Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Bass Fry ?

Went down to my dock this evening and was suprised to see a couple large schools of fry - several thousand fish in each. They joined up and were "tickling" the surface of the water at times.

I'm thinking these are Golden Shiner fry as I stocked over 60lbs earlier this year. Was cold and windy the last couple days (high temp around 60) and today it warmed up into 70s so thinking they may have hatched today. Are there any other fry that will behave like this?

I’ve seen LMB fry ball up and tickle the surface like that

Would there be thousands of them in a school? I'd estimate there were at least 10K between the 2 schools.

It would be cool if they were LMB as my pond could use some more bass. I'm leaning more towards them being GS fry as I think they probably only hatched today and would still be guarded if they were bass fry. I belive GS eggs are simply laid on grass and hatch unattended.

I wouldn’t venture a guess how many in a school of LMB fry but it is many hundreds at least. The gsh that I’ve seen are in small groups mixed in the weeds. Have not seen that many shiners at one time and they were lower in the water column, but bass act that way that I’ve seen

Maybe they are bass. The weather has been real crazy here. Did see some bass on beds several days ago but it got cold for several days and I haven't observed them on beds since. Could be they are spawning in deeper water.

I was snorkeling in Hathaway pond on Cape Cod a few years back and saw what I would estimate to be a 4# male LMB guarding his brood of slightly larger than knats fry. I would estimate them to be in the thousands. It was a ball about 3' in diameter and the wary father was nervously watching my buddy and I as we watched the ball of fry. Hathaway pond is very clear so got a good viewing.

At the same time there were pumpkinseed on the nest. Was a neat snorkel.

A 4lb LMB can lay 47,000-64,000 eggs. (Carlander-1977)
As soon as those fry can freely swim 20,000 in a group is not out of the question.
3 days later, 15,000 may have been cropped from that, and so-on..

I imagine they will get whittled down - could see a bluegill or small bass attacking the mass every few minutes.

I've seen my FHM fry do what you are describing as tickling the surface of the pond.

Saw two schools of tiny fry hugging the bank yesterday. Don't know if they were BG or LMB. Balls of fry probably about the size of a 16 gallon trash bag blown up and the fish looked to be maybe a quarter inch long.

My fry are pretty muchdoing the same - two schools working along the edge of the weedline - close to each other & sometime blending together. Schools are more the size of a 33 gal bag.

Hopefully they aren't crappie - not sure if the crappie have managed to pull off a spawn this year.

If you can catch some, they are easily recognizable even if fry. This is a pic of mine taken a few days ago.

I think they are bass fry. Can see lateral lines on them. More schools of fry have appeared. Have seen at least 6 different schools. Some are much smaller. I figure the big bass have huge broods and the smaller bass less.

So far haven't noticed any new bluegill fry - expect they will start showing up soon as the BG seem to be doing well.

I'm wondering if any of the GS survived - haven't seen any for weeks after putting in 70lbs or so this spring. Might have just fattened up the bass for their spawn as they went nuts chasing them.