Situation: 20 acre pond that was reclaimed / filled in the 1950s. Most ponds around the county (Polk County, Florida) of this nature have sustained vibrant largemouth populations since they were reclaimed.

About 90% of the shoreline has good vegetation, mostly cattails, overhanging oaks and water lettuce.

From running crankbaits all over the pond, I've encountered no structure or submerged plant life.

Plenty of bullnose and armored catfish, huge amount of small to mid size tilapia, threadfin shad and a ridiculous amount of minnows. Softshell turtles are not in short supply either.

But no largemouth bass that we can tell after hundreds of casts (ready for the taunts about maybe I'm a bad fisherman :))

Max depth is well beyond 10 ft.

Is electrofishing the only option before deciding on whether to aerate, add structure, and/or feed? What is the usual culprit in the ecosystem when predators like bass aren't apparent in the pond?

Thanks!

Hey Joel, Welcome to the club!

Electrofishing would certainly be the most conclusive way to go, but my novice thoughts would be that 20 acres is a large BOW to cover with only artificial lures. My arm starts to hurt just thinking about that kind of coverage. I certainly don't know Florida regs, but I would consider using some of those tilapia and shad as bait on jug or limb lines. If nothing else, you cold fill the freezer with cats and turtles.

It sounds like you are shy on bass, or at least not overpopulated, if you have lots of minnows and small to mid sized tilapia.

I'm not sure why a lake that size would be void of bass. I'm at a loss...maybe aliens! I'm sure someone with more experience will lend themselves to your thread shortly.

Tagged for answers.
I second the live bait idea.

Florida LMB are notoriously difficult to catch on artificial lures, especially as they get bigger. Also, I wonder if the plethora of panfish might suppress bass spawning?

Welcome to the bunch of misfits and pros... I didn’t see where you mentioned if you had BG or not. Live bait will almost alway catch bass if they are there.. I think that I would try that before spending big $ on electro fishing.

Do a seine survey and electroshock. Seine survey may show yoy (fry) LMB which will help answer your question. It is possible that there has been no LMB reproduction for years and the existing LMB have died out. Not likely but entirely possible.

Thanks to all! I will try live bait first and then may get an electro / seine survey done. I haven't done water quality analysis yet but will do that as well. Just by gross observation of the bird, fish and plant life, my guess is I definitely have a hypereutrophic situation. Perhaps bass don't need to do much working for their food in such conditions.

Pat...I haven't seen BGs yet. Just thousands of young tilapia. Should I introduce BGs with bass if I introduce the latter?

Agree with Eric on shocking and analyzing. I expect you will find a badly out of balance body of water.

With just cats, tilapia, shad and unknown minnows, you don't have enough predators to handle the prey and SHOULD have an O2 shortage with a resulting fish kill.