Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations CC's

I caught a 2 3/4 pond CC this weekend, she was full of eggs and ready to lay soon. Of course I know, you know, the only way I would know is when I cleaned her. But I figure there are other females in there ready as well.

I also caught a little CC about 8 or 9 inches long. Now I'm not sure if it is one of our babies or if it is the one hubby caught at a lake close by and released in there a week or so ago. Altho we both thought it was smaller then the one he released.

My question is, how long do CC stay on a nest and do you think any will survive with LMB in there. I know we have had some survive in the past as we have several diferent sizes come up to feed, when they do feed. :p But the Bass have grown a bunch and I have had a hard time catching them.

Which leads to another question. Will LMB eat a 5-6 inch BG "IF" there are a bunch of smaller BG between 2-4 inches?

NWW, my personal thought is that numerous small BG are the most effective predator of little tiny CC and that fewer baby CC will survive in a pond managed for large bass and plentiful BG forage than in a pond managed for large BG and overcrowded bass. That's an opinion based on ONE pond where CC have successfully recruited 2 or maybe 3 times now, versus the CW in the large bass world where CC are often said to have no chance of successful recruitment. My pond has virtually no plants for cover, so the CC must be doing it by shear force of numbers.

A 15-16" LMB would rather eat a 5-6" BG than the smaller ones, given roughly equal chances of catching them. A 10" LMB is probably going to have to settle for the smaller BG.

Sorry Theo,
But what is a CW?
Ron

I'm guessing Conventional Wisdom.

Gold Star, DJT.

My apologies to Ron and anyone else confused. If it's in the Commonly Used Acronyms archive, I tend to leave caution to the wind and use at will.