Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Can a pond lose just one species of fish?

I have a 3/4 acre pond in NE Kansas. It's been very dry for about two years and it's down about 6 feet. Still has about four feet left in it. My BG and Catfish seem to be healthy and plentiful. I stocked LM Bass about three years ago for BG control. This year we have seen no bass and we can't catch any. The minnow population is off the charts. Is it possible to lose the bass while the BG and Catfish are very healthy? That seems impossible, but we just have no sign of bass.

I suppose it's possible. 4' seems pretty shallow to add anything coming into the warmer weather and summer. Might monitor, do the rain dance and look at a possible fall stocking of LMB if we get some good rain in.

You stocked Northern strain LMB? The cold snap that ran through here in the winter put ice on our pond that was 8" thick. Would have taken your 4' water level down to 3+".

Where are you in NE Kansas Kenn? I live in KC and have a little property out in Wellsville. Winter was pretty good to us and the Spring rains finished filling our 1.5 acre pond.

I think you could lose the bigger LMB for sure due to stress and lower oxigen. Had that happen during last years dry summer here in one of our ponds.

Did your stocked bass ever pull off a successful spawn in your pond? (Did you ever catch any small LMB in Year 2 onwards?)

When your water level gets that low, it does make the possibility of a fish kill more likely. As noted above, your larger bass would be most susceptible in a low oxygen situation. The smaller fish and the catfish are more likely to make it through.

Keep fishing for the bass. There may still be a few in there. However, if you are not catching any at this time of year, then yes, there is a chance that you have lost only the bass in your pond.

I think it would be highly unlikely that you lost all the LMB while still having survival in Bluegill and Catfish.

However, nothing with ponds is absolute.

We netted the pond on year two and did not find any small bass. I have not caught anything that tells me we had a spawn. We did catch a lot of bass on year two, my wife said she got one last year but I don't remember it. I know we didn't fish it much last year because of the low water. Funny how perspective goes, it was better last year than it is now.

Actually, the very young and very old are the first to fall victims to low DO. some intermediates could be left.
Do you know if the BG are pure strain or hybrids?