Okay, finally had a little break in the weather today. It stopped raining for about an hour. So the kids and I headed down to the pond to try our luck. It ended up being a positive experience to say the least. The kids ended up catching a GSF, which came in at 8 1/2 inches. Decided to keep it. I felt that it was on the thin side. Good looking GSF, just not much to it. Also, caught a couple nice BG and HBG. Put them back in the pond. Tomorrow, will start to put some on the stringer. Not sure what size to be keeping still. LOL. Also, caught a nice 12 1/2 in bass. Very happy to have caught it and measured. Below are picts of the bass. I'd like to get some of your .02 on it. If it looks good and proportionate or if its obvious that I need to up the food chain a little bit. Also, as we were walking around the pond, a LOT of bait fish up on the bank (which 2 days ago was grass) no its underwater. LOL. We've gotten a ton of rain the last 2-3 days. Anyway, not sure what it is. Thought it was a minnow at first, but if you look at the pic, its got some blue markings on it. So, of course I think of it as a BG. Again, I don't know so hopefully you veteran pond owners can enlighten me. Thanks for all the info and help. Jack

Jack -

I'm no expert but to me that LMB looks a little thin. It doesn't appear to be thick in the back and middle, and it doesn't seem to have a bulging belly. Note however that it could have all of those but the angle and lighting for the picture make it appear to my eyes as less than 100% RW. Did you record a weight for it, Jack? What is the size of the body of water and what is your forage bass and number of LMB?

Here is a picture of what I'm referring to as the bulging belly:

Jack
Minnow appears to be a gambusia

Picture 2 definitely a gambusia or mosquitofish. I have a ton of these in my pond.

My pond is around 1/4 acre. As for the number of LMB? Not sure. This is the 5th LMB that we've caught this spring. I've taken 2 of this size out of the pond. I've caught a couple 6-8 in LMB this past week. Just not sure on numbers. No, I didn't record weight, but will be in the future. I've just been doing length, which has been very interesting to say the least. I can say this, as I've asked questions and gotten responses, I have gradually learned a little bit more involving the various fish that are currently in our pond. Definitely looking forward to learning more.