I follow you Dave, but I am confused by one thing. As I mentioned, we seem to have a great many BG of all sizes, when fished, ( albeit not nearly as often as many ponds are ) it is a nuisance to have to continually remove BG of all sizes, it SEEMS that the pond continually has a supply of BG that are of all sizes ( apparently the product of multiple spawns over time? ) and a great many BG are caught that are not big enough to keep, but much larger than the minnow size.
I guess what I am trying to say is that it all makes perfect sense what you are saying, but the pond appears to have plenty of the food exactly the size you are describing, at least, that is what is constantly pulled in and has to be tossed back in, they are so plentiful that there appears to be no heavy predators working them over.
Could it be, especially in light of the fact that I have only planted bass one time nearly 7 years ago, and only 100 then, that the pond is LIGHT on bass? They are almost NEVER caught, in fact only one in 7 years by me, and only one by all others combined in those years also, and that included a LOT of folks tossing lures TRYING to catch them, along with lure fishermen trying to catch large BG. I should point out though, that despite my failure to stock, every year some small spawns of bass are caught while fishing for BG, around 6" and the small fish are seen each spring basking in the sunlight. I see them start out very small, just big enough to identify as bass, and continue to see them in small groups of 3 or 4 until they reach that 6" size or so, playing around with the Aquamax when it hits the surface, attacking bugs, etc.
However, the one time I pulled in the one guy that does know how to catch bass, he was able to pull in a mess of them over several hours. Not with every cast by a long shot, he had to work for them, but still. I might mention something at this point that I failed to mention earlier. I have stated earlier often that the ponds are so seldom fished, and that is so true. However, after thinking about that, I came to the conclusion ( on my own, oddly enough
that the big CC had to go, and perhaps even some of the large BG, but only a small portion, should also be harvested, since I worried that with the tough summer I knew we were in store for and the possible overcrowding that might exist in the pond, I might need to do something about it.
So for this spring, and summer, I let a group of young guys hit it as hard as they could, with the exception of not keeping all the large BG, only a portion, but get out the CC. They fished the pond more this year than the first 6 combined, ( you see one example of a BG from that giant of a man holding it, and the two medium CC they caught that afternoon ) and time after time, they were pestered with having to remove small to medium size ( the apparent perfect size you are referring to for bass chow ) BG from the lines for each large BG they could keep, not just the first time. While they probably caught some of the same fish again, in order to try and avoid that, they moved around away from the area the fish seem to stay ( feeder area ) and ran into the same issue. They still caught a LOT of large BG, ( could this be the great BG pond I wanted in the first place ? ) but also a lot of small and medium size fish. The CC are another story, like me, the CC were just much smarter for the most part on most trips than the guys could ever hope to achieve
I am sorry for my confusion, as you can see, I sometimes cannot make sense of what appears to be conflicting information, and the OCD in me goes crazy trying to nail down the answer. I know that sometimes there just is not a clean one.
What is your thoughts on this? Same, considering the pond appears full of the size and species fish you mentioned the bass need to grow? Any other thoughts or possibilities? And If I do indeed have to reduce the bass population, can you direct me to any possibilities or ideas on how I might be able to accomplish that, given that I not only lack the skills but the physical ability to make a dent in them even if I could catch the tricky devils? The guy that can catch them is a long way off, I cannot find another person within 20 miles of me that can do it..............I know how that sounds, and I am sure there are folks out there, just not any of the various people that have given it their best so far. I keep thinking that if the bass are hungry for whatever reason, cloudy / green water or overcrowding, if there are a lot of them in the pond, there should have been a lot more of them caught even by accident considering the lures tossed in after them and the BG over the years.. you think? I appreciate your time and ideas! Thanks Dave for your patience with what must seem like a bit of a pest, I really don't mean to be, and I fear I am becoming one for not grasping all of this as quickly as I should. I apologize...
