to stock them with an existing population of bass, don't expect them to blend. You will still need to feed them. Feeding should be a committment. If you are using them to fill a missing year class, stock lightly, with uniform size fish. If you want to use them to increase catchability of all bass, overcrowd them slightly, but feeding is still a committment.
Fish will respond to instinct and conditioning. With pellet raised bass, conditioning seems to override instinct, because fish farms feed their bass to satiation, every day. No need to forage, and when hatchery bass are overcrowded, "What forage?"

bdoug,
sounds like your getting some fish from American Sportfish?? That is my source and have had them do great, but like Bob mentioned Feeding is important. You should be set with the feeders. I think the survivial will be fine as long as you feed pellets. The research showing lowered survivial was proabably a comparision of farge raised bass and pellet raised bass survival when stocked in ponds without the continued use of pellet food.

That's correct, Greg. Thanks for clarifying it. I didn't mean to confuse the issue like that -- need to be more careful!! :-)

Greg, I am getting them from Southeastern Pond Management. They should be delivered in a couple of weeks. My lake is about 8 acres and I have 2 feeders. I am planning to buy 200 lbs of fish which average 1.5 lbs each (around 130 individuals). Do you think I have enough feeders? We feed 3 times a day currently. My lake is currently a little bass crowded (with Florida bass). One of our main objectives is to have some larger, catchable bass. We will continue to harvest all bass under 1 lb. We have very large coppernose bluegill that feed heavily on the feed, so I guess I will need to increase the amount that I dispense with each feeding.
Bill

Follow the fish..they will tell you how much to feed. Exercise good judgement, however, and don't overfeed. Too much feed yields too much fish waste, which taints water quality. If you are feeding much more than 10-15 pounds of pellets per acre, per day, you are overfeeding. Cull fish before getting to that point. If each feeder is feeding 5 or 6 pounds daily, and your fish show continued growth, your plan is working. Increase feed based on increased growth, or lack thereof. Keep records of fish delivered, then record fish you catch and compare lengthes and weights over time. The story will unfold.

From what I have observed most bass sold larger than fry are usually pellet trained and fed anymore anyway. It's more cost effective than trying to feed them live feed.

I do know pellet trained bass will quickly adapt to natural feed if they are the only ones in the pond. As far as competing with bass on natural feed I don't know. I do know my pellet fed bass that I feed twice a day in summmer also feed on bluegills and will not hesitate to hit a fish thrown in the water or hit an artifical lure.

I wouldn't have anything else besides pellet trained bass, as it allows me to have more bass, and faster growing bass in one of my ponds. My pellet fed bass have much higher condition factors than the natural fed bass.

In fact, I will probably be bartering with a pond management company to come in an remove as many of the 12 to 13 inch untrained fish as they can. He will electroshock for me for harvest (I sell trophy fish to other taxidermists see http://www.ligtel.com/~jjbaird/bairdfish2.htm) and he can have slower growing natural fed bass. These bass were hatched from the pellet fed bass, and are much slower growing than the pellet trained fish.

My pellet trained bass here in northern Indiana will be 10 to 14 inches in one year vs. a 4 or 5 year old fish of the same size that feeds naturally. Three pounds in three years seems to be the norm for the pellet fed fish. I will hold on to my bass until they are about 6 lbs. before sale.

However, diets exclusively for largemouth bass have still not researched enough and there is a possibility that they are not getting everything they need on a pellet diet. Some research has shown a possible lower survival rate of pellet trained bass in winter due to this but it is not conclusive. Be sure to feed them high protein feed. I feed mine a trout broodstock diet that has a large pellet size and has extra vitamins and minerals.

Whoops there is a "g" in ligtel instead of a "q" which I mistyped.

So the the web page address is:

http://www.ligtel.com/~jjbaird/bairdfish2.htm