Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations How does this bass look?

Measured just over 21 inches. Didn't get a weight or circumference. It was quite chunky.

This one was stocked 4 years ago and they were in the 6-10" range then.

Looks pretty good.

Is that the same fish in both pictures?

In the picture on the right, the LMB looks a little fatter than the picture on the left.

Both bass look great. They look like they're on feed.

Same fish and used about 300# of feed last year.

Think it could be 6 pounds? Will try to weigh next one I catch.

High 4s or 5 lbs, easy, I would guess.

Could be 6 lbs, but I'm just guessing.

No matter what, it's a nice healthy LMB.

Nice fish. When was it caught both times?

Same fish, same day, only caught 1 fish/1 cast total. Stocked 30 of them in July of 2022 and at least 1 was killed by a heron. Some of their offspring are now probably 14 inches and I've thinned them twice. Surprisingly there are still lots of shiners in the pond.

Standard weight for a 21" LMB is 5.36 lbs.
With that plumpness it should weigh real close to 6lbs. Great job raising those fish of keeping them growing one pound a year. I think the bass was on its 2nd yr of growth when it was stocked at 6"-10" long, thus I put it in the year class of the 2021 hatchlings. For a northern grown LMB at 6 yrs old and 21" long and close to or at 6 lbs it was growing one pound a year. This is on the low end of the fast growth category for all bass in the USA as noted in my PBoss Mag Mar-Apr 2026 article "Largemouth Bass Talking Points, Two".

Because your are in PA and have shorter growing season days for water above 55F the growth rate of that bass IMO has had exceptional growth rate for more northern waters. Your JOB now is to keep it growing at the rate of one pound a year so in 2030 at 10 years old it will weigh 10 lbs. Always having lots of shiners in the pond will help keep that bass and siblings growing really good. Remember as the pond ages and the carrying capacity laws state, the pond will support only a few of the biggest bass per acre.

Thanks for the detailed response. Didn't even get to see if it was one of the larger ones or not that hang out at the dock for food. Since bass stocking there are very few bullfrogs and not many sub 3" bluegill.

I do the same thing as Shiner Sam when I feed my smallmouth bass using various types of excess forage fish. I think this feeding method will help you growing your biggest bass at a great yearly rate toward the 10 lb mark.
Shiner Sam Training and Feeing his trophy bass. Notice the hand fed bass are hook smart.


If your pond always has lots of appropriate sized forage fish this is what is possible in your pond from watching Sam feeding shiners to his bass.


Also keep in mind that as the pond ages and fish poundage increases be watchful of the water quality. Notice the pond's water clarity and apparent water quality in Shiner Sam's second video.. Your pond will always need "happy water" to keep those bass growing well and especially when not too crowded. Crowded bass are ALWAYS food limited and growth rates always slow down.

PAfarmPond,
How big is your pond with these bass?
And what other fish are in the pond, especially things as forage fish?
IF you are seriously interested in growing some of your stocker bass to truly large sizes read and learn about pond carrying capacity and maintaining good quality Happy Water. Many pond owners try to raise too many of the biggest fish in too small of the appropriate size of water that has to few forage fish i.e. predators are too crowded for the pond's carrying capacity.
From the PBoss Archives - Pond Carrying Capacity :
https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=92440#Post92440


Near what section of Pgh do you live?. I lived 10 yrs in Pgh (Carnegie, Greentree). Our moderator Sunil lives just east of Pgh.

Half acre 30 minutes north of the city. I know ill need to thin heavily and have removed over 30 bass.

Remember --- without having bass regularly eating pellets in "healthy happy water" you will only safely grow 50-60 lbs of bass per natural ACRE that is 30 lbs maybe and just maybe 40 lbs of LMB in 1/2 acre as primarily pellet fed bass. Pushing the natural limit more than 80 lbs of bass /ac can be grown per acre but this is a high risk situation for the longer term situation and numerous pond owners who have done this have had significant fish kills for learning what should not be done.

Do the math for a weight combination of sizes. For a 40 lbs/ac reference guideline this is 4 six lb'rs and maybe three to four 3 lb'rs as 12lbs, and a couple 2 lb'rs; all totaling 40 lbs and does not include the 12" (ea. 1lb) and smaller sizes of bass. Don't forget that Happy Water includes a good aeration system that could include both good bottom based aeration and an efficient surface aerator for use during low or marginal DO events. A short term low DO event in summer will kill your largest bass first. This is a very discouraging learning event when you have been working so hard for years to grow those biggest bass.


A 6 lb 21" LMB fast growing plump bass in 2026 will / should sometime in 2028 be 23'' and be around 8 lbs with 4 of them by themselves will total 32lbs.

It would be ideal IMO if ALL the bass in your pond were just fast growing females. This way you have a much better chance of all the bass in the pond being optimum sized fish.

Down the road, if you have a fish kill from too much carrying capacity and with just 1 unlucky hour of 'bad' water, you can use the above information for creating a new 1/2 acre fishery as an all female bass pond. Five 8 lb bass equals 40 bass lbs close to maximum for 1/2 acre of happy water.

By a standard food conversion ratio chart, for five 8 lb bass (40lbs) to stay at a standard weight body condition, they will or need to eat to total of 240 pounds of live food per year for all five to just stay at a healthy plump 8 lb. This as calculated by 'new' standard weight maintenance guidelines, that says a LMB needs to eat six lbs of live food for each pound it weighs to stay at maintenance weight to be able to grow. Then to grow to the next pound (usually 1") it needs another 8-10 lbs of more food/s per year.


Then - for all five 8 lb'rs to grow one additional pound to be 9 lbs,,, collectively the five 8 lbr's will need to eat another 80-90 more lbs of live foods for a grand total of around 280 - 290 lbs of live foods consumed in one year. Each 8lb bass per year eating 48 lbs maintenance + 8 to10 lbs each for growth to the next inch. For sure a BIG challenge in a 1/2 pond. Do you know how many pounds of forage fish that a 1/2 acre pond will grow or have when at carrying capacity? Supplemental foods are almost always needed in small ponds when trying to grow really best growth, big bass.