Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Good Fishing Time

Had the oportunity to fish the last three mornings. Bass are schooling and just killing the threadfin shad. Have caught 35 to 50 bass each morning. They are hitting spinner, rattle trap, crank bait and worm. Most are about a pound to pound and half. One was 4.4 lbs. Love this time of year.
Have taken out about 240 lbs. of 15" or less with about 200 lbs to go based on recomendation of SE Pond Mgt.
Every bass taken out had shad in stomach about the size of your pinky.
Lake is 28 months old and largest bass caught is 5.1 lbs.
My suggestion is go fishing. Best to all!

Go Wayne! Are you keeping records of fish you remove?

Bob,
I am only tracking the total weight removed. Have taken out 240 lbs of bass 15" or less. SE Pond said they wanted 440 lbs removed 15" or less. That leaves 200 lbs to remove before spring spawn.
I am continuing to track all the tagged fish for weight and length. Have caught one tagged fish twice; once of May 11th, 2002 and again on Sept. 2, 2002 (Should have gone to the casino that day instead of fishing.) These are all F1's and they do put up a big fight. The 4.4 lbs fish was caught on tuesday this week and he really took some line off before comming back to the boat. Again, the biggest fish so far is 5.1 lbs so I am hoping to see a 6 lbs fish or better this fall or maybe in the spring.
It should be a good week end for fish and a better week-end if Alabama whips Tennessee! Best regards.......

Good stuff...please, keep us posted. What you are doing is solid management, and lots of eyes here want to keep track. Enquiring fish minds want to know.

Wayne, what was the size of the lake you are removing 440 lbs. of bass from? It sounds like you have created a monster maker!

Hey Wayne,
My 2 Acre pond is in Calera, about 30 miles south of Birmingham. Where in Alabama are you?
Roll Tide!
Dave Keyes

Why in the world are your taking fish out of lake that is only 28 months old???? I realize the SE told you to....but...that sounds weird. Was it over stocked??

The lake is near Gainesville, Alabama in Sumter County. The farm is in the "Black Belt" region which refers to the rich soil. There are limestone out cropings so the 23 acre lake never needs agricultural lime added and the water is very fertile. All in all a good place to raise "trophy bass" which is my goal.
The lake was not over stocked. The strategy in removing the small bass is to remove the competition for the larger bass and so the small bass won't spawn this spring and thus make more small bass. I think the bass can get ahead of the pondmeister's ability to remove bass if one waits too long to start the removal process. It's a big job but somebody has to do it. (that's what I tell my wife anyway!) So far am very happy with the way it's producing and SE Pond Mgt. assistance.
Since my first post have now removed 305 pounds but fishing has slowed with the weather not co-operating. When the shad are schooling these F1's are like wolves.
One other thing I am doing is that I have build two,two acre "forage ponds" that empty into the 23 acre lake that have coppernose bluegill and threadfin shad with no preditors. Every September I empty them into the big pond so the bass will have the extra forage before winter. I think this adds alot of pounds on the bass because they are in a feeding frenzy and then shortly after they slow down in winter and expend little energy.
Hope this sheds some light on what I am doing.

Thanks for your response. I just thought it was a little early to be removing bass, but your situation sounds alot different from ours. I guess your weight gains and growth on your bass have lead to an early elimination of some smaller ones. Our lake has been stocked 4 yrs. and we have not removed any bass as of yet. We will hopefully this spring. By the way, we have produced a 7.5 pounder and I'm sure there, more as this lake is not fished very much at this time.

Also....I hope SE shocked your lake before making there recomendations. Please tell me they did.

Brian,
Depending on your goals for your pond. You should probably start removing some bass. Do you want a quality/trophy bass lake? Your pond produces excess numbers of pounds via repro. of bass every year. These in turn have a limited food supply after year 2-3. As you said I would not recommend bass harvest numbers without an analysis first. BTW are you running any RW nubers on your bass. Is there a high ratio of 10-14 inch bass? If so start removal now before growth rates start to slow. Good luck, Greg

Brian,
SE shocks every May.
I forgot to mention that we have stocked tilapia for the past two years to boost forage. I think that helps.
7 pound bass out of your lake sounds great! How old is your lake?

Hey Wayne, thanks for the information on the new lake. It sounds like you are well on the way to your dream lake! You are providing interesting insights for all, and a different perspective to some on pond management. Hold the course! You have done well so far and I see no reason to change anything now. I may be the lone ranger on this point, but I enjoy the taste of bass in the skillet!! Remember, management means reaching your goal, not what anyone else wants.