Originally Posted by Jason D
Originally Posted by Sunil
Nice pictures!!

That little LMB does look healthy, so maybe it's a good sign of the presence of forage for fish his size, or he's taking feed.

I think a 2 lb SMB in 2 years is very, very good.

The 3 lb LMB in the picture (if that's the three pounder) looks to have great body shape, and I think that growth is really good, but maybe not off the charts, so to speak.

Thanks for the response.
My main reason for posting was
1. - those 7" bass are throwing me for a loop
2. - The overall growth on my Bass has slowed significantly since this time last year.
The SMB have had the growth I was expecting in year 2
The LMB, not so much, as on average they have gone from 14" - 1.75# in year 1 to 15.8" - 2.39# in year 2, I expected the avg. to be quite a bit more.

LMB need fish that are 1/4-1/3 their body length. Look at the forage fish for the bigger bass. You might be running out of 3.5"-5.5" fish to get them to grow bigger than 14". If the forage fish are smaller, the bass are expending more calories catching smaller fish. Also, if there isn't cover for them to hang out and wait for the correct size fish to swim past and nab it, they are burning calories that way too.

Cody note: yes - esshup has info correct. When the LMB growth slows down lack of proper sized forage fish is the problem or you have too many predators or both things as problems slowing the LMB growth rate. Lusk says once LMB hig 16" long they need a differernt type and size of forage fish to keep them growing well.

Last edited by Bill Cody; 08/29/25 10:07 AM. Reason: typo - made a note
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