To clarify one last time: the method I recommended, stocking tiger muskie to thin the overpopulated bass, has been recommended recently, in Pond Boss magazine, for this exact scenario:

http://www.bassresource.com/fish_biology/walleye-bass-perch.html

Skinnybass, I wish you well with your lake. But the links I posted were not theory, unproven in the field; they were facts, every one of them an instance in which a state game and fish agency had stocked pike or muskie to control an overpopulated species, which ranged from brook trout to suckers to panfish; in every instance, the esox stocked brought the overpopulated species under control, and resulted in larger average sizes of gamefish (bluegill, bass, trout) in the body of water. On the other hand, the post you refer to as making up your mind for you, cites no studies and lists no facts. It's theory; and probably the poster has never stocked pike in a pond, whereas I have.

Adding cover to your lake will do very little to nothing to improve your bass size. Unless you remove a hundred or more yearling bass from the lake, the average size of the bass is not going to change.

Good luck. I am done with this thread.

Last edited by Walt Foreman; 01/28/10 11:24 AM.