Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Corrective stocking IDing juvenile fish

Can someone point me at a site where I might see some good pictures of juvenile fish? I have recently seen some approximately 2" fish in my pond that I believe are bluegill but want to be sure as I did have several 10" or so bass put in back in January of this year. Maybe small bass? Thanks in advance.

B. Morris

Bill,

I don't know about a site but the bass even that small should have black stripe down the side. At least the ones in my pond do. If you can get a closeup look at a bluegill it should defintely look like a bluegill vs. a bass. Of course at that size other sunfish may look similar.

Cecil, I have read on some of the sites I have hit doing searches that the juvenile bluegills are shaped like adults but these fish are longer and more slender but I have not seen the stripe. I have gone to the search engines for a while trying to find pictures but have been unsuccessful. I did find your name in one of the university sites though. You get around. Thanks for your input and I'll keep looking for those photos. Hopefully someone can lead me to them.

B. Morris

Juvenile Bass: Once large & smallmouth bass get 1.7-2", in addition to the horizontal dark band, they also have a vertical darkish band at the end of the tail. This is readily apparent as the fish swims parallel to shore. This dark band is often easier to see than the horizontal one and tends to persist even on bass 14"-15" long. This dark tail band is easily visible in most waters esp with darkish bottoms or clearish water. The dark band is not so prevalant in muddy or light colored waters.

B.Morris: To better see these small fish, you can set a minnow/fish trap(WalMart $8-$9) parallel to shore baited with bread or fish food. Best to spray paint trap a dark or dull color; shiny often tends to scare/alarm fish from traps. Bgills are easy to catch in a trap bass tend to avoid most but not all traps. If you cannot catch any of these fish in your drab colored trap they are very probably bass. Once you get these 2" fish in hand you should be able to easily recognize bass from sunfish/bgill. You can also catch most 2" game fish on a number 12, 14, or 16 hook baited with a small bit of worm & no weight with maybe an ice fishing bobber or round toothpick as a bobber, rubber banded to your 2-4 lb test line. . Just have to think small.
If you have minnows in the trap, not to worry the bass will eliminate them in pretty short order; it won't make any difference what kind they are unless they are carp which can grow too big for bass to eat.

FYI to All: Small 1"-3" gamefish are NOT minnows; they are called fingerlings of which ever parent fish they were spawned; for example fingerling bass, fingerling catfish, fingerling walleye, fingerling bluegill. Minnows are a separate type (family) of fish that belong to the minnow/shiner/chub/dace/carp family suchas FAThead minnow (not flathead), golden shiner, emerald shiner, redbelly dace.

Bill as Cecil has mentioned the LMBass should have a very distinctive black horizontal line along its body from tail to head from approx. 1" larger. Bill Cody told me a while back that the blue gill will deepened in their bodies at approx. 3/4" to 1" and you should see vertical bars along their bodies (and he was right on! Thanks Bill Cody). The dark spot on their gill will begin to show and be recognizable. In my lake the bluegill fingerling school in small numbers as did the bass but as the bass grow they became more independent. The bass are much faster swimmers and start to show their predator characteristics as they grow. In general the bluegill/bass have been growing approx. 1/32" per day or 1/4" per week during these summer conditions. Today, the bass fingerling are 4-5" and the first spawn of bluegill a little behind that. However, because bluegill can reproduce approx. ever 30 days or so during the summer I have many sizes of bluegill depending on when they were spawned 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc....? I hope this helps as I gain hands on knowledge with my new lake.

Rowly

I have looked for the black stripe but even my larger bass are more of an aqua green with the stripe not being well defined. I believe this to be due to my water color. Some of these bass came from my sister's pond which is crystal clear and when the bass went into my pond they were definitely colored different, darker with the black stripe noticable. I have noticed a dark area on the tail of a couple of the bigger? small fish. These little guys do swim fast and they get out in the middle of the catfish when they are feeding but seem to know when the cats are coming and get out of the way. Will LMB eat their own young? I will keep watching to see how they develop.

Largemouth bass in my area (N.E./ N. Central Texas) will be dark in coloratiom with a pronounced lateral line when in clear and/or shallow water, and pale with no obvious lateral line (black stripe) when in deep or muddy water.

George, my pond has green water and is deep in the channel. We put a definite channel thru the middle that is about 18' deep when full, probably about 15' right now. I have seen the coloration of bass be different on other reservoirs in past years depending on depth and water color/clarity. I will keep watching the little guys as long as they call my dock home to try to get a positive ID.

Bill, Catch a couple and bring them to your local Department of Fish and Wildlife. It may take a day or two, but you will get a positive identification from a freshwate fisheries biologist. Best part is they do this for free! Well we already have them on pay roll!!

Shoot a digital photo, post it here, someone will know what the fish is.