Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Where are the bass???

I have a 1.5 acre pond. Stocked it with 750 bluegill in April 2025. In December of 2025, I placed 60 largemouth bass in the pond. This summer I am catching bluegill from 1 inch to 6 inch. Every cast you can catch a small bluegill.

My question surrounds the bass that was placed in the pond in December. I have not been able to catch a single bass nor have I observed any bass striking the top water.

Am I expecting too much too early? How big should be the bass be at this point (7/8 months old). I am not feeding any of the fish in this pond. Shouldn't I be able to see the bass striking the top water to feed on bugs, etc.....??

Thanks for any opinions and comments.

Since you didn't say how big the bass were at the time of stocking I cannot tell you how big they should be now. They need food that is 1/4 to 1/3 their body length. Was that plentiful in the pond when they were stocked?

For example, a bass needs to eat 10 pounds of fish to gain one pound. If the bass were 3" long when stocked, and the 60 bass were to have put on 8 ounces of weight each, the 60 bass would have to consumed 72,000 1" BG/

Example:

60 bass if stocked at 3", EACH need to consume approximately 5 pounds of fish to gain 8 ounces of weight each, which is not uncommon if there is plenty of forage. . Given that 1,000 1" bluegill (1/3 the LMB body length when stocked) weigh 4 pounds each bass would have to consume roughly 1,200 1" bluegill in 7 months to grow to a weight of 8 ounces each. For 60 Largemouth Bass stocked at 3" length to grow to 8 ounces (10 inches) in 7 months they would have to eat approximately 72,000 1" bluegills.

So when I ask if the food was plentiful, I'm talking about 72,000 one inch bluegills.

The bass were approximately 2-3 inch long. I also placed 15 pounds of minnows in the pond when I stocked the bluegill. I feel like the pond has a sufficient amount of forage but I am not a biologist and cannot be sure. I may need to start feeding the fish to help the process along. I just hope the bass lived through the first winter after stocking.

Feeding the fish a good grade of fish food will help in fish growth, and the brooders will lay more eggs per nest.

December seems to be awfully late in the season for a LMB stocking. Were they able to get fully acclimated to the pond water temp during the stocking procedure?

Also, that late in the year they might not have been the fastest growers of the season.........

That was kinda my thought, we know they were probably spawned in the spring, at only 2 to 3" by Dec, they weren't the fastest growing yoy out there.

With plenty to eat ... I would expect 2.5" Northern strain LMB to be ~9" on average now ... if stocked the middle of December. If you still have plenty of minnows, then my guess is they are growing at satiation.

If Tiger fingerlings, I would expect them to be just under 10" by now. You should have examples greater than 14" by October.

Is your water difficult to see into? If not, you should be able to observe LMB swimming about along the pond perimeter. You may try a small minnow-like lure or hand feed near the shore to see if LMB are attracted to the commotion.

I did my best to acclimate the bass and it was cold when I placed them in the pond. I did notice a few (12) were very lethargic and did not swim off but I waited for approximately 30 minutes and with a little nudge, they all swam off and I never saw any that did not make it. My pond is about 4/5 ft on average. we did have a hard freeze last winter and I hope that did not have a detrimental effect on the bass.

I may try to take a small spinner and see if I can catch a few. I have also thought about a cast net to see if I could get an idea regarding the size. I am just a little surprised that I have not seen any hitting top water especially this summer late in the evening.

If the pond were swimming with minnows ... there was plenty to eat. If the minnows were sparse, then it would have been a benefit to have stocked larger LMB ... either a little earlier in the season ... or waiting until Spring, IMHO. They say LMB shouldn't be transported below 55F and if you did that ... there may have been some mortality above normal expectations. It's not an easy guess how many are surviving today.

You did not mention how much time you have spent fishing. I would just say this. The average catch rate you should expect (based on Northern strain 40 LMB/ACRE) would be around 1.24 LMB/HR if all survived. But catch rates for individual trips vary a lot. If you have only fished a few times a few minutes each ... not catching an LMB may be a normal expectation. Catch rates in the middle of day may not be as good as evenings ... you get the idea.

So are you fishing with a top water lure? You mentioned LMB not taking from surface. Try something like a rooster tail in Pearl or Chartreuse, use a fairly small one and try to record your catch fishing mornings and evenings, Try to put a 1.5 hours to 2 hrs each trip. Get 4 trips in and then report your findings. If you fin clip each LMB you catch, then you have will have a known population id. Won't tell you how many you have ... but at least you know how many individuals can be counted in the population. Ideally, you would have an ES survey and then could estimate the population from recaptures of those LMB.

You didn't mention your goals. The LMB density suggests a trophy LMB pond but you have not yet started feeding ... If the density is between 30 and 40 LMB/acre ... you should be feeding/fertilizing to grow them at top rates ... especially in a new pond.

Many thanks and I will definitely spend some time solely focused on fishing for the bass. I have not done that specifically. I thought about getting a small top water bait . Again, thank you for taking the time to respond.

I stocked my bass this spring, but I did 200 or them for a 2 acre pond. I was kind of wondering why we hadn't caught one yet either. I even teased a Cabela's gift card to the first person who caught a baby bass. So myself and 5 other dads with kids had fished pretty hard. Finally this last time I went out I ended up catching 3 of them. All of them clearly had been large enough for a while to eat the 1/16 ounce grubs we were tossing at the bluegills. So not sure why it took so long to catch one. Given how few you have it may take a bit longer. I ended up catching all 3 in very shallow water, and I think they were having a very easy time gobbling up the minnows there. My only thoughts is that maybe my jig just appeared to be more effort than it was worth if there was already abundant forage.