Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations over populated bass

i'm new here, and i'm a new pond owner.. i have a 4acre lake/31ft deep.. and two other lakes 1 1/2acres each both 17/ft deep.. out of eevery one i've caught bass that range from 10-16 inches.. and thats it.. a few bgills out of one that ranged from 6-8inches. but as for the bass i'm trying to raise trophy bass in this lake.. and from what i read on here.. and other sites.. i know that i need to cull bass.. does this sound right.. all bass that came out look healthy, no long skinny fish.. all pretty plump.

any advise would help

thanks
-chris

Christopher, just looking at the fish won't give you enugh information to determine wether or not you have a population inballance. Keeping good records is crutial. What you need to do is get yourself a relitive weight chart and a notebook, catch a whole lot of fish, record the lengths and weights of every one, and calulate all of thier relitive weights. Then you will have a beter idea of what condition your populations are in. If you are managing for trophy bass, when 20-25% or more of bass in a given size range are slightly underweight than you need to cull the bass within that size range. If you dont already have a relitive weight chart I think you can get one at bassresource.com but I can't remeber the exact link right now.
The only other advice I can give you at the moment is, keep on reading. This website has a ton of really great information to learn from.
-Scott

thanks for the post... yeah.. this website is just fool of usefull info.. i'm glad i found it.. i did print something out about relite weight.. and how to tell if its unbalanced. i have'nt taken any bass yet.. for i've only fished this lake once.. paperwork is still going through on the land.. anyways.. when land is mine. i'll beable to do more extensive research on the fish, and start to chart weight and mesurments.. thanks again for the post.. i'll keep y'all posted.. no pun intended...

-chris