Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Corrective stocking where are the bass

I stocked bass in a 1acre pond in july and havent seen them again. The only fish in there to eat them were cc stocked in april. Should I be worried?

How many bass, how big are the bass and CC, and what is there for the bass to eat?

Once you answer the questions Theo asked, we'll help you... Until then, its hard to give you a good answer.

the bass were 2" 70 total, the cc were 1#, losts of forage 2000 cnbg, 20# fhm, 250 gsh

Have you checked the CC stomach? 1# CC can eat a 2" bass.

Most of the bass are probably still there. When you say you haven't seen them, is that visual or fishing?

Both. The cc are now 3# none that I have caught has ever had anything but fish food inside.

How much fishing for the bass have you done? What's the status on the other forage fish??

Fish atleast 10 days a month. Mostly with small spinners or flys. CNBG doing great 7-8" for original stockers with smaller fish 1-6" from last years spawns. Can't say about the fhm. Can't see them. The gsh are very plentiful.

I expect they are gorged on the plentiful groceries you have provided. Listen closely and you might hear them laughing at you.

Agree with Dave, you probably have a bunch of happy and fat little ones that are ignoring you.

Hope so. How long should I wait before I decide if I need to add more.

Have you tried sampling with some live minnows? If you have even a few they'll catch up with their first spawn. It's got to be hard not knowing.. I'd be anxious!

But.. I've got a bunch of YOY bass in my pond that I can see because the pond has been clear most of the last month, but they don't seem to bite when I 'sample'... if the water was fertile all winter I never would have known they were there.

I am betting your LMB are doing just fine... You probably have at least 50 left and they are now 6"-8" in length but they may even be approaching 10" if their growth rate is really good. Keep an eye out for bass reproduction this spring. If you see if, hold off on LMB stocking. If you don't see bass spawning, I would recommend you stock another 50-70 LMB this spring in the 6"-8" size. This will establish two solid years classes. Next year the first batch of LMB you stocked last year will definately spawn and you will be set from there on out. If you do not stock a large size LMB fingerling but choose to stock 2" LMB again, I would stocked at least 100 and more like 200 as many of these will end up being LMB and CC food... The fact that the FHM have completely disappeared leads me to believe that the LMB have preyed heavily upon them. In my experience, CC and BG cannot wipe out FHM but LMB easily will... Be patient and you will see your LMB, they are there! They're just happy with full bellies.

I agree with above thoughts. 20# fatheads is a bunch for 1 acre. I stocked 2# in 2/3 acre with 75 LMB and still have FH. Once they get scarcer, the bass whould start prowling the shallows in schools of 8 or 10. I bet the bass are at least 10 maybe 12 inches by now.

May still have fhm water just to fertile to see anything. Just hate not knowing what my fish look like. The rest are doing so good I'd like to see how bass are doing. I even know the gc are doing good, atleast one of them. My daughter caught one the other day while bream fishing.

wow you can catch a GC but no LMB? In my experience GC are a lot harder to catch than LMB. Hopefully you still have LMB in there. I'm willing to bet that you do. They were small when you stocked them but they should have been able to avoid predation. Keep us updated I'm interested to find out if you catch any this spring.

Tiger bass. Wanting to see if their all their cracked up to be.

Please Calvin, if you catch one post a pic and takes some measuremnts, I am interested to see how they have done. Keep fishing!!!

Definitely post pics... Did you catch a gizzard shad or a golden shiner? I have caught many golden shiners, but never caught a gizzard, snagged plenty though.

Calvin,
I have had similar experiences with initial catch rates after stocking a bass pond with that much forage. I usually don,t put CC in a bass pond and yours are big enough to eat the bass you put in, but if you are feeding them my bet is they are going for the easy meal and not very many bass. In my new lakes with that kind of forage I have excellent LMB growth rates, but it can take a few years before they get hungry enough to catch readily on artificials. You can look for juvenile bass around the shore in the next few months for evidence of survival or do some shoreline seining in June for LMB spawning evidence, but I would not be worried too much. If growing large bass fast was your stocking goal, I would say you are on target. The CC can throw a kink in the works, but keeping them well fed will help.

-HH

Are you feeding the forage? LMB often come to the action and pick off prey when the food is being eaten.

Feeding about 25# of pellets per week. Catfish have not started coming to feed yet this year. Caught 2 cc yesterday, 3.2# and 3#.

Well it happend. Went to pond yesterday to cull some gsf. Caught a bass and no, didnt get weight or measurment. Funny how that happens. It always seems when I catch something I really want to measure I dont have a tape or scale. It was very healty though. I guess about 10". Mouth looked way to small for body. I think thats a good thing. Thanks for all the help.

Yes, a mouth that looks too small for the body is a good sign! Congrats are catching the first bass of your pond. Glad to hear your bass have pulled through. At 10" they should be able to spawn this spring...