NE - If you as a novice can raise in a 1/4 acre pond in NH, 16-20 female LMB to sizes of 2.5-3 lbs you are doing real good. This amounts to 160-240 lbs of bass per acre and it is very good by average standards. At 4 lbs each, it becomes 256 lbs/ac for 16 bass. As I see it your second biggest problem will be trying to keep them from getting hook smart by the time they reach 3-4 lbs. They could easily be hook smart to the point you will not be able to readily catch them by "normal" angling i.e. articicial lures. If you are not aware of the concept of hook smart fish do a search here using the words - hook smart.
Silver cup is a very good higher protein food for your LMB. Supposedly the extra high fat content (16%) of Silver Cup Trout feed can be harmful to some fish such as LMB, in that it produces too much fat and cholesterol in some of their organs. This may shorten their life span?.?.? Your record keeping and reporting will provide us some good information about this topic. Unless things are different in NH, I think that the 1/4 pellet will be the largest pellet that you can easily obtain for your bass/trout. As the bass grow to 15"-16" it would be advantagous to feed them a larger pellet (3/8"); not necessary but beneficial. The philosophy of the larger sized pellet is the fish expends less energy getting its food thus it puts on more weight per amount of expended effort. More weight gain usually means increased growth rate. Trout can be raised to quite large sizes on 1/4 pellets, so your bass may be able to grow past the 3-4 lb mark on the trout pellets. Another way to get your bass to grow beyond the 4 lb mark would be to regularly (spring and fall) feed them 8"-10" trout. Very do-able in the northeast, but maybe not practical for you.
Cecil Baird has for several years been regularly feeding pellets to LMB to produce bigger bass. He may be able to suppliment this information.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 09/14/07 04:44 PM.
