Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations HSB to control LMB

Just wondering if anyone that has both these species stocked with BG has found that the stripers forage on the young LMB enough to help keep them in check. I guess the best way to find out is try and catch some 2-3 inch bass and put one on a hook. Maybe I will experiment this summer. Any way to corral LMB other than with a sein?

I've caught them as small as 3" or so on worms, but that's hardly a high volume operation.

Small flies or worm pieces. Seines around May-June work well. Never seen one in a trap but it may work.

The best study I know for HSB in ponds, their diet and just about anything else you could want to know is here: http://www.uaex.edu/wneal/pages/Delete%20Me/Publications/Publications/manuscripts/thesis.pdf

It's fairly scientific in nature, but not overly so. Go to pages 13, 27 and 44-51 for the specific information you are looking for. However the whole study is excellent. Anyone interested in HSB in their pond or already have them should read it... If you are wondering what clupeids are when they are mentioned in the study, it's the family name for species of shad and herring, like tshad, gshad, and alewife.

The study only goes up to 3 year old fish, so data one what larger HSB eat is not presented.

Another good link from Kansas: http://kdwp.state.ks.us/news/layout/set/print/content/download/23122/153573/file/striped

A couple studies from southeastern lakes without links:

Beaver Lake:

Fourt (1985) examined 104 striped bass stomachs and found approximately 95% of the content was shad. Most of these shad were 1-4 inches in size. Seventeen hybrid stripers were also examined for stomach content. These also contained about 93% shad.

Lake Hamilton:

Filipek (1984) found during a food habit study of Lake Hamilton, Arkansas, the striped bass diet consisted of 92.8 percent shad with the remainder of the diet consisting of rainbow trout, sunfish, minnows, and crayfish. During this period of study (2-years) Lake Hamilton was under a winter drawdown of 9-feet which further concentrated prey species with the stripers. Sample size consisted of 116 adult striped bass which were all examined for stomach contents. The same study documented the hybrid striped bass also prefers mainly shad with a slightly more diverse diet including crayfish and minnows. Shad accounted for nearly 82% of the hybrid diet.

My opinion on the matter is that small HSB, say less than 12" heavily feed on larval stages of crappie, sunfish and probably bass as well. However, as HSB get larger say over 5 pounds and to a size where they could feed on intermediate sized LMB, they're biological needs become different than smaller HSB. They need colder water with higher DO. This is why areas like Texas see fish kills of the larger HSB in ponds. There is no thermal refuge like there is in a lake like Lake Texoma for them to take refuge in. This need of cooler high DO water for larger HSB means they cannot be in the shallows where smaller bass are and therefore are not feeding on them. Large HSB will forgo feeding in favor of staying in cooler high DO water. That is why lakes with poor summer habitat for large HSB rarely produce big fish. There are probably some rare ponds which maintain cooler high DO waters in the summer, it is these ponds that can grow some very large HSB. HSB are half striped bass and therefore display many of their characteristics. They are more tolerant of warmer waters with lower DO, but as they get larger they become more like striped bass in that need. Some scientists feel that striped bass have this biological requirement of cooler water with higher DO for large fish but not for smaller fish is so the smaller fish are in different areas than the larger fish, thus preventing smaller striped bass from being eaten by larger ones. Whether this is the case, I am not sure.

Hopefully this helps you out a bit... But with all ponds, it all depends!

Hey, George, since you're on now, I am bumping this for you. Do you have bass in with the hybrids? If so, do you ever see small LMB when you clean the big HSB? Do you think they knock off many small bass?
BTW...very good to see ya back on and fishing!

Great resource, Travis. Thanks for posting those materials.

Agreed. Thanks for posting CN(I'm gonna keep it up til folks start calling you by your voted in name, CopperNose). Just now got a chance to get into them. Saved for future reading.

BUrger I have seen many a bass heavy pond with adult hsb also in the pond. I do nto think they are setup well to ambush bass too well. Sure they will eat them and might help but not to a large degree based on my observations.

thanks for the reponse, Greg. Based on CJ's links of stomach sampling, it looks like they comsume a very small % of LMB. I guess I should have figured that since they dont stalk the shallows much. I will set up my new Tx Hunter feeder next wk.(had a couple smaller ones before.) I will still hand feed larger pellets at times, though. Maybe when they come in to feed, they will knock off a few bass.

im sure they takedown a few especially right after swimup stage. Glad to hear you got the THP feeder you will be very satisfied.

Thanks Burger, I'm catching up on lost fishing time time due to bad winter weather and other stuff. We'll be fishing tomorrow.

We should have a good LMB spawn this spring out of 100 feed trained LMB we stocked last fall, so I will be on the look-out, if or when we clean any more HSB - those were the first harvested in a long time and I never examined stomach contents.

"very good to see ya back on and fishing!"
THANKS !!!