Thank you for the reply esshup,

Question 2. Is liming a pond with such a flow through a waste of money?

You never stated how much flow through the pond had. How much does it have?

How is this determined? I have a concrete overflow that has a constant flow of water going over it.



Question 5. What am I missing?

How old is the pond?

The pond dam and overflow was reconstructed before I purchased the property approximately 12 years ago. I have no details concerning stocking.

What is the RW of the bass that are in there now, and how big (in length) are the larger LMB now? How does the RW compare from this year to the previous years? Does the RW of the LMB stay consistent throughout the different year classes of LMB or does the RW vary greatly between the year classes? How is the BG population, when you say abundance, how many do you estimate and what are the size ranges? Are you seeing plentiful BG of all age classes? How many LMB are you harvesting every year (in pounds)? By adding 6" F1's, they could become food for the LMB that are in there now if there are LMB in there over 18"..... What was the reason why the fishery guy didn't want to add straight Northern or straight Florida strain LMB?

The RW of the LMB range from 60% RW to 80% RW with most falling into the 70% RW. I have seen slight increases in RW over the last couple years but many of the larger LMB are considerably under weight. In Oct when I had the 60 LMB removed there were 2 LMB that measured 24" and both weighed under 7 pounds. All other LMD were 70 to 80% RW. The fishery guy recommended that we add some better genetics into the pond- F1 Bass. The F1 LMB will be 6" and larger. He stated that the BG population looked very good in all size classes with an exceptional amount of shiners in the pond. I witnessed the forage population as he shocked the pond. As far as poundage removed, I currently remove all bass under 14" and probably remove around 100 pounds a year. Most LMB that I catch are in the 16" to 17" size.

When you say abundant, how abundant? To get LMB to grow quickly, you want to have fish that are between 1/3 and 1/4 the length of the LMB in there, and at a ratio of 2,000:1 to 3,000:1 for the fastest growth. (forage fish to LMB)

If you were to estimate the amount of structure and cover in the pond in surface acres, how much is there? i.e 1/4 acre, 1/2 acre, etc. Is the cover made of things that have different sizes of openings in there or are they all one thing (i.e . brush piles).

The pond was build where a natural creek flows through the property. The upper shallow end is full of vegetation, trees, and fallen trees. I have added man made plastic structures, 3 large brush piles, and a colony of cedar limbs cemented into concrete block which stand up like Christmas trees- group of 6 spaced 6' to 8' apart. in deeper water.

Therefore, I would estimate that there is close to 20% structure with the majority being in the shallow part of the pond.