I just wanted to thank everyone here that helped me (a pond rookie) through the process of building and stocking my pond over the last year and half or so. I need to especially thank catmandoo and CJBS2003 for all the private messages back and forth. It took a few tries to get some things through my thick head. I also need to thank esshup for helping with some awesome feed and feeders. Here is a picture of a LMB my son caught this week. We stocked them 5 months ago and they were 4" long. To me they look like they are doing well.

Outstanding! Well Done!

Good job!

Very nice, what are you feeding? How often? Is that a top water popper , one of my favorite ways to catch a bass....

You are proof that feeding them gets them growing really well. Good job following our instructions.

It's great to see the results of good planning and execution!

Awesome! That dock looks nice, too.

Cat and Travis are great resources and great guys - good to see your success. Congrats and stick around and keep us in the loop!

Congrats ! Well done. That is one of the primary reasons the Forum exists.

Nice job !! Bout the same thing happened to my pond. After the second yr I had some really nice YP and HSB. The third yr I got 8 pellet trained SMB and 8 WE which all have grown well. If I hadn't stumbled onto this site It scares me to think of how bad I would have messed it up. So dittos to all the intelligent and sharing folks that are always happy to help us less informed.

How many 4" LMB did you put in and how big is the pond? Thanks,

We put 200 LMB and it's a 4 acre pond.

beastman, I started off feeding lil strike and now I'm feeding Optimal Bluegill Fish food. I started with one Texas Hunter fish feeder and have since added a second one. I'm not sure on the amount of food I just kind of let the fish tell me without over feeding hopefully. I think they would eat 50 pounds a day but I'm probably feeding more like 4 or 5 pounds a day if that. Yes that's a popper.

Congratulations, Corkman it's a great feeling isn't it? Although the folks here on the forum DO want you to ask more!

I was in the same boat 4 years ago and yesterday caught this after being stocked 9-1-12 at 5-7":



At the rate you're going with that incredible growth in 5 months, you'll have trophies in no time! Great looking LMB!

Keep sharing your successes (with pics ), keep asking questions, keep up the good work, and if you want to try to give back to the forum and these great folks helping us, subscribe and donate when you can.

PS - Unintentional advertisement with the yardstick

Wow! Lovinlivin, that is a nice fish! Bet it was a hoot to bring in. Four years ago. Hope my little pond can produce something that big in a few years..

Dang it, I may have to stock as few of those.

SetterGuy,

I see your pond is 1 acre don't worry my friend you can do it. My pond is 1 acre as well. I stocked these 2 fish in 2012. The LMB is almost 5 lbs and the HSB is 4 and a half pounds. So it can be done.

Nice! I've got a feeder running, and a lot of FHM, and small GSH running around. Hopefully they'll get nice and big like those two..
Thanks