Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Adding 1 Single Bass

Kind of silly situation, but I thought I would get your opinion on this. I have a new pond only stocked with 1500 bluegill, 250 shell cracker and 8000 fathead minnows. All stocked over the last few months. The pond is about 3/4 acre and located in lower Mississippi. My plan is to add some F1 tiger bass fingerlings in June of this year.

I caught a 6 inch largemouth bass in another pond near my house. I have the bass in my aerated live well right now.

Do you think it would be a bad idea to release the bass in my pond?

Obviously I don’t think it would eat all my forage base, but do you think it would maybe be big enough in 3 months and possible eat some of the fingerling bass that will be added in June?

Any positive or negative thoughts on this?

The 6" bass with abundant forage should grow "about" 3/4" to 1" per month-above 62-64 degs F. A 9" bass can eat 2.5-3" BG-more likely to target 2-2.5" though.
A 6" Bass can make decent growth the first 30-60 days on larger FHM.
I'm not sure it would hurt anything but patients will be paramount in end success.

The negative is relocated bass never quite adjust to their new habitat to fully reach their potential.

There's probably nothing on the plus side of putting the single bass in now except for joyous feelings and pleasant thoughts.

I'm not sure what I would do.

It would be big enough to eat some of the F1 fingerlings. If you do put it in the pond, I'd fin clip it so you could tell the difference between it and the F1's later down the road.

I would NOT put it in!

I understand that the best time to stock a pond was five years ago, but I would try to resist the temptation to start a bass.

F1 fingerlings are expensive. I wouldn't want your single bass to slurp up the most aggressive of your F1s when THEY are out hunting.

(You are getting advice above from guys with far more expertise than I have, but that is just my two cents worth.)

At this point in the pond's history and what I perceive as your goals, I see no positive benefit to the long term fishery by adding the single bass from another pond. Now if you had an overpopulation of some fish specie with sizes that needed to be culled then yes one bass could help you manage and reduce too many unwanted or not needed fish. IMO once you add the F1 fingerlings to the pond you are going to need ALL the forage fish possible to keep those bass growing to reach their full potential. And as mentioned why risk loosing some of your valuable F1 fingerlings? One of those consumed by that early single introductory bass could be one of the F1 females with the best growth potential.

Rod, what does the "...five years ago," comment mean?

The only downside I see is that it might eat some of your bass fingerlings when you stock them.

As always guys, great information, insight and advice. I am going to throw it back where it came from and continue to work my plan.

Thank so much!

Just a bastardized quote of the original, "When is the best time to plant an oak tree? Forty years ago. The second best time is right now."

I thought the OP's tone was that he was just itching to get bass started in his pond, even if that was only a single 6" fish!

I was hoping he could go for just a few more months of patience, if that is what the experts recommended.

(I think he did. I hope he is rewarded by explosive first-year growth of all of his F1 bass!)

Understood. Thanks.