how long till bass naturally inhabit a man made pond?

[SBM-RL]

Generally how long does it take for bass and panfish to inhabit a 1-2 acre pond thru birds or any other method minus stocking. I'm asking BC my gf lives in a subdivision that's about 5 years old so I'm gunna estimate the double drainage ponds behind her house to be 5 to 7 years old the 1 to 2 acres big do you think there is bass in there yet?

[fishfordollars]

Probably, but the only way to know is to go fish them. Good luck.

[reo]

Quite possibly never. I grew up with a 1.5 acre pond on the property and no fish ever populated the pond that were not stocked. I was 5 when it was built and 22 when the property was sold, it got stocked with baas and bluegil and that is all that was in it when it was sold, no carp, catfish, crappie, etc, nothing but what was originally stocked.

Frogs, turtles and crawdads found their way but no fish.

IMO, I think the birds spread fish species around thing is an old wives tale. Humans put the fish in ponds or there is a feeder creek that contains fish.

[.dsaavedra.]

Quite possibly never. I grew up with a 1.5 acre pond on the property and no fish ever populated the pond that were not stocked. I was 5 when it was built and 22 when the property was sold, it got stocked with baas and bluegil and that is all that was in it when it was sold, no carp, catfish, crappie, etc, nothing but what was originally stocked.

Frogs, turtles and crawdads found their way but no fish.

IMO, I think the birds spread fish species around thing is an old wives tale. Humans put the fish in ponds or there is a feeder creek that contains fish.

i agree.

[fishizzle]

just check the shallows for bait then fish it twice a year until you catch a small bass.

why not stock a few small ones yourself besides its illegal

be a rebel!!

[Sam]

Start to stock it yourself.  

[ww2farmer]

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.

[Unknownwaters]

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.

[bigbill]

I'm not sure it can happen.  I mainly fish the smaller places that were once rivers that were dammed for water power well over 100 years ago.  I also fish small swamps too.  My point is i have caught record sized pickerel and small to large bass without really knowing how they got in there.  I'm thinking threw out the year the water flow is very low feeding these smaller places so it has to be the winter run off thats how the fish are getting in there.  With out a water flow(river) feeding the body of water it has to be impossible to have fish there unless you stock it yourself.

[Drew9586]

Every time I hear this theory I have a hard time deciding if it can be true or not.  I always work my way back to one thought: Why is it that in any large geographic area most water bodies have the same fish species?  If you go back in time enough most of the continent was underwater, but that is far enough back that anything from then would have evolved into vastly different fish.  Think about it, how many species of bass do we have in North America?  How many species of catfish?  I dont know that I can believe that birds drop fish into a new body of water, but at the same time, given that a few species of fish are sooo prevelant in water bodies throughout the continent, I dont know that I CANT believe birds drop fish into new bodies of water.  Would be nice to know for sure!

[done]

just check the shallows for bait then fish it twice a year until you catch a small bass.

why not stock a few small ones yourself besides its illegal

be a rebel!!

To that note, the main reason to NOT transplant fish is killing off the native populations with disease, etc. However, if there is no native population I would think this is a special opportunity to where such transplanting would not be an issue... Any biologists out there care to wiegh in?

[Paul Roberts]

Every time I hear this theory I have a hard time deciding if it can be true or not.  I always work my way back to one thought: Why is it that in any large geographic area most water bodies have the same fish species?  If you go back in time enough most of the continent was underwater, but that is far enough back that anything from then would have evolved into vastly different fish.  Think about it, how many species of bass do we have in North America?  How many species of catfish?  I dont know that I can believe that birds drop fish into a new body of water, but at the same time, given that a few species of fish are sooo prevelant in water bodies throughout the continent, I dont know that I CANT believe birds drop fish into new bodies of water.  Would be nice to know for sure!

A lot of the origins and original distributions of fish, plants, and other animals are known. Lotsa time has passed and lotsa event shave happened that shaped the land and waterscapes we now have. Zoogeography is the field. Lots of work has been done and for most species especially popular ones like bass and trout (and others) a lot of it is understood pretty well.

They can look at and date geographical and drainage changes over time, look at distributions of genera and species, and now look at DNA. LOTS has been done, and more on the way. A lot of the distributions we see today follows glacial runoff.

The bird thing is a myth.

[Raul]

Being the pond isolated most probably will never develop a population of fish. My relatives ponds are that kind of ponds, the only fish that inhabit the pond are those you stock it with.

[IdahoLunkerHunter]

Generally how long does it take for bass and panfish to inhabit a 1-2 acre pond thru birds or any other method minus stocking. I'm asking BC my gf lives in a subdivision that's about 5 years old so I'm gunna estimate the double drainage ponds behind her house to be 5 to 7 years old the 1 to 2 acres big do you think there is bass in there yet?

The bird thing is a myth in my opinion. Fish inhabit non-habited lakes and ponds by water systems and flooding.

If I were you I would see if you could get in contact with the homeowners association before you do anything with stocking. You definetely don't want an association to be upset with you or your girlfriends family.

I would go along the association route because you might find another angler or two in the subdivision that might be willing to help you get the pond in a manageable state. Stocking, setting up feeders, dropping brush etc. Ponds in subdivisions that produce good fishing are always a bonus from a homeowner perspective because it can raise the value of a home.

[tyrius.]

The bird thing is a myth.

I wonder if it is possible over short distances. In the suburbs there are neighborhood retention ponds all over the place and many of these hold lots of fish. In a one mile square are you'll have numerous small ponds.

Given the lack of people fishing (I never see anyone else) these it seems plausible that something else is spreading fish to these ponds. However, scientifically it seems like a reach that a bird will actually walk through a nest with eggs, get a number of those eggs stuck to its body, fly to another pond, and have those eggs drop there. All of this would have to happen without the eggs being damaged "in transit".

[NCbassproAK]

You have to get your state wildlife fisheries involved to stock the pond with different sized bass and other bait fish so that the pond will fulfill the right diet for the bass to grow into big healthy fish.

[WRB]

The state people are interested in mosquito abatement, not stocking bass free. Some DNR/DFG will stock small lakes with the permission of the owner, then they plant Juvenal bluegill, catfish and bass for a balance.

Fish get transported by people or floods, not birds or any other animal.

WRB

[J Francho]

I've heard of birds "removing" fish from ponds.  Never adding them though, LOL.

[NCbassproAK]

The state people are interested in mosquito abatement, not stocking bass free. Some DNR/DFG will stock small lakes with the permission of the owner, then they plant Juvenal bluegill, catfish and bass for a balance.

Fish get transported by people or floods, not birds or any other animal.

WRB

Dunno where your from but in parts of NC they do so belay your last thank you.

[Paul Roberts]

WRB Wrote:

Fish get transported by people or floods, not birds or any other animal.

ditto

[Catt]

5,287,236,541 years  

[Paul Roberts]

5,287,236,541 years

;D ;D  

[aarogb]

      I had no idea that a pond could be "naturally inhabitied".  I always thought that a human had to put bass or any other fish for that matter in the body of water.

[Panamoka_Bassin]

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...

[Joel Morris]

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

"No minnows no dinner"

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