Bluegills As Forage for Scrawny Bass

[Jim Gronaw]

Hey y'all...my buddy Loren and I fished a small pond in southern PA on Friday and caught bass, cats and gills of various sizes on worms and cats on chicken liver. Great fun!

However...the bass looked to be very light in body weight for their skeletal length with big heads and gaunt bellies. Lots of little gills around and it seems that that would be adequate forage. Catties looked nice, and we kept a couple eaters. But 16 to 18 inch bass would make lazy attempts at hooked bluegills and then just give up on them as if they were just too tired to chase them down.

Other ponds I fish have powerhouse bass that feed almost exclusively on gills as forage. Seems to be enough forage...wonder what the problem is? Bruce...any ideas?

[Bruce Condello]

My follow-up questions would be:

1. How much rooted vegetation is in the pond?

2. What is the overall water clarity?

3. Did the bass show any signs of illness? i.e. parasites, discoloration, fungus...

[Jim Gronaw]

Hey Bruce...in answer to those questions...
1- A lot of rooted vegetation, not noted earlier in the year.
2-Water clarity was good.
3-Bass appeared to be well-colored, no marks or fungus or sores of the like.

My guess is that late-summer and early fall predation could be tough on the bass a result of gills hunkering down in heavy weed cover, makeing it hard to effectively feed on them.

Watchya' think?

[Bruce Condello]

Same here.

Bluegill are great at avoiding predation when they have certain types of rooted aquatic macrophytes to hide in.

My guess is that the bass are starving, and their tired efforts at feeding are a result of inadequate recent nutrition.

One of the best bluegill ponds I've ever been associated with had chemical treatments done every mid-summer for macrophytes. Bluegill of all sizes were exposed to easy predation for weeks at a time every late summer and fall. The bluegill were robust, and 10 inchers were frequently caught.