I would agree that lack of maintenance can lead to bass-heavy ponds. Twenty years ago, not nearly as many anglers practiced catch-and-release, but as anglers caught on, this practice was misapplied to ponds. Anglers thought they were doing the pond a favor, when in fact, for the bass fishing at least, they were hurting it. But I've also seen many ponds in which the bass had been overfished, allowing the bluegill to overpopulate to the point that the bass could not spawn successfully and there were only a handful of bass left, or in some cases, none left.
