Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations old farm pond small bass. HELP !!

I bought some property 4 yrs ago with a one acre spring fed farm pond in ohio. Only bass and bluegill in it. The pond has been there for over 100 yrs. I have caught only three or four bass over 4 lbs since I have owned it. All bass are around the 12-14 inch range. I spoke to a pond management person at our local hatchery who told me to take 15 -20 bass out in that slot per yr. which i ahve been doing for the past 2 yrs. I still am not seeing ANY growth with my bass. The other thing to note is that I have a ton of Bule gills. The habitat seems to be great. Tons of all sizes of both bass and Bluegill just not growing any big ones. I am also taking 30-40 Blue gill out per yr. I knoe it takes time but I want to make sure Im doing the right things.... Any one have any feedback. I feel like im not being agressive enough

I'd take out more than that of the slot size bass if the WR of the fish is below 100. There's a thread in the archives that tells you what a LMB with a WR of 100 should be size/weight wise.

How many submerged or emergent weeds are there in the pond? If there is a lot, you might need to thin the weed population out a bit as well.

I'm assuming that you are not aerating, nor feeding, correct?

By the By, Welcome to PondBoss!!

Im sorry.. what is WR. Also the cattails on the pond are thick.. about 10 feet out from the bank all the way around

no im not feeding or aerating

Wr is relative weight. It's a good indicator of how much food there is for the fish to eat. Too little spread among too many mouths, and their Wr is usually less than 100. Also, the food might be there, but there are too many places for it to hide, and the fish has to expend more energy to get it than the food gives in return.

Click here for the archives, and look for Relative Weight.

Are there other submerged weeds in the pond besides the cattails?

yes but only on on side. Its some type of grass . What are your thoughts on all the blegill? Also I put 50 channel cat in this year for the kids to catch. We are keeping and eating them as we catch them. Will this have much impact n the bass growth?

The Channel Cats (CC) won't have much if any impact on the LMB growth. The BG being all different sizes means that there is good recruitment, which is good. Are they bluegills or another sunfish species? Sunfish I.D.

When you can, report the WR of the fish, BG included, and we can get a clearer picture of what's going on in the pond.

I put CC in my pond, and I found that if I caught them and released them, they were very hard to re-catch. I've learned to catch and keep them.

We like pictures too. If you can, post some close-up side views of the fish that you are catching.

i found the relative weight chart on the link. All the bass im catching are 12- 13 inches. The BG are all sizes. Also no sunfish all BG.

how do i know that the bass i am removing are the stunted bass and not the bass that are just growing into that slot size ? or does it matter..

It doesn't matter. What does a 12" long LMB weigh?

1 pound

A 12" LMB weighing in at 1 lb has a wr of 125, which is good. (A wr of 100 for a 12" LMB is 0.8#)

Now I'm confused. Either the larger LMB are being caught by someone else, or they are smart enough to stay off of the hook.

Either way, your culling efforts seem to be paying off!

I never cull or even keep bluegill. I have a lot of them that are 10 to 10.5 inches and they are the backbone of the food chain.

I have often heard to cull all bass under 13 inches. I like the idea and do it. No way to really catch them all.

Keep the bluegill in the pond, cull as many bass as you can under 13". Like Dave said... You can't catch them all. CC will compete with the LMB for forage. Not a good time to introduce CC if you suspect your bass are stunted. Catch & Keep except for the BG and exceptional LMB!

Stunted LMB can usually be identified by heads & fins disproportionate to their body and skinny bellies. Also, if most of the LMB that you catch are carbon copies of each other at 11'-13" the chances are high that they are stunted.