I have recently put in an acre pond, that is 14 feet deep, about 80 degrees in the summer, tons of fish food available, and an aerator that runs nonstop so there is a lot of oxygen.

How big can a smallmouth bass grow in these conditions over a period of time?

An acre is pretty good size. You will probablly be able to get them close to 18-20" depending on the foods avaliable. If you put crayfish, bluegill, frogs, and snakes in the area, the smallies will grow pretty big. Another thing is put some structure in. You can make your own structure by thowing old Christmas trees in the lake and things like that.

Good Luck This Season: Buck Magnet
"Hunting is not a sport, it is a passion, it is a WAY OF LIFE"

Im alot further south than you in Md. but some of the biggest largemouths in my state over 10 lbs. have come from 1 or 2 acre ponds. But thats largemouths. I think if you put hundreds of fathead minnows or bullminnows and crayfish in there you might be able to have a whopper smallmouth in a few years.

I have structures, but how big in a year will they grow?

Largemouths can grow 2 lbs per year but smallmouths grow slower Im not sure. In my pond I put bluegills because when they spawn they produce lots of food for the bass. And I loaded the pond up with shiners that I get from the bait store and I catch minnows and crayfish with traps. It would probably take 10 years to grow a 5 to 7 lb smallmouth but if I were you I would load the pond up with bait.

I think that smallmouths can probably grow 1 lb per year if you have a pond full of food. Just guessing.

They wont grow very fast in a small pond..Less than 1/2lb a year in Wisconsin.With that deep of water why dont you put large mouths in ,they will winter and they grow faster.

Yeah, I would say put some largemouth in, then some shiners and bluegill. Maybe some perch. See if you can get some frogs too. Snakes will naturally be attracted to the pond when the bugs start comming. It will be a really great spot, but it will take awhile. Heck, your pond is deep, you could probablly get away with putting catfish in. Heck, you might be able to put pike in it, if not pike, pickerel. I would say that you try to get a good balance of baitfish to gamefish. DON'T PUT TOO MANY GAMEFISH IN. That could turn out to be a really bad thing. Fish could start dieing, and if they sink then start decomposing, they could kill off all of the fish.

Good Luck This Season: Buck Magnet
"Hunting is not a sport, it is a passion, it is a WAY OF LIFE"

Largemouth’s take a long time to grow this far north, in a natural situation, an 18-20 inch bass, is usually around 10-12 years old.
In a controlled situation like yours, you might be able to get them to grow a little faster though. I would put probably put in large mouths and sunfish of some kind. I know a person from my church that owns a small lake near Hayward Wisconsin, when he bought it he cleaned everything out, and put in blue gills and large mouths, they balance each other out perfectly, there are bass over 5lbs in there now, and a good number of big bull gills too.


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I have loaded up the pond with bluegill and some pan fish, with tons of frogs. I don't want to put in any pike or anything like that though. Why do you think large mouth over small mouth, I heard that small mouth will fight a lot harder, so they will be fun to catch some day.