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im in memphis tn. i have a 6-7 acre lake with about half 4-6 ft deep and half slopes to 18 or so feet. about five years ago twra came and seined the lake and suggested a heavy bass harvest. for two years i removed 350+ and 250+ bass from lake and little to no bream with very good records of all fish caught. the last three years i have not been able to fish as often and only harvested 60 - 120 fish per year. a few other people fish there and the the rule is 14 and under come out so there have probably been 50 or more extra taken the last few years. the average fish is 10-12 inches with a few 2 lb or better each year. the bream were big last i fished them but that was several years ago. the bass do seem to be healthier and fight better but they are still the same size. the lake is not fertilized or limed and aside from maybe some catfish which i have never been able to catch there are only bream and bass. the lake has a good algea bloom (assuming that the little clusters of algea floating in the lake indidcate a good bloom) and the water is right on the line of muddy to stained. there is no grass or other aquatic plant that grows in the lake but there are xmas trees, ridges and fallen trees. i would like to catch larger bass. i dont care about a fifteen pounder but see no reason i cant have 2 to 3 pounders regularly. with two years of heavy harvest followed by three of moderate harvest has this just had no affect on bass population. i understand fertilizer ph and forage all affect this as well but to see no real size difference is kind of disapointing. i am fishing more now and contiue to remove bass so is there anything else that i can do to improve the size without spending more that 3 or 4 hundred dollars? thanks.

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scag, welcome to Pond Boss! I'd like to get more information about the LMB. Do you have a scale that weighs in ounces, or tenths of a pound? A real good indicator of fish growth is the relative weight of a fish. It is usually expressed as WR. There is a chart in the archives that gives WR figures of 100 for all types of different fish. Go catch a few LMB, get accurate length/weight measurements (down to 0.1 of a pound) and compare those weights/lengths to the chart. If they are close to what the chart reads, then the LMB have enough food and your culling efforts have done some good. If they are under that by a bunch, then you still have a lot of LMB to take out. If over that by a bunch then you have done very well in your culling efforts.

A larger BOW (Body of Water) like that might need more aggressive culling, and that might nessitate having a pond management service come in and electrofish the pond to get a really good survey of the BOW. They can cull out a bunch of under WR LMB at the same time, if there are too many LMB in the BOW.


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agrre with esshup run some Wr and report. Here is a link for you. http://lakework.com/site/documents/Largemouth%20Bass%20Relative%20Weight%20Index.pdf
It is not uncommon we suggest 30 lbs of bass to be removed/acre. This means in 6.5 acres about 400 10 inch bass. You did well the first two years but could be right back where you started with two years of less bass removed.

Keep in mind there is a lag period. bass harvest then more bluegill then better growth might not see results for about a year. WIth out running Wr it is difficult to track- first suggestion along with continued culling. Add some cover I think is next suggestion this will help protect bluegill allowing them to get a little more size before the bass eat them. If more production is in order begin proper fertilization program this means monitoring visiblity and applying as neccesray to maintain bloom. GL.


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thanks. i figured i messed up by not continuing to harvest 300 plus fish the last few years. i am back at is and have already taken 60+ this month. i also saw a catfish today and actually caught one as well. it was a meager 10 pounds. crazy to never catch or see one in 15 years fishing this lake and got one today and the one i saw was as big. i caught about 16 or so this morning so ill measure and weigh and let you know. thanks.

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Two things without spending a lot of money. Increase select harvest, take those slots out, as many as you can. At least for 2 more seasons. Up to 500 per season. I might drop down the minimum to 12. Increase forage cover and nesting. If you have any drawdown and exposed out of water shallows build nests and covers. Out of anything, pvc, rocks, large structure, pallets, rip rap, a little bit of everything, and lots of indentations filled with pea gravel to 1/2" rock. If you can add more forage, frogs, crawdads, gambusia, shiners. Whatever is most cost effective. Do that two year plan and then wait.

You have the too many mouths to feed not enough food syndrome. Harvest heavier, add more forage and habitat for forage to reproduce and growout.

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i weighed some of the fish and some are duplicate so ill just post if difference in weight for a particular length. there seems to be no chart that has less than 10". does it not matter what they weigh if less than 10"?

8 1/2 - .3 - .4 oz
9 - .4 oz
11 - .9 oz
13 - .15 oz
14 - 1.3 - 1.5

caught a few bigger but put them back. ill start weighing and measuring release fish once i get some more out.

there are also two 1.5 acre lakes at each end of this one. the beavers have demolished one levee that seperates them so when the water is high the fish can move lake to lake in a few openings. neither of these ponds are fished often so i may start taking bass out of them as well and any bream get put into big lake from these.

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From that little sample, the WR's are running .84/.85 with the heaviest 14" fish having a WR of .92.

Not much can be inferred from one fish, but they are all underweight.

If you catch any more 14" or longer, weigh them as well.

I'm assuming when you write the weight 1.3 -1.5 you are saying 1 lb 3 oz and 1 lb. 5 oz?


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PF you saying 500 lmb from a 6.5 acre pond. If ten inch average that is about 250 lbs or 38 lbs/acre that is carrying cpacity for many folks. I like agressive that is for sure. However kinda agree becasue you can never take too many they will just grow like crazy and you will be back in a year or so. WItht he connected ponds # might be right on.

Scag good job yes weigh bigger also they should have bettter Wr if not remove also. The best means for removal is to remove those with lower Wr and those smalelr than the healthy size. If you get a nice 16" bass you should see that it has good Wr due to lack of competetion for the proper food item. Also remove the smaller bass <8 inch as your doing regardless. It does not add lots to total lbs of removal but they eat little 2 inch bluegill also that could become 4 inch bluegill so keep it up. GL.

By all means if the ponds are connected now you will have to basically harvest as if that is one total surface acres so this means more lbs than origanlly stated.

Also if you caugth one cat you might have more you probably knwo this but a big cat like that is eating alot of potential bass food so remove as well for your goals.


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I figure a lot of those fish are lost causes anyway. Might as well keep whatever grew well and take out the rest. Those culled fish are behind in growth anyway and might never get caught up. I had a similar sized pond, and the entire pond was stunted LMB. I practically wanted to start from scratch and over with a new class that had max forage from the start. Way better chance of managing fish for growth if you start off right. The start over new class is averaging anywhere from 1/2 to 1 lb more at same length, and way earlier in life. These fish, although maybe slightly less in overall numbers show way more realized growth. Plus my overall carry capacity is divided among a lower number of bigger fish. And when the seasonal drawdown hits, the forage fish lose thier cover and it goes down even more. In my experience, once you get to that overpopulated underfed status, you cannot be too aggressive. He pretty much tells that story already with his culling that showed no results. Plus, it gives the forage a chance to build up. Bigger individual fish with more to eat and larger forage to eat.

Last edited by The Pond Frog; 07/05/10 05:14 PM.
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well after reading here and talking with local biologist i think i have a plan for now. even though when the water is high one of the smaller lakes is accesible to the larger it is a minimal access. i am going to allow the bass to stay there and maybe even add some from the big lake and make that a great bream fishing lake. i am going to take the other small lake and intensly manage it for large bass. i will do what i can with the large lake and continue to take out all bass caught in hopes that it will be enough. i also plan to add fatheads or shad to both the 6.5 acre lake and the 1.5 acre lake that will be for bass fishing. maybe the following year i can have the lake elecroshocked to see where we need to go from there. i guess i should have done more in the small lakes before but it is just more fun to fish the big one since it takes more than thirty min to get around it. ill add cover and forage and remove what i can and that should get me going. i really just want to catch 2 and 3 lb bass and though it would be nice i don't need a 10 lb er just yet.

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scag, good plan of action I like your thoughts on the other ponds. My advice for big pond- shad stocking next spring only do not buy until right when ready to spawn. Save your money on fatheads in existing pond instant food and at conversion rates your spending about $100/lb of weight gain if paying $10/lb for fhm is less you can still do the math- not good use of funds. Fertilization (properly done) and fish feeding can also add, as can cover if your lacking enough to protect bluegill.

PF, you are correct on everything you stated but if doing that much harvst why not drian and startover and get some real growth. Forage base comes back quicker and acutally less $ b/c we can restock with tiny 1-2 inch bluegill rather than correcting with some existing bass at 4-5" bluegill. we can add fathead minnows, less shad, etc. Just easier and in many cases better to drain a pond and start over but most clients will not do it.


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i would do it but would it not be several thousand dollars to restock a 6.5 acre lake? plus the other two lake do have a small acess to large one when water is really high so i would need to do them as well. so that is another 2-3 acres.


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