Pond Management | Grow Big Bass In Small Ponds!
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- Опубліковано 5 жов 2024
- Fisheries Biologist Dr. Brian Graeb discusses the key elements of a healthy pond and how they directly relate to the overall health of the pond and the quality of fish in that pond. We are on a small 1 acre farm pond that Brian has been managing for trophy smallmouth bass and largemouth bass and the results speak for themself!
We always let Cattle enter one end ..Somehow all our cattle ponds have big bass.
I think my def of small pond and this guys are way different. My small pond has a flat bottom boat. Not a bass boat. Id call that a small lake
I have a half acre 15’ deep pond (in lower Michigan) that is loaded with bluegill. From little minnows all around the shoreline to fingerlings all the way up to a few dozen of the biggest bluegill I have seen. The fish will follow us like pets as we walk the shoreline so the kids love it. I have only seen about 4 decent size largemouth this spring. We bought the house/property over a year ago so im a newbie at management. I added some structure and an aeration system( 2 different locations). Do I need to stock more largemouth since my bluegill population is increasing rapidly?
I want to work on keeping a healthy largemouth population to fish with the kids.
Thanks for the help!!
Sounds like you are on the right path by adding structure and aeration! That should certainly help! Yes, you could try stocking more largemouth, without knowing all the details of the pond that wouldn't be a bad place to start. Mortality rate in ponds can range from 10-30% annually, so if you didn't have a sufficient population prior to buying the property they could be dying off. It sounds like whatever bass you do have should have sufficient prey fish in the fingerlings, but you could always stock shad/bait fish (a few times a year during stress periods) once you get your bass population back up to where you want it. Hope this helps!
Good job! Like it. I want to dig an half acre or less pond to grow bass. Is it big enough? Thank you.
Anything is possible!
I have a 13 acre pond in Nebraska and my bass I’ve been catching are all the same size above 3 lbs but nothing over 4. How many should I pull out and any suggestions for helping grow larger ones ?
You could improve/add structure, add aeration and start keeping fish that are smaller than 12-16 inches. You could also implement a feeding program, either artificial feed or stocking shad/bait fish. Hard to say exactly without knowing the details of your body of water. But, a combination of these things could certainly help.
Do you have any suggestions for aerators I don’t have a super large budget but I know this is necessary
If you are looking for a more budget friendly aerator a big box store like lowes, home depot, ace or tractor supply would have some decent budget friendly options.
I have a 8 ace pond full of huge crappie and A lot of bass but none of the bass we have caught have been big or even decent just pretty small any reasons?
There are probably too many for them to grow… if you take the average size fish you catch and take a bunch out. Then the ones left will be able to grow.
crappie directly compete with largemouth not enough food maybe too many crappie