Could you tell us a little more about your pond? How big? How deep? How bad of an FA problem? 50? 70? 90 percent???RC
How old?
What's in it now?
And what are your goals?
Usually, you can't go wrong with a relatively neglected LMB pond in the south by removing as many of the stunted LMB as you can, unless your primary focus is a trophy panfishery. But it all depends....
Thanks for making me think like RC did.
It appears the pond is about 30-50 years old. Man made, stock tank that is slow spring fed. It got really low a few years ago (well, low to me – I know that is subjective) but still appears to have had enough supply to about 50% of it in water (again, estimates, could be more/less, I did not track it then)
I know there are Water Moccasins, Cotton Mouths, turtles, LMB and BG. A neighbor tells me a few years ago, when his pond was drying up, he put LMB, Crappie and Catfish (not sure if channel or other) in there.
And my goals – thank you for bringing that back to the forefront for me. My goal is for the pond to provide a enjoyable/challenging LMB experience. Except for culls, and even then I have no plans to eat them (let others do that), I am catch/release. I don’t think I have ever caught a LMB over 2 lbs in my life, so, at a minimum, I would like to have better than average chances to catch healthy and appropriately sized 2+ lbs LMB, if realistic.
I have wondered if Stripers would be good in there also, but want the focus to be LMB. If Stripers negate the goal then no biggie. I want to get going on the LMB first if both are possible.
I am not interested in Panfish… if they get caught they will go back unless they need to be culled.
Thank you!
