Just picking up on this old thread. In fishing my pond as of late, I noticed that my bass are not as fat and large as I'd like them to be. Yes, I did catch three or four nice ones over 15 inches, but I caught many more around 9"-10" and not much of a belly on them. I do have an abundance of bluegills and plenty of bluegill nests ringing my pond's shoreline. I have tried to establish a golden shiner or fathead population, but that hasn't been all that sucessful. I see a few minnows here and there, but that's it.
My questions are: Are many smaller bass and a few larger bass normal for an unfertilized 2 acre pond? Should I begin a culling of my bass and/or bluegill to get things in balance? I have studied the many threads on this subject and the solutions seem to vary from fertilizing my northern pond, buy a fish feeder, stock more forage, and don't worry about it as I have a bluegill population. Just looking for some input to hone in on how I may acheive bigger bass. Or, is what I got a normal thing?
