Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations seeing some growth

there is hope! we purchased our 20 yr old 7.5 acres of water last summer. no surprise, there were plenty of skinney bass. catch records showed an abundence of lmb that were 10-14 inches and only 70-80% rw. none were over 80%. they were hungry and easy to catch. last fall we began to cull. we kept all bass under 15 inches. by june of this year we had caught nearly 100 of these skinney bass. (about 15 lbs per acre.) they are now hard to catch; however this evening i managed to catch five. these five fish were from 13-15 inches, and each of them was 90-100% rw. i'm amazed that they have managed to put weight on so quickly. i didn't expect to see any real growth for a year or two. i kept out the four smallest but released the 15 inch 100% rw fish for my first trophy. just couldn't help sharing the success! thanks for all the help from all of you. -jb

Glad to hear the success stories. Folks post some more. We only hear about the problems on this site it is nice to hear that management pratices really work

I am pleased to hear of the quick results you have experienced. I have ignored the LMB in my pond the last few years and I now have only a handful of trophy monsters and a pond full of 8-13 inchers. I started moving out the under 13's the past month too. I hope I see the same results as you.

I cull them with a fly rod, find it easier sight hooking them, also I can avoid the trout hitting the surface fly. One of my 20"+ LMB hit one of the small ones hooked on the fly and gave him quite a ride for almost a full minute before releasing. Usually the big ones gather around the net where I keep the culled fish, they just stare them down. ( I gather 12 at a time and move them to another pond for releasing, easier to keep record total by the dozens).

Mike

What my dad did not mention is that when we completed our cull and nothing was over 80% Rw was less than 2 months ago. We had no idea that the forrage base could build up and the LMB grow so well in such a short time. So needless to say we are both really stoked.
Thanks again for all the help
-Scott

just have to post an update. after 12 months of careful management by my son and i, we are seeing real growth in our lmb. caught 5 bass in the last two weeks. here is there length's and rw's: 13.25 in. @ 105%, 12in. @ 100%, 13.25in. @ 94%, 12.25in. @ 96%, 12.75in. @ 92%, and 11in. @ 125%. no mis-prints here. this is after just 12 months of managing our 8 acres. 20 year old water had never been managed before. we culled heavily (bass and crappie), areated (vertex), fed, limed (24 tons), fertilized, removed weeds with grass carp, improved our forage base (added coppernose), built spwaning beds, added structure and kept meticulous records of what we did and what we caught. 125% rw! this is more fun than disneyland. i've read several times that good lmb growth results can take several years. don't know if scott and i just got lucky, or if these results are normal and expected for all the hard work (fun). if this isn't encouragement for all you out in pondboss-land with a pond full of stunted, skinney bass, i don't know what is. -jb
p.s. now i just can't wait until these fat young bass get a few more years on them!

Congrats on your success. It's great to hear that this stuff really works. I only have a 2yr old pond, so I am just watching them grow and gathering recipes right now.

It really is amazing to see how this management stuff really works. We have a 33 acre lake under management (you will read about it in the Jan/Feb Pond Boss) where the landowner did exactly what we told him. The results are astounding.
This lake suffered through a three year drought, and gar became the dominant species. Forage fish were few and far between, and largemouth bass were fighting for a limited amount of food.
The landowner reduced gar numbers drastically, did a few things to improve productivity, and a recent electrofishing survey showed a stunning turnaround. And, all this happened since March of this year. Stay tuned.