Whats The Size Limit Of A Body Of Water A Bass Can Live In?

[BassAssassin726]

On my way back from one of my secret spots today i noticed along the road there a small creek that empties into a tiny pond in the woods. The pond is maybe 30ft by 40ft big. Not sure the depth, but man does this place look bassy. Tons of plants, lily pads, reeds on the bank. My question is, as long as there is food, cant a bass live anywhere? I know its a tiny pond but like i said it looks like a bass haven. I was under the assupmtion like i said that as long as there is forage for the bass, itll survive. Doesnt have to be a big body of water. Also, whats the smallest amount of water youve caught a bass in? I dont mean how shallow, i mean how small was the body of water?

[aclark609]

Yes bass can live in a pond of that size. I had an ex girlfriend who had a pond with almost those exact measurements and it had bass all in it. Some pretty big ones too.

[ww2farmer]

When I lived in Florida, I caught a fair ammount of bass out of tiny mud puddle sized ponds, and one of my favorite spots was a drainage ditch that dried up except for the small pools on either side of the culvert that went under the road.

[CoBass]

Small ponds are my bread and butter. Most of the waters I fish are 10 acres or less, usually quite a bit less. With a small creek running into it there is a good supply of fresh, oxygenated water that probably carries a nice little food supply into the pond too. Only way to be sure is to fish it, you could be pleasantly surprised.

[senile1]

During the hottest summer days a very shallow pond with no feeder creek can become devoid of oxygen and fish kills can occur. During the coldest days of winter a pond must be deep enough to not freeze all the way to the bottom. So adequate depth is important. If there is food and acceptable levels of oxygen a bass can probably live there as long as the PH of the water is in the proper range. Otherwise, size doesn't matter.

[NebraskaBasser]

Ha, funny you should ask!

My son-in-law has only used spinning gear, but had expressed a desire to try a baitcasting reel. I didn't have one of those rubber "practice plugs" handy, so I tied on a spinnerbait and we walked across the street to the local golf course's pond.

Now this pond is SMALL! I'm guessing no larger in size that one of our lots... maybe 1/2 acre? It's part of a "catch-system" for the course, and drains rain water from the course AND the development's storm sewers.

So anyway, we're there at the pond and I'm showing him how to cast with short casts. Then I made a pretty good cast - almost across the pond - and as soon as the spinnerbait hit the water, there was a swirl about 6' away... and then fish on! It wound up being a 13-14" largemouth bass!!!! I couldn't believe it! I've lived near that pond for ten years and NEVER knew that there would be fish in it, let alone BASS!

How did it get there? Don't know... "naturally" or perhaps some "bucket biologist"? Are there more? Who knows? But, that is the smallest body of water that I've ever seen, that also had fish!! So I guess if "IT" is wet... throw a line in 'cause you NEVER KNOW what surprise you might get!

Bob

[webertime]

One of the ponds in my mother's neighborhood is 50' x 12' and I've pulled some really nice fish out of it.

[BassAssassin726]

Went earlier and didnt see or catch any bass but i did see tons of baitfish and bluegill and a few MONSTER Carp. They were just hanging out in like 5 inches of water. I dont have any Carp bait though, they wouldnt bite any of my bass lures.

[Ima Bass Ninja]

Several retention ponds for neighborhoods we maintain are very small but still hold bass. We actually stock em for one's we develop..

[Bluebasser86]

I can cast across a couple of the ponds I fish pretty easily and have caught fish up to 7lbs out of them. I think it has a lot more to do with the ponds having enough forage and depth than how big it is across.

[BassAssassin726]

Agreed Blue. I figure as long as there is food and cover fish will be around. I saw tons of baitfish and bluegills. And them Carp were huge. Couldnt catch em though with my bass tackle. I think theres gotta be some bass in there. If there is all that cover and baitfish there must be bass. I threw everything in that pond though and nuttin.

[FD.]

I read somewhere on the FWC website that in climates like Florida, a healthy body of water can hold up to 200 lbs of fish biomass per acre with 50 lbs of the 200 being predatory fish including bass.

[KansasBASS9948]

My profile picture on here was caught out of a 4 ft deep 1/4 acre pond in Kansas. If there's water I'd say there's bass

[TxBankFisherman]

my personal best came on a topwater lure in a pond you can throw across... still can't beat it and I caught this fish when I was around 16 years old... funny thing is my buddy was fishing roostertails and was schooling me... i couldn't catch a fish to save my life...

I knew to top him I'd need a huge fish... just as it was about dark... I tied on ol' Billy Bass... he was so ready to leave as he didn't want me to have a chance at a big fish... I called out one more cast... gurgle gurgle plop plop and wham... I knew it was a huge fish as it swallowed the lure and stripped drag... I had my drag tightened all the way but she still stripped of about 15 yards of line... to my horror there was a fence across the middle of the pond and she tried to turn into that...I kept the rod low and reeled as fast as I could to keep her from jumping...I got her turned and lipped her... it was the only time this ever happened to me but my hand was shaking so bad... We didn't have a scale but my buddy said she'd go at least 10 and we released her...