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new to the forum i have 2 ponds one is a 1 acre the other is about a 1.5 acre there are stocked with lmb,blue gill,probably 3 big cc,i have been trying to remove alot of the smaller lmb 6 to 10 inches wanting to grow bigger lmb currently feeding the bluegill with aquamax 500 ounce a day.the lmb bass population seems to be stunted i was thinking of stocking more bluegill n spring then mid summer maybe some better genetics as far as lmb goes any advice woulb be helpfull thanks corey

Howdy, 'mower.

To get the most useful advice here, need to know more about your priorities for the ponds...I'm guessing from your post that a larger LMB population might be first on the list.

If so, number 1 priority is to improve the forage base. Feeding will help a little, removing as many LBM as you possibly can [ all you can catch below 12-14inches, and all that are skinny/bigheaded of any size] will help a lot. Unless you're really low on BG, adding fish probably won't help much and will be very expensive. Even a modest number of BG can produce hundreds of thousands of offspring, what you need to do is remove enough of the smaller predators to allow them to get to a size to be useful to your larger LMB.

As far as genetics go, even the best genes won't get you very far unless your fish have enough to eat.

it seemes like the lmb wont grow but so big and thats it a lot of 6 to 10inch bass i have probably taken over 80 out so far they dont seem to be stunted as far as big heads and skinny bodies just want to see more healthy bass as far the weight goes everthing i have caught has been around 1 lb at the most it seems like there overcrowded but they have enough to eatto maintain there weight they are not by no means over weight thanks corey

How old are the ponds?

The smaller bass may not be stunted-they may be getting enough 2-4" gills-which could be keeping your pond from developing a population of larger BG that would support larger bass. That large mouth is there for a reason.....

And how big are those "big CC"? Could they be eating some of the top size fish so you get nothing bigger.

the cc are really big 10 lbs and bigger i made a mistake when i stocked them got all of them out but about 3 and they are stuborn lets focus on one pond the one with the cc thats the one i caught 80 plus lmb out of this year shallow pond average depth probably 4 to 7 foot deep got some cover had alot of spawning of bluegill since i started feeding everday they r still feeding today the pond is old probably 30 years at least they r some really big gills in the pond but nothing in the 3 to 5 inch which is what they probably need i think thanks for the help corey

Ok, sounds like your course is clear-remove every LMB in the size range mentioned above, keep feeding with AM 500 or Game Fish Chow, remove some more bass, keep working on the cats,then remove more LMB after that. And did I forget to mention to remove a few more LMB?

You're describing a situation that some of us develop on purpose-tons of LMB that keep very few BG from reaching any size-but those that do can grow to real trophy size. Unfortunately that's little consolation if what you really want is good fishing for LMB.

How many LMB to remove? Every one you can catch, for at least the next year. Remember, every one you get out before spawn is 10s or 100s that you won't have to remove later, so this is really the time of year to get after them.

Agree with Yolk. The small bass are eating the small BG before they can grow enough to feed the larger bass. Eliminate the small bass until the average size of both the predators and prey increase.

thanks yolk sac and dave sounds like i got alot more work to do the cc are really tough to catch now the bass bite has really slowed down also time for live bait again thanks for the help

I am down to 3 ten year old catfish. I'm not sure how to catch them. The last 3 or 4 have been accidental.

I caught most of mine off of chicken liver but now they wont touch the stuff a friend of mine hooked one with a minnow a couple weeks ago I have caught them off of tootsie rolls canned corn shrimp and shiners but they know all that stuff pretty good they like aquamax thats for sure i might try making a dough ball out of it

I tried soaking a sponge in Aquamax. They ignore everything with a string attached.