Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait Can anyone identify these fish

My pond went dry during the drought a few years ago. I have not stocked it yet. so, various volunteers are in the pond. But, I can't identify these 2 fish I caught in a cast net. Can anyone help?

thanks!

Hey Robert,

I'll give it a shot. Keep in mind though I am like 0 for 100 in the forum on questions like this.

Fish 1 - Largemouth bass
Fish 2 - White Crappie

Not to worry, an expert will be a long to tell you what the really are!

Edit:

FWIW the eye size on all those fish look pretty big to me which makes me think they might be stunted so, hopefully, the pro will comment on that as well.

Not no more you not . You right

Not sure on the crappie white or black but eyes big on bass also

I agree LMB and crappie

I do not believe the top picture is a LMB. Two things make !e think it is a SMB or some hybrid. The mouth opening stops in front of the eye. Also, the eye has a brown tint that is seen in SMB but seldom in LMB. The body coloration and patterns don't seem to favor SMB or LMB.

I don't really know what kind of fish are shown in the second photo. The photos dont provide enough detail. Being able to see their dorsal and anal fins would help a lot. If they are crappie, photos of the fins would tell us if they are black or white crappie. They probably are crappie. But they just dont look right. Maybe it is because they are rather small fingerlings or fry. Crappie should have an extended lower jaw that these don't appear to have. Their body shape doesn't look quite right. Except for the tails, they don't seem to have the proper patterns or coloration for either black or white crappie.

I'm sure a few others will chime in.

The first fish appears to be a LMB. Sometimes when LMB don't have their mouths shut, the jawbone doesn't extend past the eye. There is a fair amount of coloration variance, regionally and drainage to drainage. The coloration I see in that LMB is not overly uncommon, especially in smaller bass such as the one pictured in my experience.

The second photo with multiple fish are all crappies. Now if they are black or white crappies, it's harder to say for certain without being able to do dorsal ray fin counts. From the coloration I'm seeing, I'd lean more towards white crappies but they certainly could be black.

Thank you Travis. I was hoping you'd see this thread.

I went with white crappie as a guess on the second fish based only on it appears to me the spots are in vertical "stripes" but, as Catmando points out, the fish are pretty small.

Any thoughts from anybody on whether these fish are stunted? I am trying to pick up some hints on how to distinquish that as well.

Thanks everyone! I will try and catch some more and display them with their fins out.
I wonder how these guys get in the pond? After the rain started to fill the pond, minnows immediately appeared. I have no idea how these species got in there.

again, thanks!

It's the large eyes! Fish eyes will continue to grow as a fish ages even if it's body does not grow. Abnormally large eyes is a good sign of stunting.

So what do you think Shorty. Are the fish in those two pictures stunted?

They don't look too stunted IMO but it could be just a matter of time given they way they just showed up in the pond.

Here is a crappie that does look stunted for comparison.

Thanks Shorty!

Considering that the fish are LMB and crappie, I think 99.8% chance that one of your friends, family, or local do gooders stocked your 'new' pond for you - free. Human intervention. New water needs fish right? How can you ever go wrong with bass and crappie - right? The other 0.1% is the pond did not go completely dry and a smidge of water remained with fish in it. The other 0.1% is Mother Nature thought she was doing you a favor.

What species of fish were in the pond before the drying drought?

One of the big ways a new pond gets new fish is via downstream travel...

Look at Google Earth or a similar satellite photo. If your pond is fed be a spring, creek or just a gully that may even be dry 99% of the time, follow the contour of where that spring, creek or gully comes from... If it leads to another pond, it's likely during heavy rains that the other pond over flows and fish escape it. They then wash downstream into yours.

I didn't realize just how common this was until I began seining local creeks shortly after high water events. I'd work my seine in small feeder creeks that were normally dry but were gushing with rain water pouring out of upstream ponds. In my seine I'd be catching typical pond species like LMB, BG, RES and crappies. These species were obviously escaping the upstream ponds during high water events and flowing downstream. I rarely caught them in the main body of the stream during normal flow volumes.

Something to consider when building a pond that receives water from run off... What's upstream in that drainage? It's likely whatever is in it, will also end up in your pond as well...