I have 2 large lakes in my neighhood that produce some really large fish. I wanted to move some to a 3acre pond behind my house which has some good 2.5 to 3 lbers but really no big fish. What affect would this have moving bigger fish in if any? What would be a good number to put in it?

Instead of planning to transplant fish from one place to another ( which may be illegal ) you should start by asking yourself why in the pond behind your house there seems not to be bigger than average fish; the most common reason why fish don 't grow is lack of enough food resources ( too many predators ) or lack of cover for the forage fish to hide, adding bigger fish will only worsen the situation. Better start catching and keeping those 2-3 pounders than letting them go to restore the balance. It 's problem of pond management.

Transporting a few big fish will give you confidence.  You will now know fer sure that there are bigguns in there.  But I'll bet you that there are 5 lbers in your pond.

If it can support 2.5 lbers then there is NO doubt in my mind it can and does hold fives as well.

Your task young jedi is to figure out how to catch them, not doubt their existance.

Avid has spoken  

PS> good luck and have fun.  

I agree with Avid. Plus, here in Michigan it is illegal to transplant fish. It would be a good idea to check with your DNR.

Good Luck,

Falcon

Instead of planning to transplant fish from one place to another ( which may be illegal ) you should start by asking yourself why in the pond behind your house there seems not to be bigger than average fish; the most common reason why fish don 't grow is lack of enough food resources ( too many predators ) or lack of cover for the forage fish to hide, adding bigger fish will only worsen the situation. Better start catching and keeping those 2-3 pounders than letting them go to restore the balance. It 's problem of pond management.

It's illegal in PA to transplant fish as well. You should use some swimbaits to attract bigger Bass that way you can find out if there are any. Transplanting may turn into disaster as you may introduce a diseased Bass into an otherwise healthy pond.

I've done a fair bit of transplanting myself, and I'll be one of the first to endorse it.  The fish I placed in the pond 2 years ago now out weigh the ones in the lake  by a considerable margin.  There are some factors to consider in my case, though.  First, the distance from the lake to the pond is about 30 feet, so I am not keeping them in a live well.  I catch from one shore and walk to the pond for the release.  Second, there were no fish in this pond before I started putting fish in there, or at least none that I knew of.  Third, and perhaps most importantly, the fish are coming from a privately owned lake and going into a privately owned pond.  The DEC may have some word on the subject of transplanting, but I don't think anyone would give me a problem about it.  The lake needs to have some fish thinned out of it, in my opinion.

The only thing negative about this that I can say is that I spent 2 hours in the canoe in the pond today and still got skunked.

Transplanting is a bad idea in my opinion. I am pretty sure it is illegal in almost every state, for good reason. You could transplant a fish that has a disease and then wipe out the population of your pond. Also your pond could not support a fish that is larger then the other fish. In Maryland you can call the dnr and they will come and ***** your lake and stock it for you if it meets criteria and I think it might even be free!

Just think real hard about it before you do this.

I think the programs where the DNR stock your pond for free have to do with the owners of the pond turning it into a public fishing pond.  I doubt a neighborhood is going to allow that to happen.

As far as legallity of transplanting, if it is not your pond I would say no for all the reasons listed, if it is yours then it should be legal...if its not that is messed up and something I would love to have the money to fight in court.  

I think the programs where the DNR stock your pond for free have to do with the owners of the pond turning it into a public fishing pond. I doubt a neighborhood is going to allow that to happen.

As far as legallity of transplanting, if it is not your pond I would say no for all the reasons listed, if it is yours then it should be legal...if its not that is messed up and something I would love to have the money to fight in court.

Transplanting from public waters to private may also be illegal check your states regulations. Transplanting from private to public is illegal in PA.

Second, there were no fish in this pond before I started putting fish in there, or at least none that I knew of.  

The only thing negative about this that I can say is that I spent 2 hours in the canoe in the pond today and still got skunked.

These two sentences really caught my attention.

First, it is extremely unlikely that a pond only thrity feet from a fish filled lake would not have fish in it if it were a healthy body of water.   Assuming the pond has been around awhile the birds, frogs, snakes, etc. would surely transport fertiliezed eggs that short a distance.

So the fact that you got skunked today, or if the fishing is not good would be a red flag for me.

I would stop transplanting immediately.  If there is a problems with the water in that little pond, then it can find it's way back into the lake, and your plan could backfire.

When I lived in Georgia, we lived on a 10-acre tract with a private pond.

Indeed, I did take legal bass from other lakes but rather than eat them, I released them in my backyard pond.

Since our pond was very tiny and very shallow we were able to observe the bass at will.

I must say it was a great source of entertainment and a marginal learning experience to boot.

Of course, I cast lures without hooks and experimented with various retrieves.etc, etc.

On the upside, the bass were healthy and lived there for several years.

On the downside, because they only cut a meager living, their growth rate was quite poor.

Provided it's legal, I can't see where a small-scale transfer of bass will cause any real harm (would eating them be any better?).

On the other hand, there's almost no chance that you or I could do a better job than Mother Nature,

on the contrary, the best management is usually no management

Roger

man, I've just about given up on my pond.  Its not only killing my confidence because I get skunked pretty much every time I go there, but I also have not seen a single fish bigger than 16 inches and/or 2lbs come out of it in 2 years.  I caught my first fish of the year out of it and it was a whopping......10-12 inches and no more than 1 1/4lbs.  

I can't even see any bluegill in it and thats hard to do.  The only fish i really see active are the grass carp and I dunno..something just doesn't seem right with this water.   I can throw everything I own in all different kinds of presentations and not get so much as a bite.  Next time out, I'm giving live bait a shot and if that don't work..I guess i'm gonna have to find a new place to sneak off to or something.

Sorry, not really on the topic, but I had to rant when I started thinking about ponds.

it may in fact be quite a bit worse than eating them if it introduces a disease.  the last thing you would want to do is to introduce a disease that wipes out a pond that you had stocked.

that said i know a number of people who have done this with great success.

are you sure there is an adequate food base for bass in this lake?  if there are no fish in a pond you cant just simply put bass in there and expect them to flourish.  they will not be able to get enough from frogs and snakes and lizards and such and need a ample food source like bluegill or shiners.

gl

matt

Second, there were no fish in this pond before I started putting fish in there, or at least none that I knew of.

The only thing negative about this that I can say is that I spent 2 hours in the canoe in the pond today and still got skunked.

These two sentences really caught my attention.

First, it is extremely unlikely that a pond only thrity feet from a fish filled lake would not have fish in it if it were a healthy body of water. Assuming the pond has been around awhile the birds, frogs, snakes, etc. would surely transport fertiliezed eggs that short a distance.

So the fact that you got skunked today, or if the fishing is not good would be a red flag for me.

I would stop transplanting immediately. If there is a problems with the water in that little pond, then it can find it's way back into the lake, and your plan could backfire.

I have caught a few fish there this year already, but yesterday was weird.  The fish I've caught seemed healthy, no gill marks, no scale rot, no "open sores".  I think that since we had some nice weather the last 3 days, the fish have moved into the bushes along the bank and I just can't get into them deep enough.  There's plenty of life in the pond, frogs, snakes, even some goldfish my neighbor put in a few years back as feeders (now they're about 10"!).  There's an abundance of life in this pond from muskrats to blue herons and egrets, plus, the pond is spring fed, so I'm pretty sure its healthy water.  I'm going to take a sample to the local college and see if they'll do a test for me and confirm this.  Thanks for the heads up, though, avid, I appreciate you lookin' out for me

Interesting subject here. The ponds on our family lands are managed by the family, and the Dept. of Fish and Game here, they demand that there be a certain protein base. Snakes, lizards, gold fish, etc. don't cut it as the forage base to support LM bass. You do need the protein base, Thread Fin shad, Gizzard shad, Native Shinner, etc. these are the natural protein base for most pond based LM bass.

Just my .02¢

Good luck

Tight Lines!!!

It is illegal in many states to transport fish and put them in another water. I know for sure it is in NY, and that it should absolutely not be done. These days there are many, many diseases that can be moved between waters by fish, bass virus, VHS, to name only 2. It's not worth the risk, and for the situation mentioned, is highly unlikely to work - in fact, it might just slow growth of all fish by increasing competition for limited forage.

Illeagal in all the states I know. Bad idea unless you are working with the state DNR.

i am currently in the procces of transplanting bass inbetween two PRIVATE pond that i have promision to do.the ponds are about 1-2 minutes away if you drive down the road (maybe 1/2 to 2/4 of a mile)the pond i am getting them from is healthy and is schedualled to be filled in to build a shopping center overtop of it in the next 1 to 2 years and the pond i am mtaking them two is my grandfathers that is full of blue gill and has some crappie and cats.we tryed stocking it last year with bass, minnows, and hybrids but do not know how many survives because of all the birds around it.it once had a good population of bass but a flood several years ago killed enough of them off that they eventually died off.we are sure no more bass live in it after that because we fish it reguarly and only get the gills

P.S. while driving them to the new pond we take them one by one in a bucket with water from the pond and do this immediatly once they are off the hook  

(maybe 1/2 to 2/4 of a mile)

;D your a funny one.

(maybe 1/2 to 2/4 of a mile)

;D your a funny one.

I think he meant .5 or possibly 4/8ths.  

I agree with the majority - you don't want to do that...

sorry i ment to say 1/2 or 3/4  

(maybe 1/2 to 2/4 of a mile)

;D your a funny one.

hehehe

Its the lil short school bus...

Largemouth,

In Kansas it is 100% legal to move fish from private water to private water.  This thread got me thinking since we often manage our private ponds and private lakes, so I just got off the phone with Fish and wildlife and they told me I can take my creel limit from a public lake and stock a private lake - no problem.