Raising Trophy LM bass In Ponds Less Than 1 Acre. For additional information see some of Bob Lusk's posts by using the search feature. I may list them if I get extra time.

Here is a summary of my notes on this topic. My comments ASSUME that you have a good grasp of the basic knowledge for raising bass.

What you want to do is DIFFICULT and that is why it is often not recommended. To do this successfully, it takes time, skill, patience, dedication, lots of knowledge, and experience, plus some mistakes!. I�ve �Been there done that� several times. Bob Lusk's book, "Raising Trophy Bass", should also cover this topic more completely. Buy, study and follow the basic concepts in his book.

My comments here pertain to smaller ponds and fish raising techniques can AND will be different in larger ponds and small lakes. Also the methods will be different if you have different goals than raising trophy or big bass.

Large bass can be grown in a northern 0.75 acre pond. It can even be done in a 0.25 acre pond. 1. The main concern, question or variable is how many and what sizes of bass can be raised in each of those ponds? 2. A second concern I have is, once the fish or least the original stock of fish are raised to large size, how CATCHABLE will they be and how often will you be able to re-catch them or practice catch & release in the small pond? 3. To do the first two things, management or population manipulation have to be optimum to keep densities correct and the food base adequate to maintain larger numbers of rapidly growing & healthy trophy fish AND keep forage items adequate in-the-presence-of a constantly changing fish community of births & deaths. That is quite a task especially for the average pondowner without professional help or guidence.

Background - When trying to raise large fish in any water body, one has to be aware of the natural productivity of the system and assess all artificial inputs into the system that are responsible for boosting productivity, growth and carrying capacity. Carrying capacity or fish biomass then has to be manipulated to create a population bias, skew or trend, toward larger fish in the presence of increasing numbers of more bass due to annual reproduction and recriuitment. This then also becomes a fish management issue.

As we have mentioned here numerous times previously, fish biomass or numbers in a pond are directly related to the pond�s fertility. Pond fertility is often measured by how much phytoplankton & zooplankton is in a known volume of water. Typically clear water has less plankton and more fertile water is cloudier; typically greener water and has lots of both kinds of plant and animal plankton. Fertilizer i.e. nutrients make the plankton become more dense or abundant. Waters with higher plankton amounts produce more fish biomass and/or numbers. Feeding fish pelleted food can supplement or compensate for lack of plankton and increase overall fish biomass in a pond.

Some past data - A study was done in the mid 1970�s in 8 central US states by a group of fishery biologists. The group sampled all fish in 38 �average� ponds (0.5 � 4.1 acres).

Total weight of all bass in the unfertilized �natural� ponds ranged from 3 to 100 lb per acre; average was 36 � 41 lbs/ac (2 yr study). Total numbers of bass larger than 8� per acre ranged from 2 to 106. Numbers of bass larger than 16� ranged from 1 to 16 per acre.
Estimates for you:
Based on the above information, your pond, if it is optimum, and has been managed properly and without fertilization or pelleted feeding, it could produce 15 to 17 large bass (16�+) per acre (in your case 11-13 large bass/0.75ac). The larger these bass become, expect fewer large bass to be present.. What you are trying to do is contradict Mother Nature and that is a very difficult task to accomplish.

An example here of average numbers of trophy bass to expect in a smaller pond is a past post by Archerobx ,in PA(7/7/04) -
�I have a old pond almost an acre. I had about five large bass in it about 24 inches. I let a friends family fish it when I went on vacation and when I got back they were gone. That was 2-3 years ago. My problem is that I have not caught or seen any bass that size since. The bluegill pop in that time seems to have exploded. There are a good number of small bass but no biggins. I have shiners,crappie,bluegill,perch and minnows in the pond�. My comment -His 5 big bass (24�) were undoubtedly the largest ones present and is an example of how many 7 lb+ bass one can realistically expect per acre compared to a few more per acre of those bass that are smaller (16� � 21� long).

If the bass are fed high protein (40%-50%) pellets, if the pond is fertilized and/or if high amounts of large sized forage items (trout, shad, adult shiners) are added on a regular basis in addition to regular forage items present for the larger bass, the number of large bass per acre could be increased up to 4 times. Increasing bass biomass more than 4 times the natural level then puts you into aquaculture methods and somewhat different techniques then apply.

Greg Grimes says that pellet raised bass growing on a main diet of pellets seem to �top out� at around 6 lbs. I think this is probably due to these large fish having to expend too much energy in consuming the small 1/4" fish pellets plus maybe some other dietary issues. To keep thes really large bass growing efficiently, larger sizes of pelleted food may be necessary. Cecil Baird is experimenting with larger sized pellets and pellets with 50% protein with low carbohydrates for growing big LMbass. His research when completed will broaden our knowledge on this topic.

Managing a pond for trophy LMB is difficult and requires patience, dedication and attentiveness; plus money. The pond must be carefully managed and smaller bass harvested to routinely produce numerous trophy LMB per acre. Once a trophy bass is removed conditions (mostly proper forage items) have to be just right for another fish to grow and take that big fishes' place.

What to Stock - A normal stock of fingerling or juvenile bass will contain both males and females. Females grow faster and larger than males. Normal sex ratios of reproducing adults can and typically do create problems with too many young bass entering the population and thus consuming too much forage that could have been eaten be the larger �goal� bass. In the smaller pond, you do not have lots of room for raising large bass so you want to maximize all the space you have.

"Thinking outside the box". The simplest method would be to stock mostly or all female bass and few if any males to maximize the numbers of truly large bass in a smaller area. This way basically all the consumed fish forage is �consumed� by large goal oriented fish. Main problem with this technique is that LMbass are not easily sexed. To try and achieve this you could selectively stock adult female gravid fish, or in a mixed population, concentrate on catching & removing males fish from the nesting sites. If you stock adult fish be sure there is proper numbers/amounts of large sized forage items present to maintain the big basses� health and growth. Large bass do not grow the best or fastest on fathead minnows or 2�-4� bluegill.

Recent research (1995) found that there is a clear relationship between strike speed and fish size in several species including LMB which are "ram-feeders". The bigger the fish the slower the strike speed. This is why B.Lusk emphasizes in his book that big bass feed differently than bass less than 16". The strike of a 5 lb bass takes 50% longer than a strike of a 1 lb bass. Thus for large bass to feed efficietly and gain weight, they need to catch as big as prey as possible each time (J. Exp Biol. 198: 419-433) .

Two other options come to mind for a pond with a normal sex ratio of bass. Limit spawning by destroying nests or limit spawning areas for the bass. Young bass can also be regularly thinned by angling, which is usually the most common method. Either one or all of these could help reduce recruitment, reduce competition among bass for food and promote growth of largest bass.

Once northern midwest bass reach 16� or 17� and with proper food they should gain at least 12 ounces to ideally 1 lb per year. If this is not happening in your pond then something is probably out of balance and should be fixed for you to maintain your goals.

This fish reproduction and recruitment problem can also be avoided if you chose another �big game� non-reproducing species such as hybrid striped bass (HSB) instead of Lmbass as a trophy fish in the smaller pond. Since HSB are non-reproducing, you have direct control of fish density. They will keep growing as long as food and conditions are adequate. They fight harder than LMbass of same length but I think they are harder to re-catch and become more quickly �hook smart� conditioned to fishing pressure than Lmbass. Bruce Condello may have advice on this topic.

Practicing Catch & Release - Frequently catching, releasing, and re-catching a limited number of trophy bass in a small pond becomes a problem. Fish �wise up� and quickly. It is their survival instinct.

When the fish are �hunted� or fished, then animal behavior, conditioning and AVOIDENCE of baits & each fishes� SURVIVAL SKILLS enter the picture. The more often the fish are exposed to lures & baits and are hooked, the more conditioned or experienced they become at avoiding being caught. By repetitively catching the same few confined fish you are training them to avoid biting things that are unnatural. The smaller the water body and the more often it is fished the worse this problem becomes.

One can �fairly easily� raise large bass or another type of fish in a small pond but intensive fishing pressure on them trains them to avoid biting or recapture. So you are put in a catch 22 situation. You can produce trophy fish, but harassing them frequently with hook & line can produce fish that are more cautious and �hook smart� and are rarely caught.

Fishing for them should be done on a very limited basis IF one expects to be able to readily catch the larger older fish whenever you do decide to fish for them. Using more refined fishing methods can work for a limited time. I have discovered that only occasional fishing (1x or 4x per yr) should be done in the small pond (less than 1 ac). A majority of that fishing should be TAILORED toward the smaller fish for purposes of management, thinning or monitoring of size, body condition, and numbers. Every time a large bass is caught its body wt./condition needs to be assessed and recorded. Good notes and fish records are necessary to achieve your goal.

Casual recreational fishing and/or frequently (weekly or 2x monthly) fishing and or frequently trying to catch the big fish will quickly produce a population of large hook smart fish. When this happens, this will be evidenced over time by your more and more catching mostly smaller bass and more rarely catching the larger bass, but yet still seeing the big ones in feeding sessions. The smaller the pond the less frequently it should be fished to minimize producing �hook smart large fish�.

Initially I created 13 pages of information on this whole topic. I may incorporate much of it and remaining parts into an article with B.Lusk for PB magazine. There is quite a bit of additional examples of good basic bass raising information in old PB Posts; check them out. For brevity I will end here unless you have additional questions. Good luck because you will also need some luck in addition to the other technical stuff to achieve your current goal in a 0.75 acre pond.

I may be back to do some addtions or more editing.

aka Pond Doctor & Dr. Perca Read Pond Boss Magazine -
America's Journal of Pond Management