I live on a 16 acre lake that averages 4-5 feet deep.Max. depth is 8 ft.Predominant weed is eel grass.I am trying to get info about improving the fishing mainly for bass,but also for bream.Currently,there are a lot of bass in the dink to 3 pound range.I doubt if we have any over 8 pounds due to a fish kill in 2011.I have caught bass to 6 pounds in the last year or so.I always release bass over 3 pounds and keep a few 12-16 inch fish occasionally.Its an amazingly productive lake for bass.
We had very good bream fishing until the kill.They have not recovered as well as the bass.I believe most,if not all of the big bass and bream died in the kill.So Im trying to bring back good bream fishing and get a larger avg.size bass with some lunkers mixed in.
What are some steps to achieve this?
Thanks,Mike

What caused the kill?

For starters keep almost every bass under 3 pounds, if one looks super healthy and big might be one to toss back. What are your resources for getting more forage in your pond?

The kill was caused by our old weed management guy.He lives on the lake and had treated without any problem since 1985.He did too much too quick this time.I am told it was the oxygen depletion from the weeds dying in mass that killed the fish.So Im reasonably sure that all the bass over 2 pounds and the bigger bream died.
The forage is primarily bluegill.There are shiners in the lake as well.We have a limited budget for stocking.

If I understand correctly, you are happy with your LMB fishing since the kill but not happy with the bream fishing. If I have it right then...

I'm not a pro but IMO I would harvest all LMB 15 inches or smaller. IMO these are the LMB that are the most numerous and are eating your small bream and preventing recruitment to the larger size classes. I would also make sure that your prime bream spawning areas, 1 to 2 feet deep with gravel, are clear of vegetation. Also IMO the eel grass is your best friend for protecting the young bream and allowing them to grow. The shiners will also help keep the pressure off the bream.

Removing a significant number of small bass from a 16 acre BOW is a big task for a few anglers. There are other members that have organized charitable fishing events for the handicapped, etc. that is a win win for everybody. The charity goes home with a great day and fish and... you get a good harvest of the fish you want to remove as well as a nice tax deduction.

Again, I'm not a pro. Just my 1 cent. I will be interested to see what the guys that actually know what they are talking about have to say!

Yeah,Im fairly happy with the bass.Im trying to mprove that though to a bigger avg.size and more fish 6-10 pounds.Right now its a numbers lake .There should be a fair number of 4-6 pound fish but I havent caught anything over 4 since the spring.This is mysterious to me.The lake doesnt get much pressure.I usually have the lake to myself.
We used to easily catch 50 keeper bream in 2-3 hrs.Now we might get 8-10 keepers in the same time frame, and these arent really as big as the pre- kill ones were.I think the bream were decimated by the kill and post kill hungry bass.
We also have catfish.Im not too concerned about them.The bullhead fishing is almost as good as ever...

What I think the others have missed in saying is if you catch any larger bass that are under weight ( low relative weight as compared to the charts) keep them too.

I don't think I would harvest any large BG until things start improving.

Catfish will prey on BG when they get larger. I would fish for some of those. Don't return any that you catch. Try to focus on 3# and larger CC.

To grow larger lmb, you have to have larger forage and plenty of it. So here in Texas we might add Tp to reduce the pressure on the BG and letting the numbers and size improve. Would that be an option there in Florida? And will they live yr round where you are?

Also, Golden Shiners ( GSH ) might be knocking the BG population back by eating their eggs, as per discussed by FireisHot in THIS thread. I would think it applies here too, but could be wrong.

Thanks for the input so far.I suspected that we needed to keep more bass.Its hard for me because they are my favorite to catch and observe.I have a few ponds around I can stock with these fish,and fried bass arent bad!I havent been keeping ' gills, which is hard,cause I love em fried.Tilapia are a possible option.A friends pond is full of them.Kind of concerned that they might take over.But Ill look into that option.
Sounds like getting the bass population down is the first step on the road to my goals for the lake.Then,looking at increased forage base.

As the foxes are reduced in the chicken yard there will be more chickens. Law of nature. As mentioned trying to properly control a prolific LMbass population in a 16 ac lake will be a challenge. I suspect your water transparency is pretty clear due to eel grass beds? If yes then this indicates lower fertility and as a result the lake will support fewer pounds of fish including bass which will make it somewhat easier to control densities. LMbass are 'famous' for overpopulating and over eating the food source. It is a very common problem. Wel fed bass in FL should be able to grow to 2lbs from fingerlings in 1 year and easily 5-6 lbs in 3 years with abundant food. Thus bass after you fish kill in 2011 could now (5yrs) be 6-8 lbs. If not, there are too many bass eating too much food that the lake can produce; full circle, back to foxes and chickens.

I have fished this lake since the 70s.The lake record of 13 1/2 was caught then.( not by me)In the 7os and 80s I kept nearly every bass.I consistently caught large bass ,with 9 lbs being the biggest.There were a lot of 4-6 pound fish,and still there were plenty of small fish.
I would not have changed much before the fish kill.Lots of all sizes up to 9. There were almost certainly a few over 10.T he biggest Ive caught since the kill is 6 pounds 3 oz.and that was over a year ago.
Yes the lake is fairly clear but it is spring fed also.Always are plenty of bass.I would say the average size fish is 1 to 1.5 pounds.
Thinkng about Tilapia,someone rec.it.What do yall think about them? For N Florida?

Study hardest the tilapia species that have less cold tolerance. I think an occasional tilapia kill would be beneficial for your goals. The less cold tolerant tilapia will develop slow erratic swimming and become more vulnerability for bass to eat them as the water cools to 55F-50F periodically in northern FL. I do hear of tilapia deaths in FL waters when an uncommon cold period descends on FL.

At this point I think it is imperative to be harvesting smaller bass or medium bass to encourage remaining largest bass to get and keep rapigly growing to the 8 & 10 pound sizes. They can only do this when the correct size of large forage types are common. These large bass will help in cropping larger forage which IMO in needed in trophy bass goals. Plus it gets you back to the good old per kill days of having big trophy bass in your fishery.

where in N FL the pond located?

I am interested in the tilapa but Im just concerned they might overpopulate.
I know of a pond in the area that is full of big tilapia.Last april they were bedding all over in the shallow areas where bass/ bream could bed.I did catch a healthy 3 3/4 pound bass there.Just need to gather more info.
The lake is in the jax.area.Southern Duval county.

I agree with your concern if your water temps don't consistently drop to 45 or below every winter. I'm not a pro but, if I thought Tilapia could survive year round in my pond, I would not stock them. What do you do with a 2 pound TP?? Too big for your predators to eat and hard to harvest. IMO the big ones will just take up your valued pond capacity and eventually take over the pond..

Oh you are my neighbor, I am in St Augustine, World Golf Village area. Tilapia do over winter in our area. If you have a private pond and the bass are not keeping the tilapia in check you can assist them with a few additional predators that like to eat tilapia.

"""if your water temps don't consistently drop to 45 or below every winter.""" Don't stock the blues who die at 45F. Use the other temperature sensitive species that die at 50F+/-

I am actually surprised you don't have tilapia already. You are hard put to find any water in our area that does not have them already. Unless it is an very isolated private pond. Is the pond part of development with houses around it? I am not sure, but I think the developers put them in for algae/weed control. Lots of smaller more isolated ponds end up with them in it around here also, who knows how they get in? The ones that are prevalent in most the water around NE FL are indeed the blues.

The St Johns River and all the brackish water intercostal canals have Tilapia too, they are all over the place.

It seems you have too many mouths too feed and not enough food. Perhaps simply Selectively removing LMB and adding some breeder sized CNBG but get you back in balance?