Bass Infestation of Small Pond

Boleyz · #1 03/15/07, 09:43 AM

I have a small pond on my farm...probably about 1/3 acre surface area and about 14 feet deep in the middle.

Yesterday, my son and I caught 42 largemouth bass out of it. They were all about 8-10 inches in length, except 1 that went 12" and another that weighed a couple of pounds.

All the fish we took out, we trucked to another pond that needs stocked.

My question is why does it seem like my pond is filled with so many small bass? I'm going to keep taking them out today. At one time my pond also had some bluegills and crappie in it, but I haven't seen or caught anything but these small bass this year...

Any ideas? Thanks!

amwitched · #2 03/15/07, 10:02 AM

It sounds like your pond is the perfect breeding environment for those fish. You would surely be the envy of many fishermen. I am not aware of Bass eating other fish, though. Maybe someone else can help with that.

YuccaFlatsRanch · #3 03/15/07, 10:02 AM

First of all 1/3 acre is way too small for Crappie. They are not recommended for a pond less than aboout 15 acres.

A mix of a FEW bass and bluegill is ok for the small pond, catfish are better.

The Bass ate all of the bluegill and Crappie. Guarantee it and they probably have been eating each other.

Jim S. · #4 03/15/07, 10:05 AM

Sure... your bass are eating the bream/bluegills and the crappie, and are taking over the pond. It's an imbalance that can happen if ponds are not regularly fished. Your cure is correct...get the bass populations down. I invite neighbors over to fish my ponds to do just that, too.

The fish that seems to be missing in your description is catfish. A typical farm pond stock is bass, bream/bluegill, catfish. You might consider adding some catfish.

Also, after you reduce the bass stock, you may have to buy bream/bluegill and crappie to restore those populations if they are too far decimated.

You can help your "prey fish" escape the bass by sinking Christmas trees in a portion of the pond or providing other such water shelters where they can hide.

Perfect time to be catching largemouth bass for the table, too, right now. In the hot months they can get muddy tasting. I'd stick some in the freezer!

Silvercreek Farmer · #5 03/15/07, 10:12 AM

I'd throw the larger ones back and just keep the small ones, grow some trophys! The bass coming out of small farm ponds around here were getting so large they stipulated in the records that the fish had to come out of public waters.

**Terri** · #6 03/15/07, 11:02 AM

I have heard that if there are no large bass, that the little bass will overpopulate. You end up with a huge number of small bass.

The cure is to let a couple of the bass get large, to eat the smallish ones so that there is room for the remaining fish to get big. That makes the fish dinners better.

I have no experience in these matters: it is just what I have heard.

Boleyz · #7 03/15/07, 04:38 PM

The weather here has dropped in temp all day...windy, cold, misting rain...NOT ideal fishing conditions, yet I still managed to catch 32 of the small bass. I cleaned them all and got about 2 pounds of filets...that shows you how small they are.

I think the total removed from the pond is now 74. I'll catch more tomorrow...

Yeah, I agree that the pond is too small for crappie, but I did have some in there once that got VERY large...they also seemed to be reproducing for a year or 2.

The bluegill probably have been consumed by the bass.

One problem I had in this pond a couple of years ago was duckweed. It formed a mat on top of the water by the end of the summer. I poisoned it out 2 years in a row and it hasn't returned...I also killed some fish each time...It could be the Bass were more resilient...Anyway, I'm going to keep taking them out and add some catfish and bluegills this summer.

Tracy Rimmer · #8 03/15/07, 05:00 PM

MMmmmmmm....bass.... *drool* Bass is my absolute all time favorite fish.

Hey, Boleyz... want some help "disposing" of those fish?

Boleyz · #9 03/15/07, 05:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tracy Rimmer

MMmmmmmm....bass.... *drool* Bass is my absolute all time favorite fish.

Hey, Boleyz... want some help "disposing" of those fish?

We'll fry em up down at the cabin!

TedH71 · #10 03/15/07, 05:31 PM

I don't like eating bass..I'd rather eat catfish!

chas · #11 03/15/07, 06:25 PM

I also have a pond your size.The trick is to eat the bass under 15 inches and keep structure that the smaller fish can hide in.
I have bass,blue gill,crappie,channel cats,perch and for hard weeds amur carp, and for soft weeds and duck weed I have coy.
Every thing eats the coy fry and we never have any young survive! The Amurs are sterile.
This pond is about eight years old and I have crappies in the 15"-16"range.
So far the biggest perch I caught was 12".
My biggest bass caught so far was 23-1/2"
Seven Amurs (now about 3 feet long)and a dozen coy(now about 2 feet long) keep it clean as can be!!!!
Hope it works the same there as in Pa.
Chas

Reptyle · #12 03/15/07, 06:32 PM

Where's the picture/drawing?

bumpus · #13 03/15/07, 06:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chas

I also have a pond your size.The trick is to eat the bass under 15 inches and keep structure that the smaller fish can hide in.
I have bass,blue gill,crappie,channel cats,perch and for hard weeds amur carp, and for soft weeds and duck weed I have coy.
Every thing eats the coy fry and we never have any young survive! The Amurs are sterile.
This pond is about eight years old and I have crappies in the 15"-16"range.
So far the biggest perch I caught was 12".
My biggest bass caught so far was 23-1/2"
Seven Amurs (now about 3 feet long)and a dozen coy(now about 2 feet long) keep it clean as can be!!!!
Hope it works the same there as in Pa.
Chas

what are Amurs, and coy ?

.

PyroDon · #14 03/15/07, 06:37 PM

We had a pit near here with the same problem small bass were over populated.
solved the problem by releasing 6 bass ranging in size from 5-8 pounds . By fall they had solved the over population problem and returned the pit to a healthy balance.

snettrecker · #15 03/15/07, 06:58 PM

I'm not sure about the Amurs, but I think he means Koi. It looks like a big goldfish (kinda) It's more like a carp.

#16 03/15/07, 08:59 PM

Around here they put a slot limit on small bodies of water. Usually anything caught between 9 and 16 inches has to be thrown back. Anything below or over can be kept. Except some areas will only let you keep one fish over 16 inches. It does a real good job of keeping the fish from over populating and after a few short years you can end up with some really good trophy bass.

Jim S. · #17 03/16/07, 12:11 PM

r.h., you mean the govmint tells you what you can catch out of your own ponds? Why, here in TN, there would be an uprising! I don't even need a fishing license to fish my own ponds here, and what I take is my biz.

#18 03/16/07, 12:35 PM

Oh the horror of it........ a pond infested by largemouth bass! Must be a nightmare!

suburbanite · #19 03/16/07, 12:44 PM

This may be urban legend, but I have read that a pond can support only a certain poundage of fish, and that once that poundage is reached, the aggregate of fish hormones in the water sort of shuts down additional weight gain by the aggregate population.

So, if you have a pond that can support 50 lbs of fish, you can either have 50 one-lb fish, or 5 ten-lb fish.

If anyone can verify this, it might suggest ways to manage your fish to get the kind of population you want--a few large trophy fish, vs a lot of fast bait action of little fish pecking every cast.

Bret · #20 03/16/07, 12:48 PM

I learned that any pond will only support so many pounds of fish per surface acre in general. Let's say your pond can support 100 lbs of fish and you have only bass. In theory, your pond can support one 100 lb. bass or one hundred 1 lb. bass. You are fishing up the right tree by removing bass if you want larger ones. Sounds like fun.

Bret