Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations SM Bass

I put 10 bass in my one acre pond 2 years ago. They were about 10 inches and were supposed to breed last spring (2003)
I have not see any of them since I put them in. heard that they were supposed to lay their eggs in about 3 feet of water. My pond is about 7 feet deep to about 2 feet at the far end. I have lots of goldfish in the pond. Grrrr. It seems that there are a lot less small ones this year. Actually I put the bass in to get rid of the goldfish which seem to number in the thousands. The largest ones are about 9 0r 10 inches (goldfish)

Hi Bob.

We put 35 smallmouth bass in a pond last spring. They were 6-13 inches long. Just by chance, we sampled that pond yesterday. The largest smallmouth bass that we saw was 16 inches long.

We were able to seine quite a few of this year's smallmouth bass. They were about 25-30 mm long. I'd guess that perhaps your spawning time might be somewhat similar to ours??

So, I'd expect that your smallmouth bass should be plenty big enough to spawn this year, based on stocking 10-inchers a couple of years back. You might try looking for the little ones?

Dave

Bob - You may have had only one or two successful nests this year. You may not see any of this years young until they are about 2"-3" long. Look more carefully in late July or Aug. Use some wire mesh minnow traps baited with 1/2 slice of bread. SMbass readily go into traps, but not for the bread. I think they are nosey and looking for cover. Bread will attract small fish and bass will enter trap looking for food/cover. Set traps near cover. You should also catch lots of goldfish with the traps. Use gold fish as bait for adult bass.

You may have difficulty catching any of the adults since you only put 10 in orginally. Try fishing with goldfish w/ a bobber and a 2" goldfish with only a split shot and a #6 or 4 aberdeen hook. Hook goldfish through lips; work it along the bottom near cover, logs or rocks. The adults may be very hard to catch due to the abundance of easy to catch goldfish as food.

Does your pond have some crayfish present?

Thanks for the replies. I don't think that I have any crayfish. There are lots of Bullfrogs and we always had lots of big tadpoles, (but there seem to be fewer this year) I know that there are leeches (which I wish the Bass would eat)
I am just hoping that the Bass are still there, even tho I have never seen them.
Water visability is only about 30 inches. I suspect that this is due to the goldfish stirring up the bottom (which is mud)