Fishing a recently drained lake (pond)

[Shane Y]

I have recently gained access to a 9 acre pond. The guy said the pond was recently drained and he didnt fish before the pond was drained so he knew nothing about what was in there then or now. What are you guys thoughts? He said drained within the past couple of years. Also this is in Georgia if that makes a difference.  

[MassYak85]

When you say drained, are we talking "no water left, everything in it died 2 years ago" drained? Or was it just drawn down a bit. And was it refilled naturally by a stream/river that fish can access or by rain? Basically if the max age of the fish in that pond is 2 years I would leave it be for a couple years until fish have a chance to reach decent size. 

[Shane Y]

To be honest I'm not sure. I will find out though.  Crazy story how I found out about the place. The short version is that i am a bee keeper and this is a very rarely used vacation home for these folks. There is a honey bee colony under the siding. They want me to relocate the bees without any harm. I will find out all I can about the place in the next few days. I dont think it was drained down to nothing though.  

[TnRiver46]

15 hours ago, Shane Y said:

To be honest I'm not sure. I will find out though.  Crazy story how I found out about the place. The short version is that i am a bee keeper and this is a very rarely used vacation home for these folks. There is a honey bee colony under the siding. They want me to relocate the bees without any harm. I will find out all I can about the place in the next few days. I dont think it was drained down to nothing though.  

Keep those darned bees away from me, please! They drained a local reservoir here and it greatly improved the fish population. Tons of small ones initially but it's leveling off now 

[Shane Y]

Ha. I hear ya tnriver....they really ain't that bad. I never thought I would get into something like bee keeping.  I dont even like honey that much at all. They aren't anything compared to wasps or some yellow jackets....they will sting you but I've torn apart some massive hives with upwards of 50,000 bees in it I'd say. Dig their home apart for several hours and probably only take 5 or 10 stings. Get anywhere near a yellow jacket nest and you'll get 5 or 10 stings for just looking at them sideways.  

[WRB]

It takes bass about 3 years to reach 10" to 12" long, then grow about 1/2 to 1 pound a year, if they are female, until they reach maximum weight for the eccosystem. 

If the pond was drained to very low water level it more then likely lost all the adult size bass from lack of dissolved oxygen if not spring or fed. The owner doesn't stock bass how will they get into a pond?

Tom

[Arcs&sparks]

23 hours ago, WRB said:

 

If the pond was drained to very low water level it more then likely lost all the adult size bass from lack of dissolved oxygen if not spring or fed.

I might be misreading the last statement,  but I thought spring water had no oxygen?

[WRB]

12 minutes ago, Arcs&sparks said:

I might be misreading the last statement,  but I thought spring water had no oxygen?

You are right, spring water is void of DO until it mixes by wind action. Without a renewable source of cool water the shallow pond water over heats and looses DO, stagnating. The word missing was stream as in stream fed.

Tom

[LegendaryBassin]

On ‎6‎/‎27‎/‎2018 at 12:47 PM, WRB said:

It takes bass about 3 years to reach 10" to 12" long, then grow about 1/2 to 1 pound a year, if they are female, until they reach maximum weight for the eccosystem. 

If the pond was drained to very low water level it more then likely lost all the adult size bass from lack of dissolved oxygen if not spring or fed. The owner doesn't stock bass how will they get into a pond?

Tom

It depends on the strain of largemouth bass. Certain species grow and achieve a much greater growth rate and overall weight potential. Many studies have found the growth of the northern and Florida bass showed that northern bass grew faster than Florida bass through the first two years, after which Florida bass grew faster.

[WRB]

We don't know if any bass are in this pond before it was drained let alone what strian they may have been. 

Growth rates are dependant on the ecosystem and the gender, both are important. We know this pond wasn't managed for bass, it was on its own. 

Just curious in your studies was growth rate measured in length or weight or both?

Tom