Thought about putting this on my blog, but figured some folks might like to interact with it.

A farm just north of Denton, Texas, has a 3-acre and <2-acre pond on it. These two ponds were built in the 1980's as recreational fishing holes for a family from Dallas. The land was bought as an investment.

They did the cursory things like stock fish, and fertilize as they thought they should. Then, in the early 90's, a branch of the family decided they wanted to ramp up management. One of those family members is a charter subscriber to Pond Boss magazine. He knew Mark McDonald, founding editor of the magazine and called him to see who he recommended to help guide them with a more aggressive management strategy.

He rang my number. The first thing we did was electrofish each pond. What do you think we found? Yep...overcrowded bass and not nearly enough bluegills.

He formed a budget and we devised a game plan. They stocked different strains of bluegills and started a supplemental feeding program. And they started culling bass. For ponds that size, it's not too hard to cull enough bass to make a difference.

Over the years, those ponds responded very well to feeding, culling, occasional supplemental stocking of Florida and F1 bass, adding some tilapia to help with algae, managing other plants that tended to become invasive, and just general maintenance of the property. For 20 years, they paid a full time caretaker to live on the property and keep it as the showplace they wanted.

By about 2012, the decision-makers were growing older and not using the place as much, and by 2014 the caretaker took retirement and the property just sat fallow, on its own.

A new family bought it this spring, and started learning about it. One member is a young man in college with an earnest passion and energy to help restore the ponds to their former glory.

We electrofished each pond last week. Guess what we found? No management since about 2012.

Let's turn this into a Pond Boss Forum Family exercise. Here's your mission: Throw out your thoughts about what happened to these two ponds that were thoughtfully (not necessarily aggressively) managed for great fishing. When the gates were shut, bass ranged in size from babies up to several double-digit fish. Bluegills had five different size classes. Water was healthy, visibility hovered around 30 inches most of the year.

Okay, pondmeisters, chime in. I'll read this thread each day for the next few days. If you need more clues, ask a question.

Go...and let's have a little fun.


Teach a man to grow fish...
He can teach to catch fish...