Cecil's advice is sound. Pike and musky when large will likely target your slender shaped bass instead of BG. In my old pond, I had a large n.pike (35") and bass recruitment was poor, and not very many bass in the 7"-11" range. After the pike died, I started seeing more small bass. BG population did not noticably change before and after the pike was present.
LMB are the best predator of BG. They evolved together. Ideally you want numerous bass present that are at least 3 times longer than the most common smaller BG that need thinned out. Other option is to have numerous small bass 3"-8" that prey on the smallest BG heavily thinning them out before BG get to 4" long. Each 6"-12" LMB eats about 150-250 BG per year.
15 acres can produce a lot of small BG when bass are out of balance. There are few labor intensive and sometimes expensive ways to manually remove lots of small BG - intensive target angling using bobbers and worms (cub scouts, youth groups rewards for most small 3"-5" BG caught), trapping, seining, electrofishing.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 11/24/12 12:27 PM.
