Show and or copy these PB Forum informations from professional pond managers to your friend wanting a trophy LMB Pond. Growing fingerling stocker fish by fish farms requires different methods than growing trophy fish. We are specialists in growing BIG fish.
Growing trophy bass requires a lot of continual work and effort. It is not just adding fish to a pond. Read on.
Firstly - listen carefully and follow 'esshup's' suggestions. He grows big fish. Every large CC takes the place of one bass. LEAVE CC OUT OF BIG BASS PONDS. If you want the best LMB pond for trophy or even big bass then OMIT the CC who eat lots of foods that bass will need to grow larger. Tell your friend CC are not bottom cleaners. Big channels are predators and eat fish not organic stuff and algae to clean the bottom. Do the homework.
State angler record for LMB in PA is 11lb3oz so this is your target goal as trophy PA bass. Thus regular trophy bass pond in PA will have as goals to be 7lb to 9lb bass. PA does not list a state record HSB however the OH record HSB is 18lb2oz.
To grow big bass fast you have to start the pond CORRECTLY with forage fish to produce a high density and overabundance of forage fish before adding any predators
Stocking Notes: Listen to this podcast for Old and New Concepts of Fish Stocking for best balanced high quality fishing. They tell how to get fingerling bass grown to 2-3lb in one year.
https://www.buzzsprout.com/976324/8...cking-for-ponds-and-lake-new-and-old?t=0Trophy LMB ponds always have and need a constant and an almost over abundant amount of forage fish of the Right and Correct sizes to feed big bass that are growing quickly to bigger sizes. As bass grow they eat more and more larger foods and not by not eating little small fishes to get optimum bass growth and to keep them growing. 16” bass are best eating 3”-4” BG and 5”-6” long bass or big shiners. 18" LMB grow best eating 5"-6" BG and often 7”-8” long small bass / shiners or perch. Larger bass do best when eating even larger fish and foods.
Medium 15”-17” bass eating minnows will not grow, as much as they could grow, because these bass expend too much energy and effort catching too small of fish that do not provide enough added nutrition for growth. Maintenance weight yes - Growth equals little or None. Example – A 2lb bass (15”) needs to eat 12 lbs of food to JUST maintain it’s 2lb weight AND then to grow 1 pound,,,, it needs to eat another 10 lbs of the right sized forage. So for just a 2 lber (15.5”) to grow to 3 lb (17.5”) it needs to eat 22 lbs of food that year! So 30 of these 2lb bass in 3 acres need to eat at least 660 lbs of forage fish! Do you see why you don’t want CC also in the pond eating forage fish?
As these 30 bass grow to 4lb, EACH ONE needs to eat 24lb of forage that year to maintain its weight and an added 10 lb of forage (34lb) to grow to 5 lb. 3ac then needs 1024 lb of CORRECT forage to get 30 4lb bass growing to 5 lb. Do the math for bass larger than 5 lbs. Lots and Lots of forage of correct sizes are needed to grow trophy bass. Actually lots and lots of forage is needed to grow any size of bass!
Your friend will not grow trophy bass unless the pond has lots of good habitat in the 3 acres. Again do your good diligent homework - see links at the bottom. The pond needs 'Fish Cities'.
To grow trophy or biggest bass, it takes lots of work and effort. You don’t just stock bass and expect trophies to grow. Your friend will need to do at least 2 of the several important things mentioned by esshup.
1. LMB are prolific spawners. Once the LMB start spawning and recruitment bass are 9"-12" usually year 3 from stocked fingerlings--- HARVEST, HARVEST, HARVEST of the smaller bass to maintain lots of uneaten food for bigger bass to keep growing, so at certain 16"-19" lengths, bass don't hit the 'growth wall' due to lack of PROPER food quantities.
Why, Which Ones and How Much Harvest of Bass
https://www.buzzsprout.com/976324/6...-it-is-almost-biblical-for-your-lake?t=0https://www.buzzsprout.com/976324/8...redator-fish-why-do-you-harvest-bass?t=0Remember - trophy bass ponds very rarely have lots of large trophy BG because numerous trophy bass are heavily cropping too many of the 5"-7" BG.
2. Always keep track of relative weights (RW) when anglers catch any bass including those smaller bass and those under weight that should be removed. See links.
RW = (weight of bass / standard weight of LMB) X 100.
If it was my pond I would be cutting tails off all the removed small bass and feeding them back into the pond to feed the largest bass rather than me eating or wasting or discarding the unwanted culled bass. As mentioned a RW of 95%+ indicates the bass is healthy and growing. Less than 90% the bass is not getting enough food for good growth. Remove thin bodied bass. You want most of the larger bass caught to have RW of 110%+ if you want them to keep growing.
3. To grow big bass the pond needs lots of healthy and high numbers of BG that have to be fed a high protein pellets to keep the BG panfish population growing and abundant enough to feed big growing bass. Standard fish feeders for this are 1 to maybe 2 feeders per acre that distribute 40% plus high quality protein fish food. If your friend does not do this, expect few if any trophy bass per acre. Medium 16"-19" bass yes, trophy bass few in any.
How and Why to Feed BG to Grow Big Bass.
https://www.buzzsprout.com/976324/8180502-episode-44-how-to-feed-fish-and-feeder-fundamentals?t=03. For growing big and trophy bass the pond also needs Very Good Proper Amount and Type of Habitat in addition to constant abundant forage, feeding the BG, and proper bass harvest.
Listen to this professional advice.
https://www.buzzsprout.com/976324/10010880-episode-66-structure-and-fish-habitat-for-lakes-and-pondsHabitat to improve production, fish sizes, fish cities, sizes, numbers per acre and placement. Excellent habitat information from actual fish research.
https://www.buzzsprout.com/976324/3322504-episode-001-fish-habitatshttps://www.buzzsprout.com/976324/9951429-episode-65-harvesting-fish-the-smart-way?t=0
