Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Camelot Bell YOY got Attitude!!!

Well, it's finally predator stocking day in SE Texas for me. My pond renovation and expansion was completed 10 months ago today. I have (to my knowledge) only a forage base in my mud hole. CNBG, RES, FHM, Grass Shrimp, Gambusia minnows (thanks Pat W.), and Golden Shiners. I picked up my Camelot Bell LMB YOY at Overton's this morning along with some feed. As always, Todd packaged them up nicely to ride in the backseat of my pickup. I get my jon boat in the water and commence to acclimating the young predators to the water temperature (in the open bag) alongside the boat. A school of curious Gambusia Minnows comes swimming up to the bag of LMB. As I'm adding pond water to the bag of fishery water, a CB Bass swims out and completely knocks a young Gambusia minnow right out of the water, then swims off. I thought, guess what guys, "there's a new sheriff in town"...in the meantime as the acclimating continues, the rest of the CB Bass all swim out into the pond to the shallow end near the feeder. I paddle across the pond and secure the boat and notice the frenzy going on underneath the feeder, in the cedar branch structure pile. There are slaps on the surface of the water and little gambusia's and FHM young flying all over the place. Understand, the forage in my pond have never seen any predators. Their world changed today. Hard to believe these little guys (see below) can have that much attitude. Can't wait until they get several pounds....it ought to be interesting.

Very cool Charlie! I see a lot of fun in yer future!!

Charlie, congratulations on the Camelot Bell LMB!
You guys with brand new ponds with initial stocking of CB LMB have a great opportumity to maintain pure genetics and great trophy potential.

I like to think the "mottled pattern" that I see on the back is a distictive CB ID marker?
George

Mr. George,
Thank you, and yes sir....I'd have to agree!

Congrats stickem, guess they were hungry from the trip. How many did you stock?

Thanks SB, I stocked 33) as my pond is a little over a 1/2 acre. I may lose one or two in the process, as they may become victim of nature...or whatever. I will also be stocking other preds a little later this summer, but the blue cats are just fry right now, the available Channel Cats are too large for my present system, and I hope to get a few HSB this fall...as you know, we can't have the predators eating the other predators.

Yes, I guess the CB Bass were hungry or just p*ssed from the ride I took them on. It looked like a street fight under the feeder once they schooled up.

Nice job Charlie, can't wait to see how this plays out

It's been a little over 2 weeks since I introduced the CB LMB to my pond. I introduced 20) more this past weekend. I used to see li'l black clouds of FHM and Gambusia fry (1/4 - 3/4") schooling around the shallows. Don't see anything but medium and adult size now...I can only assume that the CB LMB have taken their toll on the smaller size forage. I'm sure as the bass get bigger, the larger sizes will disappear as well.

Thanks for the update Charlie. You will be catching 5 pounders before ya know it! I wish somebody would come out with a Northern strain of Bells.

Charles, as u know I also added the CBLMB fingerlings and added more than I thought we would, but the recommendation to add additional fingerlings was due to the possibility of the RES and CNBG eating some of them, so is that why u added more CBLMB to the mix? Now I worry that my forage are eating my babies

Tracy

Heck TRACY
A 2" Camelot bass can whoop a perch! They be fine,.

Tracy,

I added extra CB LMB in the event that I would lose some to predation since I found I have had a GSF spawn last fall, but if I am overpopulated, there's a bigger predator they need to worry about....me! I built my pond to fish...everything else is secondary...do I want a balanced population, yes....if it gets out of whack, I think I have enough pond pros at my disposal to manage it correctly...

Charlie

From 2 1/4" long to 10 3/4" long just shy of 4 months...they are destroying the FHM, Gambusia, and Golden Shiner forage base...as well as the GSF and BG YOY....but, I guess that is their job.

Brutal!!!

Good looking fish... That's the way it's supposed to be!

Holy moly!

Congrats that fish is getting mighty plump

As aggressive as Bruce!!!

Charlie, thanks for sharing the picture of your Overton's CBLMB. I have yet to catch one @ my place, so I'm hoping mine are growing at or near the same pace as yours.

Tracy

Very nice growth stickem'.

If you get a chance, could you get a picture of the top of a CBLMB head? I haven't been able to find a good pic of the coloring.

Thanks, Al

The biggest trick to keeping these great bass growing will be to keep enough of the proper sized forage available. They could easily run out of food and 'hit the wall' for growth. Be watchful.

Al,
Thanks, will do on the next one that I catch...I didn't think to specifically take a pic of the turquoise spot on the head until after I released the fish.
Charlie

Bill,
Thanks, I have a strong forage base at the moment. Remaining FHM, Gambusia, and Golden Shiners......The BG continue to spawn as well as the GSF & Dollar Sunfish (uninvited guests). I'm glad the LMB are continuing to grow. I was originally concerned about their original stocking size (2 1/4" lg). I hope the forage base will be adequate as they continue to make gains.
Charlie

Congrats Charlie! That is a plump fish for sure.

Bill Cody gives great advise. These need optimum conditions to grow to their potential. Hope you can keep things headed in the right direction going forward.

Thanks for posting.

Thanks, all I've been doing is keeping an eye on the water quality and the forage base fed...the LMB have been taking care of the rest.