My name is Curt. Recently retired and moved from Maryland to Appomattox, Virginia. Purchased a property with a 3.5 acre pond.
I love to fish, but know next to nothing about pond management.

In fact, the more I read posts in the various forums here the more I realize that I have a lot to learn.

Because of some unfortunate circumstances with the previous owners of the property I'm not able to get any information about the pond in terms of how it was constructed or stocked. The pond is probably at least 5 years old and has been neglected.

In the last few days I have been catching quite a few small bass (10-12 inches) and fairly good size bluegill.

This primary fish population is fine with me since I like to fish for bass and I have grandkids that will be happy to occupy themselves with the bluegill.

So, my goal is to rejuvenate the pond to achieve a healthy bass population with forage fish and proper water conditions.

I posted my first of what I'm sure will be many questions earlier this evening.

Thanks in advance for all help.

Welcome to the forum.

Yes, there is lots to learn in the archives here.

Sounds like your pond is bass-heavy which leads to nice size BG. Good situation if that's your goal. Just keep a log of what you catch and sizes, so others will be able to steer you in the right direction of advice when needed.

Healthy bass population?--- You might want to explain your thoughts/goals on that a bit more before you change something that later you might regret.

Welcome to PB posting. A quick look through the archives will provide a road map and quick review. Sounds like you may have a classic LMB crowded lake.

Welcome to the forum! I am a bit north of you in the Stafford area. There are several members on here from VA and a few more out into WV and MD. Sounds as though you have a classic overpopulated bass situation. So many bass means they don't have much food and have stunted at the 8"-12" range. They put a lot of pressure on the BG and this causes there to be fewer BG, but the BG that remain have more food and grow larger.

If you are happy with catching hand sized BG and rarely to never catching a LMB over 14", then you're in good shape. If you want to catch bass larger than that, then you will need to start down a long road of managing the pond a certain way.

You'll find many knowledgeable and friendly people on here. Don't be afraid to ask questions and create new threads in the appropriate sub forums...

Thanks to all who responded so far.

Sounds like the consensus is that I have taken over a bass crowded, bass heavy pond with stunted bass. I would like to catch bass over 14" so I need to learn some pond management techniques to do that.

I'll start searching the archives since it sounds like I'm probably not the first to be in this situation. My general goal is to have a predominate bass and bluegill pond. For my area I don't know what the expectation for "big bass" should be. But, 14" or better is definitely what I'm looking for.

If anyone has a favorite thread or FAQ that addresses my situation I would appreciate a pointer to it. Otherwise, I do some searching as best I can.

Thanks again.

This link is from the "free articles area". Be sure to check out all the other ones there too.

http://www.pondboss.com/free_articles.asp?id=31&p=2