Stunted Bass

[The Bassman]

Here's a riddle:  Why would a body of water ever get overpopulated with stunted bass from lack of harvest? If bass eat their own kind wouldn't they keep their own population in check?  Or is stunting resultant from some other factor.  Most "dink factories" I know of produce mainly small but well fed bass.  Go figure.

[Mobasser]

4 hours ago, The Bassman said:

Here's a riddle:  Why would a body of water ever get overpopulated with stunted bass from lack of harvest? If bass eat their own kind wouldn't they keep their own population in check?  Or is stunting resultant from some other factor.  Most "dink factories" I know of produce mainly small but well fed bass.  Go figure.

Good question Bassman. I've always assumed stunting was caused by too many bass, and lack of a food source to support the population.Not fully sure about this?

[reb67]

My thoughts on bass eating their own is not because that's their first choice but it is a territorial thing and lack of other food source but until we learn how to speak bass who knows. 

[the reel ess]

They do eat them. Baby bass are just minnows, same as all other minnows. Ever notice that there are minnows or shad year round? Bream, catfish and whatever other species of gamefish you have eat baby bass and all other species as well.

[The Bassman]

 

21 minutes ago, the reel ess said:

They do eat them. Baby bass are just minnows, same as all other minnows. Ever notice that there are minnows or shad year round? Bream, catfish and whatever other species of gamefish you have eat baby bass and all other species as well.

Which reinforces the notion that bass populations shouldn't get out of hand. Again the mystery in all this is that lakes that are dominated by smaller bass still produce dinks that are not starving (at least in my locations).

[the reel ess]

54 minutes ago, The Bassman said:

 

Which reinforces the notion that bass populations shouldn't get out of hand. Again the mystery in all this is that lakes that are dominated by smaller bass still produce dinks that are not starving (at least in my locations).

Big bream populations are out of hand. The population of bass maybe didn't explode as much as they ran short of food. If that's not the case then it's another variable.

[dgkasper58]

Genetics have a lot to do with it.

 

Your dinks having babies with dinks make more dinks

 

 

[Team9nine]

2 hours ago, The Bassman said:

 

Which reinforces the notion that bass populations shouldn't get out of hand. Again the mystery in all this is that lakes that are dominated by smaller bass still produce dinks that are not starving (at least in my locations).

Usually, stunted bass populations mean skinny (lighter than normal) bass, a sign of too many bass and not enough food. However, I've seen lakes with nearly all small bass, but fat, and that was usually from overfishing on highly pressured ponds. The larger bass were simply being kept the moment they crossed a legal threshold, or simply removed when caught leaving nothing but smaller bass.

 

In stunted bass populations, you usually see no or few small bass. They all get eaten up. However, keep in mind that bass are not near as prolific in the spawning department as bluegill. Usually it's a period of time in the spring, then done. As such, even high bass populations typically don't create enough young ones to feed everybody for the entire year. Always hard to say what exactly is going on without having an idea of what the entire fish population is like, especially in regards to bluegill and crappie that might be in the lake. This is what I like the most about fishing ponds. Every one is different, and it's always fascinating to fish a new one for all species of fish to try and get an understanding of the biological characteristics of each lake.

[TnRiver46]

4 hours ago, The Bassman said:

 

Which reinforces the notion that bass populations shouldn't get out of hand. Again the mystery in all this is that lakes that are dominated by smaller bass still produce dinks that are not starving (at least in my locations).

Well they do get stunted all the time in small ponds. Too many mouths not enough food. If a small pond around here has no harvest you will have lots of 11-13 inch skinny bass. If the bass are dink’s with a full belly, they are still dink’s. A healthy ecosystem will have a decent amount of big bass, not just short fat ones . Just because we think bass population “shouldn’t get out of hand,” they still do. It doesn’t really matter what we think about it, it’s kill or be killed in the world of bass. When fish have ample food, they get big. Simple 

[WRB]

A 15 lb bass was 15 oz at sometime in it's life cycle. The difference being that 15 oz bass was 8 oz heavier then it's year class because it's a eating machine outgrowing all it's brothers and sisters. The problem starts when the bass is 1 oz and before it could grow to 15 oz or 15 lbs it was eaten. Without a verity of prey sources cannibalize baby bass become the only food source. What you find is 2 lb bass with the head of a 6 lb bass and skinny body, the tell tale sign of stunted starving bass. If the lake lost a few year classes and full of healthy 12" fat bass those fish aren't stunted...yet.

Tom