How To Harvest Fish In Your Pond | A Fisheries Biologist's Perspective

Free Relative Weight Field Guide: aquaticcontrol.com/largemouth...
In this fish management tutorial, our fisheries biologist discusses the most essential tool in pond management. Fish harvesting in your pond. He answers questions like "What fish should be harvested from your pond?", "How many fish should I take out of my pond?", "How do I grow bigger largemouth bass", and "How do I grow trophy bluegill?" After watching this video, we hope you have learned enough to begin harvesting the proper amount of fish from your pond. If not, call or contact us through our website at aquaticcontrol.com for a free consultation.
Free Fish Management Consultation - aquaticcontrol.com/fish-manag...

[@aquaticcontrol]

We think scrolling up and hitting the like button is also an integral part of growing trophy fish!

[@stustu440]

50 acre pond. Caught 100 fish between 4 anglers. 95% weighed 1.25 lbs. Sounds like we should be harvesting?

[@jordanslayton9024]

Can a "stunted bass" be transported to another pond and flourish? Or are they just maxed out in the stunted size range?

[@aquaticcontrol]

A stunted Largemouth Bass will have very limited growth potential if transplanted to a new system. This is especially true in older, stunted fish. Additionally, transplanting fish from pond to pond carries the risk of spreading disease between systems.

[@danielmcwhirter]

The bass has a lifetime to grow but has lost time to no growth.

[@hunter6099]

what if you know you have an abundance of bluegill and bass but they are hard as hell to catch?

[@sobersportsman]

Where do we get that fish ruler?

[@aquaticcontrol]

it's a 1 of 1!

[@maxcole3930]

I would like your sheet for length to weight ratio please. How do I get that? Another question. My PB largemouth was 26.25" long. How much should it weigh to be at 100%? I measured length, girth & got weight on this fish. But I'm curious what its weight should be? Thanks

[@dantheman1355]

You can find relative weight tables online by searching on Google. A 26.5” fish should be 10.5+ lbs. I’ll drop a link to a table.

[@dantheman1355]

extension.uga.edu/content/dam/extension-county-offices/effingham-county/anr/sportfish-management-/Relative%20Weight%20Chart.pdf

[@alexschweinhart742]

If we have bass crowded pond with most of them being under 10”, should we harvest any fish under 10” including fingerlings? Also should we stock minnows or shad?

[@aquaticcontrol]

A safe bet would be to harvest anything under 12 or 14 inches for the next couple of years including fingerlings if you can catch them. Typically, the young of year bass are too small to catch on rod and reel, but when we electrofish during bass removals, we remove even the 3 inch bass we see. We would not recommend stocking shad. You’d be better served to stock Bluegill than minnows in most cases. You should check out our “Should You Restock Your Pond” video to hear our thoughts in more detail on that: kzbin.info/www/bejne/g5ulfKGKo8lkiqs&t

[@horizonvideoeditingcom281]

My 3 acre pond has a ton of crappie. I caught over 100 in an hour and a half. Most of these mid range size and not fat. Should I remove a bunch of these? I have a good blue hill population and a fair bass population. My goal is to build up a good bass population with lots of 3-6 pound bass for friends and family to enjoy catching and releasing. Thank you for the video.

[@BagChatters10]

Every bit of research that I have done says that Crappie are not ideal for growing the type of bass population that you are looking for. I'm in the piedmont of NC for reference, but when I am fishing my family's property (5+ acre pond), if I catch crappies under 9", they are harvested and utilized as feed or fertilizer. The larger ones I will let go because they spawn, and it's a free source of baitfish. You can tell crappies age by the size of their eyes. If you catch a fish that is 8" long and eyes the size of quarters, harvest.

[@horizonvideoeditingcom281]

@@BagChatters10 Thank you. We harvested 40 the other day but I think I need to probably harvest another 100 or more. I noticed a ton of them were 7-8 inches and not very thick. They all looked the same. We caught 40 in about 45 min. Had a lot pull off also. I know that if I want to get bigger crappie I need to thin the numbers. There is only so much food and the competition has to be very high. ThNk you for your info.

[@aquaticcontrol]

If the goal is to have a quality bass fishery then you should harvest as many crappie as you can. You can get friends and family involved in this activity as well to help pull out as many as possible.

[@horizonvideoeditingcom281]

@@aquaticcontrol thank you. Are some crappie a good thing? I would think that when they spawn and eventually have small crappie that these could be bait for the bass.

[@aquaticcontrol]

@@horizonvideoeditingcom281 Bass will certainly eat small crappie, but if the goal is big bass and we could snap our fingers and get rid of the crappie I would do it. They eat a big portion of the forage base. While it is unlikely to catch all the crappie in a pond, heavy harvest will help your bass grow and will also help your crappie grow.

[@maxcole3930]

Super interesting. With bass fishing it's become a catch& release sport for the majority. Which could be hurting a lot of fisheries for big bass. What about a scenario in that pond your at now. Say you catch a 6+ pound bass & it's weight to length ratio is way under 100% do you harvest that bass to promote big bass population?

[@hunter6099]

you don’t have a clue what you’re saying, with the amount of tournaments every week throughout the year thousands of Bass get killed.

[@maxcole3930]

I'd say that's a big stretch

[@danielmcwhirter]

I understand that male bass stay relatively small (could there be a goliath?), so taking them out favors less bass bedding and fewer new predator competitors.