Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations How to determine stunted fish?

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Weigh and measure the length of a sampling of the BG and the LMB. Determine the Relative Weight of your fish, which is their weight for a given length compared with the "standard" weight for an average, typical BG or LMB that size. For an article on RW and the tables for standard BG & LMB weights, see Greg Grimes' website lakework.com

If your RW for BG or LMB is low (if your fish weigh less than a standard fish of the same size) then your fish are indeed skinny.

How big are your 5-10 LMB? With only 1/10 acre, it's hard to support much bass biomass - 5 lbs total might be the pond's carrying capacity for LMB, and 10 skinny 12 inchers would exceed that. It is not common for both BG and LMB to be stunted in the same pond; usually either many stunted BG provide lots of food for a relatively low number of bass, or many stunted LMB crop BG numbers leaving plentiful food for the remaining BG. But I imagine that having both stunted does occur occasionally and perhaps that is the case in your small pond.

Do cattle have wade-in access to the pond? If so, are they muddying it up? This might reduce water clarity to the point of interfering with phytoplankton growth, leaving your pond's food chain short on vittles from the bottom up.