Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations bass length Vs weight

I am almost certain that my LMB population is too large. Smaller bass seem to have fat bellys and the longer they get, the skinnier they look.

The pond was stocked in 1991 and I've kept less than 200 fish total since then. Normally catch 10-12 bass on evey trip. Don't really fish for bluegill, but when I throw floating fish food I see a couple of dozen BIG BG.

Had a survey done 2 years ago by DNR and they thought the pond was close to balanced, but suggested I take 25-50 lbs per acre per year out of the pond. I most likely haven't taken 50lbs in 10 years combined.

Any idea how I might evaluate the bass length Vs weight?

Stanwt, there is a formula, or generally accepted method, for determining the overall condition of your bass which is called "relative weight." This is just a way to benchmark your bass with assumptions that a "X" inch long bass should weigh "Y" pounds.

If you do a search in the category "EVALUATING FISH POPULATION" (or whatever is close sounding to that), and key in "relative weight" or "relative weight chart" you should find the answer to your question.

StanWT: When you try the search function, it will ask what sub-category you want to select. The correct one is "Evaluating and Adjusting Fish Populations." However, that does not mean that you won't find pertinent information in other categories.

There are not too many questions that can't be answered from the fine folks here on the forum.

Sunil,

Thanks. I tried your advice and found a July '04 post that talked about a spreadsheet. I've sent him an e-mail. I thought someone might have a rule of thumb or a formula that was less complicated than a spreadsheet. This is a recreational pond and I just need some ball park type evaluative tool. I seem to be catching a lot of small to mid-size bass, and a lot of the same bass. Some really fat, but most are torpedo shape, no bellies.

Thanks for your advice.

Stanwt,

Here's a table from a pamphlet called "Management of Fish Ponds in Pennsylvania" which is put out by Penn.State.

Keep in mind that we have a slower growing season in PA than you do in SC. You may add a few ounces to the weight portion.

This is for LMB

Years after Stocking = YAS
Length in inches = L
Weight in ounces = W

YAS - L - W
1 - 8 - 5
2 - 10 - 10
3 - 12 - 15
4 - 14 - 20
5 - 15 - 24

You could easily get above this curve with a feeding program, or a well managed forage fish program. For my pond in PA, a 15" LMB will usually be very close to if not exceed 2lbs or 32 oz.

For Bluegill:
YAS L W
1 - 5 - 2
2 - 6 - 4
3 - 7 - 6
4 - 8 - 7
5 - 8 - 8

If you have some of those "torpedo" shaped bass, they are not getting enough to eat. If possible, you may want to start a slot limit culling program for your LMB.

I do not think those growth rates apply to SC. IF my client's got growth that slow I would be fired. You might be talking about my spreadsheet?? email is greg@lakework.com if you want it. But you can go to www.lakework.com and look under articles to see realtive wiehgt chart this will provide info you need to see if bass are skinny.

Thank you to both of you. I measured and weighed this morning. 9 LMB, smallest 9 inches, 9 ounces; largest 14 inches, 21 ounces. Average for the 9 fish 12.31 inches and 12.5 ounces. Sound skinny? Looks skinny. Fished less than 40 minutes.

So if I am overly blessed with LMB, what do I do? Take everything under 12 inches or use a slot limit. Remove every BG I catch? I fish this pond a lot, but seldom keep fish. Kept 9 BG yesterday and those were the 1st fish kept in over a year.

Any advice would be appreciated and thanks for the help so far.

Stanwt, it seems like you took some good notes of size & weight.

As GG indicated, the table I posted is way conservative, especially for the south, and even my pond in PA. I think your conclusion of skinny fish is accurate.

I don't recall if you posted the size/acreage of your pond, but there are recommendations on the forum for how many pounds per acre of fish to remove.

I would think (with my limited info. on your pond, and my limited pond experience) that you should not remove any bluegill as they are the backbone of the LMB forage chain.

If you think that the 14" LMB size range indicates the largest LMB in your lake, you would want to leave that size to grow bigger.

So a culling program w/ a slot limit of 8-12" LMB for removal would be good. A pro should weigh in here; GG?

If you think in perspective about a 1 acre pond (in general terms), removing (50) 8-12" LMB from that one acre should have an impact, but it may need to be more like 75 or 100 per acre.

I just reviewed your first post. Your DNR has suggested a per acre weight to remove. If you go with the 50lb./acre, that's around 60-75 of your average sized LMB.

PS: I just reviewed your original post again. If you stocked back in '91, you must have some fish much, much bigger than 14". If not, it could indicate other issues such as a lacking forage base, other large predators, or even poaching.

Throw us some more details ie: size, depth, what types of fish, etc.

Thanks.

Go to the Home Page here and click the link to "Order Now". Get Lusk's book Raising Trophy bass. It's full of everything you need to know, and will assist with any management plan for bass. It tells you when to cull, how and when to use slot-limits, and when to get off them...all depending on your personal preferences. It's a fantastic bass management book.

Sorry that I didn't think of those details sooner. The pond was flooded in Nov. 1990. Stocked with 200 Hybrid BG. Spring of '91 1000 BG; fall of '91 100 LMB. Some 6 or 8, 5lb LMB were added in '96.

The pond is 2.5 acres and approximately 1/2 acre is flooded and fallen timber. Deepest area is 15 ft, average is about 10 Ft. Fished 2-4 tmes a week in spring & summer, but less than 200lbs of fish removed since day one. love to fish, hate to clean fish.

Not fertilized since '94. Spring fed, and uses a siphon type drain. I'm going to try the book suggested, but in the interim any input is appreciated.

Stanwt, It's good that you've got Lusk's book coming to you.

Maybe the problem can be summed up as too many mouths to feed and not enough food to go around.

A culling program seems necessary. However, you may need some help in fishing to get the impact you need. The quicker you can get some slot limit LMB out, the sooner you will see an impact.
With 2.5 acres, maybe you want to remove around 200+ LMB.

As far as forage fish, is there anything else besides blue gill? If not, you can add some bait fish (shiners, fatheads, etc.) but most on this forum feel that it will be just an expensive snack for the already established LMB population.

You could do some things to help your bluegill to spawn such as creating better spawning areas, or more protected areas for spawning and initial growth of juvenile bluegill.

My guess is that if you remove 200+ LMB in the next week or so, you should see the results of larger bass by late fall '05.

As far as what to do with the culled fish, maybe you could find someone with a pond nearby that would want them. Some may cringe at this statement, but you could always let them go downstream of your pond.

here is my quick rec. 100 bass less than 13 inches this year. This might be easy at first then get harder. If you get 100 out easy up it a bit. DO NOT REMOVE ANY BLUEGILL! DNR says to do this all the time. They did not ask your goals and limited time here but that is bad advice. Fetilize to up the amount of lbs of fish you can grow. If you see just big bluegill this also indicates a bass heavy situation. You might need to stock intermediate size bluegill to more quickly correct the situaiton. Setup feeder to fed several times per day to max bluegill that will grow to help bass. Good luck!