Yes, that's how I would define "natural" - no feeding, just allowing the ecosystem to do its thing, with corrective stocking, harvest, etc. being your primary tools.

Goals would determine species, I suppose. Trophy BG would mean LMB - largemouth bass heavy pond, but could one create a trophy fishery of both species simply through "pure" management techniques - meaning, no feeding?

I once fished a lake in my late teens that was legendary and defies all fishery management tenets as I now understand them. It was a 20 acre farm pond with an active creek feeding it. We had to park in a rural graveyard to access it, so we named it aptly "Grave Lake". It was a half mile walk to the pond, and we fished in the worst weather possible to improve our odds of going undetected. This fishery defied belief: Crappie averaged 15" - the largest I saw was 18.5". LMB averaged 3.5 and we caught several fish over 5, which is NE master angler. BG averaged 9-10", and we caught many 10-11" fish. The CC - channel catfish averaged mid teens, with our best fish going 22. Even the bullhead from the creek were massive, with 3 lb fish common when catfishing. This farmer didn't fish, didn't manage the lake, didn't care about it at all. This fishery somehow attained the magical balance, and we truly felt at times we were fishing in God's private pond.

We never caught any small fish...I have no clue where they were. In my 20s the farmer sold adjacent land to a private developer who put in a golf course, silted in the pond due to construction, and the fishery was ruined forever.

How did this fishery attain such epic status?

Last edited by Bill Cody; 01/23/13 10:16 AM. Reason: acronym fix
Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. ~ Henry David Thoreau

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