Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Too late for forage?

Went fishing yesterday. Caught a few, including a couple of nice bass, but the bigger ones seemed to be a little thin to me--big head, small body. I wonder if I should add some forage fish right now, before winter sets in? My ponds are located in central Kentucky, where the temps have been and remain unusually warm.

Any advice would be appreciated!

Hi DCobb,

I think I would try to figure out why the pond no longer has enough forage to support the biggest predators and try to address that before adding more forage. Do you already have an idea why?

Bill D.

Bill, I don't know. No changes in conditions that I can discern.

DCobb,
Do you remove LMB every year? Is it possible that they are becoming overpopulated?

I was going to say, the standard prescription for this is usually remove predators not add more forage.

Remove skinny LMB then add forage in early spring 5 inch BG with habituation.

DCobb,

Looks like all the responses are all thinking the same thing, too many bass and they have over eaten the forage. Do you have a lot of smaller bass and do they also appear skinny? I am curious about the age of the "big" fish. Do you know about how old those bass with the big heads and little bodies are?

Thanks for the help. We'll do a little fishing this week before the cold arrives and then add forage in the spring!

How big is the pond and how many bass are removed (and what size are they) on average per year?

Likely need to remove 20 lbs of LMB per acre to start. Cull the skinny ones.