I have a 20-acre natural lake that I have lived on for about a month now.
Natural species populations that I know of so far include LMB, BG, RES, specks, brown bullhead CF, threadfin shad, and golden shiner.

Bass in the 2-3 lb range are plentiful. I have caught two over 8 lbs and two over 6 lbs, all post-spawn.

Copper Nose Bluegill are abundant. I began feeding at my dock with Purina Fish Chow and they look like pirahna. Size ranges fron 2-3 inches to 8 inches or more.

While there are catfish and RES in the lake, I am not sure of their abundance, as I have not targeted them for creel.

My question is, where should I being with managing the predator and prey? I am currently culling some bass less than 14" or that are gut-hooked (average 5 lb/week). I am not culling very many bream just because I haven't wanted to deal with cleaning them at the time.

The way I see it, I have inherited a great fishing lake. It almost has ruined me from fishing public water bodies around here when I can catch 4 per hour instead of one per four hours. I want to get started on the right foot toward adjusting the population with the idea of trophy bass as well as table fare (bass and bream and catfish).

Any suggestions are appreciated. This is a great website for a novice a"fish"ianado like me.

sebof, as you've indicated that you are aware, you may have a great thing going.

When I first got our 6-7 acre pond, I believe it had a good natural balance. LMB were the main predator, and I had a good population in the 4 to 5+ pound range (not too bad for a northern pond with no feed or management). That was about 7 or 8 years back, and I only found Pond Boss about 2.5 years ago. In the early years, I certainly did some things without knowing the impacts, and without really knowing what all was in my pond.

So you are in a good spot to pitch ideas and get answers.

I think you are doing a safe step in culling some LMB in those size ranges. If you keep at those rates, gradually culling, you will no be doing drastic changes while learning all about the pond. Plus, some level of LMB culling will most likely be a necessary step on your path to trophy LMB.

My only caution would be to do all the things possible to know as much about the fish in your lake before doing anything drastic. Twenty acres is a nice, big piece of water, and it seems as someone had done something right with it. It does seem like you know a good bit about it already, so congrats on some nice work done.

I didn't even know I had Yellow Perch until about 3 or 4 years after I had my place.