Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Year 3 of my 12 acre pond

My dad and I built a 12 acre pond in a subdivision he developed (Central Louisiana). It is 12 feet deep in the middle with 3 coves. We didn't lime it but we did compact the dirt with heavy equipment and installed a dam. There is some exising habitat but not very much. We left about a dozen existing willow trees in the middle of the lake where it is 12 feet deep. I was out of town one day in the spring of 2008 and my dad called saying the pond was full up to the dam and he was ready to stock the pond and wanted to know what to put in it, right away. I just told him to put either native louisiana largemouth bass or the F1 tiger bass but not to put pure Florida bass. It sounds crazy but a few months later I asked him what was stocked and he said he didn't remember but all he knows is that he told the hatchery that he didn't want pure floridas and he wanted coppernose bluegill. I tried to find out what hatchery he used but he couldn't find the number or anything. Two years went by with no fishing and in March 2010 one of my dads workers told me he caught a 4 pound bass in there. I figured it might have been a 2 pound fish and he was exaggerating so I tied on a senko and launched my boat in there the next day. To my surprise, I caught 7 bass in 3 hours, the smallest was 3 pounds 1 ounce and the biggest was 4 pounds 3 ounces. I released all of them and fished a few more times. Over last year we have caught approximately 40 bass in a few trips and the largest to date was 5 pounds 4 ounces. We have only caught one small bass under 16 inches and it was a 13 inch super chunky one. My bass are the thickest, fattest, hardest fighting pound for pound bass I have ever caught and they are very aggressive.

There are several coppernose in the pond but they are all about 2-5 inches long, I haven't seen any bigger than that. We have a fountain type aerator that runs 24-7. the lake stays murky looking almost a creamy coffee color so I fertilized it with biologic perfect pond 1 time last year and realized it was going to cost me about $2000 a year to use that so I put 0-46-0 phosphorous in it twice. I probably should have checked the water properties before doing that but I didn't, I just added it. I want to do the right things to increase their growth but I hate to change anything because my fish got so big so fast.

I want to grow trophy bass and here is what I am concerned about, none of the coppernose are over 5 inches long and very few over 4 inches long. I transplanted 8 of the larger bass to other places, 3 bass died from being gill hooked, and my dads workers said they kept 4 of them. With that being said we have taken 15 of the mature, large bass out. When I fished it for the first time last year I caught 7 in 4 hours. Each time I have gone this year I only caught 2 of them and I sent a friend who didn't get a bite. I may be being paranoid but here are my questions:

I'm not taking any more big fish out and considering harvesting all fish under 14 inches, do you think this is good?

Should I replace the adult bass that have been taken out? If so, what kind would you replace them with? (I don't have a clue what kind they are but my dad thinks he put "native louisiana largemouth") I'll post a pic of the last 2 I caught in the pond.

It's 12 acres with only one fountain aerator. Do you think the aerator fountain is making a difference for the pond or just making it even more murky? If so, does it matter?


Also, if all of my coppernose are about 2-5 inches, do you think I may have a problem with the sunfish population? Would you add some larger forage fish to the pond?

Last, would you change anything, or just leave it alone?

I have so many questions, I'm glad I found this website, any recommendations will be greatly appreciated.

There is a conference going on, so the boys are, um, busy. They should be along directly. If there is no answer in 24 hrs., just re-post this one.

This one at least has some stones - he/she is making absolutely no bones about being a flat out spammer!

No wonder he/she is hawking cell phones - his/her name sounds like a ring tone!