I have a small pond that has bass, bluegill, catfish, and crappie in it. The bass I have been catching look like they haven't eaten in 6 months. A bass I caught today should have weighed 7lbs, but only weighed 4lbs 2oz. Does anyone have any advise on what I can do to get these bass fatter, or to at least weigh what they should? The pond is not over populated with bass, so I don't think thats the problem. Any advise is appreciated. Thanks.

Mike

Post spawn maybe? It might take them a little longer to put weight back on in a smaller impoundment.

Possibly add some rockpiles and crawdads?

It has rockpiles and it used to have a lot of crawdads. Not sure now what food source is left. I saw some bluegill but not like I used to. I have seen the bass jump a catch birds out of the air trying to get a quik drink. That is awesome to see. Also the only thing I can catch them on is frogs, which there used to be a lot of them around to, now only a few.

Food is the key obviously. You know this already though. The question is how to get more food in to the lake.

One way is to simply go get food and put it in the lake. Trap crawdads, minnows, etc somewhere out by the Delta (for example) bring them to the pond and toss them in. That's a lot of work though, and you'd have to know where to get the crawdads (I have no clue).

The other way is to build the ecosystem to generate a more sustained food supply. To get more prey fish, you need habitat for the prey fish. So christmas trees, or even better some kind of hard woods - like if you could get some chopped down trees from a farmer's orchard. Fresh trees and brush form the bottom end of the food chain because algae grows on the fresh trees and the algae in turn feeds the prey fish in their smallest stages. Not to mention that the small fish use the trees for cover to hide from bass.

Milk crates tied together in to lego looking setups could also be good. This is the kind of stuff you see used in habitat projects around the state. Cinder blocks are a fairly cheap way to sink the trees and brush.

Once you have the cover in place, then you add forage fish like bluegill, redear, or green sunfish. I don't know which are best around here. If you put them in right now some might even spawn this year. You could also try and get golden shiners.

If the pond is your pond and you are way in to it you could get an automatic feeder for the sunfish/shiners. They sell them at Basspro.com. They shoot out pellets on a regular interval.

The only other thing I'd consider is killing off some of the bass if it still seems like they are skinny and messed up. Bass reproduce like rabbits, I mean really bass are prolific fish. So in a small pond you might just have to thin them out.

There's a few fish biology guys who read the site who can probably offer better advice than this as well. And I do believe there are more than a few books on this topic. Might be able to get some good books at the local library to save $.

Have you contacted the CA state fish & game folks to see if they have any information about creating a fishing pond in CA?

I know other states provide information concerning stocking & harvesting ratios etc for ponds. Here is some info from IA which may help you get started in asking the right questions:
http://www.iowadnr.gov/fish/programs/farmpond/fpp.html

I think AL assists landowners in creating ponds so there may also be info on-line through the AL state fish & game department.

Tim

Well lets see, you have 3 agresive predators and 1 prey species. Thats prety simple math. You need more prey and less predators. Crappie and catfish are just as bad as your bass. They are all eating your gills and competing for food. You need to get your pond balanced. You need to harvest some fish. You should do this even when your pond is healthy but now its even more important. I would start eating some fish. I would eat all the crappie I could catch and catfish too. I might leave a few big cats because they are cool though. Kill off some of those little stunted bass too. Any bass that under 2lbs gets eaten. I am not a biologist but I have managed a couple private pond and they were very succseful.
Adding structure and cover is a good idea to but removing predators is the key. Adding prey species is also a great idea but in the condition your pond is in now you would most likeley just be buying them dinner and that food wouldnt last too long.
#1 reduce predators
#2 stock some prey
#3 give the prey some cover to hide in

That was some great info. Hopefully one day I will have an "urban pond'. I want to get a house with a built-in pool and turn it into a pond.

Strictly for R&D purposes :-)

Matt hit it on the head with his predator vs prey assessment.

If I was starting a pond it would be stocked with only largemouth & bluegill (or other similar sunfish species). I've read about recommended stocking ratios (including what the age of the fish should be and a schedule for initial stocking) and recommended selective harvest plans to maintain a healthy balance in a pond.

In some parts of the country people like to also have catfish in the pond but as Matt said that is introducing another predator that needs to be accounted for.

Thanks for all the great advice guys. Originally we used to catch catfish in it, but I haven't seen any in a year or so. The crappie that I put in there seem to have disapeared, probably eaten. At one point there were carp in there also, but haven't seen them in a couple years. Im not sure how many bass there actually are in this pond, I have only caught 2 that where under 2 lbs all the rest seem to be clones of 3.5-4.5 lbrs. All seem to be 20-22 inches. As for structure there are 2 christmas trees, 2 55 gal drums, an empty beer keg, several cinder blocks and rocks, broken concrete piles, several pipes for sprinklers and fountains, and many trees that hang down to the water. There is also a floating dock, and a gazebo that overhangs the water.

Mike

I think it would be cool to see some pics of your pond! Good luck with it.

I live on a small private lake, I started tagging the fish in the lake so I can keep track of their growth rates. I've tagged 33 fish since the begining of July and haven't had a recapture yet. It will be interesting to see how fast...or slow they are growing. It wont make the fish grow any faster but it might give you an idea of how many fish are in the lake and how fast they are growing.

Where can I get a tagging kit. That would be a good idea to see how many bass there are. I have caught the same bass a couple times, because it has a specific marking so I know it was the same bass.

This is where I got mine....

http://www.floytag.com/

It cost about $160 for a tagging gun, an extra needle, and 100 tags.

I thought I was catching the same fish over and over but I guess I was wrong. Like you I know I have caught a couple of fish a bunch of time because of scars on the fish. I am really surprised that I haven't caught a tagged on yet.

Thanks I'll check it out.