Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations 1 Acre Skinny Bass pond

I know this is a really regular situation, and I have read quite a good bit on this site, but I have several questions.

Pond:
The pond is around one acre, with the deepest part around 8'. The shallow end of the pond is a big flat between 2' and 3'.

Stocking:
The pond is slap full of ~12" bass. The largest I saw over the spawn was one ~4# female. Nothing else over 2#.
There is a very small sunfish population, I believe they are some sort of hybrid but I'm not sure.
Only other fish are a few ~36" grass carp.

I've been pulling bass every time I get up there, but I was wondering what else I could do. I was thinking some sort of minnows, there is a fish hatchery close and I will be up there next week, so I was hoping I could get some ideas on what I could do.

Thanks
NGaHB

Keep yanking those bass out... That is really the only solution to an over abundance of skinny bass. As you start to get their numbers down, you can then consider adding adult(larger than 5") BG, either common or coppernose. I would also look at adding tilapia if legal in Georgia to help take the pressure off your sunfish. You can also consider stocking as large golden shiners as you can find as well. I would definitely shoot for removing at least 50 and preferably 100 bass before adding any more forage.

Good luck!

I appreciate it! I'm going to be up there for a week and plan to have several rods out with worms and also fish with small bass lures to thin out as many as I can. I might also check and see if they have any giant shiners that I could throw in just to feel like I did something.

Last time I was there I pulled 20 bass out, I'm going to be shooting to pull as many as possible then.

NGaHB

From what I understand talapia are illegal here in GA, so unfortunately that option is unavailable.

Yes the stupid House of Representatives shot down the proposed legalization of tilapia. So it reamins only the 5 states around us that can stock them. They were fed a bunch of BS from many sources and believed the lies. What a bunch of bunk. Can you tell the way I feel.

Where are you located? We can get you some fish if interested CJ had good advice. We are in Ball Ground (Cherokee county). Good luck pulling out the dinks.

I catch so many small bass on beetle spins, always fun too!

I fish about a 2.5 acre pond and have the same problem. I always catch fish, yet they are always small and look under nourished. The pond at one point produced plenty 4lb plus LMB but now it's rare to catch anything over 2 pounds. I have seen a couple decent sized bass but they have gotten to smart for my lures. I don't know if I should remove more small bass or introduce some sort of baitfish species. The bass have grown in length but are just too skinny. Help wanted!

Welcome to the forum. You'd be better off removing more LMB. There is a Relative Weight chart in the archives. It's not the bible, but a good rule of thumb. There are others out there, but it'll give you an idea of what the LMB should be weighing. It takes 10# of forage fish to put one pound on one LMB, so think about how many pounds of fish you'd have to add........