Meadow -- good question, as always. I actually was thinking of one pond, and it actually is on the big Turner Ranch right now. Side tibbit.
That particular pond contained overpopulated, truly stunted largemouth bass. The habitat was good -- about 30-40% submergent vegetation coverage in midsummer -- and the bass reproduced like crazy. The pond had not ever been fished. In our first electrofishing sample of 400 or so fish, not one was over 12 inches long. :-) So, 7 year old fish were just reaching 11-11.5 inches. Amazing story, ehhhh? (Sunil - it does slip out every now and then; actually, I grew up in North Dakota)
We also worked through a series of ponds out there in the central part of the state. The bass population characteristics changed with bass density. In ponds without much submergent vegetation, bass were less abundant, faster-growing, and reached larger sizes. Classic stuff, as we often discuss here on the Forum. As bass density went down, the average size of bullhead declined.
