Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Need some fine tuning.

It's been discussed many times and trying not to beat the dead horse but I'm trying to figure out if my method of trying to grow giant bass is offtrack or not. 3/4 acre pond,decent quantity ( dont have exact numbers) of 5-10'' bluegills, and aquamax largemouth hand fed as often as I can. Recently between the gills and the bass I'm using 11lbs of feed in a couple weeks. I'm seeing 3-4lb bass come up to eat the pellets along with dozens of gills. I know genetics is crucial but am I missing some elements to have some 7+ lb bass swimming in this pond?

1) How old are the bass?

2) LMB need fish to eat that are between 1/4 and 1/3 their size, AND there needs to be sufficient cover in the pond so the LMB aren't constantly swimming to catch their food.

Think of couch potatoes vs. marathon runners.

To grow large LMB, or any large fish for that matter, it's not just a matter of having one or two things right, they ALL have to be right.

I checked a clients pond yesterday. 1 ac. Stocked with 500 BG, 500 PS, 5# of GSH and 5# of FHM. The forage base was left to grow for almost 2 years before 50 6" LMB were stocked. Granted there isn't hardly any cover in the pond. I saw 2 LMB yesterday that were in the 4#+ range. No pellet feeding is going on in the pond. This is the 3rd Spring after the LMB were stocked. The LMB went into the pond in July 2013 IIRC.

Not really sure how old they are. I know there are tons of variables to attain trophy bass and some of them like fertilizing and such I have never messed with. There is hardly any cover in this pond which I thought would be good as the forage has not many places to hide but I'm just guessing. Are the bass relying on the pellets and not putting a dent in the gill population? Should I try to put some shad in there? It's frustrating to fish a couple nearby ponds that arent managed and catch 3-5lb bass from them and they are only a couple acres. Will the pellets only get them so big? Sorry for all the questions.

Bass are ambush predators. They hide and wait until something swims by that they can catch. When there is no place for them to hide, their success rate for catching fish to eat plummets.

Also, if the fish are not of the correct size to eat, they expend a lot of calories catching many fish. More calories expended = less to put weight on.

There's an article in the latest issue of Pond Boss Magazine that addresses that very problem. You ARE a subscriber, correct?

I'm hoping to gather a few pieces to the large puzzle of giant bass growing . Not a subscriber but looking into it now. One of the recent ones caught , not knowing if female or not which will determine how big they will get.So many variables to keep track of ugh.

The only way I know to verify if the LMB is female or not is to insert a catheter into a gravid LMB and see what is inside. Other than that, I am just guessing and assuming.