COLUMN: Driftwood Outdoors: Keep a few fish for the frying pan

A friend told me he caught an eight-pound largemouth bass out of one of the farm ponds on his property. With permission to fish at will, I thought this could be my chance to finally catch a bass weighing double digits. My theory being, if he released an eight-pounder in there a few years ago, there’s a good chance the fish is over 10 pounds today.

Well, if that bass is still swimming, he’s sharing the water with way too many 10-inchers. The population is clearly stunted. Meaning, the fish aren’t growing beyond a small size.

In a 1979 study by Burrough and Kennedy, they state, “Stunted growth is a frequently observed phenomenon in freshwater fish populations. In such populations, growth of fish is much diminished relative to the potential of the species. A variety of factors has already been suggested to explain the phenomenon of stunting. These factors include intraspecific competition due to overcrowding, low food availability, and an increase in survival rate.”

The pond I was fishing is about three or four acres. It’s surrounded by native prairie grasses, so the water is very healthy. There is no runoff reaching the water from surrounding agricultural fields.

It has great water quality. It’s clear, and around the shoreline there’s ample, appropriate aquatic vegetation. You would think the fish population would be just as healthy, but it’s not.

The fishing was incredible, if you are only considering numbers. On nearly every cast, you would catch a largemouth bass. The problem is that every single fish was the same. They were all about 12 inches long.

It didn’t matter what I threw at them. I tried my largest rubber worms, big spinnerbaits, and topwater plugs half the size of the fish I was catching. Those little guys hit whatever I presented. I even caught largemouth that jumped out of the water to strike a bare hook dangling mere inches above the surface.

In order to improve this fishery, a number of the bass have to be removed. There is too much competition for available resources. When the desire is for larger fish in a body of water, then more is not better. In fact, more fish is the enemy of big fish.

Catch and release has become such a mainstay in modern fishing, especially bass fishing. People rarely consider keeping them. While there are certainly good reasons for catch and release fishing, sometimes the best thing you can do for a fishery is keep a few fish for the frying pan. Especially from a small body of water. There is no issue with removing 100 or more stunted bass from a couple-acre pond.

This makes for a great opportunity to take others, especially children, fishing. I think we have come up with a solution that is going to be fun, rewarding, and good for this little fishery. Gather some friends and family to catch a big mess of stunted largemouth, then have a big fish fry. The children will have fun catching the fish and will hopefully enjoy the reward of eating them too.

Farm pond fishing is one of my favorite outdoor activities. The action is usually hard to replicate on a large reservoir. To keep the fish populations of ponds and small lakes healthy, you need to remove some fish. Otherwise, they are likely to become stunted. It may seem counterintuitive, but if you want to grow big bass, introduce some smaller ones to your fish fryer.

See you down the trail…

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