When to fish after a pond is stocked.

[1/4 stick]

The dam of a pond I use to fish broke a few years back and it drained to a trickle. I helped the owner rebuild it along with few other guys that he let fish it. And it was restocked after. It's been two or three years since it was restocked. The owner has asked me about getting in there and fishing it again mostly he wants some of the brim population tapered down, which I'm quite happy to ablidge. But how long after a restocking will it take to be able to pull any bass of good size out? Like maybe of the 5 pound and up. More curiosity on my part than anything.

[Love of the Sport]

Well is it 2 years or 3. Makes a HUGE difference on the size of the fish your gonna get. At 2 years there should be some 2 1/2 lb'rs in there at 3 years you may have a few pushing 4 lb's. The size of the pond and how much food is avalable will also play a role.

[1/4 stick]

The more I think about it, it's been three, close to four years. Dang time flies now.

[Love of the Sport]

I fish a pond thats 4.5 years old and pull 4lbers out all the time. I'd say get to fishing.

[1/4 stick]

Oh, it's a big pond. Not big enough for a bass boat but you'd wear yourself and a jon boat with a trolling motor out trying to cover it. It's hard to give an exact size cause of the back end of it it so full of trees.

[Bassboss]

Well form what I've read, a young bass with double it's size in a year, After about 5 years I would think that the bass would stop growing to double it's size. So I would say a good 5-7 years! but that just IMO.

Hope this helps!

[1/4 stick]

Cool, thanks for the help. Maybe I'll just break in a few of those 3 or 4 pounders and send em back to grow while I nail a few brim this spring.

[Bassboss]

It also depends on the main forage, if it's some thing like a crawdaddy than they would grow faster, if it's something like bream, than I would say they would grow slightly less fast.

IMO the fish biggest bass probably in the 3.5-5 lb range.

Also make sure the bass to bait ration is not thrown off, you can tell if it's stable if the bass have small heads and large bodies. If they bass have big heads and small bodies than you should have a bass fry to get some of the bass out...... and into your tummies!


Hope this helps!

[Bassboss]

Originally Posted by 1/4 stick

Cool, thanks for the help. Maybe I'll just break in a few of those 3 or 4 pounders and send em back to grow while I nail a few brim this spring.

Fun fun fun

[Bubba_Bruiser]

I think bass grow different by strain. What kind of strain did you stock with: Native or Northern, Florida, or F1. I think the F1 grows the quickest, followed by Florida, and then the native or northern strain. I'm no professional, but I have read something about this somewhere.

[1/4 stick]

All I know is he put largemouth, bream, and crappie in. And there are crawdads in there. I may just have to go by tomorrow and throw a few worms around just to get a feel for it. Sounds like as good an excuse as any. hehehehe

[Bassboss]

Originally Posted by Bubba_Bruiser

I think bass grow different by strain. What kind of strain did you stock with: Native or Northern, Florida, or F1. I think the F1 grows the quickest, followed by Florida, and then the native or northern strain. I'm no professional, but I have read something about this somewhere.

This is very true!

BTW-I got the info form an article written by some one in Michigan, I'm sure the info would be slightly different form south Fl (where I live), and NC, as a matter of fact, I think that the may grow over double their size in 1/4's location. And chances are that they are native bass.

BTW I love the new avatar bubba!

[1/4 stick]

Great info guys. Thanks again for the help.

[Bubba_Bruiser]

¼ Stick there is only 1 way to find out. And we all know what that is. So good luck on your trip. Also, remember that roughly 10lbs per acre of the smaller fish need to be removed a year for good growth. I hate when people get these killer small lakes and they are the toad farm for a couple of years. Then all the sudden you go to catching dinks and a sho-nuff humdinger every now and then, but there is no middle ground fish. It means the lake is out of balance because people are too stingy or scared to remove a fish in efforts for a trophy lake. A lot of smaller places around here are like this because people don't let you keep fish, and I don't wanna rock the boat and lose a fishing hole. Check out this: http://www.mdwfp.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=8159 for a read on simple pond management if the owner is letting you help.

[Bassboss]

Originally Posted by Bubba_Bruiser

¼ Stick there is only 1 way to find out. And we all know what that is. So good luck on your trip. Also, remember that roughly 10lbs per acre of the smaller fish need to be removed a year for good growth. I hate when people get these killer small lakes and they are the toad farm for a couple of years. Then all the sudden you go to catching dinks and a sho-nuff humdinger every now and then, but there is no middle ground fish. It means the lake is out of balance because people are too stingy or scared to remove a fish in efforts for a trophy lake. A lot of smaller places around here are like this because people don't let you keep fish, and I don't wanna rock the boat and lose a fishing hole. Check out this: http://www.mdwfp.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=8159 for a read on simple pond management if the owner is letting you help.

I agree with bubba 110% harvest small fish yearly, if you don't--like bubba said--the bass will will get big, and than all of a sudden the bass will turn to dinks!

But I'll admit, I'll keep 1 fish over 5lbs per year.

[bamabassman]

1/4 stick, FISH IT NOW!!! take out a few of the bass as they too are getting overpopulated. and i bet there are some over 5 pounds in there now. if ya'll restocked with the hybrid lm, they are ready.

[1/4 stick]

Yea, I'll check it out. I aint above frying a few bass for the sake of the the cause. May very well be why he wants somebody to fish it. I'll find out a bit more this weekend maybe.

[bamabassman]

send me some of them fillets pal, we'll eat em, lmao.

[Bassboss]

Originally Posted by bamabassman

send me some of them fillets pal, we'll eat em, lmao.

You can have some of mine!




Sorry couldn't resist!

[bamabassman]

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm, bass..........

[cassidyta]

On new ponds I always say to give them two spawns. You can be in the 3rd year but still only comming up on the 2nd spawn depending on when he stacoked them. If they went in close to spring, then they may have not spawned at all the first year.
I say start catching and see what bites. If all you are catching are 12 inch bass, then have fun with those and toss em back. If you find some 4+ in there, then I say you should thin out a few of the 1-2 lbs bass (if you plan on eating them) I would leave anything 4+ and over alone. I suspect they are rare in the water you have described.

[aikenyounggun]

good eatin, but on your question make sure you take out small fish or bream if there is a million of them b/c ponds have what they call carrying cappacity (and lakes), but it might be lets say 100 lbs per acre... then you ahve 100 lbs of fish.... so it could be 100 1lbs or 25 4lbers..... just an example i have no idea how much an acre can hold