Bass age

[Frogstar]

Im sure this wont surprise some of you seasoned bassers but i found this very interesting:

Found this on Facebook via Basstopia:



This one is not of an actual fish, I think it is the coolest part of the fish. This is the otolith,ear bone, that a lot of fish scientist use to determine the age of a fish. As you can see by the picture this is a 19 year old bass that came from Charolette Lake. The two pictures below are the actual otolith pictures that I took while aging this fish. We use a high power microscope and different lights to count the growth rings(just like on a tree).

-Joshua Ribar[/i]

[Capiez]

Interesting! One old bass that.

Just googled bass age and found this on a US website:
" How old do largemouth bass get? Like most freshwater fish, largemouth bass seldom live beyond 10 years of age. In fact, most bass die before age 6 from natural causes like disease and predation. Less than 20% of most bass populations die from fishing related activities. Male largemouth bass become sexually mature at age 2 whereas females usually mature a year later at age 3."

[Riprap]

I posted this in the Bass Biology forum a while back but it is worth repeating here:

Andy de Jager came second in the Amatola 2010 Classic @ Wriggleswade with a fish of 3.540kg.
This fish was aged @ 16yrs by icthiologists from Rhodes University using scales.
For interest sake, the winning fish of 4.380kg caught by Dave Thompson was aged @ 10-12 yrs (wasn't clear)! Both these fish were released.

Obviosly Otoliths is more accurate but this is a very reliable indication without having to kill the fish.

[Frogstar]

hey riprap

you refering to this post: http://www.bassfishing.co.za/bassingnews...pic&t=2777

[Riprap]

Hi Frogstar, yes but since it is being raised again I will continue with this threrad for a while:

Herewith the scale from the 16 yr old.



Of interest too was that other fish were also aged - turns out a 1kg bass in Wriggleswade is 4+ years and a 2kg fish is at least 7 years old!

[Frogstar]

very interesting indeed

[PDV]

This stuff always fascinates me - very interesting indeed. Riprap you sound like a fish biologist?

:blue-smile:

[Riprap]

PDV, I wish boet. In my next life definately otherwise I keep close ties with that fraternity and have hoardes of "useless" info which I've collected over the years as regards anything fishy.

In Wriggleswade, the oldest fish aged from otoliths was a 55cm fish of 2.2kg and was 11 years old. The current dam record is a healthy fish of 5.01kg!
I fully believe a bass can exceed 20yrs in the right environment?

[PDV]

Yip, I also have one of those files - always interesting to look back....

:blue-smile:

[PeterH]

Hi Riprap
Their is an article in SA Bass a few months back about the age of bass in Wriggleswade
By Olef Wehl
Peterh

[Capiez]

These two bass are listed on the IGFA website as the world record.

10.12 kg (22 lb 4 oz) Lake Biwa, Shiga, , Japan 7/2/2009 Manabu Kurita

10.09 kg (22 lb 4 oz) Montgomery Lake, Georgia , USA 6/2/1932 George W. Perry

Guess there wasn't that much pollution and fishing pressure back in 1932 when Mr Perry caught his fish. So a bigger chance of the "perfect" enviroment for fish to grow older.

But Mr. Kurita caught his in 2009 at Lake Biwa where there is definately a lot of fishing pressure. Bass fishing is very popular there and also quite a few commercial fishermen on that lake, plus you get a few other predatory fish like catfish and snakehead there.

Would like to know how deep these bass were caught? Do big bass, I mean really big bass, move a lot deeper and stay a lot deeper than smaller fish? Obviously every size fish would have a perfect enviroment. Fry and juvenile fish will obviously stay shallow in grass and weeds, because they get a lot of protection there and also a lot of insects to feed on, etc.

What is the perfect enviroment for monster bass?

[Riprap]

Hi Peter.
Yes I believe so but I didn't get that copy and I would imagine it would be unethical to post about it before it went to print. Olaf and his team are doing some amazing work there on bass biology, similar to some studies being done on Inyaka I think.

SA is lagging behind on managing bass fisheries and let's face it, the bass are here to stay so hopefully some meaningful funding will be thrown at this sometime soon.

What is the perfect enviroment for monster bass? Capiez, why don't you start a seperate thread for this interesting topic?

[August]

So, do you count the rings on a scale as well? Or how to you age from a scale. Because I would like to start a database for this.

[Capiez]

@riprap Will do so later on. Bit "slow" after the weekend...

[Riprap]

Pic courtesy of Bass Resource (<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.bassresource.com/fish_biology/fish-aging.html">http://www.bassresource.com/fish_biolog ... aging.html</a><!-- m -->)

Common Fish Aging Structures

Biologists can estimate the age of individual fishes using a variety of aging structures. For years, many fishes have been aged from their scales. Perhaps you have heard the analogy that scales have annual rings much like a tree'!

Read the article on Bass Resource: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.bassresource.com/fish_biology/fish-aging.html">http://www.bassresource.com/fish_biolog ... aging.html</a><!-- m -->