Fish per acre?
Anyone have a handle on how many adult bass (12"+) there are per acre in an
average lake? |
Richard
Oct 26
2004
|
| Where? Varies greatly. I was told I could expect about 75 - 150 pounds of fish
per acre in an unfertilized pond up to about double that in a fertilized pond
here in middle Georgia. Even big lakes vary greatly. And you can manage somehat for size. If you can have 50 pounds of bass per
acre, it could be 50 one pound bass, 25 two pound bass or 5 ten pound bass and
so on. Usually you have a mix, but you can manage for higher numbers of smaller
or bigger bass.
Ronnie
fishing.guide@about.com
http://fishing.about.com |
rgarri7470
Oct 26
|
| The location is SE Pa. The lake is small, perhaps 7 acres. |
Richard
Oct 26
|
| This is kind of a generic reply, but friends of mine who dive, and I know
through Aqua View observation, in areas where you expect to have bass, there
are many more than you would expect in comparison to the amount that you are
catching! Chris |
Chris
Oct 26
|
| I came to that conclusion a long time ago. When you are fishing and you
catch one, I have always suspected that there had to be many more in the
same area. The one exception might be muskie. Ohio DNR states that a
healthy muskie population is 2 fish per acre in Ohio ( I could have that
backwards, but not sure). The reason being that the muskie is at the top of
the food chain. However, could it be that many of them congregate in the
same area? Jeff |
Jeff
Oct 26
|
| Great question! This type of question begs more research so we can use the
information to improve our fishing. The responses to your question so far vary widely. Here is more info. My family has three ponds raising fish commercially. They keep accurate
numbers for each year by pond and by fish type. Previously they raised
Golden Shiners for bait and now they raise catfish. Each year all ponds are
drained to a low level and each pond is seined to completely remove all
fish. Then the ponds are poisoned and then restocked with fingerlings. Each year yield in total pounds per pond may vary as much as 50% above or
below prior years. Wet summers produce more fish than dry summers but not
always in all ponds. Furthermore one pond may vary 50% while another pond
is essentially the same as the prior year. They use no fertilizer. All
ponds are used to water stock year around. The 50% variance applied both to
the catfish and also the shiners. Barriers keep fish from moving between
ponds or up into or down into any pond. Essentially the same measures are
taken against predators each year. Why so much variance? We don't know. We need more research to understand
fish per acre! John
|
John
Oct 26
|
| Your local DNR biologists could give you a good answer.
Ronnie
fishing.guide@about.com
http://fishing.about.com |
rgarri7470
Oct 27
|
| I think you might have it backwards. I read something from the Pennsylvania
F&B C that adult muskies average about 1 fish for every 2 acres ( or .5 fish
per acre, but that sounds a little silly) -Zimmy |
duckhunter4570
Oct 27
|
| Perhaps this is different from state to state. I did check Ohio DNR and it
does say a healthy muskie population is 2 fish per acre where the same
amount of water might hold 50 bass. http://www.ohiodnr.com/news/jun03/0617muskiecolumn.htm Jeff |
Jeff
Oct 28
|
