Electricity for Bass Harvest?

Ask any pond owner what their favorite bait is and you’ll get a different answer for each lake. Throw in the hundreds of different colors lure manufactures make and the water get even more muddy. At AES we all enjoy a good jig bite in the dead of winter or a massive topwater strike in early summer but our preferred way to harvest bass is using electricity.

Electricity is the Best Way to Harvest Bass

Electricity has several advantages over classic rod and reel but the main reason we use it is because the success rate is high.  Electrofishing is the most advanced and accurate way to inventory a pond. Todays post will be taking you the viewer along with the AES shock crew as they help a property owner harvest bass. AES has been shocking this lake for three years but the owner recently approved five shocks this season to remove bass since he can’t be on the lake every weekend.

The Process of Bass Harvest

Big Bass
These small bass are the reason we are here. The lake is over crowded with them and they have such high numbers that they are suppressing the bluegill population. The bass are stacking up around 14 inches since there isn’t the proper sized bluegill for them to consume. The pond has plenty of large bluegill and newly hatched bluegill. However it is lacking 3-5 inch bluegill which is why the bass are not growing properly.
bass harvest
All the underperforming bass are taken out of the pond. We did release a few healthy bass as the lake is slowly starting to improve.
Big Bass
To our surprise and excitement we shocked this gorgeous fish. She was hanging deep off the dam. This proves that even in ponds that are over crowded with bass there will be a few that sneak by with the proper forage to grow large. This fish is big enough to eat smaller bass so she will keep growing.
hybrid striped bass
The owner will be thrilled to know he still has hybrid striped bass still swimming around. The lake no longer supports threadfin shad but hybrids also eat fish food. Since this client is under a management contract so we fill his feeders once a month with high protein Purina fish food. The high protein content is key to these fishes growth and health.
channel catfish
Unfortunately we are still shocking the occasional channel catfish during our bass harvest. We have put a big dent in their population and the abundant bass population have kept reproduction down. Channel catfish don’t guard their young once hatched so bass will make quick work of them.
big bluegill
We were shocking today to harvest bass we could not pass on this giant bluegill. It easily surpassed a pound in weight. This a direct result of high protein Purina fish food.

The shock to harvest bass was very successful. We harvested almost 70 lbs of bass. There are still plenty of bass to be harvested but we made a solid dent.