Bass growth?

All IN · 02-21-2004, 05:39 PM

My friend has a pond that has been stocked with bass and bluegill. This year will be my first year really bass fishing -- I've got em before but not targeted them. My question is how long does it take for a bass to mature and get over a couple pounds? They've been in her pond for close to three years now.

MonkeyBoy · 02-22-2004, 07:00 AM

It depends on a lot of variables. In general around here it takes 4-5 years. Some of the variables include food sources, what and how many other fish are in the pond, water depth and mean temperature.

All IN · 02-22-2004, 10:22 AM

I'll have to investigate further on the water temp, but I know there are lots of little bugs, some frogs, and bluegill in the pond also. The pond has lots of structure around one edge. The max depth I believe is no deeper than 8 ft.

Beerbelly · 03-06-2004, 05:02 PM

It depends on what the food supply is , more food the bigger they get the less food the smaller they are.

bucketmouth · 03-08-2004, 09:34 PM

As beerbellyfishier has pointed out food supply is critical when it comes to bass growth. Here in the Pacific NorthWest there are no hard and fast rules governing the growth patterns of Largemouth.

I know for instance that in the Willamette River Largemouth have to compete with the increased smallmouth population for the available forage. A 14 inch smallmouth will out chase a 17 inch largemouth in a race for the same food.

Conditions vary so widely from one body of water to the next that knowing how long it took for a bass to reach a certain size would require an individual study on each given body of water.

Even generally speaking, it would be hard to say. But I think Monkeyboy was pretty close.