Pond Boss Forums FISH & FISHING Show off your catch unbelievable bass

To give a little background I'm a new pond owner that has never owned a pond before. I live in Louisiana I've had a 2 acre pond build and just finished it last July I stocked 2500 coppernose bluegills 500 redear 50 albino channel cat 2000 Fathead minnows in it in August then in the middle of December I stocked 100 Tiger Bass 50 hybrid stripers and 50 black crappie
I have two feeders that's been throwing aqumax 500 (not sure if can put name brands on here) 4 times a day.I know it sounds unbelievable and I really don't understand it but this December we are catching some 3 pound bass I always thought they grew a pound a year.Some are around a pound but I think some are eating the fish feed and I know we are having a long growing season but really shocked at the size of the fish my bluegills are around 3/4 pound I'll try to figure out how to put up some pictures anyone else have fish growing like this

Did you stock those fish in 2015 and what size were the LMB when stocked? Its just the middle of Dec 2015 now - when were the LMB stocked? They can grow more than 1 lb a year in the south.

They were fingerling from American sportfish 3 to 4 inches put them in December 2014

The part I don't understand is why some are around a pound but some are around two to three pounds I put them in all together at the same time all I can figure is some are eating the feed along with brim but I don't know

There will always be 'shooters' that surpass the rest of the pack.

I suspect an unknown bucket stocking of the larger bass.

I tend to agree with John F. Likely some friends maybe did you a favor and stocked one or a few LMB for your new pond. However - some of the fastest growing LMB from your fingerlings stocked in LA with abundant forage could feasibly get to nice size in one year.

Dr Willis noted that average growth of southern bass at one year old was 6.5" and at two years old is 10.0". Note these are average lengths for southern bass; not the fastest growth. Using the same reference (Carlander) as that used by Dr.Willis, the largest one year old LM bass from various studies in southern states ranged from 11.8" to 14.9". We should assume that the fingerlings that were stocked in were hatched in spring 2014 and growth that you are reporting is for individuals that are 20 months old; May-Dec2014 8 months and Jan-Dec 2015 12 months = 20 months. Actually 3"-4" LMB procured in December are IMO somewhat slow growing and could have easily been by December2014 6"-8" long if not crowded and provided excess food all summer-fall.

Greg Grimes posted this for some good growth of LMB in SE US.
"To let you know for our clients (in the SE, lower altitude)wanting "good" bass fishing I expect:
1 yr- 11 inches
2 yr- 15 inches
3 yr- 18 inches
4 yr- 20 inches
5 yr- 22 inches
>6 yr ?-
we get growth rates much better than this routinely."

In optimum forage and habitat conditions Greg has measured the following of growth for maximum growth rate of the fastest growing LMB: in one year (12 months) fingerlings in the south could grow to 2.48 lbs (15.6") and in 17-18 months 4.8 lbs. Note not all the bass from the initial stocking were this large just a few of the ones that grew the fastest - sometimes called 'shooters'.
http://lakework.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/sdafs-trophy-lmb.pdf

I know none of my friends put wild caught in my pond it's behind my house and my whole place is fenced off I haven't measured any of them because I hurry and get them back in the water but the next one I catch like that I will its just they are really wide and have a big belly I live in Southeast Louisiana and right now I can dip anywhere in my pond and catch all different sizes of bluegills so I'm not sure if I haven't had a few different spawns this year

Great news, CWA and congrats on the growth rates in your fishery. Your sexually mature BG likely pulled multiple spawns this year and will continue to do so. Down your way it's not uncommon to see 4+ spawns annually. I think we pulled 3 ourselves way up here in NE - dang that's a lot of YOY BG!

If they are spawning that much do I need to start keeping a lot the only thing is I'm wanting big bluegills so I haven't been keeping any with this being the first year I haven't kept anything this year I was going to wait until next summer

I'm not a Southern fishery expert, nor do I manage for LMB in my ponds, but this would be my approach based on what I've learned from Lusk, Eric, Al and Dave:

Trophy BG fisheries often are LMB imbalanced - dense population of smaller LMB typically exhibiting sub 100 WR and fewer, but large BG. I'd harvest all female BG you catch and resist the temptation to remove skinny LMB. The LMB are hammering your YOY - age 2 BG, fewer BG get through the grinder, and this reduces forage competition for surviving BG and enables them to grow large and fast. The frequency of trophy BG angling will be lower due to fewer fish, but they will be nice. Any male BG caught that exhibit strong signs of health and potential should be released so they can keep growing. I would release all male BG 7-8"+ if they appear over 100 WR and have potential. You will know a healthy fish when you hold one - no need to be taking measurements of every fish you catch - over time you will develop the ability to glance at a fish and know within 5% it's WR. Low performing BG should be culled indiscriminately, along with all female BG you catch. Harvest these BG liberally. Continue supplemental feeding program with a high quality feed like Optimal, feed AM and PM as much as your fish will consume in 10 minutes.

There may be other paths to reach your goal of a trophy BG fishery and LMB and So fishery experts will likely be along soon, but this is how I would advise a client of mine.

This was exactly the method George1 used.

I've personally had good luck with adding cover to feeder throw lanes when faster CNBG growth was a priority. Doing this seems to help keep my LMB from easily hammering smaller CNBG during feedings. LMB will learn the feeder throw times just like CNBG, so making it more difficult for them to feed on distracted CNBG during those throws makes sense to me.

Adding cover to the outside edges of the throw lane seems to do the opposite. That can create close ambush points for LMB to have a free path to their meal if LMB growth is what I'm after.

Results may vary, but this has worked for me.

I am in Arkansas here not to far from cwadeer and I got 4 spawns this year near the end I had all kinds of BG everywhere hiding out in my Chara! Which I find to be useful in letting those BG get a little bigger and then the Chara dies off and it's easy pickings for my Bass!! As much as Chara can be a pain it does have some pros about it!

RC

Tiger LMB - female Flas selected for fast growth X male northern LMB selected for aggressiveness can grow fast - a lot faster than the averages from the studies. The numbers Bill gave for Greg's observations are good but you can experience even faster growth than that. Some that we stocked at 8 inches grew to 4 lbs at 16 mths and 10 lbs at 3.5 years.

Note that one possible explanation for the different sizes , in addition to the shooter concept already noted, is the fact that fla LMB males are much smaller than the females. Because you are using F-1s (half fla/half northern) that genetic trait is in play and can effect the size differential between males and females. I have seen F-1 males at 3 be 1/3 to 1/2 the size of the females.

That was another thing that shocked me 10 to 15 minutes after putting the tiger bass in my pond they started eating the minnows I figured it would have taken them a few days to start eating

Al this is valuable science and can be employed by those who either want to preserve BG populations, or those encouraging high BG predation [like myself, Banks, Yolk who manage BG in a SMB fishery and population management is a constant issue]. I might have to consider adding some cedars on the edges like you recommend. I already feed in low light to help predators ambush from shadows, but this would be another great technique to help encourage predation. Thanks Al.