3x the original size would be awesome, haha. last spring my friend and i were trying to catch some culls (females) to move to his pond. he caught one that weighed 1.5 lbs.. a few months later i caught one that weighed 1.9 lbs. mine was a female and surely she had eggs, but she didnt have that look like she had just swallowed a golf ball. she was just a big fish! no doubt some of these would have topped the 2 lb mark. the one i posted here while back dead that i layed on the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket was a stud.
alabama holds the world record bg. so that means i can't just shoot for the state record, i have to aim for the world record..it sure would be interesting to put about 100 males in my pond and no females. fed them well and see what happens.

I took three fish to Auburn University to be examined and 3 water samples. The water samples were from the pond, from the stream entering the pond, and the stream below the dam that i used to top off the pond during dry times. Below is the final answer that I received.

we confirmed the bacterial isolate as Aeromonas hydrophila, a common opportunistic pathogen. We didn’t see anything unusual in the water samples although the pH was a little low (6.3) but that could be due to organic decomposition occurring between the time you took the sample and the time we measured it.
From our analysis, I can confirm that at least one of the fish had a systemic bacterial infection but because of the nature of the pathogen, I won’t recommend antibiotic treatment.

I’m sticking to my gut feeling that you had too much organic matter in the pond due to either high stocking rates or too much feed (although you probably weren’t feeding them in January, right?). It is important that you remove as many fish as you can (and bury them, don’t leave them out in the open) and try to reduce the organic content in the pond (I know that’s easier to say than to do).
Be careful when you handle the dead fish (wear protective gear). Aeromonas hydrophila can cause infections in humans, it’s rare but it can happen if for example you puncture yourself with a fin/spine.

Dang Scott, sorry to hear that! sounds like it's fixable though so all is not lost.

Scott, are you going to electroshock survey now or what's the plan going forward?

Could it be that you reached carrying capacity and that plus fertile water resulted in overcrowding stress and bacterial infection ? Same as when deer get too abundant around feeders and spread pathogens. I assume they did not indicate fatty livers.

So sorry to hear about your results, Scott. If you dont have any on hand, I'd suggest you acquire at least a couple of cloverleaf traps and start trying to reduce numbers. You could avoid handling them completely if you've got a hole ready to dump them into, but you could also selectively cull out what you want to keep. Sounds like you may want to invest in some good rubber gloves, too.

jludwig-I don't think I'll do any electrofishing. I am just going to watch feeding activity around the feeder. If we have a warm spell for a week or so they should really turn on at the feeder. my gut feeling is I have lost most of the adults. I have seen some coming to feed in the last week that looked like 6 inches or so. there are very few of them, but I don't think they are used to the feeder. They never had a chance while the big ones were alive and taking most of the pellets.

Ewest- I think that is exactly it. Plus the 30-0-0 fertilizer runoff back in the summer. Water really got green quick a week or so after rain fell on the fresh fertilizer. I just don't see how it could keep from being overcrowded. Stocked 2500 bg and nearly everything we caught was well over a pound. weighed one that was 1.5 lbs and another 1.9lbs. No telling what some of these weighed that we removed that were dead. I think the ammonia from the fertilizer and decaying fish caused a snowball effect quick.

Mike-We aren't handling any of the fish, just mainly raking them out. the buzzards are pretty much living here now. I am not too worried about exposure to them. What is the largest fish you all have caught in a clover leaf trap?

Scott, I have the vertical openings cut to about 6" top to bottom and about 1 1/4" wide. I built my own and have trapped BG around 6". If you've been feeding pellets, that's what I'd use for bait, but flour tortillas, bread, dry dog food all work to varying degrees of success.

If the dead numbers are that heavy , it sounds like you probably don't need a trap as mother nature is reducing your herd already. Dang man...I really feel for you.

Good news is the genetics are still there and a new crop will grow quickly. If you still have most of your LMB they will be thinning the heard. Watch your predation numbers.

I didn't lose any lmb or res. I assume the bacterial infection was just something the bg were susceptible to. I really need a week of warm weather to see what comes up at feeding time. I feel like the bass are going to be kinda hungry for a while. I never caught a bg under 8 inches that I can remember. I know some are there and I have seen a few feed recently that look like they may be 6 inches or so. Plenty of fingerlings around the shore on warm evenings. I am curious how I will be able to get some past the size the bass can eat. I do have a fish cage. I may try to grow 100-200 off in there and release them. I am not going to add any until I see what comes to feeder come warmer weather.

Could you throw some temporary shore line cover out? Maybe cedar tree tied to a rope so easily removed when no longer needed?

I don't care how old this research is ... it's definitely true, repeatable, and will never be "out of date".