Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations bleached out bass/panfish

i purchased a property a while back and theres a pond about an acre. its in a field so theres no trees or shade on the pond. its loaded with cannel catfish and panfish. theres so many it has to be artfically feed. everytime i catch a large mouth bass, its always pale white and most of the panfish too. i only caught about 3-4 panfish that were colorfull (probably the same one). the pond is muddy from all the catfish also. the bass dont really put up a healthy fight either. does anyone know whats wrong? are they getting bleached out from the sun? or is it beacuse of the muddy water?
any help would be well appreciated.

It would be the muddy water that makes them pale colored. I would start harvesting the catfish, this should help with the water clarity.

i will start doing this! i have never owned property or a pond in my life until a little over a year ago when i moved here to Missouri. so all this pond management/land management is all new to me. this pond is for my families personal pleasure and i never knew what made them so white colored. thanks alot! i shall call my neighbor and tell him to come over and harvest some catfish.
im not joking when i say my pond has at least 100 catfish the average about 4lb. so how many do i harvest? and if i harvest them will this clear up my pond???

If you remove the catfish incrementally, then you can observe water clarity, or take readings with a Secchi disk. As their numbers diminish, if the water clarity improves to a point that you are satisfied, you could discontinue the removal process.

Bran, there could be some other causes too for the muddy water but an overabundance of channel cats would be my fisrt guess. Recent gully washer type rains, the type of soil/clay you have in your area, and the presence or absence of grass or farmland in your water shed can all play a role in water clarity. I would do the jar test and see how long it takes for the pond water to clear/settle.

Depending on where you are at in Mo. your pond may not clear on its own after CC removal. Alot of the clays here in Mo. stay suspended after being stirred up. If you remove some of those cats and your water doesn't clear, you will probably need to use something to help the clay settle out.