Fish management on private lake--is it a good idea to remove small bass?

[FloridaAngler]

I live on a private spring-fed lake (approx 100 acres) in central Florida which is rarely fished. I'm a novice fisherman and don't fish the lake much myself, either, but when I do, most of the bass I catch are in the 1-2lb range.

 

I've read that if you want to increase the health & size of the bass in the pond, it's important to remove a certain percentage of small bass every year in order to decrease the food competition & grow larger bass. Does this hold true for larger natural lakes? I would think that nature would pretty much keep things in check, but maybe that's not the case. Also, regarding shiner's & bait fish:

 

A few times a day I walk to the same spot at the edge of the lake and will throw out a handful of floating fish food--and when I do a feeding frenzy takes place. When I fish for bait fish, I commonly catch 10"+ Golden shiners--are they too big for the average 2lb-4lb bass to eat, and if so, should I intentionally remove them from the lake as well? Thanks!

[Dwight Hottle]

Welcome to BR. I would suggest when you catch one of those golden shiners you quickly return it back to the water with a 1/0 kahle hook attached. Then patiently wait for the results. You will probably get several answers to your questions about the size & health of your private lake fish population. 

[QED]

2 hours ago, FloridaAngler said:

[stuff deleted] I've read that if you want to increase the health & size of the bass in the pond, it's important to remove a certain percentage of small bass every year in order to decrease the food competition & grow larger bass. Does this hold true for larger natural lakes? I would think that nature would pretty much keep things in check, but maybe that's not the case. Also, regarding shiner's & bait fish: [stuff deleted]

The initial conditions dramatically affect the solution to, e.g., the lotka-volterra predator prey models, so even with simple first order non-linear differential equation pair models, the resolution isn't just to apply fixed rules to cull bass or shiners.  You need data to understand, inter alia, the respective population distributions.  Then you can apply fish management techniques to suit the target objective function that you are trying to optimize.

[Scud_Muffin]

Small bass that are also long and skinny? That lake is bass heavy, take out slot sizes bass. Though one guy fishing and taking out bass may not be enough to turn the tables and rebalance the lake. 
 

The Fish North Georgia podcast has an interview with a fisheries biologist named Shan O’Gorman that is worth your time on this very subject. And he explains it in a way that is designed for you to understand it instead of demonstrate his knowledge of $5 words. 

[PressuredFishing]

On 9/12/2021 at 11:47 AM, FloridaAngler said:

I live on a private spring-fed lake (approx 100 acres) in central Florida which is rarely fished. I'm a novice fisherman and don't fish the lake much myself, either, but when I do, most of the bass I catch are in the 1-2lb range.

 

I've read that if you want to increase the health & size of the bass in the pond, it's important to remove a certain percentage of small bass every year in order to decrease the food competition & grow larger bass. Does this hold true for larger natural lakes? I would think that nature would pretty much keep things in check, but maybe that's not the case. Also, regarding shiner's & bait fish:

 

A few times a day I walk to the same spot at the edge of the lake and will throw out a handful of floating fish food--and when I do a feeding frenzy takes place. When I fish for bait fish, I commonly catch 10"+ Golden shiners--are they too big for the average 2lb-4lb bass to eat, and if so, should I intentionally remove them from the lake as well? Thanks!

 

Im not a biologist or expert but, the reason japan had the world record bass is because there wernt many bass in the lake and there was big forage. for what its worth, your thoughts are about as good as mine, here in california we have a 12"+ regulation so the biologists seem to think taking bigger fish out helps the population, seems counterintuitive, or maybe its a bureaucratic plot for people to keep less fish.

[CrankFate]

No biologist or expert, but I’ve seen bluegill populations explode if too many bass are removed. Very large bluegill, that run up to over one pound, will drastically reduce bass populations over time. If you see bass schooling with bluegills they can’t eat, you’ll know there’s a problem. But there will also be big bass. How to maintain the balance is what you’ll need an expert for. 

[N Florida Mike]

I live on a small lake as well. I can and need to cull smaller bass because they overpopulate quickly. I have found that I can’t keep up with them as it is and always has been a very fertile lake for bass. I do the best I can. I dont think with a 100 acre lake you can catch and keep enough to matter, unless you devote your whole life to it…

I dont keep anything over 16 inch .

I never get rid of shiners because the more you have, the bigger the bass can and will grow.

I second the motion Dwight had. Bass love shiners like most people love steak- they cant resist it very long if it’s presented properly…

[the reel ess]

Yes, persecute those small, eating size bass. My buddy has a good slot. 1-3 lbs is going home with him. I don't usually keep any. I have another buddy with a probably 3 acre pond. It's so full of dinks you can't take enough out. What he really needs to do is have someone come in and do a survey and shock up and remove the necessary amount. Adding to his problem, the bluegill and shellcrackes are too big for stunted bass to eat. Thus, they're competing for the same minnows. The need another food source. The bright side is I can go and catch 10-20 bass almost anytime.

[FloridaAngler]

Thx to all who wrote replies I was able to understand!

 

It makes sense that on a 100 acre lake I'm probably not going to be able to catch enough bass to make a difference one way or another, so I guess I'll just keep feeding the bait fish and let Mother Nature do her thing.

 

 

[gunsinger]

I fish a private lake about 95 acres.  The lake rules specify to take anything less than 13" while releasing anything 14" or above.  Supposedly, that's the promote a large bass fishery.

 

 

[Catt]

Do yourself a favor ?

 

Bob Lusk Consulting Services Specializes in Pond Management.

 

https://www.pondboss.com/Resources?lid=37&lci=5

[Bankc]

You really have to know the whole equation to know what you should do.  It's easy to do more damage than good if you don't have the full picture.  But generally, yes, if all you're seeing is small bass and there's a ton of larger baitfish, then you probably have too many bass.  Though the problem could be elsewhere, and culling a bunch of bass might make it worse.  

 

We had a bass virus pass through here about 15-20 years ago.  It killed off a lot of black bass in my local lakes.  Some were good fisheries for black bass before that.  But after large numbers of black bass were killed off, the white bass, crappie, and catfish populations exploded.  They've spent who knows how much time and money trying to rebalance the populations to bring back the black bass, but nothing ever works.  Once the balance is disrupted, it can be next to impossible to re-establish.  

[Bankbeater]

The first thing I would do is call the state conservation dept. and see if they can come out and shock the lake.  The shock won't kill the fish, and they can get a good estimate of the number and size of the bass compared to the forage.

[Deleted account]

Keeping a balance of the number of bass and size distribution is the goal so "taking out the smaller bass" may or may not be the right course of action, oh and a 10" golden shiner is like crack for a 4 lb bass, and a 1/0 hook is way too small.

[PressuredFishing]

On 9/13/2021 at 4:54 PM, CrankFate said:

No biologist or expert, but I’ve seen bluegill populations explode if too many bass are removed. Very large bluegill, that run up to over one pound, will drastically reduce bass populations over time. If you see bass schooling with bluegills they can’t eat, you’ll know there’s a problem. But there will also be big bass. How to maintain the balance is what you’ll need an expert for. 

yes I have noticed this to be true, my pond has 1+ pound bluegill and ALOT of them. I have noticed that before baitfish where in the pond (there are shad in this pond) alot of the bass where smaller. Now that there are shad and big bluegill, I feel like its a a good balence because these big bluegill create alot of small bluegill, plus the smaller bass can eat the shad. Although if a pond has just big bluegill, I think it could hurt the population. The pond I fish also has alot of crayfish, and frogs year round so its a buffet and the big bluegill arent as big of a factor as a pond that just has a bluegill forge.

[CrankFate]

5 hours ago, PressuredFishing said:

yes I have noticed this to be true, my pond has 1+ pound bluegill and ALOT of them. I have noticed that before baitfish where in the pond (there are shad in this pond) alot of the bass where smaller. Now that there are shad and big bluegill, I feel like its a a good balence because these big bluegill create alot of small bluegill, plus the smaller bass can eat the shad. Although if a pond has just big bluegill, I think it could hurt the population. The pond I fish also has alot of crayfish, and frogs year round so its a buffet and the big bluegill arent as big of a factor as a pond that just has a bluegill forge.

IMO, from my own observations at one particular place, I think the jumbo BG eat the bass spawn to death. The bass literally put millions of fry together with one male covering an area of 4-8 feet wide. The males work as a team, instead of each having their own cloud of fry. Before the higher numbers of small bass disappeared, this didn’t happen and there weren’t any giant BG. There could be other factors, like disease, from people releasing fish tank fish into the water. In the past, there were signs up saying releasing pet fish into the water is prohibited, because of the risk of disease. So disease is a possibility, but I’ve seen people removing bass from the water, years ago. After that, the bass numbers tanked. And the harder to catch bass that remained got much bigger, and the BG population exploded.

[WRB]

Catt gave you the best advice, contact Bob Lusk.

Every body of water has a capacity based on available prey source vs predators eating them. Lots of things to consider starting with the health of the ecosystem.

For example 100 juvenile bass per acre eat about the same prey per lb as 10 adult size bass. 

1st you need to survey to determine bass to prey ratio and per acre ratio before doing anything.

Tom

[Devin77]

Leave the small fish, they will grow to be bigger fish. Also if the fish you are catching are all 1-2 pounds that means the population of bass is probably growing. Just to make sure though, make sure there is enough baitfish in the pond for them to eat, to prevent a stunted population. You can get a minnow trap for like $10 on Amazon throw that out there and if you get a bunch of minnows you are fine. If you don't, stock the pond with minnows.

[OldManLure]

On 9/14/2021 at 11:46 AM, FloridaAngler said:

Thx to all who wrote replies I was able to understand!

 

It makes sense that on a 100 acre lake I'm probably not going to be able to catch enough bass to make a difference one way or another, so I guess I'll just keep feeding the bait fish and let Mother Nature do her thing.

 

 

Feeding the bait fish is not helping Mother Nature.  It may, in fact, be complicating her efforts.

[king fisher]

As others have said, you need to contact an expert to conduct a fish survey.  Then you will know what your options are.  Most likely the biologist will give you options for managing a trophy fishery, or numbers of bass.  It is difficult if not impossible to have both.

[Catt]

On 9/14/2021 at 10:46 AM, FloridaAngler said:

Thx to all who wrote replies I was able to understand!

 

Pond Boss website has a forum where you can ask questions & receive answers from professionals. 

[Jig Man]

I looked into that because I had 12 ponds and wanted to stock some of them.  A MO Department of Conservation biologist told me to keep a good balance that I would need to keep 20 bass per acre per year and throw back all perch.