I inherited the family farm with a half acre pond that is at least 40 yrs old. It is now completely covered with duckweed and watermeal. My plans are to drain it, kill the weeds, and restock it. In the past couple of years the only fish caught out of it were green sunfish. However, I have heard many stories about how in its glory years it had some pretty nice bass in it. From all the things I have researched and read, a pond this size is too small to support a good population of bass and BG. That's all fine and good, I wouldnt mind having a catfish only pond with the feeder and the whole 9 yards. But I still read about people having bass in a pond this size and people say mine had some good bass at one time. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

fishfrank,

Here's my thoughts. If you want a bass/BG pond, go for it. Conventional thinking isn't always right, and in this case you can have the bass, but may have to limit the fishing pressure.

I purchased property several years ago that had three ponds, one of only 1/4 acre. That little pond of 1/4 acre (and thats being generous) would produce excellent fishing for bass...but only infrequently. If you fished it often, it wouldn't work....but fished only three or four times a year, I could reliably count on catching 20 bass on a fly rod each time. It also produced a seven pound bass once.

If you want a fishery that you can fish often, then LMB in a small pond won't work...go with catfish or something else, but if you want LMB and can limit fishing pressure...go for it.

If you elect to feed, there's no reason why you can't have all 3. ML is right about limiting the pressure on the bass, but a feeding program will produce steady BG to harvest and the Cats should grow fast/fat as well. Bass will find their place...you will need to evaluate their weight and cull as needed.

I think you can do it but you have to have a huge commitment to manage for some bigger bass. Once they spawn you have to work your butt off to catch the little ones and clean them out. But, Meadowlark is right. If you want to do it go for it and forget the conventional thinking. I've known others who did it by putting in a pound of fatheads every couple of weeks and culling hard.

That's kind of what I was thinking as well. As a kid that's all we did was fish farm ponds. We would catch all kinds of nice bass out of small ponds that I know were not managed. Granted some of them may have just had all the right things in place to make for the good fishing. But I can't help but think if I did a feeding program and culled really good that it would turn out fine.

Dave "but you have to have a huge commitment to manage for some bigger bass. Once they spawn you have to work your butt off to catch the little ones and clean them out"

Now is this really work? So in a half acre lake you might have to takeout 30 bass a year. Sounds like fun to me. THink of the clients with 50 acre lakes now that is work (usually takes the shocker to do it right)

Greg, it doesn't sound like much of a problem but I've been there. You usually catch one 8 inch bass and then the rest won't bite. Before long, no bluegill. No bluegill, no bigger bass. I wound up with catfish, huge bluegill that wouldn't bite and one big uncatchable bass. However, Mama Nature provided a drought that solved the whole problem.

Dave don't know what to say about that. If a pond around is left alone you will have tons of small bass and big but few bluegill. However for a 1/2 acre pond it is easy I think. Simply pull out right amount (20-40 10 inch bass/yr) and you can keep er in balance and have an ok brm/lmb pond.

How long should you wait before you start taking out those smaller fish?

Fishfrank :

You are starting a wonderful trip to the world of pond management. Here are a couple of ideas.

One subscribe to Pondboss. It will help with not only the pond but with other matters around the farm.

Two go online and look at the Texas Cooperative Extension Service publication called {I think} Managing Recreational Fish Ponds . It has lots of good basic info.

Three on your pond I agree with ML and Greg and others , with work you can do what you described. You will need to watch the carrying capicity of the pond. It will only support so many fish without problems. If you want to take out 20-40 8-10in. bass a year as well as deal with their offspring you can . If you don't want to do that and want to put that portion of the ponds capicity to other use {larger but fewer bass} you may want to consider only putting in female bass . Your pond will then be a put and take fishery for bass. If you are going to manage the pond extensivly as you indicate then a female bass only pond is an option. I bet Bob Lusk can help you find the right number of 6-8 inch female bass when the pond is ready. This option will not change the way you stock and manage the BG/fatheads/catfish part of the equation. Good luck and let us know what happens. ewest