# How small are the 1 year old bass that you are seeing?



## bkr43050 (Apr 5, 2004)

I was out crappie fishing yesterday and caught a couple of very small bass on my crappie jig. The one was probably the smallest one I can recall catching around this time of the year. I am sure the fish had to be last spring's hatch but the one might not have been over 3" I could not even come close to getting a finger in its mouth. If my son sends me the picture I will post it on here.


----------



## Bass-Chad (Mar 9, 2012)

Over on Portage Lake Dr I caught a few 3-7"ers on a Crappie jig also.


----------



## bkr43050 (Apr 5, 2004)

Bass-Chad said:


> Over on Portage Lake Dr I caught a few 3-7"ers on a Crappie jig also.


That is more like the size I am accustomed to seeing this time of the year, or at least 5" minimum.


----------



## Bassnpro1 (Apr 6, 2004)

3-5 inches for less than one year old. The 7-9 in. bass are two years old. A 12" Ohio bass is almost always 4 years old. 


Outdoor Hub mobile, the outdoor information engine


----------



## Bassnpro1 (Apr 6, 2004)

Here is a one year old 4.5 inch bass with a 4lber in the other hand. Caught these fish last saturday.










Outdoor Hub mobile, the outdoor information engine


----------



## bkr43050 (Apr 5, 2004)

Here is the pic of the the one I caught. I wish I had take the time to get a better shot. It was a quick one and I had not given much thought to actually showing the fish.

I didn't measure it and from looking at the picture I would say it was over 3" but looks considerably smaller than the one Kevin has above.


----------



## Ben Fishing (Aug 2, 2010)

In Spring of 2011 I stocked 35 3-4" bass in my pond. I'm not sure how old they were when I bought them. This Spring they are about 11" long. They get fed twice daily and have all the fat head minnows and bluegills available that they can consume.


----------



## bkr43050 (Apr 5, 2004)

Ben Fishing said:


> In Spring of 2011 I stocked 35 3-4" bass in my pond. I'm not sure how old they were when I bought them. This Spring they are about 11" long. They get fed twice daily and have all the fat head minnows and bluegills available that they can consume.


Your fish would have been a year old which would put them at the same as the one I caught. And the one I caught would fit in that 3-4" range. I guess it was a fairly common size but I probably just rarely catch the year-olds until later in the summer and they have reached 5-6" or more.

I do know that it was the smallest fish I caught all day.


----------



## spfldbassguy (Mar 23, 2009)

I've caught some really tiny bass on rooster tails and road runners while white bass fishing but never anything as small as 3''-4''. Think the smallest I've ever caught was something around 5''-6''. Hey it was still fun to catch it, every fish is fun to catch IMHO. Thanks for the pic btw, words alone couldn't convey just how liitle that little bass was. Now if we was talking about tiny gills then I'd be in the running.lol


----------



## Bazzin05 (Feb 2, 2011)

bkr43050 said:


> Your fish would have been a year old which would put them at the same as the one I caught. And the one I caught would fit in that 3-4" range. I guess it was a fairly common size but I probably just rarely catch the year-olds until later in the summer and they have reached 5-6" or more.
> 
> I do know that it was the smallest fish I caught all day.


bkr I know what you mean. I caught some 3" smallies on a rattle trap last trip out that seemed really small for March. But I got to thinking and here is my theory... Last spring we had a washout until June and most lakes and rivers where flooded and constantly fluctuating until mid to late June. So that would have pushed the spawn back a few months later than it normally is... Sooooooo what we are seeing are smaller than usual yearlings because of the really late spawn of 2011.


----------



## bkr43050 (Apr 5, 2004)

Bazzin05 said:


> bkr I know what you mean. I caught some 3" smallies on a rattle trap last trip out that seemed really small for March. But I got to thinking and here is my theory... Last spring we had a washout until June and most lakes and rivers where flooded and constantly fluctuating until mid to late June. So that would have pushed the spawn back a few months later than it normally is... Sooooooo what we are seeing are smaller than usual yearlings because of the really late spawn of 2011.


That makes sense and I was wondering about that as well. But my memory is not good enough to recall how the spring weather was last year.


----------



## Wow (May 17, 2010)

This whopper was very ambitious. --Tim


----------

