Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations LMB growth rate question.

Rookie question, I'm in Southern Maryland. This pond has never seen a feeder. Typical LMB, BG farm pond, 4 acres.

What is the avg growth rate for LMB around here for a pond like this? The bass that are about 12", when were they spawned? How about the ones that are 18-20"?

Farm ponds in this county have produced 2 LMB over 11 lbs. How old were they?

It all depends, and it all depends on several factors. In general once LMB reach maturity at 12"-13" in the northern states, their growth generally slows down. They are growing pretty good in most waters if they gain 1" and 1 pound a year after they reach the 14"-16" mark. Bass with unlimited food and the right sizes of food will grow twice as fast or more in exceptional conditions (see my post below for bass growth in MS). Exceptional conditions are rare. Bass in many waters usually end up becoming too numerous/acre with too little food in most waters; thus they rarely reach their potential size. In the south with longer growing season and proper food, growth can be even faster 3"-4" per year until they reach 18"-19"; then expect the 1"-2" annual increment.

Here are good bass growth rates presented by Greg Grimes (Aquatic Environmental Services) consultant that grows big bass for clients. Greg is based in Georgia.
""To let you know for our clients (in the SE, lower altitude)wanting "good" bass fishing I expect:
1 yr- 11 inches
2 yr- 15 inches
3 yr- 18 inches
4 yr- 20 inches
5 yr- 22 inches
>6 yr ?- we get growth rates much better than this routinely"""

Greg has sampled his client's ponds and some are seeing whopping bass weights of 3 lbs to up to an amazing 5 lbs after one year of growth from stocking fingerlings with excellent genetics and using a well designed stocking plan that produces unlimited forage fish featuring proper sizes for optimum bass growth. A lake in AK has been his most recent example of producing fast growing bass. It can be done if done properly. Greg has proven it numerous times.




My best guess for age of the 11 lb bass in MD was they were around 10-13 yrs old; gaining on average 1 lb/yr. In the south a 11 lb bass could be 7-9yrs old.

From my experience of LMB in the mid-Atlantic area, Bill hit the nail on the head.

Thanks for that Bill. CJ I am the same latitude as Stafford county Va.

Update for the potential rapid growth of LMB. I was informed today by Aquatic Environmental Services that they are currently sampling a lake where fingerling LM bass were stocked in spring of 2012 into a new forage filled MS lake and the bass in March of 2014 are now 3 to 3.5 lbs with a few reaching 5 lbs. Provide abundant forage that are the proper sizes with the proper number of bass and you will be surprised at how well LMB will grow.

Wow that's awesome! I know once I put CNBG in my pond my LMB started to grow fast! I don't think with LMB you can have to much forage. They will eat,eat,eat! When LMB are in a comfort zone it's amazing how much they will eat and grow.

RC

P.S. I think this is why a lot of folks end up with a stunt problem. I don't think they realize how much they do eat and put way to many in their pond and end up with a bunch of small bass because of it. Hence the reason why your RW chart is so important with these fish. It will tell you a LOT of what you need to know in a few short minutes.

RC51 - Good points. One of the policies of AES above is to over stock forage and under stock the number of predators. Thus it results in initial fast growth of the predators. However, after the 2nd, 3rd and 4th predator spawning and recruitment, there are way too many predators eating way too many forage fish. "Too many hogs feeding at the trough" a sermon as our mentor Bob Lusk preaches. Then what frequently happens is the larger bass growth rate suddenly "hits the wall" and the pond owner is wondering why the bass are not getting larger. 'Amen'.

As much as it hurts, the pond owners have to harvest LMB.

It only hurts my stomach when I eat too much at one sitting!

Esshup this is my problem for sure! I catch that nice 17 inch bass and I can't stand it I got to throw it back!! I do keep any smaller ones I catch though, but at some point some of the smaller ones need to live to grow up and you need to take a few of the older big ones to make room. It's a fine line you have to play with all the time! Guess that's why they call it management hey!

RC

Yep, you have to be heartless when it comes to management and keep the big picture in mind.

Isn't that why, if you raise critters for the table, that you don't name them? Or if you do, ya name them lunch and dinner?

Scott, that's easy for you to say. This was as we were unloading buckets of LMB after Overton's electroshocked our puddle last year. Everything under 8 lbs came out. I think we wound up with 7 or 8 bucket fulls.

I was in timeout for a while over this.

This is true. Dogs have names. Dairy cattle have names. Steers have ear tag numbers.

That's one heck of a cookout in the making...
That's a lot of fresh fish fillets ....

Al, I know, I know. Repeat after me. BIG PICTURE.......

When we raised cattle for the table at home my sisters named them one year Pete and Tilly. All I had to do was remind them at the dinner table we were eating Pete or Tilly and I had all the steak I wanted to eat.

Oh, I completely agree. Electroshocking the puddle was the best investment we made in years. With our drought last year, I had no doubt we would have lost fish if corrective measures weren't taken.

It's just the recreation vs management aspect can be painful. Having said that, we're electroshocking again next Spring (2015) to reevaluate where we stand. We did very little fishing last year, but the LMB we did catch looked much healthier. We'd also seen CNBG freely swimming in areas we'd never seen them before. That told me there was reduced pressure on them, and that was one of the main goals.