The pond I am speaking of had the same bottom weed problem. Some knucklehead then dumped some Eur Milfoil in and that just infested the entire pond bottom to top, side to side. But with all those crappy weeds it still did not provide cover for my forage. I had to wipe all that out as a first step. The bass actually utilized the bottom weeds as ambush points and ate everything up. Same symptom on LMB also, big head, little body, skinny as Olive Oil. Plus I think with Crappie they are competing with the LMB for the same nonexistant food source. My biggest gain was putting marginals in. Plants right along the edges. Bass could not get there and it created a safe haven for all of the little guys. It took me 3-4 years to see appreciable results. I could never introduce a pike, muskie or anything like that out here. Good luck either way, sounds like a project for sure.
