did you have your BG in the pond for a few months before the bass? or did they all get dumped in at the same time? Also when you stocked did it already have an existing population of bass?

Standard stocking for a bg/bass pond for average fish is 10:1 usually 1000bg to 100 bass for every acre. So as you can see your numbers are not even close. For big bass it is often suggested to stock 2000 bg to 100 bass (20:1) or even 50 bass (40:1).

Personally I would think you are lucky to be getting 1lb bass after a year with your stocking rate. Next time you catch a bass, take his length and weight (grams if you can) and that will tell you how your fish are doing, called a relative weight or Wr, its how far above or below the average your fish are. You are in a great climate to grow some big fish if your willing to work a little. Not to mention you have a good size pond.

If you are serious about managing your pond and growing big fish, I would suggest the purchase of Bob Lusk's Raising Trophy Bass book from this website, I did and have read it many times. It can explain the process much better than I ever could. Also do some research on this website there is alot of info and different approaches to meeting your goal. Some people like tilapia, some like just BG. The question of whether or not to add Gizzard Shad in the 4-5+ years of your pond is highly debated, and all dependent on the status of your pond at that time and your goals.

when it comes to telling you have many to harvest I think there are two approaches,
leave things alone until your relative weights for a certain size class of fish get low then take action, or you can harvest anything that looks slim until fish start to get fatter.

It it were me and I wanted to grow 7lb bass I would harvest at least 500 bass, and find out if I have any baby BG growing up or if they are all eaten.

I am NOT an expert, someone will come along and ask more questions and give a better answer, but if thats what you stocked in a fresh pond, I would think they will mostly agree with me.

Its a very complex process and the more information you have the better plan of attack you can make.


Get out and fish.