Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Corrective stocking No Bass! Help!

Hello I built an 8 acre pond that averages about 10ft deep (30ft by the dam 3-4ft at the lowest) It has about 250 acres of watershed and has stayed full throughout the drought last year. We stocked about 4000 total HBG and CNBG 3-4" two falls ago and 400 1-2" F1 LMB last spring. Last fall we would catch nice little 6-8" LMB and could see thousands of little bream everywhere. This winter/ early spring we cleared much of the land above the lake which caused lots of silt during heavy rains in April and May (LMB Spawn season here). Now its nearly impossible to catch bass but the three or four I have caught are chunks for sure. They are about 15-16 inches and weigh 2.1-2.6 Lbs. I suspected heavy poaching. My pond manager thought I was crazy and just a bad fisherman (half joking!) when I told him i can't catch any bass. So I hired his elecro-fisherman to survey the pond. We went electrofishing yesterday and caught 0 ZERO BASS! No gen 2! No 15" ers. We caught over 300 bream and saw at least three spawns of this year. The bream were all sizes up to 8". Some of the hybrids will hit 8" lizards! But no bass.

Now, for a bit of history, we purchased the farm from an old farmer who had "let it go" if you know what I mean. He is not thought of to highly by the locals either. We allowed him to stay in his trailer for free for 3 months....that turned into over a year when we fianlly had to write letters to get him out of there late last fall. Some of the farmhands told me about how many nice bass they were cathcing in my pond last fall and said the old farmer told them it was ok to fish and take as many fish as they wanted. This obviously got me hot, but thats another story. Pond manager said they were probably doing me a favor by taking some out. Now he's perplexed and can't really say what happened. I think its a combo of poaching, the big hybrids immediatley eating some of the 400 tiny bass we stocked and excessive silt right at breeding time. He thinks the spawn may have been really light and all of the baby bass were eaten by their parents. I don't know...

But, now I am really bummed and feel i lost a good year of fishing. My pond managers are still trying to figure out the best remedy, but they have thrown the idea of getting about 160-180 6-8" F1 LMB that are available at a local hatchery and possibly 20-30 2-3 Lb LMBs also available from the hatchery (expensive) as an option. But cost is not my biggest concern yet still a factor. I had promised clients and friends I would take them fishing out there this fall and I'd ike them to catch something at least.

What should I do?

Does your pond have any structure in it?

Yes, plenty. It has several large 10ft plus rock piles, an old creekbed, two huge brush piles, laydown trees, submerged islands, ledges, points, etc. Its the perfect bass pond except---NO BASS!

Well then I dont understand why there's no bass either.

live and learn boys live and learn!!!!
best get to the hatchery with u check book
if your pond is large dont the pro's say 100 lmb per acre
nothing less than 8 inchers
and 10-12 would be even better
might want to post some no tresspassing signs!!!!!

I doubt ALL the LMB were taken out, but it sounds like they took enough of a hit that your planned stocking of intermediate and small adult LMB would be a good idea.

Theo (on ewest's computer)

Adding 800 8" bass sounds like way overkill based on my reasearch, but I haven't ever done this before. How many and what size would you guys recommend?

Tell us exactly , in detail about the shock survey. How long , water temps and visibility depth and color , # and sizes of all fish including if there were yoy LMB and BG. Where the fish were shocked up , near dam , all shallow water , in the brush. Try to recount all info WRT it. Did they give you a written report ? Then tell us what you have seen lately when there , in detail.

Do you hava a feeder on it for the HBG and CNBG? If so is putting some HSB along with the LMB an option? If you want to take people fishing, catching some HSB around the feeder would be a blast. Just a thought.

We surveyed the banks mostly but did go over some known brush and rock piles. It had just rained for about 1 hr prior to us starting. It was hot probably 85 plus degrees even after rain. There were NO BASS no yoy, not a single Bass. 300 or so HBG and CNBG combined of all sizes and at least two diffrent spawns of this year. Most were tiny 2 to 3 inches or so. Visiblity was about 24" in the water, Wewere out there for about 45 min or so and went aroud twice. I havet been out there since then (it was last thurs.). Inthe deep parts I didnt see anything get shocked but it could just be the visibility.

alan , welcome to pond boss
if 800 is overkill, think about starting with 400 6 -10 inchers
and 50-60 12-14 inchers

Lots of possibilities and, at this time, no sure things.

First, what ratio of HBG to CNBG did you use? Why HBG? They only take, not give. Your forage population has also declined from thousands everywhere to a combination of 300 or so when shocking.

I think you may have had a fish kill or a poorly designed stocking plan.

Of course, the clearing and silt run off couldn't have helped but lots of fish do well in perenially muddy water. It depends on just how turbid the water was. If sunlight didn't penetrate, your spawning was certainly clobbered.

I would contact Greg Grimes http://www.lakework.com and visit with him. I just got off the phone with him. He is in Georgia and won't mind talking to you about the situation. Look around his website and you'll be impressed.

Dave told me to check out this thread. Feel free to email me if you like. I'm working 16 hour days and think I have the flu 101 temp right now, but leaving at 5:30 am to map a lake. I hope to have some recoup office time on friday, so greg@lakework.com if you want my 2 cents. Good luck.

Iowanagofishin-------Best name I've ever seen!

Thanks guys. I really don't think I've had a fish kill. We only shocked up 300 bream, there is probably many thousands in there. No problem there. I just caught another 15" 2.5 bass this weekend let me see if I can post a picture of it...

He's a fattie for one year old huh (thats a 32oz Gatorade bottle)?

Nice LMB. He's got some weight. How long is it and how much does it weigh?

15" 2.5 lbs.

We just stocked 250 bass yesterday. They averaged about 5" but some were about 8".

Why the Hybrid Bluegill? Because they are fun to catch and grow big fast, provide good forage for bass, and they hang out around the banks while my CNBG tend to school up in deeper water. Ever fly fish? They are great on light weight fly gear. The big ones will even hit plastic worms and spinner baits. It depends on what one considers "give" and "take". I think they give plenty.

Alan I guess you know most of those smaller bass were eaten, good think though that is a high stocking rate if they did survive. I agree hybird bluegill are agressive, problem is the reproductive success is low. If you're trying to grow larger bass then stocking more and having hybrid bluegill is not the best combo.