Check It Out: Bill Dance Says You Need To Harvest Pond/small Lake Bass

[the reel ess]

I have a pond close to where I live.  Bad part, people started harvesting the larger fish which then led to 3 years of small 8-10" bass.  Well from my understanding someone placed approx 20 to 30  4+lb fish in there.  Needless to say, last year we had good grass growth, and now you catch a few quality fish.  Hard to find a 8" bass like before.  And the few large fish we catch are healthy. Guess they have eaten most of the stunted bass and now the bluegill population has also rebounded back.  Now we have a local "pond watch" to keep people from poaching the larger fish using live bluegill since a few runs with the Game Wardens for no fishing license and well illeagal fishing activities has brought our little pond back to a nice place to teach the younger generation about fishing.  Nothing agaist someone fishing legally and harvesting a few of the smaller fish, but the larger fish unless they are sick should be returned to keep the pond in balance.

I have read from Bob Lusk where filling in the gaps in fish populations with full-grown bass and bluegill can be, but isn't always the answer. I think the answer is a larger bluegill population in the eating size range. And the eating size for 4 lb bass is a lot bigger than for 12 oz. bass.

 

The real answer to raising big bass is an unlimited food source. To this end, feeding bluegill can also help them reproduce more times and create more and healthier eggs.

[gulfcaptain]

I have read from Bob Lusk where filling in the gaps in fish populations with full-grown bass and bluegill can be, but isn't always the answer. I think the answer is a larger bluegill population in the eating size range. And the eating size for 4 lb bass is a lot bigger than for 12 oz. bass.

 

The real answer to raising big bass is an unlimited food source. To this end, feeding bluegill can also help them reproduce more times and create more and healthier eggs.

And I agree, there has to be more forage base in that pond.  Being city owned, it's not like I can go out and put a feeder in the pond.  The bluegill do get fed though through the people whom feed the ducks bread (although posted DON'T FEED THE BIRDS).  My point was it went from a stunted population of a bunch of small bass to a catch rate of larger healthy fish, a bluegill population that is rebounding (the smaller bluegill aren't all being eaten by small bass) and a more balanced system.  By telling people who want to improve the fishing that forage base is more important then just throwing bass in there if there isn't something for them to eat.  Although not legal,(but then neither is feeding the ducks as it's posted all around the pond)  but looking to see where we can transplant some tilapia into this system to help with the forage since they mainly eat algae and reproduce quickly is our next step.  Yes it's something that will have to be done each year as the cooler water temps will kill the fish, but a dozen large adult fish will spawn plenty of offspring to give the bass forage other then bluegill and the small die off of a dozen adults (which will feed the overwelming turtle population) will not destroy water quality (most of the others will be small enough to be eaten by the bass of different sizes).  Just have to get enought local fisherman to help restore a fishery that was thriving long ago before everything had to look pretty and needed a sidewalk so you can walk around it and no weeds in the water.  

[the reel ess]

Bama Bass, a YouTube contributor, has a video of him feeding his bass Louisiana red crawfish, then mopping up on them fishing with a bait that resembles them. Releasing of course. But it certainly never hurts to have more than once source of food. My favorite place to fish is a local reservoir that's maybe 20-25 acres.  It has bass, crappie, catfish, bluegill, shellcrackers (redear sunfish), shad, golden shiners, assorted species of minnows and, of course, crawfish. It's loaded with big bass and there aren't enough people fishing it to keep it in balance. They simply have enough food to grow large as well as good water quality and a constant flow in. Probably 9 of my best bass have come from there in the space of about 3 years.

[Topwaterspook]

A friend of mine owns a very small pond, that's less than an acre. That tiny bit of water contains bass over six pounds. He doesn't manage it at all. If we could only match the balance that it has, I'd be very happy. The primary difference I see between his pond and others is that it gets a lot of runoff from an adjacent nursery. It also has a healthy population of adult bluegill. We'll see as time goes along.

[the reel ess]

A friend of mine owns a very small pond, that's less than an acre. That tiny bit of water contains bass over six pounds. He doesn't manage it at all. If we could only match the balance that it has, I'd be very happy. The primary difference I see between his pond and others is that it gets a lot of runoff from an adjacent nursery. It also has a healthy population of adult bluegill. We'll see as time goes along.

It probably has an abundance of some self-renewing food source. And healthy reproduction of, as well as a lot of harvesting adult bluegills helps.

[WRB]

When I started bass fishing in the 50's all fish were food, few anglers fished for sport. My early mentors were sport fisherman that released most of the bass they caught, however kept the biggest bass. Jason Lucas, editor of Sports Afield magazine was promoting releasing bass and keeping a few "pan size" bass for dinner, releasing the trophy size bass. I adopted Jason Lucas ideas and grew up releasing every big bass I caught unless the fish was over stressed and would die, keeping a few 15" bass to eat on occasion.

In- Fisherman came out with selective harvest and that makes sense. B.A.S.S. Ray Scott started with fish fries killing every bass caught that was weighed in until member pressure forced him to adopt the catch and release program that anglers now follow.

Today there are some very good fishery managers and it is easy to look at information available to properly manage ponds and small lakes; i.e. Bob Lusk the Pond Boss.

Tom

[Sam]

Reel Ess, pond managers have for years taken the stand that removing the smaller bass from a pond will enhance the remaining  bass' growth.

I for one believe this but I do not practice it.

I catch and release at all ponds, river and lakes.

[Catch and Grease]

Catch & Release aint always best

Sometimes you need a little catch and grease! Lol