Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction New from Florida

Hi all, I am new to the site. I live in Florida but have 18 acres in NC that has a 1 and 1/2 acre pond on the property. It is stream fed with snow melt and the stream dries up in the early summer. The pond has a 4.5 foot average depth with the deepest part being about 6 feet near the spillway.

I fished the pond for the first time in early July, I bought the property in Nov. of 2013. It had been for sale for quite some time and likely was not managed for a long time. To my surprise in about 4 hrs worth of fishing throughout the weekend, I caught 22 bass. Only one fish was smaller than 12" and the largest was over 18". I decided on the final day to drown some night crawlers for bluegill. Again to my surprise, I caught about 10 gills that were larger than my hand and only one smaller one.

My thinking is that this pond has a very good "trophy balance" going on. The thing about catching the gills was that I really had to work for them. They were not schooled up and I picked one here and one there never more than one in a spot. I'd like to increase the population density but I certainly don't want to mess up the balance. I noticed two spots in the pond that had a cluster of about a dozen gill nests, there are obviously some fish there. I also caught a solitary crappie that was of decent size. I don't think that there are many of them though. I have no prior knowledge of what was stocked in the pond. Primary cover is lily pads and some tall grass. Any suggestions on what I should do to manage this pond? I am contemplating making the pond a bit larger in size. But again, I don't want to screw it up.

My first thought is to just fish it and find out what you really have. If you keep an extensive log, it will tell you an awful lot.