Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations keep culling?

in my 2 acre pond, i've been culling and i'm up to 20lbs as of right now.. (we just bought the property) and i know its 20-25lbs per acre. and we've culled about 30 fish so far.. all the fish caught have ranged from 10-15".. we've caught the occasional 2.0lbr, but thats about it..it only looks like were catching this range.. were going to stock forage fish here shortly,(bgills/redear).. but where are the bigger fish?.. seems like this is all we have in there..(10-15" range..) could this be?.. if i continue to cull this range will i wipe out all my fish?.. should i change my slot limit?.. i'm kinda stumped.. i feel like i'm on the right path with culling, and i've read several post about it here.. still kinda unsure... any help would be appriciated..

thanks guys!!!

chris

Chris,

Post this again in the "Adjusting Fish Populations" category and you will probably get some good responses. One of the disadvantages of this category is as soon as someone posts another topic it gets buried.

Chris,
Weigh and measure, then decide culling numbers and sizes. Evaluate, first, then decide. Lots of info about culling on this site.
Here's a brief chart of length/weight of largemouth bass. Compare your fish to this chart. Underweight fish, take out. Average or overweight fish, return. Don't take more than 30 pounds until you have learned more about your pond, and methods to use.
10" bass should weigh 10 oz.
12" is 12 oz.
14" is 1 lb. 7 oz.
16" is 2 lb. 4 oz.
18" is 3 lb. 4 oz.

Bob, What Wr chart are you using? I wrote back to Mark when you wrote the bass harvest article that the Wr were not right but they were put in the article anyway. I use the American Fisheries Society chart. Your numbers for 14", 16" and 18" is the same but a 10 inch bass should weigh 8 ounces for 100% and 12 inch 14 ounces or 0.9 lbs for 100%. If using 10 ounces for 10 inch bass you would be off by around 20% (big difference) Please explain if I'm wrong here but this is what I have used for the last 10 years.

Thank you gentleman for your responces, and i did repost this in adjusting fish pop's..from memeory.. i still think my fish are very underweight.. but i'll check my chart when i get home..i have all the fish that have been culled , charted weigth and lenght..

thanks again...

chris

Greg,
The American Fisheries Society chart you use is compiled from data taken over 30 years of length/weights collected by agencies analyzing large public reservoirs. (Most of that data was taken prior to bass fishing crazes that hit in the 70's and beyond)The chart I use is taken from 20 years of pond data.
It seems that "average" pond fish data is different than big lake data.
To keep from being too wordy, the chart I use is more applicable to small water bass growth rates.
If you think about it, bass grown in smaller water bodies grow at different rates, have different population structures, and can change much more rapidly than a 30,000 acre public lake's population of fish.
So, to me, it makes sense to use lengths/weights that apply to smaller lakes and ponds.
That's why I use these lengths/weights.

Thanks Bob that is what I wanted to know. I mostly use Wr for trend data anyway. Are there any other changes besides the 10 and 12 inch size class? The other lengths compare to AFS chart quite closely. Could you explain a little more as to why a 10 inch should weigh 10 ounces (more) instead of 8 and why a 12 inch should weigh only 12 ounces (less) instead of 14 ounces. I get alot of 12 inch bass in new ponds that are over a 1 lb, so they would be really fat if using the 12 ounces as a standard weight. The 10 inch 10 ounces bass seems to make some sense to me, but the 12 inch has me scratching my head. thanks in advance.

Best I have been able to figure out is that bass in small ponds depend almost exclusively on bluegill for forage. In a moderately managed bass/bluegill pond, bluegill populations rise and fall through the year, feast, famine, feast, famine. Bass seem to respond accordingly. In a managed pond, 10 inch bass get that size more quickly than they might in a large lake. I think it's because of young aggressive bass fighting through an expanding foodchain for that size bass. By the time they hit 12 inches, bass in small ponds are spawning, and energy is spent on gonads. Plus, 12 inch bass feed a little differently in the foodchain. They are predatory, but 12 inch bass are eating small bass as well as intermediate size bluegill. And, for most ponds, 12 inch bass seem to be the ones reaching highest density, first. So, at 12 inches, bass growth tends to slow a bit, compared to larger waters, where food supplies may be low, but at least consistent.

thanks!