Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Growth Progress

Quick background, this is an 11 acre pond in north central Texas. Average depth is probably around 10ft, greatest depth is 40ft. Two operational feeders (third needs a new battery) feeding Aquamax. The goal of this pond is trophy LMB. There have been several different stockings since and before it was filled. First stocking was unintentional in a flood event, where an unknown amount of bass and bluegill fry washed into the 30% full pond from one of our upstream ponds. This has likely occurred to some degree each subsequent major rain event, but these all would have now happened after the intentional stocking. Intentional stocking with Overton's were as follows:

December 2024 - From Hatchery: 250 6"-8" Advanced Northern LMB Fingerlings, 5000 1"-3" CNBG, 4400 Small RES, 250lbs GS
January 2025 - from Overton Customer Lake & Hatchery: 110 8"-15" Florida LMB, 5000 3"-6" CNBG, 250lbs GS
May 2025 - From Hatchery: 100 10"-12" HSB

A little unconventional in terms of size distribution, but the initial stockings needed to be big enough to not get eaten by the existing 3"-4" LMB identified from the flood event. Anecdotally, it looks like we had a very strong GS spawn and what looks to be a very strong BG spawn as well. GS were fleeing the boat left and right when the aeration was put in and there are BG beds everywhere shallow and all the BG have put on nice size as well. The water looks like its boiling whenever the feeders spin so I have to think the forage is in good condition.

Since June I have been catching and recording the LMB growth. Fishing has been conducted from the shore at the same two areas next to feeders. As you will see there is quite a large spread in relative weights, but average has been staying in the low triple digits. Hoping some of the more experienced folk on here could shed some insight into whether this is tracking well. I'm not sure what a normal relative weight fluctuation is throughout the year and know every body of water is different, so not sure if I should be treating this as a baseline for future years or if I should be culling low relative weight fish already (maybe these are the LMB that came in from the flood event?).

Here are the fishing survey results

June 2, 2025: 15 LMB caught:
Low Length: 8.125"
High Length: 10"
Average Length: 9.04"
Low Relative Weight: 90%
High Relative Weight: 140%
Average Relative Weight: 112%

June 7th, 2025: 13 LMB caught
Low Length: 7.75"
High Length: 10.25"
Average Length: 9.12"
Low Relative Weight: 64%
High Relative Weight: 163%
Average Relative Weight: 102%

June 21, 2025: 9 LMB caught
Low Length: 8"
High Length: 10.5"
Average Length: 9.35"
Low Relative Weight: 88%
High Relative Weight: 134%
Average Relative Weight: 108%

July 6, 2025: 12 LMB Caught
Low Length: 9"
High Length: 12.25"
Average Length: 10.19"
Low Relative Weight: 75%
High Relative Weight: 134%
Average Relative Weight: 99%

July 27, 2025: 6 LMB Caught
Low Length: 8.5"
High Length: 13.5"
Average Length: 10.69"
Low Relative Weight: 89%
High Relative Weight: 130%
Average Relative Weight: 108%

Good job on collecting data. Creel and visual surveys only tell part of the story. You may be catching the same (easy to hook) LMB repeatedly. I suggest you have an electroshock survey conducted to get a bigger picture. My guess is it is time to harvest any poor quality (low RW) LMB. Also do a seine survey to determine if the existing (over 1 yr old) LMB have spawned. RW on spawning LMB varies a lot between Feb and Sept.

Yep, have discussed an electroshock survey in October to evaluate LMB and forage conditions and will plan on taking out any low relative weight LMB at that time. I can definitely start removing them as I fish them out. I had read on this site conflicting reports on removing originally stocked fish, but seeing as some unknown percentage came from upstream and likely have poorer genetics, I have no problem starting that now.

To your point on catching the same fish, that could well be the case. The feeders I am fishing by also happen to be positioned in areas of the pond with significantly less cover, so I wonder if the bass living in these parts are having to exert more energy compared to the fish living in the brush and rock piles. Sounds like I should check to see if this distribution is consistent across the whole pond or more specific to the areas by the feeders.

DoubleACRanch,

Congratulations on your new lake. From your description, you've encountered some challenging circumstances that threw a wrench in your plans. This is very common and so the response is to do the best you can given the circumstances. Something you are doing.

You asked:


I gave a lot of thought to this question and just how it may be best answered. I also gave a lot thought as to whether I would answer. You asked a question that no one else can answer given their limited understanding of LMB growth under various climate conditions. This happens to be one of my strengths of experience that borrows on the reported samples of many of the members here.

I can say that your LMB are tracking similarly to similar sized (and age) LMB in Texas reservoirs. Many of these reservoirs produce large bass and so I do think you have the opportunity to do the same.

Your relative weights are averaging above 100. According to Dave Willis, RW 100 reflects the 75th percentile curve. This another way of saying that 100RW fish exceed the weight of 75% of the samples of the same length. Your fish are in the top 25% in terms of their relative weight. They are growing with the potential to grow to trophy sizes. They are healthy fish growing the best they can, given the supply of forage.

The only other question you could ask, is whether they could grow better than they are. IMHO, yes, they do have the potential to grow faster than they presently are if forage were more abundant or if the number of LMB were more limited. I base this on expectation of growth that draws on the experiences of various members and a thorough knowledge of forage conversion relationships adjusted for climate. There are essentially three stockings of LMB in your BOW. A colonization by fry occurring unintentionally (I have assumed 3.5" on 12/1/24), a stocking of Northerns (I have assumed 7" on 12/15/24), a stocking of FLMB (I have assumed 11" on 1/15/25). And so, for each stocking, I was interested to understand the appropriate expectation of average length where forage was abundant enough so as not to limit growth. To be sure, the circumstances were not ideal in terms of forage and the abundance of optimally sized fish prey items at the respective start dates. It would be reasonable to infer that growth would be slower than modeled, given that, the model assumes no forage limitation for growth. In the mid-April to Mid-May time frames your production of YOY would have been in full swing. To be sure, this year's production of YOY is what is feeding your LMB (plus whatever AquaMax your LMB are consuming). Below is a graph of each stocking's expected average length (assuming no forage limitation and 108 RW).



That the samples are below the curves is not enough to conclude there is a problem with forage limitation. As I mentioned earlier, given that appropriate sized prey would have been in short supply during the initial phase, we should expect growth below the curves. What we want to see, however, is growth consistent with no forage limitation between the sample dates. We can gain a sense of the comparison of actual versus modeled growth by comparing the length increment of the model to that of actual samples over the range of sample dates. For example, the model estimates that the colonized LMB would grow from 10.46" to 12.62" (2.16") from June 2 to July 27. The average sample lengths however grew from 9.04" to 10.69" (1.65") over the same period. To further muddy the water, the expectation we should have (assuming no forage limitation), is that the average length increment of 9.04" LMB would exceed the length increment modeled for 10.46" LMB. In other words, the growth should exceed 2.16" for your samples (provided they are representative of the population AND available forage did not limit growth). But then, if your samples are not representative, why bother? It would be pointless to go to the trouble if it weren't useful to do so.

I think, it is probably unlikely that many (if any) of your samples are from your stocking of FLMB. Doesn't mean they aren't in there, but it seems to be a pretty good inference that your FLMB may have not yet been sampled.

To Eric's points:

1. May be time to thin some underweight LMB
2. Need to understand whether the LMB produced a YOY crop
3. An electro survey would be a good idea to paint a more complete picture of your population.

I'll add a +1 to each. I would especially like to see some FLMB sampled to ensure those genetics are contributing to future generations as planned.

Thanks for the response JPS and appreciate the thoroughness. I'd like to catch some of the florida's but based on what I have been told about there preferences, they are likely holed up in deep cover that I don't have access to at the moment. Especially now that the aeration is up and running and a lot more deep cover should be accessible. If y'all know how to target florida's more specifically, please let me know!

Regarding the LMB YOY crop - I will add a seine to the list of tools we need for the pond

For FLMB use live bait and a circle hook.