Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Corrective stocking Skinny LMB in old pond

mmmm.......how much help have they been.

all year round, including last winter and this thanksgiving, there are generally skinny bass.

All of a sudden we have thicker bass (some still really skinny...took those out) with the appearance of 2 y.o. pike.

I've been fishing this pond @ least twice a year for 5 years, and never seen a pike, or bass as healthy as the ones i just caught.
Plus....the bass should be hungrier, in the winter, since they chase food less often...but here it is, plenty of thick bass, and plenty of small bluegill to feed them.

I'd say for now, the pike are helping. But what i am afraid of is @ 2y.o., a 15" pike has no predators in that lake with the exception of the elusive "5lb" bass that supposedly exists, and the walleye.....or the mythical lake beast Onezey.

That is unlikely. So that 15" pike will be a 20" pike next year, and all of a sudden competition for those BG's exists. Then the year after that he's a little bigger and so on and so forth, until eventually he is taking down bass on his own.

So as the bass population (and sadly, the crappie and bluegill population) keep dropping, and the pike population keeps rising, won't we just have the same problem again, just with skinny, stunted pike instead?

Not only then will i have to change my username, but the fishing for the kids is pretty ruined (kids don't like things with teeth, last i checked...)

I however, am thrilled, since i love catching pike. Unfortunately i don't live there.