Age Of A Keeper Bass?

[kyled]

I had an interesting conversation with a friend of mine the other day while fishing. Now keep in mind he is not any rougher on fish than most people but in the process of getting one unstuck and returned to the water I ask him "how old do you think that fish is?" I like to think I am more careful than most when handling a fish that is going to be released, but before I sound like I am preaching I have thrown my share of gills and crappie in a bucket. Regardless, it was just a fun jab between friends to get my point across. I soon realized when he guessed that I really had no idea. So like the nerd I am, I started doing a little research and it seems it depends on strain of bass, average water temp, forage... and so on. However, from what I found it looks like 5 or 6 years is pretty common for a bass to get to 15 inches? All of the charts put the fish at 17 inches around 10 years old. Does this seem correct to you guys or pretty accurate to table rock or have I just misinterpreted this research?

[Feathers and Fins]

It all depends on which BASS Magazine you read or which Scientific paper but most are in the 4 to 6 year age if you average it all out for a 15inch fish. There are to many variables but that would be a good average to go with.

[Champ188]

I'm with F&F ... 4-6 years is a good estimate.

[mojorig]

I know you are looking for Table Rock data but here is some age and growth information from Bull Shoals (2012). These are the average lengths at age for 123 largemouth bass collected in the spring of 2012. We plan on doing another A&G project again next year (2015). These numbers shouldn't be too far off what you would see at Table Rock. Again these are just averages. I included a graph showing all fish ages. Some fish grow faster and some grow slower. We use this data to develop a growth curve. The curve allows us to determine how long it takes to reach a certain length (minimum length limit) or the age of a fish at particular length.

Sorry for the bad table. I couldn't get it to work any other way.

Age Length (Inches)

1 7.4

2 11.1

3 12.3

4 15.4

5 16.3

6 18.9

7 17.2

8 19.3

9 19.4

All fish ages.pdf

Bull Shoals 2012 Growth Curve Otiliths.pdf

[Quillback]

Spotted bass are slow growers according to the bios - 6 to 7 years to get to 15".

[Champ188]

Great info. Thanks for sharing that, Jeremy.

[kyled]

Really good info!!! That's what I was looking for, Thanks.

[merc1997 Bo]

a lot of us old timers always figured in the three year range for lmg to reach 15 inches here on table rock. i see that is not too far off. it is easy to see that after the kill we had, and without any stocking to help out, it really takes a good number of years to even thing about having any kind of a big bass population. it has taken this long since the kill to have just some decent numbers of bass back in the lake let alone numbers of quality bass.

the mdc needs to take a look at the success of stocking by the state of texas. it does work.

bo

[Quillback]

AGFC did some LM stocking last year in Beaver, it will be interesting to see if that makes a difference. Don't know however if they have any way to measure what effect (if any) it will have.

[ruthead]

Makes me think I will make a sign and put at My favorite pond that says " It can take up to 10 years for a bass to grow to 20 inches, please release the larger Bass so we all can enjoy catching them".