Great thread. Fishman well worded information. Dave D you're right about age correlation, but it is not necessary info for healthy bass growth. While Wr is trend data it tells great information. I guess what I'm saying is if you folow Wr over the years and have increased Wr the bass are growing propotional to their length.

Like Fishman said a fish is diff. They continue to grow right up to just before death. It is not so much age that matters as it is proper food items per length.

EX. In other words why do many bass stunt as 10-12". There are numerous 1-2 inch bluegill that allow good grwoth of 6-10 inch bass. AFter this a 12 bass needs to eat (to have enough energy to grow) a 4 inch bluegill. They are missing. So you have several year classes of bass at 12 inches in the lake. Now if you catch a 18 inch bass he is probbaly helathy b/c he can eat those big bluegil and the smaller bass. So Wr indicates the 12 inch bass has a low Wr and removal is necessary. SO why worry about his age?

There are several other statisical analysis we run on fish but few work as well indicating growth problems with target species.

Norm as stated the standard Wr chart was developed from bass from across the country. So in some portions of the country you might shoot for 90% Wr and consider this good.

Someone asked if diff in prespawn, post spawn etc. Yes this is why you should monitor throughout the year. OR perfrom electroshock at at about the sametime every year. BTW Fishman agree 2 shocks in a year is crazy but some anal clietns want it done so guess what I do?

Dave B hard to determine age with southern scales preferred method is otolith (ear bone).

Greg Grimes
www.lakework.com