Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Big bass

Awesome! How could I improve the spawning area for bass?

lm bass are highly adaptable - they are going to figure out a way to spawn regardless of the terrain. however if we are talking preferences, they prefer to spawn on a relatively flat or gradually sloping (vs steep) terrain in anywhere from 1-4 ft. of water. many times, the clearer the water is, the deeper the beds will tend to be. nearby cover such as stumps, vegetation, or brushpiles can help. but i wouldn't sweat it too much. trust me, if you have bass in a pond, they're gonna find places to spawn.

if you are overpopulated with bass in a pond, then spawning habitat is definitely not a concern.

Drop a lively nightcrawler in the bed that is hooked under the collar and the LMB are much easier to catch.

Oh ok I gotcha. I went yesterday to have a look after work and didn't see any beds. But I managed to pull out 11 under 14" and caught two that were bigger and looked healthy.




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I don't think my picture worked. I caught about a 3" perch but don't know what kind it is. I'll try and fix it later. But it looked like a bluegill with the body of a bass.

i found something that says its a hybrid green perch. https://twitter.com/JAKEWRIGHTT/status/336851143336534017

That pic worked, I was going to guess a warmouth or some people call them redeyes. Until I saw the pic.

Since your pond is only 1 acre you should be able to put a serious dent in the bass population. I would do it as fast as possible.

I'm just guessing that in TX they are going to be spawning any minute now. I'm in southern Maryland and the bass in my pond have moved from the depths and are cruising right on the shore, but no signs on their fins of nest making yet. We had a very cold winter.

Hopefully I'll have a full day to fish Saturday. I figured that they already spawned but this weird weather we are having might mess it up. I don't really know. Didn't see any signs of it yesterday. They were pretty active though, anything I threw they were hitting.

jig&pig is right they will find a way to spawn if conditions are right. I have not had a LMB spawn in a couple of years but guess what I caught a couple of weeks ago? 2, 8 inch LMB so they must have had a spawn last year finally. And my pond is 1 acre as well so now I am trying to catch them buggers and get them out. Don't want or need another 100 or more LMB running around in my pond.

RC

They have spawned to much for me too! Is it true that a pond with stunted bass for an extended period the bass can't reach thier pontential max growth anymore? I read about it on here. Wondering if y'all have had the same problem I've had and say 4 or 5 years from now not seen big fish. Does it go into breeding, should I maybe stock fresh bass say 15" and bigger once it is thinned out? Or is it ok if I keep the numbers down. I'm full of questions, this forum opened up a whole new world!

I am going to say yes to your question. Depending on the time frame. If you correct your number the LMB will start to grow agian but they will never get real big if you will. For an example lets say you have a stunted pond of LMB at 13 inches. Say 300 of them in a 1 acre pond. If you caught and kept 150 of those the others would start to grow again, (given there is enough food still for the 150 left) but their growth rate v.s. their age is all messed up now. So instead of having your bass getting to 6 or 7 pounds they may now only get to 3 to 4 pounds maybe 5 if your lucky. Hope that makes since. Keep in mind I am no expert on all of this just telling you what I have read and seen in my pond.


RC

Sorry no expert here but I agree with RC...If its a pond full of stunted bass their genetics are that of stunted bass.

But even so, in an older pond there could be one or more big bass. They might be fat from eating everything in the pond that fits in their big mouth.

If you catch a fat healthy bass put it back in. You can use the RW charts to very accurate.

Oh yeah, they are done spawning there. The LMB around Dallas finished a week or so ago.

I would guess that in south TX they might spawn for several different months like they do in Fla.

I agree. Checking the pond again for spawning LMB right before the next full moon would be a good idea.

I'll have to check again, There are probably some still spawning. I'm removing as many as I can under 15" unless they are just rollin fat. Guess I'll be eating a lot of fish soon!

Has anyone stocked tilapia in central Texas? Did they survive the winter?

This^

Its probably the best thing you can do right now.

Its the first step. I am doing the same. Can't see stocking forage until the bass are under control. Or else you are just putting a quick snack in the pond for a hundred bass.

I don't plan on stocking anything this year or at least not till the end. I'm just searching for ideas. Tons of them on here.

I would like to ask for both of us, if you catch one over 15" even over 20" and it has a big head but looks skinny, should it be taken out, because it may never recover to trophy size? But I know right after the spawn females can lose serious weight.

Most guys will tell you to wait a month or so after spawn to start taking RW's and go from there. That give the female bass a chance to get back in the action. Now is really not a good time to be trying to size your fish because of the spawn. I would say if you caught one like that in the end of May and in June I would say you got a problem if it were 20 inches I would let it go and keep getting rid of the 12 to 15 inch range first. Give that 20 incher a chance to fill back out. But that just me.

RC

Absolutely. If you can see them, for sight fishing, a live nightcrawler dropped in the bed is deadly. We use to slay them like that, well until it became illegal.

Everything is becoming illegal. Next thing you know they are gonna tell me I can't throw dynamite in the river when I'm fishing.

Yea, believe it or not in my state, bass fishing is CLOSED for non tidal freshwater fishing from March 1st-June 15th. They simply do not want you fishing for bass during the spawn.

Does any other state even have such a closure on bass?