Look at the pictures below. These were put in April 24th this year. I am amazed at the growth.

You guys have the credit. Just about everything I know about ponds came from this site.you have helped me through several problems. I'd just like to say thanks.

They are eating machines. I put 5 pounds of FHM in Monday hoping to restore the spawn. I saw about a dozen yesterday. They looked scared.

That second LMB is a hog!!

Where did you get your LMB and what strand are they? Northerns, Florida, etc. They are beautiful. Great job!

I got all the fish from Jones Fish. Great people, great service. They are all regular LMB, northern strain I suppose.

I'd venture to guess that each of them has eaten about 3#-5# of forage fish from the pond unless they are feed trained and you are feeding them.

Just a side comment as these fish are your babies now... I de-barb all my hooks and lures for fishing in my ponds.

Yeah, I caught those with the barbs bent down. As far as pounds eaten, I know they ate 5 pounds of FHM in the last 3 days. Expensive snack. I can't get the bluegill or the bass to eat pellets, at least not very much.

Yes, they are my babies.

That's odd that you can't get the bluegill to eat pellets.

That's incredible growth for only a ~2 month span.

Great growth so far. Be aware that since your current addition of 5 lbs of FHM have almost disappeared, the new LMB growth may soon "hit the wall" because not enough forage fish are currently present to keep them growing at the current pace. Hopefully our BG may be able to soon provide enough food to keep the bass moving toward the 2 & 3 pound mark. This is a common problem in new ponds. Remember - as those bass grow larger they will want abundant larger and larger food items. Their rapid growth will dramatically slow if they have to keep eating small FHM. A better option would have been to stock pellet trained LMB and you could have kept them growing like gang busters with high quality pellets and then later replaced smaller pellets with the 1" dia bass pellets that are available from Purina and Optimal brands. What is the length of the larger LMB in the picture??
Keep returning to this thread and update us about how your fishery is progressing to monitor the growth of your LMbass. Note that if you regularly / frequently catch them you will have to deal with hook smart fish when they are 3 lbs. Read about it in our Common Pond Q&A Archives about growing LMB.

I have only fished for them twice to see the size.

I think you hit the nail on the head as far as what forage is left. That has really concerned me for the past two weeks. There are thousands, I suppose, of Itty bitty fhm from successful spawns. I stopped counting generations. I'd guess 15 or 20. I seriously doubt any will make it to an adult much less spawn.

I said the fhm had all been consumed. Today I saw really small ones that couldn't have been a few days old. I may be mistaken.

It's a lot of fun to watch them chase them back and forth. They really don't stand a chance.

I'm unsure of what to do now. I think the forage base is days from being gone. My forage pond is too far down the road to help..

Trapping fhm at the lake has crossed mind. I have also entertained the idea of Creek chubs. They are by the thousands in a creek real close by. I had asked if it would be ok but, never got a definite answer. I'm afraid to put them in until one of you guys says ok.

It is very possible that some of the small 'fry' you are seeing could be new BG unless the BG you stocked were only 1"-2". 3"to 4" BG could be spawning now if they were added in April.

Creek chubs are an option but be aware many of them from the creek will have at least a few to numerous black spots from black spot disease. I am not sure at this point how adding them to the pond increases the infestation of them into your pond. Note it will take 10lbs of chubs to increase the bass poundage by one pound thus lots of chubs for a bass to gain a pound. When I was back in college my dad and I added creek chubs to our pond for the bass. We had several large bass that quickly became quite tame and waited for us to arrive with the welfare food. You can also do this hand feeding with mid sized BG that you trim off the tails once they spawn a couple times.

The general rule for producing hook smart fish is - the smaller the pond, the more often one fishes, and the longer one fishes each trip the more the LMB become hook smart.

I'm always leery adding fish /minnows/ chubs into my pond from another public pond/lake /stream. If you net them you may introduce something you may not want whether it be a species or a disease. Just my 2 cents.

Here are some of the chubs. They are easy to harvest.


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Those two minnows are not creek chubs. I am not sure what they are from the picture. Those diamond shaped scales are not characteristic of creek chubs (Semotilus atromaculatus). Is that Lebanon OH?? So I can narrow down the choices of names for those fish. They might be common shiners? Taking a picture of a live one in a ziploc bag with water would help for identification. Those are shells of Corbicula clams in the gravel.

This is the only other picture I have currently. I'll try to get one as you requested. No, I am in Lebanon TN. The pictures are taken from Fall Creek which pours into Percy Priest Lake.

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Bill, what species are those snails in the picture?

Sorry but looks like Cheerios and rice lol

That would be Cheerios and Ramen noodles...

I stand corrected

Mr. Bill Cody,
Here are a couple of pictures in a bag as you suggested.I suspect that they are Tennessee Shiners. Can you confirm?

I found myself in a pickle. The bass have eaten the bulk of the original forage. I did go ahead and put these shiners in the pond. I don't really think I had a choice. They said they were delicious.

The bass really don't pay much attention to me when I roll up with bait. They just gather around and wait for me to throw them in.

I'm addicted. I could sit all day and watch them bust these schools of minnows. A LMB is faster than I thought. It is really amazing just how big a bait they can eat.

They have grown since I last posted pictures. It looks like doubled in the water. I am going to wait a week or two before I hook another one.

NICE