Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Did my bass spawn this year???

So here’s a little about my pond. History restored a pond that was six or seven years old about three years ago is now 3 acres. I have a really good copper nose bluegill population with good spawning beds and active spawning. My bass are doing great and I have bass anywhere from 6 to 8 inches to 4+ pounds I had a good spawn last year with fingerling bass showing up around the shoreline I think about this time last year. I may be wrong on the timingI’m in Arkansas and we were in a severe drought this year the first part of the year really since probably October. My pond was about 4 feet low so my gravel spawning beds were out of the water. I do have some hard bottom out in the middle of the pond. It still had several feet of water in it and in my bass may have spawned there. My worry is I’m not seeing any fingerling bass around the shoreline. Is it possible with the lower water and then when the pond did come up, over the weekend and we had cold fronts moving through is it possible that the bass just didn’t spawn this year? looking forward to your responses and thoughts.

My SWAG, because your pond was 4' low your adult fish were more densely confined. The LMB eggs, fry & fingerlings had much less area to hide hence there was a much greater predation on your LMB fingerlings than in years past from both BG & last years LMB. Some survived, but this will go down as a poor year.

That could very well be true, but I was also wondering if bass sometimes just don’t spawn because of conditions? True or not I used to blame the corp when the lake levels would fluctuate a lot during the spawn. I should have mentioned that I have quite a bit of brush out in the pond that still would’ve been submerged as well as ditches and tree stumps, etc., to hold Fish. If the bass did spawn, even if poorly, when would you expect to see the fingerlings showing up?

See seine surveys here - a method of finding out pond balance . You do it with a short seine. You don't seine the whole pond only a small area. Then look at results to see what is there.
I bet your LMB are there - maybe a reduced rate for the year.


Here is a link to the MSU Pond Mgt. info

Checking Balance with a Seine | Mississippi State University Extension Service - https://extension.msstate.edu/natur...t/fish-management/checking-balance-seine

Pond and Lake Management | Mississippi State University Extension Service - https://extension.msstate.edu/natural-resources/fisheries/pond-and-lake-management

Yes sometimes the spawn fails see below from an prior thread

Behavioral Suppression of Spawning in Largemouth Bass
by Interspecific Competition for Space
Within Spawning Areas
STEPHEN LEE SMITH
Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission
Eustis, Florida 32726

ABSTRACT
Florida largemouth bass ,Micropterus salmoides florldanus, fail to spawn in association with
Dense populations of stunted sunfish. A recent study indicated that a "physical factor" rather
than a chemical factor may be responsible.
Three hatchery ponds containing marked bass were stocked at different points in the bass
Reproductive cycle with concentrations of sunfish known to suppress spawning. It was determined
that reduced or complete inhibition of spawning of largemouth bass is related to interspecific
population densities in the spawning area and is behavioral in nature. Suppression is linked to
aggressive interaction with other species ,primarily affects the male bass, and is effective in
suppressing the spawning behavior sequence even before nest construction.

As early as 1964 it was noted that Florida
Largemouth bass , ,
failed to produce a year class in several
eutrophic Florida lakes with large populations
of sunfishes (Lepomis spp.) (Horel 1964).
Chew (1972) further documented this phenomenon
and determined that reproductive
failure was due to "a refusal of the adult population
to spawn" and was characterized in the
female by the "retention of enlarged, ripened
ovaries long past the spawning period." He
found that the condition could be reproduced
in hatchery ponds and attributed reproductive
inhibition to the "excretion and build-up of
a hormone-like repressive factor by overcrowded
bream and forage species
Other workers have reported the failure of
largemouth bass to spawn in the presence of
large numbers of sunfish and concluded that
failure was due to either sunfish predation on
the eggs (Swingle and Smith 1943) or to a
repressive factor excreted by sunfishes which inhibited spawning (Swingle 1956; Chew
1974).
Barwick and Holcomb (1976) were the first
to indicate that some other factor may be
responsible. By segregation of bass and sunfish
while allowing free flow of water between areas
they obtained successful bass reproduction
and concluded that suppression of spawning
was probably not due to a chemical substance
excreted into the water. It was postulated
that "lack of reproduction was apparently
associated with a physical factor that in some
way interrupted normal bass breeding activity."
The study reported here was an attempt
to determine the nature of this "physical
factor" and the point in the reproductive cycle
at which it is effective.

The observations reported here indicate that
reduced or complete inhibition of spawning
of largemouth bass is linked to aggressive
interaction with other species primarily affects
the male bass, and is effective in suppressing
the spawning behavior sequence even before
nest building.

Observation of an ignorant person: I have cleaned female LMB that contained eggs AFTER what I believe was the spawning period. Further, they were not packed with eggs, like I observe just before the [presumed] peak spawning period, but rather display smallish egg sacs that appear to be in the process of being resorbed(?).

These are on BOWs that I only get to fish infrequently, so I do NOT know the spawning observations for that spring.

If I am just repeating "old wives tales" on the forum, I would appreciate if someone would correct me.

If cleaning some female LMB after the expected spawn period and observing their egg conditions does provide some useful information, then perhaps someone could clarify that in this thread. That might help the OP answer some questions about his spawn, unless we are too far post spawn?

That was an interesting read had never thought or heard of that before. I do have a well established concentration of CNBG but I think my numbers are actually declining due to predation from the bass. I’ll have to read the article on seining but will be difficult in my pond because of all the structure that’s in it. I may be at a point I need to start taking some bass rather than just catch and release. So the article talks about predation from the sunfish what about predation from smaller bass?

Yes small LMB do prey on small new yoy LMB. But they are not there in the larger numbers like BG. When you look at the seining article you will see that the survey is only on a very small area of the pond so structure should not be a problem.

All of the LMB females do not drop all of their eggs during the spawn. Some don't spawn at all depending on conditions. Most of the time the eggs are reabsorbed by the female LMB.

Update: yesterday I started seeing some of the inch and a half to 2 inch long bass. I was getting anxious because I never saw the bass lockdown on their beds. I guess with the large rain event we had that muddied the water up, I either couldn’t see the beds or maybe they bedded away from the shoreline.
Anyway, I appreciate everyone’s input.