Years ago as a younger man, I stocked my parents 1 acre pond with about 15 lunker Small mouth from other hidden ponds in the Sumpter Valley area. The pond was barren of fish and had the richest assortment of critters I had ever seen. In the second season after I added the fish, I walked down to go fishing and saw about 100 dead fish for every 10-15ft of bank. I would dangle my grub off the dock and have multiple small fish jump for it. In the third year I hooked into only 2 larger fish, one 2.5 lb, and a 3 lb SMB. Obviously the original stocked fish. Now, every year there is a population boom and a large fish kill. The pond has great habitat, deeper water, lots of overhanging brush and thick vegetation. Should I stark culling them? Is there a way to get the lunkers back without batting thousands of fish each year???? I haven't caught a fish over 1/2 lb for 7 years, but I could put 5 hooks all with a grub on them and reel in 5 fish at a time!
Ps. Years ago, I scared a mamma duck with a bunch of ducklings off the bank. They tried swimming across the middle of the pond, soon as they hit deeper water, small whirlpools started opening up sucking the baby ducks down. In 20 seconds, poor mamma duck only had one baby left.... Gawd I love bass!!
