Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations A COUPLE HERE AND THERE

The last few times goin down to the pond i have been stocking . I have noticed some of my larger bass have died . They were all healthy looking to , so i dont understand why they died . The pond does get fished regularly and all the LMB that are in there have been put in there since nov of last year up untill a few days ago i caught a few 5 and 6 lbers . Do you think that it is getting over fished or is there something about the water that i should be looking at ?

The pond is 2 1/2 to 3 acres and at the deepest 16 ft . It does have a little algea bloom about 2 ft to 4 ft around edges almost all the way around the pond . All the fry have grown quick and all fish have great colors and are all fat . I am thinking it id just stress cause i have seen a dead bass here and there in other ponds and lakes around here . Thanx for any help on what i should be looking at .

Is there several people fishing? Are they handling the bass correctly? Keeping them off the ground and putting them back into the water asap...Bigger bass get stressed easily with heat of the summer and higher water temps...

Yeah i have been showing them how to better handle them , and removeing the hook . About 5 people fish the pond and one kid fishes it every other day . One hda hook the throat and i showed 3 kids that were fishing how to remove it properly . That was cool that they could all see that at the same time . But the whole month of august nobody will fish the pond unless they are fishing BG . Thanx for the reply and good fishing to ya

Hard to really say. However, I have a couple of thoughts.

First, bigger fish don't always do well when stressed in hot water.

Second, larger fish that have been transplanted don't often/usually/always react well to a new environment.

As I said, hard to really say.

Yeah i dont plan to transplant anymore LMB untill fall and much cooler . i had no LMB kills during cooler months . Thanx

Actually, LMB over about 1.5 pounds are pretty iffy on whether they thrive or languish and die. Time of year doesn't really seem to matter. Why? Dunno but transplanting isn't usually all that successful. They seem to work best if raised.

"The pond does get fished regularly and all the LMB that are in there have been put in there since nov of last year up untill a few days ago i caught a few 5 and 6 lbers . Do you think that it is getting over fished or is there something about the water that i should be looking at ?"

How are you getting 5-6# bass if stocked Nov of 07?

I just caught a couple 5's and a 6 lber about a little over a week ago . That i put in . This pond i have been stocking only had a 2 year jump on BG before i started putting in the LMB and all the BG and HBG . I put in a total of 1850 + BG extra in there to help feed all the large LMB that i brought there. Total i put in about 124 LMB in the pond and so far me and another guy that helps me with the pond has seen 8 dead lmb . So thats not to bad i guess . And The ones i put in before spawn time did set up and spawned this year . Saw clouds of fry both BG and LMB . Now that the fry is bigger i see little schools here and there . Thanx for help again

All the places where i get my fish i alwayz have permission . The ponds where i fish you pay 5 bucks and keep what you catch . Or i have some ponds that i take some LMB and trade them out with BG . Some of these ponds never get fished and nobody eats the fish in these ponds . So i am kinda doing them a favor . And i get to stock my pond as well , its a win win situation . All fish did very good during cooler months and i had no BG killz at all . Thanx again for the help .

I had excellent luck transporting 1+ lb. lmb 4 hours in April & November in Texas. I only stocked my pond with adult bass after setting up a forage buffet a year prior. I also enjoy catching and introducing a fish from foreign waters when it's close to 100% RW for it's size...in my opinion, it resets the gene pool. Especially if you're fishing waters where F1's were introduced, they are the key to heavyweight action! I would rather trust the relative weight of a fantastic looking bass for free, as opposed to paying $40 for a single 5 pounder...do the math then measure how much fun you had doing it!

Yeah it has been a ton of fun . And i cant wait to resume in the fall . I have a great forage base now and my bass are stuffing them selves . It has been real hard the past 2 weeks to catch more than 3 LMB . I really think the few that have died may have died from being played to long . But every1 has agreed to not fish it for the whole month of august . So i hope this will help the pond out and maybe the fish will get comfy in there new home again . There is stuff you can get at bass pro to help the fish out in the livewell . And toss my bubly box in there and they have air . Stay safe and good fishing to ya