Thank you for the responses! We first weighed the bass on a little hanging scale, and it was between 7-8lb. I then weighed it with my boca grip which agreed. Finally, we used a neighbors digital hanging scale, and it stated 7.4lb was the magic #.
I'll give a bit of background about the pond, and I guess myself. Prior to 1985 the entire 70acre property was part of a dairy farm and it had 3 small ponds. In 1985 the farm was bought, a new house was built, and the three ponds were joined, making one long and narrow pond. The are of the pond is roughly 8.5acres. It varies from about 250' wide down to 150' wide and is a 1000+' long. The max depth is about 8'. Half of thepond has an average depth of about 4-5', and half of the pond has depths between 1-2'. Most of the inlets (mostly seasonal runoff)are in the shallow end The deepest parts are down by the earthen levy. The shoreline is heavily brushed.
The previous owner (1985-2005) did not fish at all, he used the pond for duck hunting. His son pulled a few fish out, but did not fish often. He never stocked the pond with anything except triploid grass carp, and did not use any feed.
As you walk along the shoreline you see schools of bass ranging from about 6-14" in length. If you paddle out in the canoe, you can see the occasional LARGE bass hovering by the submerged logs, but never any 2-3lb'ers. I also don't really see many sunfish/bluegills. You see the occasional small ones hiding in the weeds by shore, but I haven't seen any big ones yet. I ahve only owned the property for a month, and work has kept me from investigating it very much.
I don't know anything about pond management, I am just an avid catch and release fisherman. I wasn't planning on keeping any fish, but I guess I will have to if the population is becoming stunted. I didn't really do any length to weight comparisons, but I will start soon. Based on the bass that I having catching in lakes in the area over the years, I would say these fish are average in terms of girth and muscle mass. I have noticed that they tend to tire more quickly than the lake bass, but otherwise are very similar.
Any input is appreciated.
