My boss has a large pond with large bass in it. He always told me there are plenty of 8's-10's in there. I always thought he was kinda b.s.ing me until a local police officer showed up today to talk to him and show some of the bass he has caught with pics. All were 7-9lbs and a couple 10's. My boss said I can come take some out to move to another large pond behind my house. I've fished the pond behind my house quit a bit. Only caught some cats and a few crappie and no bass. The pond has never been stocked.

My boss' house is about 10 miles away and a 20 minute drive on the roads. If I go catch some bass in the next couple weeks what is the safest way to transport and rerelease to the new pond. If I fish for a couple/few hours will the bass I want to keep stay healthy on a stringer until I get ready to go?

You'll need my help

You are going to drag around a bass on a stringer? Nope, that's a bad idea. You need a big cooler with cold water and an little fish tank air pump to hold them in.

Don't keep them in there all day either, catch them and move them soon as the cooler gets cramped.

IMO, the stringer would be a bad idea for the survival of the fish. Get a big cooler or better yet a boat live well to transport them in.......I can help if you need me to Derek, just let me know

Use fattys boat.

Transferring big bass, over 4 or 5 pounds, seldom works out. They generally languish and lose weight.

Think about it. They are probably close to the end of their lives.

Like Dave says above, the results will very likely disappoint. They may live, survive the transplant, but very unlikely to hold their weight/health.

Make yourself a temp transport tank...just about any cooler will work. Add salt...about 1 cup per 10 gallons of water. Keep the water cool. Add an aerator to the cooler.

When you arrive at the new home, add pond water from the new pond to the cooler with a bucket sloowly until the water temps are equal in the cooler and new pond. Keep the fish in the shade at all times during this process.

The longer you keep them on a stringer, the higher your chances of failing. Ideally, you would have the cooler ready by the old pond and immediately place the bass in the cooler and transport handling as little as possible.

You aren't just after survival, but want the fish to be as healthy as possible...and every second spent on a stringer reduces the health of every transport.

I'm super glad someone brought up this topic b/c I have been needing to do the same thing. I have a "canal" behind my house, but the biggest bass I have ever pulled out of there was about a pound and many smaller, and b/c it is getting rather "crowded", the oxygen levels are low, so some of the fish need to be removed or they will end up dying. This makes me feel better knowing I could transplant some of these into a new pond that is a part of my church. They have a stock pond and take kids out there to feed the fish and teach them fishing, and even allow some disadvantaged folks to go out there and get some fish for cooking. It's a great ministry. Anyway, I wondered about getting a big cooler and attaching an aerator to it. Going to work on that this weekend. Thanks guys!

As mentioned above, a large cooler (150 qt of so) along with a couple of oxygen bubblers will work. However, I would suggest waiting for cooler weather, like in the Fall (Oct) so the water will be cooler and the bass have a better chance at survival. Also agree with the idea of the possibility of killing the 7+ lb bass while trying to transport them (stress). They might survive and they might not. Transporting 5 lb or less bass would be a better strategy and if you end up with a mix of males and females it shouldn't take long to get a good bass population established in your other pond.

Thanks guys. I thought about waiting until it's cooler to transfer. I figured the cooler temps would be less stress. My nephew is coming into town this weekend and he is a bass fisherman but doesn't know a lot about the transfer process. We are going to go ahead and transfer a few. I'm not worried about transfering the bigger ones, I was using their size more as a gene's reference I guess. I want to transfer and in a couple years see what I catch. This pond is pretty clear in a lot of spots and like most clear spots ponds you can see the smaller baby Bass swimming around and that it what I want to see in the comming years.

I read something about that a while back but could find it. What does the salt do? And does it need to be just plain iodized salt or kosher, sea..eat?

Steve anytime you want to come out can catch some big pond bass come on.

Thanks Derek, I will be in touch. Also have a monster of a cooler if you want to use it down the road for your transporting purposes.

Talk to you soon,
Steve

Non-Iodized salt, Derek. You can get it at Sam's, the feed store or a pool supply in bulk. 1 cup /10 gallons or 1 pound per 100 gallons. The salt increases the density of the water. This helps to protect the fishes slime coat, prevents stress from dehydration and also aids in preventing fungal infections.

I would suggest waiting until the cooler months to transport those fish. Much less stressful. You'll want a 120 qt or larger cooler with aerator and battery. I used a 120 qt, with two aerators and two twelve volt battery's. DO NOT put those fish on a stringer. Also, more trips with fewer fish is better than a few trips with lots of fish. Your goal is to get those fish into their new environment as quickly as possible. The longer they're in your livewell, the less chance they have of being healthy and doing well when released.

Hope that helps, bud.

Thanks Fouz. I will wait until Fall to transfer. I'll just go out this weekend and see what we catch.