Guys great discussion. Keep in mind another thing, size of pond. Many folks on this board have smaller ponds say less than 2 acres. It is difficult to grow many large bass in pond this size. Most of the bass in my photos came from ponds/lakes 8 acres or more. We have many clients that have multiple ponds and I encourage exactly what you guys are talking about. It is so much fun to have a pond designed just for kids fishing, another for growing forage, etc.
Keep in mind most of these bass are coming from lakes I consider quality bass not trophy. You can catch plenty of bass from them b/c they are larger and we are using techniques to grow as many lbs/acre as well.
Jeff you said you cannot feed? Whatcha talkin bout willis, that is what a automatic feeder is for. You are missing out on a big aspect to growing more fish in that pond especially with your goals by not feeding. It may not fit for other reason but if you visit once every 6 weeks or so might want to give that some more thought. Also not surprised by the Wr the bigger bass in the pond should be healthy they have the desired food they need. Run a Wr on the smaller 11 inch bass to see how they look now. Also invest in a measuring board vs. tape measure, you can be off by 1/2” or more and throw off the Wr quite a bit on smaller fish. Run the Wr on your bluegill and greenies also.
We started selling a pond mgmt kit with a good kitchen scale and ruler or this is what we have in our packet along with data sheets to track pond info.
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templa...rset=ISO-8859-1With this in your arsenal you have the tools needed for DIY pond manager. Feel free to call us about the kit we will have on our website soon I hope but excited to offer it b/c we think it is what folks need.
