Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Harvest Time

I've go about a third acre pond with CC, BG, LMB, and FHM. I aerate, and feed pellets. About five years ago, we had a pretty bad algea problem, and about this time of the year the algea died, and we had a major fish kill. After cleaning up the mess, I decided to use Cutrine, and copper sulfate to prevent this situation from happening again. I won't drag you through all of details, but we have had a great come back. I've gone to mechanical cleaning of the alges, and quit fertilizing the lawn. I have 18-20" lmb, tons of 6-8" bg, and cc 24-31". The boimass is huge for this size of pond. If it weren't for feeding pellets and fatheads, the hole thing would collapse. I sense it's about time to do a major harvest. I'm sensing the bass are off limits, but want to harvest bg, and cc. What's everyones take on what size and how many should be harvested? My gut is to take 24-28" cats, maybe a dozen or so, and a five gallon bucket full of bg. Thoughts?

Bad Boy, what are your goals? The limits that are best for you to use will vary if you want big BG or big LMB. I think harvesting some bass will be in order either way (obviously with a different emphasis).

You may want to take a look at some of the harvest articles in the Fish and Lake Management section at BassResource.com , many reprinted from PB and written by Bob Lusk, to get a feel for the reasons for bass removal when managing for trophy bass.

Thanks Theo. I haven't had a significant taking in the past five, so my goals have been both size and numbers in that order. I guess more larger size would be nice at the sacrafice of some numbers would be great. I assume that the biomass void I make would be filled with larger fish if I concentrate on the mid sized fish for harvest. So you think some of the say 12-14" bass might be in order of harvest also. I guess the thing is to find a couple of special friends and get on with it.

If the fish are all the size you like and have a nice body mass, you should probably leave the proportion as it is. The devil is in figuring the current proportions!