What sized LMB to keep to create bigger LMB?

[Bass_Akwards]

Hi all.  I belong to a private fishing club in Colorado.  I just talked with a local fish biologist who works for the county about having his people come to our club a few times to take bass that we catch, so they can put them in ponds that are meant for only kids to fish.

 

My question is what size LMB should we be taking out of our lake, in order to grow bigger bass for the future? I joined this lake 10 years ago and for the first 3 years I couldn't go an hour without catching a 17 or 18 incher, with the average bass being about 15 inches.   The past couple years the size LMB we catch most frequently is between 13-14 inches.  I fished for 4 hours the other day and caught 33 LMB.  Most were between 12-14 inches with several 15 inchers, and a 16 incher.  Thats pretty standard the past few years.  Nice quantity, descent quality for sure but not like it used to be.

 

What size bass should we be taking out now so that we can get back to catching, or at least growing,  a lot more 17 and 18 and 19 inch LMB?  I caught a 21.5 inch 5.1 pounder in there last year so i know there's some nice ones swimming around but we plain and simply aren't catching as many of that size as we used to and it's obvious.    THANKS!

 

[Team9nine]

All the 14” and under bass you can catch... ?

[Bass_Akwards]

Thx team 9.  Forgot to ask this earlier but assuming you're correct, does that include the 6-10 inchers the fly fishermen at our club catch all the time?  Or should those be tossed back into the lake?  The reason I'm asking is because I was just told (after I posted this) by a club member that we're supposed to take out everything from about 11 inches up to 14 inches and leave the smaller ones alone. Thanks!

[Team9nine]

Take ‘me all out. Too many mouths to feed at one table  You won’t be able to catch them all, so some will still get left to carry on.

[Scott F]

Another question to ask is are the bass that are there the right size for their age? Is there enough forage for the fish that are there to grow to a big fish, or do they die of old age first?

[Jleebesaw]

I would definatly ask that biologist who's coming to get some fish.

[kenmitch]

What do the bass eat in the lake? Maybe the underlying issue revolves around the food source. 

[Bass_Akwards]

Seems like the LMB in the lake are healthy and the right weight for their length.  We're just not catching the number of 17-20 inchers we used to per outing as well as per season.  Just looking to try and create a larger average size LMB in the lake then we have now and get back to what we used to have or even better.  Also I'd love to grow some absolute hawgs in the 6-10 pound range as well.  Bass in my lake eat frogs, crawdads, bluegill, perch, bass, crappie, and surface bugs.  There's PLENTY of food for the bass to eat.

[kenmitch]

How big are the bluegill, perch, and crappie in the lake? Does anybody catch and keep them? These guys do compete for the food sources also.

[N Florida Mike]

Check out the " Pond Boss " forum. They have a lot of good info.

I keep some in the 11-16 inch range in my small lake. 2 years ago I kept 150 that size, last year around 50. It's too soon to be sure, and I dont keep records, but I would swear that my avg. size fish is already bigger.

[WRB]

The only bass that will grow larger are females. During the spawn you will see the 2 bass around beds, catch the larger bass with eggs.

After catching known females then catch everything you can 12” and up to transplant.

The smaller 6” to 8” bass are prey for the over 18” bass so leave them in the pond.

Tom