Sunil, do you know if it was a rock bass(Ambloplites rupestris) which is common in cool water streams and the reservoirs they flow into or was it a warmouth(Lepomis gulosus) which is more common in stagnant many times swampy acidic bodies of water and is listed as endangered in PA by the PFBC.
My opinion on warmouths in ponds is they are often like GSF in some ways. I don't believe they are as capable of ascending small creeks to find new homes like GSF are so well known for doing. I do think anglers catch them, they look interesting and/or are misidentified as a BG and many toss a few here and there into their ponds. Although they may never become overly abundant, they do fill a small niche that isn't filled by BG, RES or LMB and can maintain a small subsisting population in ponds. I have caught and released warmouth into ponds before and have experienced this. It has been my experience that unlike GSF who nearly become non existent under competition with BG and LMB, warmouth do stick around in a bit larger numbers.
As to why so many record warmouth come from private ponds, I am not sure. Many private ponds tend to be very bass heavy leading to heavy predation on sunfish producing larger sunfish. One would think that small 6-12" bass would also compete with record size warmouth as well, so I am not sure that is the answer though.
