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Q:
Went fishing in a half-acre farm pond this past weekend. Within 3 hours I had landed 14 bass using a 7 inch plastic worm. All the bass were 10 - 15 inches though. My gut reaction is that this farm pond has too many bass in it, and that they will all stay around that size because of competition for food. Do you think this is the case? If so, how many do I pull out to allow for a larger avg. size of bass?
Question by SBell. Uploaded on May 05, 2009
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Answers (5)
Sounds like that could be the case, but if that was the only time you have fished that pond, I wouldn't take drastic action now. A half-acre pond is not so large that you can remove a lot of fish and see an appreciable difference soon. I would just work on removing a few a week, but still keeping accurate notes on how many you catch over a specified time period. You should be able to contact your local department of conservation and/or natural resources to get more information on what they recommend given the size of the pond and the number of recorded fish you have pulled out during several outings.
auburn's right. I'd keep a good mess, say a dozen or so, then see how it goes. If you're still catching tons of little ones, keep another mess. Good luck finding a helpful conservation agent, and congrats on having a fun place to fish~!
If you don't like to eat the "mess" of bass, I would stock 1 or 2 one-foot long (male) pike.
To me, 14 bass in 3 hrs is a good day, possibly a sign of overpopulation, but not definitive. I've fished in a pond and caught 30 or better in an hour about that size. Now THAT's overpopulated. It probably wouldn't hurt to keep a few though.
Agreed with auburn_hunter and + 1 for you sir!!!
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Sounds like that could be the case, but if that was the only time you have fished that pond, I wouldn't take drastic action now. A half-acre pond is not so large that you can remove a lot of fish and see an appreciable difference soon. I would just work on removing a few a week, but still keeping accurate notes on how many you catch over a specified time period. You should be able to contact your local department of conservation and/or natural resources to get more information on what they recommend given the size of the pond and the number of recorded fish you have pulled out during several outings.
auburn's right. I'd keep a good mess, say a dozen or so, then see how it goes. If you're still catching tons of little ones, keep another mess. Good luck finding a helpful conservation agent, and congrats on having a fun place to fish~!
If you don't like to eat the "mess" of bass, I would stock 1 or 2 one-foot long (male) pike.
To me, 14 bass in 3 hrs is a good day, possibly a sign of overpopulation, but not definitive. I've fished in a pond and caught 30 or better in an hour about that size. Now THAT's overpopulated. It probably wouldn't hurt to keep a few though.
Agreed with auburn_hunter and + 1 for you sir!!!
Post an Answer