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A little update. With the recent rains my lake is full pool. All of those cedars are underwater from 2' to 20'. I caught my first Florida bass the other day. He was a dink, but he is probably too big to be eaten by anything in here.

We have taken 150 fish out, several of those in the 2-4lb range. I am trying to get those fish out before my Florida genetics kick in. Right now it is easy to tell the Florida from the native. I have been letting a lot of people fish here, but they have to keep what they catch, unless they catch a Florida or a BG. I don't know if we can fish the lake into balance, but we are going to try.

My feed store that I got the GFC from is getting me Aquamax 500. The BG are feeding much more aggressively for the Aquamax than they did for GFC. Last night I went to the dock at 9:30. With the doc lights on you could see tons of fry that are around an inch. Too small for my eyes to ID in the water. There were bass feeding on them at that time of day.

I think I am on the right track. Next year I will watch the feeders a little more carefully to not overfeed the spring. I will know more next year. Thanks for the help.

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how are you telling the difference between the two Bass?


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Now it is easy. Anything of any size isn't a Florida. The one I caught was not that dark green as the other fish. Don't know how long that will be easy to tell. For now, everything over 12" has to really make a case for throwing it back in the water. Less than 10% make it back in. The Florida were put in this May/June at 2".

I have a lot of long big mouth small belly fish. I am guessing they were here before I started. For now I am just letting a lot of people catch fish and take them home. I don't think it is possible for us to take too many 2+ lb fish out of the lake right now. Am I wrong on this?

I was catching so many fish to throw out that my thumb recognition on my iPhone wouldn't work. That's a good sign.

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Originally Posted By: gr8texan
Now it is easy. Anything of any size isn't a Florida. The one I caught was not that dark green as the other fish. Don't know how long that will be easy to tell. For now, everything over 12" has to really make a case for throwing it back in the water. Less than 10% make it back in. The Florida were put in this May/June at 2".

I have a lot of long big mouth small belly fish. I am guessing they were here before I started. For now I am just letting a lot of people catch fish and take them home. I don't think it is possible for us to take too many 2+ lb fish out of the lake right now. Am I wrong on this?

I was catching so many fish to throw out that my thumb recognition on my iPhone wouldn't work. That's a good sign.


You are probably right about removing the 2# fish. Take some length and weight measurements and look up the relative weight chart if you want to be sure. For 12 acres though you might need to remove 50# *per acre* to get things back where you want, and then 20-30# per acre per year after that. See if you can get a real management professional to advise you.

Your existing fish will eat a LOT of the 2" Florida stockers though. If you're serious about introducing FL genetics then you'd need much bigger stockers.

Last edited by Bocomo; 09/07/17 01:42 PM.
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Yep, about 95% will be eaten.


It's not about the fish. It's about the pond. Take care of the pond and the fish will be fine. PB subscriber since before it was in color.

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I've got the chart and try to survey every year. This year was just a messed up spring with lowering the lake to work on the dam. I was without structure until May. I talked it over with the guy at Tyler Fish Farm when I stocked my bluegill this year. Since we had 2' of water up in what was a grass bank we decided now was about as good of a time as ever.

Out of 500 fish they all made it into the water alive, and they were back in the grass. I wouldn't have done it without the additional cover, but I agree that most became dinner. Hopefully the bass preferred the BG I put in. I think what I am hearing is that rather than buying 500 2" buy 50 10" and get more surviving fish.

Is the size chart the best way to tell native vs Florida vs hybrid? I hadn't thought that far ahead. I would sure hate to be throwing out the wrong fish next year. Right now we just throw out the skinny long ones. Neighbors are happy because I keep giving them fish.

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My experience from my pond was I had a few LSLB (Camelot bell-Florida) bass that were 13" in Nov. from a 2" June 1st stocking date here in Texas. You may need to adjust your culling by length by this Oct. And you might also look into stocking some small Tp in Oct to help add some wt to your lmb this fall. Stocking the Tp this fall may also reduce some of the pressure off the bg and help out the early next year spawning bg. As the water cools down they become much easier meal. The Tp may not live through the winter but if in S. Texas they might. Overton's is having a Tp special for smaller Tp soon.

Last edited by TGW1; 09/08/17 03:01 PM.

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Originally Posted By: gr8texan




I was catching so many fish to throw out that my thumb recognition on my iPhone wouldn't work. That's a good sign.


This is my definition of a great fishing trip !


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