I know that man times bass will be stocked and/or with trout.  However, I know that for a fact that some of the lakes that I fish in are not stocked.  How do bass or other freshwater fish get from lake to lake?  

Nature finds a way.  Run off from other bodies of water, there is the notion that birds may transplant fish eggs stuck to their feathers or feet.  And then there is a 5 gal bucket from someone that decides to catch fish from somewhere else and transplant them to a new spot.

I have heard the bird thing too.  I think its much more likely the guy with the bucket.  In south Florida all our waterways are connected to a large water pumping system called the South Florida Water Management System.  Almost all waters are connected to the system by culvert pipes.  We have bass, turtles, snakes, and gators everywhere because of it.  I have seen gators in the most congested neighborhood backyards.  Keep a close eye on your pets, and young children, if you live on the water.

As an example of a way fish can get from one body of water to another...I fish a pond, former sand pit, that was stocked with LMB, and Crappie. Long story short, river over two miles away floods, and the pond now has SMB,Striper,Musky, and some Walleye.

Originally -glacial melt waters explain fish distributions. More recently -flooding, and humans. If you were to research old stocking records you'd be shocked at what has been tried and how much of it there has been over the decades, even centuries probably. Then there's unofficial me and Joe stocking. Birds doing the stocking is almost certainly a myth.

Tornadoes , LOL  Like on the film Sharknado .  After reading the snake thread  , I'd like too see Snakenado with flying Water Moccasins. . 

Within the natural range of native fish, the fish have been in those waterways longer than man has.

Where fish are not native they get introduced by man.

Tom

I love the bird story.

Tornadoes , LOL  Like on the film Sharknado .  After reading the snake thread  , I'd like too see Snakenado with flying Water Moccasins. . 

No...lol.

Smallmouth bass were stocked all over extensively, carried allover the country in freight trains and stocked.  

Yep, largemouth too. You can find pics of them carrying the fish in big milk tins. Pretty wild!

Book of Black Bass, Dr Henshall is a good history of how bass were transplanted across the country.

Tom

The same way snakeheads and flying carp got where they are in the US.

First the Mommy fish loves the Daddy Fish . . . . . .

 

Then the Baby fishes come . . . .

 

A-Jay

small fish can swim through small flows of water.  if a fish is introduced to a watershed it will likely eventually find its way to most creeks, lakes, rivers, etc in the watershed

It's a conspiracy I tells ya. Rapala does it while we sleep.

I have wondered the same thing, but have no good answer.  All I know is, if you build a new retention pond in Florida, connected to nothing, you will have fish, turtles and gators within a year.  I have seen a six foot gator show up in a new retention pond, with a six foot chain link fence totally surrounding the pond, within weeks of completion.  Who knows?

"How Do Fish Get From Lake To Lake?"

 

Well, you won't be seeing that anymore, my aerator burned out

My grandfather dug a goldfish pond for my grandmother and eventually bluegills turned up. It was in the middle of the backyard with no other water anywhere around it. Also frogs showed up and painted turtles but I believe the turtles were put there later. How they got there exactly is a mystery but they found a way.

My grandfather dug a goldfish pond for my grandmother and eventually bluegills turned up. It was in the middle of the backyard with no other water anywhere around it. Also frogs showed up and painted turtles but I believe the turtles were put there later. How they got there exactly is a mystery but they found a way.

Kids playing a joke. You never know what the kids in my neighborhood are up to.  A big fake bullfrog turned up at one guys pond. It looked real except the size . LOL

Don't forget about flooding. Lake or rivers close to each other.

A few years back we had a pond dug in one of the fields near an area prone to flooding on my family farm in Tennessee. That section of the field would become swampy and hold a few inches of water after a big rain, we dug the pond in hopes of fixing that problem. The pond is approx 50 yards wide and 150 yards long and 8 feet or so deep, so it is pretty nice.  We never stocked it, and it has bass and bluegill in it now.

 

The nearest pond is 1/4 mile away. No idea where they came from and no one can access the pond except for family members. It can be seen from almost all of our houses (mine being the only exception  ) , so no trespassers have been fishing it. We have no idea where they came from.... but we sure like eating them. 

 

 

There are ponds upstream of rivers all over the place. Heavy rains will cause small fish to flow over the standpipe/spillway. If you fish behind it, you'll see fish you know aren't supposed to be in a tiny stream. If its a big enough flow, those fish are heading downstream to whatever river or lake is below. Dig a pond and see if crawfish don't appear.

 

Wateree Lake in SC was not stocked with blue catfish or white perch, but they're there in spades. It has become a trophy blue cat fishery. White perch had displaced white bass completely. About 15 years ago they had flood water going over all the dams in the river chain. My dad and I caught more than 60 white perch, white bass and stripers on one trip. I asked the DNR guy what was stocked in Wateree in the last 20 years. Only stripers were.Therefore, white perch were placed there and the white bass we caught that day, and haven't since, came over the dam(s). That's my hypothesis, anyway.

You live in a city with creeks and bayous and when there is heavy rain with swollen creeks and bayous, not to mention subdivisions with stocked lakes and ponds, things get all shook up.

 

The Old School Basser...

Flooding is how a lot of fish move around. That's how the whole Asian carp mess got started.