how long till bass naturally inhabit a man made pond?

[ironbjorn]

1 hour ago, Joel Morris said:

General rule of thumb when it comes to a pond...

"No minnows no dinner"

??

Weird Obama era thread to bump 

[MAN]

Well if the bird thing is a myth I feel like an idiot because I have been telling people that all my life. 

Down here in Texas, we have egrets and herons walking the shorelines hopping from waterbody to waterbody all day.  I didn't think it was to far-fetched for them to get eggs stuck to their feet and transferred in a quick hop.  That coupled with the fact we have tilapia everywhere now even in farm ponds not connected to a water source thought solidified the theory.  Sure would like to know the truth.  

[WRB]

Tilapia may be the exception because the female holds fertilized eggs in it’s mouth and releases live fry.

If....a heron grabbed a live female and carried to another pond before eating the Tilapia it’s possible.

Eggs sticking to webbed feet in a myth.

Tom 

[Swamp Girl]

On 4/13/2009 at 9:14 PM, ww2farmer said:

We have 7 ponds on our farm , all of them built after 1995, I too had heard the bird stocking nonsense and waited, and waited........and waited for 5 years and not 1 pond  was "stocked" by the birds. Oh the birds brought lots of other things, mainly weeds form the nearby lakes but no fish. so I stocked one pond with bass, bluegill, shiners and crawdads, and have used fish from that pond to stock the others.

 

S-s-s-SEVEN PONDS??? You live in Heaven!

[N Florida Mike]

On 4/15/2009 at 7:42 AM, Panamoka_Bassin said:

The last place I rented was on a lake, and had a small 3/4 acre pond on the other side of the lake that only me and one other neighbor has access to. We would take a bass from the lake and "stock" them in the pond, which is fed by the same set of underground springs. After 3 years, we had a pretty good growth of bass. There's plenty of forage for the fish: frogs, newts, salamanders, dragonflies, etc., and I'm sure that some of the bass spawned in there.

Last year, however, it seems there were no bass to catch, only 3 inch baby bass. I'm not sure what happened to the adult bass, both of us practice c&r. The only thing I can think of is the couple of grey herons and snowy egretts that were hanging around ate them? I've asked this before, and people seemed to think that bass were too big for those birds, and muskrats (of which there were a few) don't eat bass. Also, there haven't been any dead fish floating in the pond, or on the bottom for that matter. Do racoons catch live fish? I didn't think they did, but now I'm not so sure..

I think it goes to show that fish can "leave" a pond, but they'll only get in through human efforts...

Otters probably did it…

[Blue Raider Bob]

On 4/15/2009 at 6:42 AM, Panamoka_Bassin said:

The last place I rented was on a lake, and had a small 3/4 acre pond on the other side of the lake that only me and one other neighbor has access to. We would take a bass from the lake and "stock" them in the pond, which is fed by the same set of underground springs. After 3 years, we had a pretty good growth of bass. There's plenty of forage for the fish: frogs, newts, salamanders, dragonflies, etc., and I'm sure that some of the bass spawned in there.

Last year, however, it seems there were no bass to catch, only 3 inch baby bass. I'm not sure what happened to the adult bass, both of us practice c&r. The only thing I can think of is the couple of grey herons and snowy egretts that were hanging around ate them? I've asked this before, and people seemed to think that bass were too big for those birds, and muskrats (of which there were a few) don't eat bass. Also, there haven't been any dead fish floating in the pond, or on the bottom for that matter. Do racoons catch live fish? I didn't think they did, but now I'm not so sure..

I think it goes to show that fish can "leave" a pond, but they'll only get in through human efforts...

Otters eat bass. Sorry Mike, didn't mean to pile on. I posted before I read your response.

I have otters that travel past my pond occasionally and wreak havoc!

[the reel ess]

Could take forever and never actually happen. Consider the odds against a few eggs on a bird's leg surviving flight, actually hatching and not getting eaten by something else, like said bird. A much more likely scenario is a pond upstream overflows and a few get washed down. If you want to see bass there anytime soon, they'll need to be transplanted or stocked. And they'll need a source of forage.

[Swamp Girl]

1 hour ago, the reel ess said:

Could take forever and never actually happen. Consider the odds against a few eggs on a bird's leg surviving flight, actually hatching and not getting eaten by something else, like said bird. A much more likely scenario is a pond upstream overflows and a few get washed down. If you want to see bass there anytime soon, they'll need to be transplanted or stocked. And they'll need a source of forage.

 

That bass in your thumbnail photo is crazy fat! 

[Koz]

It's not fish eggs sticking to the legs and feathers of birds that allow egg transfer, it's the fecal matter:

 

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fish-eggs-survive-journey-through-a-duck/

[the reel ess]

1 hour ago, ol'crickety said:

 

That bass in your thumbnail photo is crazy fat! 

Yeah, that bass is a lb. less than my PB, but way more photogenic. And I believe I caught that fish twice a couple months apart. 

[Drawdown]

I can answer the question from nearly 14 years ago…yes, raccoons catch live fish. You’ll go fishing at night and hear a splash on the shore—and there’s a raccoon with a bluegill in his hands.

[Swamp Girl]

It's stupendous. Clearly it feeds on whole muskmelons. 

[PondProwler9000]

26 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

It's stupendous. Clearly it feeds on whole muskmelons. 

Ha...muskmelons?!?

Many jokes could be made from that.

On a contributing note, we have a small gravel pit pond on the property that has no feeder stream.

The pond has never been stocked but has greenies and bluegills. 

No bass caught, yet.

 

 

[Columbia Craw]

Some bass transition from from one body of water to another through a natural process that employs what is referred to as a live well.

[PressuredFishing]

I know floods can spread fish around for what that's worth, once every 100 years there can be a massive one, or even smaller ones can flush the fish down seasonal creeks, not here in socal maybe, but where rain is a thing yeah!

 

 

 

[JHTR20]

Floods are a good stockers but if the pond isn't in a flood zone you'd be better off stocking it on your own.

[cheezyridr]

On 1/31/2023 at 7:28 PM, Drawdown said:

I can answer the question from nearly 14 years ago…yes, raccoons catch live fish. You’ll go fishing at night and hear a splash on the shore—and there’s a raccoon with a bluegill in his hands.

[Blue Raider Bob]

On 1/31/2023 at 5:28 PM, Koz said:

It's not fish eggs sticking to the legs and feathers of birds that allow egg transfer, it's the fecal matter:

 

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fish-eggs-survive-journey-through-a-duck/

Thanks for this link. Now I'm skeptical and interested at the same time. How can an egg survive the stomach acid? I hope these researchers post their findings after studies on a wider scale.

On 1/31/2023 at 7:08 PM, PondProwler9000 said:

Ha...muskmelons?!?

Many jokes could be made from that.

On a contributing note, we have a small gravel pit pond on the property that has no feeder stream.

The pond has never been stocked but has greenies and bluegills. 

No bass caught, yet.

 

 

There is a small marshy, wooded area in a field across the road from me. It can't be six inches deep and 20 ft across, but every time the field floods, the overflow reaches a hole on my property that dries up every summer. Every summer I net gobs of mosquito fish. Fingerling LMB, greenies, and Bluegill, to release before the dryout. I have always been stumped about that one. Although this large hole , maybe 1/4 acre, is habited by ducks and herons when filled.

[dickenscpa]

On 2/1/2023 at 12:35 AM, PressuredFishing said:

I know floods can spread fish around for what that's worth, once every 100 years there can be a massive one, or even smaller ones can flush the fish down seasonal creeks, not here in socal maybe, but where rain is a thing yeah!

 

 

 

I've heard the bird thing all my life but never seen it happen or knew if it was true. Here in middle TN we're pretty much completely surrounded by water. We don't necessarily have to have a flood but just a good rain will overflow and if you dug a pond in this area and keep it holding water you'll wind up with fish.

[stratos4me]

The bird way will work...if you've got 10,000 years.

[BrianMDTX]

The Chik Fil-A cows stock ponds during the night so folks will eat more fish and less beef. 
 

 

[Captain Phil]

On 4/13/2009 at 9:28 PM, Unknownwaters said:

Bass can get into ponds many ways, but typically they come in through feeder streams.  Ive seen alot of small ponds that have been around for awhile with no bass in them, but then again there are some that i wonder just how the hell fish got in them.

 

Every pond, ditch, canal, sink hole, rock pit and lake in Florida contains bass. When I was a kid, we caught 6" bass in a military base runway ditch 10 feet wide and 100 yards long. Most all ground water in Florida is connected underground.  The State is made of porous limestone with numerous underground springs.  Most canals were dug for flood control or to drain a swamp.  I have seen thirty pound snook and hundred pound tarpon in road side ditches.  They weren't brought there by birds.