Large-Mouth Black Bass in England 

In Angling Diversions Leney confirms stocking a water near Woking in the 1930s. Leney was stocking bass in the 1930s but no evidence that he continued after WWII.

Glad you enjoyed it

Don Burrey ran the original syndicate from about 1957 and seeded a number of ponds with carp (an old strain) on the nearby heath. Later his son took over the syndicate.

Sometimes wondered if our summers weren't quite hot enough? I think the EA would regard them as an alien species nowadays. There's still populations on the Continent; I've spotted them in a Swiss lake.

We had a walleye record due to a consignment of large-mouth black bass from the USA actually being walleye, and only a single documented capture.

The old walleye record came from Welney.

Couldn’t agree more! I’d love to see them among perch… it’d spice up the fishing culture over in the uk and make it way better and probably more appealing. Rather than fishing for carp and sat on the bank with all the gadgets. Boring. Other species have settled in fine with our waters. Sure there’d be a knock on affect but nature balances out. Also the argument for it being too cold is nonsense too because they’re everywhere over North America and Canada where temperatures get colder than the UK. Imagine going out fishing in the uk having bass available too aswell as all the other predators🔥

Not heard that nickname for a while, Adrian.

There were pumpkinseeds in Martin's Lake (pond!) near Verwood and Creekmoor (in Poole) small pond in the late 80s. Those in Creekmoor disappeared long ago, I don't know about the ones in Martin's Lake. I've seen them in Hucklesbrook but not caught them though have had a few from Wainsford.

We often wondered why they declined. Although I caught two very small ones in 1970 the next ones I caught were in 1975, 76 & 77, although we did see that group of four in the intervenimng years. The roach & gudgheon largely died out over the winter of 1976/77, just about 10% remaining, and those that survived and were young grew much faster so that by 1980 we had roach to a pound. Many of the roach in 76 had argulus (fish lice) and whether these infected the bass is unclear.

I don't think Breach had the natural food in the early day to sustain big carp unlike Redmire. The carp stocking in 1976 of old-strain commons showed slow growth.

black bass are common in lakes all around my house in central france and I have several in my lake out there. They feed predominantly on small fish, very often attacking from open water and driving the small fish into shallow bays. They are lightning quick in the attack and often just drift about under the surface, immobile so the prey fish seemingly forget they are there. locals in france use small soft rubber lures either roach/rudd or often rubber jigger baits in bright colours. pissing them off seems to get more takes than outright imitation. they often feed well in bright hot sunny weather when the prey fish are sunbathing or up on a naturals hatch. I have caught them to 4lb, they often jump on being hooked and often chuck the hook quickly, they have hard bony mouths. the bigger ones are impressive to look at, with richer colours than the small ones. someone mentioned pumpkinseeds, they are commonplace out here, often called sunfish, and make small nests in the gravel margins which they guard. the bass enjoy eating the sunfish.