Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Skinny Bass

We built a 6 acre lake in 2006 and stocked with 4,000 bream that fall. In April of 2007 we stocked 30lbs. of fathead minnows followed by 300 northern LM bass in May and 300 Florida bass in June. The fish grew like crazy the first year. We added threadfin shad in May of 2008 and never saw them again until later that year in August and they were everywhere. Our fish were doing great, we were catching fish of all sizes up to about 12" and they were healthy. The next year, in 2009, the fish started to seem thin and the threadfin shad were gone. This is the first time we have done this so we weren't sure what to do. We started taking bass out in 2010 and we kept anything from 10" to 14", releasing everything else. We have harvested about 400 bass up to now. We are catching several fish that are between 15" and 16", but they are not healthy. We did catch one fish in 2010 that was 19" long and weighed 4lbs. 8oz. I feel we need to just keep taking out bass but my question is how many. Any information is much appreciated, I was expecting to be alot farther with the bass by now and don't want to get any further behind. Thanks in advance.

PHil, very common scenario we see it almost daily. For 6 acres that go out of wahck we used to say 150 lbs/yr now we are getting mroe agressive. When taking otu that many lbs you freed up some food but not enough for the bluegill to recover to the point of producing the right amound of food for the remaining bass.

If your goal is to grow larger bass and the pond farily fertile for 6 acres remove about 300 lbs/year. If your saying 400 lbs up to now to mean since 2010 make it 600 lbs since early 2010 and that is a good start. yes we lost threadfin in almost all the ponds in the southeast and that contributed to the skinny bass as well. GL if you need a survey to get a specfic plan of action feel free to call.

Thanks for the info Greg, much appreciated...we will keep taking the bass out. We were going to put about 600 lbs. of crawdads in this year and we are having trouble finding anybody with any because of the the way the Mississippi river has flooded. Would it be too late to stock threadfin shad and do you actually sell them and/or deliver to West Tennessee? Thanks again.

Phil thanks. Man Phil flip me an email we just missed you Im afraid on the crawdads. Matt leaving shortly for LA. I might be able to lineup a shipment. Yes way too late ont he threadfin this year. Last stocking was May 2- now spawned out. Yes we deliver to west TN.
greg@lakework.com

Phil, My pond is about the same size as your and probably in about the same condition. I had alot of skinny bass 4 years ago so started removing pretty heavy. In 2008 I added 2000 5" bluegill and 10,000 Threadfin shad and removed 250 lbs of bass that year and still no signs of improvement. The next year I added 150 lbs of crawfish and took out another 200 lbs and then last year I lost my shad so I removed 250 Lbs again. It got to a point where my fish were so hook shy that they were impossible to catch. but like Greg said you need to shoot for 300 lbs. Better catch as many as you can before you add the crawfish. Mine got really tough to catch for a few months after adding them. Kinda hard to catch them when they arent hungry.

Jsand, Have you seen any signs of improvement this year? Just wondering about how long it will take to start seeing improvements. How old is your pond? We have decided to wait to stock any forage until we get some more bass out.

Phil, Mine is about 40 years old so maybe not the same senerio but I have seen some improvement over the years. I went from haveing only one or two big bass in the pond to a pretty good bit in the 2-3 lbs range and we have shocked up some decent ones. Back in feb. I was catching 10-15 nice bass every day on a rat-l-trap. Relative weights in 2007 were about 75% and went up to 82% in 2008 then the shad died and it went back to 80%. I would say right now they are at around 90% but I have caught a few of the bigger ones that were 110-115%. The main problem is with removing that many fish is after the first 100 lbs or so they get hook shy and its almost impossible to get them to bite. It probably wouldn't hurt to add some more 4-5" bluegull this year and then shad next year.

We are statring to see improvements in our smaller fish. We are catching alot more fish in the 14" to 16" inch range. My dad caught this one over the weekend. 20 1/4" and 5.46 lbs. I guess we're headed in the right direction. Thanks for the advice.

Looks like you ARE headed in the right direction. That's a really nice bass on any lake.

Phil, a slot limit may be called for, but always remove any fish that does not look healthy, or cut it's tail off to feed any Catfish/turtles.

We have removed about 200 fish this year that were 14" and below. We are catching more fish in the 14" to 16" range but most are underweight but we are still releasing them. We were thinking about moving up to keeping anything up to 15" to make sure we take enough out this year. We need to keep 200-300 more fish this year. What would you recommend the slot limit to be?

I am not sure I would go the slot limit route. Keep removing any skinny bass, regardless of size... It really is hard to remove too many.

i've found in my ponds that i like to hit the young bass really hard they are more aggressive. i take alot of 4inch to 12 inch bass out every year i get a bucket of crappie minnows and a cane pole and wear them out. all that i can catch get them before they cause u a problem.alot of the time i just cut them up and feed them to the catfish

and if i see a ball of tiny bass after the spawn i take a deep net and scoop them up i put them in ice water there really frail at that stage then throw them back in bg love them just seems to make life a little easier hitting them when the small might not work for you just a few things i do

Thanks again for all the advice...at least now I feel we are doing the right things. We will keep taking fish out, went again yesterday afternoon and caught about 10. It's getting a little tough to catch them in the heat.