Growing up we had two ponds next to the house. One was ours and the other belonged to my grandpa. Both were full of bullhead. The water was always muddy and when you when fishing you could catch 6 inch bullhead all day long. Nothing bigger. After much coaxing by me, Dad decided to drain the pond and hire a earth mover to dig it out and renovate it(around 1986-ish). I heard him state years later it was the best investment he ever made (I agreed). Anyhow when it was drained we found thousands of bullhead but I don't think a single one was over 7 inches. Totally stunted useless fish. We when to great length constructing the overflow to keep bullhead from swimming up the overflow from grandpa's pond into the new pond.

Some years later when granda passed the land the 2nd pond lies on was willed to my folks and I immediately suggested renovating that pond also. Nothing happened until Dad retired then he thought about doing the project himself with his loader tractor. We drained the pond and found the exact same thing, thousands of stunted bullhead not a single one worth cleaning. The bottom was in the drying process when Dad had his first heart attack. Of course the project was abandoned and the pond refilled. After recovering Dad never tried to tackle the project again and then passed in 05'. Some bullhead must have buried themselves in the mud because they came back and in the process of a few years the pond was again muddy, shallow, and overpopulated. The pond remains this way today. Someday I will renovate that pond and hope I never see another bullhead.

Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?