Hey judge
I'm no pro, so please take everyone's advice over mine.
I had a very similar problem in my dad's pond in northern illinois, 7.5 ac, shared property with some people who care, some who could care less, and some that are straight disrespectful of other people's goals with the pond. skinny, shrunken bass (skeletors is what we call them) and no forage base besides some tiny fry that would inevitably be devoured by the starving LMB's.
We did have an established BG population, though, so this is where our paths differ (also, the resolution to our problem was taken out of our hands when someone stocked a massive overpopulation of northern pike [without the consent of the rest of the homeowners] into the pond last november - so our priorities have changed for obvious reasons....something we did worked, though, as the bass are showing weight and we have several size & weight classes of BG now).
In response to your questions about what bass to remove: All of them. In 7 acres, there is no reasonable way that you are going to put a big enough dent to be harmful by fishing them out. and you need to make as big a dent in the population as possible. If i were you i'd go buy 20 tip-ups and a few buckets of roaches and nail as many of them out of the ice as possible this winter. It's a great way to have several lines in the water, and makes a wonderful excuse to sip on your favorite scotch.
Again, im no pro....but ive been there before and that is what did the best for us. My dad kept asking about what size to keep and what to cull (and so i kept asking the pros here)....screw it was the answer. Once in a while we would find the 3lb bass, or maybe a 2lb-er that had a nice belly on him, but 99% of the fish caught were skeletors. Put back anything that is obviously beneficial to the lake (a big chubby bass for instance...), cull everything else you can. Unless you find the one rogue bass that is obviously doing better than every other one, growing and fattening up, take them all out.
Good luck, bud
-Skinny
Last edited by skinnybass; 11/10/10 12:44 PM.
