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curious of what you guys think the side of adult fish are on average like bass id say 2.5 t 3 pounds on average as an adult right? channel catfish could be 5 t bigger

a 9 pound bass is considered rare correct? or do all bass have the potential to get that big as long as they have enough food

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Averages are not so accurate. On LMB females are much bigger than males so that makes the average misleading. A 9 lb LMB is big no matter the location but not always rare (it depends on your definition). All LMB do not have the potential to get to 9 lbs (males not ever that big).

CC can get big but average is not a good measure as most are harvested (or die) at a much smaller size. Hope this helps.
















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Matt, I'm still fairly new to all this, so take this with a grain of salt...

I bet you'll get a lot of 'it all depends' type of answers, since there are trillions of variables in any pond ecosystem.

One consideration as you mentioned is having plenty of food, because obviously if the forage base is depleted, your bass will stop growing and in extreme cases start to wither away (get skinnier). I've actually seen this happen in my pond, since we didn't manage it at all and let it be predator (LMB) overcrowded for probably at least 15 years, so our bass currently top out at about 11" and are very skinny although they're all probably quite old fish. If a pond is managed well to keep the forage base heavy and predators in lower numbers, those predators should keep growing until they reach a size where they're quite big and the forage fish are too small for them, so they have to burn way too many calories just to get a little snack. At that point, your bigger bass might hit a limit even if there's an infinite supply of little forage fish. I.e., to reach the biggest possible size, a bass needs to be growing at full throttle for its entire life, and this only happens if it has an abundant supply of the right size of foods during each stage of its life (so the bass as a baby needs plenty of little sized food, but the bass as a 5-6 pounder would need plenty of rather large sized food to keep growing fast). You'll see this referred to as Optimal Foraging Theory.

Another consideration is length of the growing season (warmness of climate), so you in Florida could in theory grow some bigger bass than I could here in PA due to you having a warmer climate, since there's a longer portion of the year when the water's warm enough for the bass to be active and feeding hard.

Those are just a couple considerations, but I'm sure others will jump in.

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Originally Posted By: ewest
Averages are not so accurate. On LMB females are much bigger than males so that makes the average misleading. A 9 lb LMB is big no matter the location but not always rare (it depends on your definition). All LMB do not have the potential to get to 9 lbs (males not ever that big).

CC can get big but average is not a good measure as most are harvested (or die) at a much smaller size. Hope this helps.


yeah i know i mean like if they were able to live out there normal life say in a massive rez where there is no shortage of food lets say perfect standards

for each basic fish we enjoy catching

also would you consider a 9 pound female bass is about as rare of a catch as say a 60 pound flathead?

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Originally Posted By: Drew Snyder
Matt, I'm still fairly new to all this, so take this with a grain of salt...

I bet you'll get a lot of 'it all depends' type of answers, since there are trillions of variables in any pond ecosystem.

One consideration as you mentioned is having plenty of food, because obviously if the forage base is depleted, your bass will stop growing and in extreme cases start to wither away (get skinnier). I've actually seen this happen in my pond, since we didn't manage it at all and let it be predator (LMB) overcrowded for probably at least 15 years, so our bass currently top out at about 11" and are very skinny although they're all probably quite old fish. If a pond is managed well to keep the forage base heavy and predators in lower numbers, those predators should keep growing until they reach a size where they're quite big and the forage fish are too small for them, so they have to burn way too many calories just to get a little snack. At that point, your bigger bass might hit a limit even if there's an infinite supply of little forage fish. I.e., to reach the biggest possible size, a bass needs to be growing at full throttle for its entire life, and this only happens if it has an abundant supply of the right size of foods during each stage of its life (so the bass as a baby needs plenty of little sized food, but the bass as a 5-6 pounder would need plenty of rather large sized food to keep growing fast). You'll see this referred to as Optimal Foraging Theory.

Another consideration is length of the growing season (warmness of climate), so you in Florida could in theory grow some bigger bass than I could here in PA due to you having a warmer climate, since there's a longer portion of the year when the water's warm enough for the bass to be active and feeding hard.

Those are just a couple considerations, but I'm sure others will jump in.



yeah i know that about forage also doesnt water size have a lot t do as well like a catfish will be able to reach his max potential in a 200 acre pond vs a 1 acre pond and isnt just due to food?

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Matt,

Considering I caught this 9+ lbs LMB in my 1/2 acre pond that had never been managed or fed shows that anything is possible. Are 9 lbs fish rare? Yeah, probably. But probably not as rare as you would think.



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damn yeah thats bigger than 9 lolz i caught a 9 when i was 11 and it was maybe inch or 2 longer but that things fat lol mine was skinny just laid eggs

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There are not many 60 lb FH in small ponds. In lakes and rivers - yes. A FH that size would decimate the other populations in a pond - seen it several times.
















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Originally Posted By: ewest
There are not many 60 lb FH in small ponds. In lakes and rivers - yes. A FH that size would decimate the other populations in a pond - seen it several times.


well yeah they dont get that big in most pond im saying if they are put in a 4000 acre rez for example t where both can flourish and meet potential


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