The lake is near Gainesville, Alabama in Sumter County. The farm is in the "Black Belt" region which refers to the rich soil. There are limestone out cropings so the 23 acre lake never needs agricultural lime added and the water is very fertile. All in all a good place to raise "trophy bass" which is my goal.
The lake was not over stocked. The strategy in removing the small bass is to remove the competition for the larger bass and so the small bass won't spawn this spring and thus make more small bass. I think the bass can get ahead of the pondmeister's ability to remove bass if one waits too long to start the removal process. It's a big job but somebody has to do it. (that's what I tell my wife anyway!) So far am very happy with the way it's producing and SE Pond Mgt. assistance.
Since my first post have now removed 305 pounds but fishing has slowed with the weather not co-operating. When the shad are schooling these F1's are like wolves.
One other thing I am doing is that I have build two,two acre "forage ponds" that empty into the 23 acre lake that have coppernose bluegill and threadfin shad with no preditors. Every September I empty them into the big pond so the bass will have the extra forage before winter. I think this adds alot of pounds on the bass because they are in a feeding frenzy and then shortly after they slow down in winter and expend little energy.
Hope this sheds some light on what I am doing.