Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Bass Limit? 10 acres of new water.

My pond is 10 acres. It filled up with water 6 years ago last month. I stocked it with LMB 6 years ago this coming June. The stockers were 2" to 5". The lake record right now for LMB is 9.2 lbs. I've got lot's of friends who like to come here to fish, and I enjoy that. Through lots of reading, and some guessing, I have imposed a limit that you keep anything under 16". I do not know if this is the correct way to get 10lb+ bass in my little body of water. I have millions of CNB, and stocked it with shad last year. I did not stock crappie, but we are catching a few. I try to keep it fertilized, but it did get too clear last spring.

Do any of the experts have a recommendation on what I should impose as a bass limit?

Depending on how frequently anglers fish it, keeping all LMB less than 16" is evidently a good start. Removing that size group should continue to allow you to maintain the high numbers of forage which keeps remaining bass growing well. Do you have any idea how many bass were removed from 10 acres in 2020? Do you monitor the CPUE (catch per unit effort) of all anglers? This would be LMB caught per hour of each angler.

I do not know the CPUE. Never even heard that term before. But we took about 150 out in 2020. My initial stocking was 700 six years ago. A couple of weeks ago a friend fished for about 4 hours and caught 4 over my limit. Biggest about 5lbs. He kept 6.

Now that's what you call a friend! If you stay on this track, you're going to continue to have trophies. You didn't mention if you supplement TP, but that might help to bump the biggest over 10 lbs.

Ohh ... and 10 fish in 4 hours with 4 larger than 16" .... that's top shelf.

I'm no expert, but sounds like whatever you're doing is working great! I'd honestly have a hard time harvesting a healthy 16 incher, but then again your lake record is bigger than mine. Do you feed the CNBG? Did your shad survive the Big Chill?

I don't feed the CNBG. I do feed the CC. We've got CC over 10 lbs now. As for the shad, I really don't know if they survived the freeze. The lake froze over for about 9 days during the big snow storm in February. It froze solid before the snow hit, then got covered in about a foot of snow.

Every pondmeister envies your success. I mean, loads of CNBG without supplemental feeding, big LMB, and big CC? Wow.

TP can be beneficial if you have algae problems or wish to increase survival rates of yoy CNBG. Perhaps they could help get your LMB over the magic 10 lb mark, as jpsdad remarked. I've had great luck with HSB, some hitting 8 lb in 3 years, but sounds like you don't need more predators. Maybe if your shad survived & are flourishing you could consider stocking a few just for fun & diversity.

Keep up the good work!

Evidently the bald eagles like fishing here. I hope the links work.
[img]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/9...w8IhxxW5SWMbtqnQ=w568-h757-no?authuser=0[/img]

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Couldn't get it to run, but I believe you re eagles. We have a pair as well. Wish they ate cormorants!

[img]https://photos.app.goo.gl/kniWJRz9e2TBEj8H6[/img]

Suggest you start keeping Relative Weights ( RW ) on your fish. Plenty on the Forum on the topic. That gives you a good idea of population status.

That came through beautifully! Majestic birds, even though they do take a fish or two. I remember when they were endangered in the lower 48, so good to see them rebound.

After having read up on the topic of relative weights, I have to ask if there is a chart from Texas to compare to that you prefer?

We see bald eagles every week or so during the colder months. I have never seen one catch a fish yet, but I'm sure it's happened. We feed the CC off of the pier around sundown a few days a week. We used to have 5 albino CC that came up to eat. Now we are down to two. Makes sense an eagle may have got them because they are so much easier to spot.

I did see a golden eagle catch a nice catfish last year. But I was so in awe I was staring like a deer in the headlights. Didn't even think to try and take a picture. That bird was huge!

I love east Texas ponds. My boss grew up in Grand Saline and has some beauties. Congrats on this wonderful place.

I went out in my little pontoon boat yesterday afternoon with a friend. We threw some spinners and crank baits for an hour. Together we caught 12 fish and 4 good ones got off. The biggest was 16 1/2 inches long and weighed 2.66 lbs. The second biggest was 16" long and weighed 2.24 lbs. Most of them were 12"-14", but the 4 that didn't make it to the boat (probably a bad hook set) would have been pretty good, guessing 5+ lbs.

Based on that catch rate, do you think I need to take out more fish?

FYI, the water had cleared up quite a bit over the last two weeks so I put out another 50 lbs. of 0-60-0.

Very high catch rate, some harvest might be smart. Your biggest had roughly 106% relative weight, second right at 100%. You've done an awesome job, but in my amateur opinion may need to get ahead of potential issue of overcrowding in the future.

Have you considered an electro survey? If your bass are getting crowded, that will confirm it & enable you to begin harvesting without hammering most aggressive fish.

A friend brought his son to do a little fishing last weekend. His son caught the biggest one of the day. 7.71 lbs.

[img]https://photos.app.goo.gl/G4sY5724b9w33Vq98[/img]

A electroshock survey would give you a better idea of the status and would allow you to harvest small LMB without reducing catchability. Plus Bob often will give you a RW program to use going forward. Call Bob at the PB office.

All these acronyms can get confusing. What is a "RW" program?

Relative weight = RW. A program on your computer to input data and it provides a RW curve.

What a great fish. Congratulations! Did you measure the length, too?

Unfortunately we did not measure it. He was too excited to even think about anything but the weight.

Totally understandable! When I caught my first lunker walleye on Lake Erie, I sat down & watched my hands shake. What a moment you were able to gift him!