Hello,
I am from Austria, Europe.
I have a small lake at home with largemouth bass.
Bass are about 12-13" long. I got bass from a fish farm
in Austria (this fish farm has the bass from Italy)
I am feeding them with swimming
pellets. They like it very much! But bass have also
a lot of natural food (small fish) in our lake.
Now I have a question: Can you tell me something about
growth rate from pellets feeding LMB?
Which size will bass have next year and so on?
Our climate in Austria is similar to New York.
(Hot summer and cold winter)
Our lake has a watertemp. about 80°F in summer
and is icy in winter.
Thank you for your help!
Neptun, welcome to Pond Boss. You are our first member from Austria. Members from any place in Europe are very rare. Having feed trained bass in a body of water with lots of natural forage is an ideal situation. I will leave the growth estimate to those from colder climates. I'm in Texas and we never have ice.
A couple of questions. What size is the lake? When did you stock them and what size were they when you stocked? What is the protein % in the floating food? We prefer about 40% protein for predators like LMB and the type/source of the protein can also be important.
Tell us more about the lake. We are always curious about ponds/lakes from foreign places. If you can post some pictures, it would make us very happy.
In a climate such as yours, expect feed-trained bass to grow at a rate of slightly less than one pound of gain per year, if the food they eat has the nutrition a bass needs. The fact that you have lots of forage fish suggests these fish have adequate amounts of food. If so, expect growth rates of 3/4 pound to 1 pound per year. If they don't grow this fast, it will likely be because they aren't getting enough to eat.
Hi Neptun,welcome to the forum.We're glad you found us,and as Bob said,we love pics.
I normally dont give any advice as Im not an expert,however,I just had a very interesting conversation with someone raising trophy LMB.He tried feeding the bass with limited results.He then switched to feeding the bluegill instead and the results changed dramaticly.Keeping good records he is growing 10 lb bass in 5 years,and has been pretty consistent at it.
If anyone else wants to discuss this I'll be at the converance next week.
Greetings, Neptun!
Mr. Lusk has a lot of experience managing LMB in NY state, so I doubt you can get much better information than he has provided (based on comparative climates).
P.S. I would like to thank you for getting Dave Davidson to speak (write, actually) proper English.
Welcome to Pond Boss Neptun! Post some photos of your pond, we'd love to see them!
thank you for your answers!
the pellets are originally made for trout.
I think there is a lot of proteins in the food.
Yes I have plenty of natural food in our lake.
There are also live carps and zander (pike perch)
in the water.
The lake has about 1,5 hetctare (15.000 square meters),
a deep of maximum 10 feet.
There is a lot of cover for LMB (wood, plants and so on)
Pictures are following...
older bass I got with 6" last year. They have now a size of
about 11-12". That is very nice for the climate in Austria.
But these bass do not eat any pellets, because they dont know it.
I got this bass from another fish farm in Austria, which does not
feed bass with pellets (only with live food - small fish).
This year I got 40 bass from the fish farm I have told you.
This fish farm is feeding bass with pellets.
So I think, that these bass will grow much better than the other bass...
Can you follow me?
here the link to my website:
"Andi`s Welt - art of fishing"
ART OF FISHING
older bass I got with 6" last year. They have now a size of
about 11-12". That is very nice for the climate in Austria.
But these bass do not eat any pellets, because they dont know it.
I got this bass from another fish farm in Austria, which does not
feed bass with pellets (only with live food - small fish).
This year I got 40 bass from the fish farm I have told you.
This fish farm is feeding bass with pellets.
So I think, that these bass will grow much better than the other bass...
Can you follow me?
Yes.
I also think you will see much better growth with the pellet trained bass.
Neptun, welcome to the forum! Your lake looks great and so does the bass...
I had heard Italy was one of the few countries in Europe with a good number of largemouth bass being imported. They also have several of our native sunfish species. Thanks for posting and sharing your experiences. When you get the chance, could you post photos of other fish from your pond. I know I and I think others on here would enjoy seeing what fish ponds in different parts of the world have...
See if you can find the protein percentage if you feed. Trout feed is usually pretty high, so you should be OK.
Glad you found the forum!
my biggest LMB in Austria
Some great looking rainbow trout. The zanders are very cool looking too... The pike is gorgeous as well! Is that last fish a grayling of some kind?
my biggest LMB in Austria
That's a nice bass anywhere in the world! Looks like you have some fertile healthy waters... What species of forage fish do you have in your lake?
yes, it is a grayling...
we have some very nice rivers in front of the alps - these rivers
are famous all over the world (Traun, Steyr,...)
Flyfishing for salmonides is very popular in Austria!
Thank you for your compliment - yes thats a nice bass!
(in our lake are: carp, zander, perch, largemouth bass)
more pictures can you find at my website...
Andis Welt
Looks like there is some great fishing in Austria... Have you ever visited the US?
Thanks for the pictures. Those are some great pictures, and some NICE fish!
The first pic looks very similar to our Yellow Perch, the second and fifth very much like our Walleye. I really like the coloring on the Pike.
The pond looks great!
No, I have never been in the USA, sorry
Wow, although I do not read German, photos are a universal language. Beautiful photos Andis, thank you for posting them.
Great pics,thanks for sharing.
thank you, hope you like the pictures...
so, I will go feeding my LMB :-)
Also the pictures indicate to me the pond is very fertile. Do you have any type of aeration setup? Do folks in Austria fertilize or is that natural fertility? What is the brand pellets, made in Austria?
The over use of trout chow with 18-20% fat can do longterm damage to bass liver. Report prtoein and fat level (label?) if you don't mind.
I spoke with three hatcheris in Italy back 5 years ago or so wanting us to air frieight them bass. I was not setup to do this. The one guy was the leading bass champoin in Italy if i recall.
Great website!
So, now I can tell you something about my pellets.
Brand is from our own country Austria.
Protein: 32%
Lipid: 10%
Vit A: 10.000 IE
Vit D: 2.000 IE
best wishes, Andi
ok you are on the other side vs. what I was reffering too. There is not enough protein I feel. ANy other havbe thoghts?
The fat is higher than normal for a 32% protein food. However I would like to see the protein level up to at least 36% protein. Also depends on source of protein as well, does it have a good fishy smell? Label mentions fsh meal? I will talk to Purina Aquamax rep at the PB conference and see if they can ship their product to you. Good luck and thanks for info.
Isn't Purina Largemouth 45% protein?
I think the question is what makes up the protein. Some ingredients can be high protein but indigestible to fish.
I wonder what species of fish would be used in Europe as fish protein?
The most noted useless "protein" that I've heard of is ground up chicken feathers. High protein but indigestible by fish.
A video from Bass fishing in Austria:
fishing at my lake:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE3qFb-SD4Ibest wishes,
Andi
Nice video and GREAT pond! THe LMB look really healthy. Thanks for sharing!
You need to get some AquaMax largemouth pellets somehow! They look like they really like the feed, I wish mine would learn to eat pellets, currently I have only 3 or 4 that do.
I just picked up some AuquaMax LM this past weekend..I got very few hits on the larger pellets but they continued to feed on the smaller pellets..The bass are plenty big enough, I think I need to keep trying.
