Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Best Pond Practice for Trophy Bass

I own a 2 acre pond (surface area) with about 8 acres total volume. I'm trying to manage it for trophy bass. I have carp, channel cats, bluegill and bass. I put the cats in myself for food and for fun and will begin harvesting them next year. I put them in last year and they are just starting to approach eating size.

I'm catching about 20% small bass (less than 12 inches) and the rest are decent 2-4 lb bass.

The pond is ultimately for fun and to me and my family/friends a 2-4 lb bass or bigger is a good bass.

I'm currently harvesting 15 inch and under bass or bass that are larger but really skinny with big heads. Would it be good practice to continue what I've been doing which is to harvest 15 inch and under bass and the larger female bluegills? I've been leaving the larger male bluegills. Would it also be good to start increasing my slot limit to 18 inches to raise some bigger fish (bass)?

I have been adding good cover each year in the winter and will continue to do so. I also have a Texas Hunter feeder that I feed during the Spring, Summer and Fall months 2x/day for about 10 seconds each time which is feeding the bluegill and cats.

I also have 3 other small ponds on my property which are small: 1/4, 1/2 and 1/8 acre. I've wondered if I should start growing some forage fish in one of those ponds but not sure how or if I should.

Thanks,
Eric

Eric:

Get a good scale that will weigh to 1/10th pound. Add to that a good measuring device. Get a notebook. Now go to the archives, and look for "relative weights". Find the chart that says "LMB". Print that out and laminate it to make it waterproof.

This year, take out every LMB that is (1) less than 15", and take out every LMB that has less than 100% WR (relative weight). If the WR is over 100, put it back in. Send Greg Grimes a PM, he has a tagging system to purchase. Get the numbered floy tags, and tag the LMB that you return to the pond. Keep track of the tag number, weight and length.

You'll know you turned the corner when the WR of the fish all start getting over 100.

I'm not sure that at this point it is a good idea to be removing BG. Too many bass and thin bodied bass means a food shortage. Thus BG should not be removed but added. The usual balance or ratio of BG to bass is 5:1 up to 10:1. Working backwards, this means that for every bass removed 5 to 10 appropriate size BG or another forage should be added to feed bass to move toward a balance. This gives an idea of how out of balance and lacking forage a bass crowded pond is. OR keep removing bass until the BG to bass ratio is 5:1 or greater. A fairly simple measure of when this ratio is close to optimum is when the Wr of the bass begins to increase toward 100 or greater.

Great info. on this thread! What is considered a good weight gain for a bass caught in April, and caught again in October?

Normal weight gain especially for LMB females should be 1 lb body mass (not including eggs) per year in northern waters. More weight gain per year than 1 lb/yr with abundant proper sized forage can easily happen esp in southern waters due to longer growing season. Less than 1 lb per yr indicates inadequate forage. In average NC climate 1.1 - 1.5 lb would be good. Any readers have data to verify this? Greg Grimes LMB from Jeff Foxworthy's pond could approach 2 lbs/ per yr. Greg???

Bill:

I stocked 38 feed trained LMB in my pond last year. When stocked, they were weighed and measured, then marked with a numbered floy tag from Greg Grimes. I'll have data this year once I start fishing the pond for LMB.

Scott: Looking forward to the data about some good growth rates for northern LMB..