Before I go 8 miles down a dead-end road, I need help figuring out if I am even headed in the right direction.

I am trying to rebalance a >35-year-old retention pond 3 acres in north FL. I have reduced the number of skinny LMB over the past 3 summers. Fishing effort has gone from .7 fish /hr. to .16. although the RW have changed little and are still in the 75% range. Most LMBs are still in the 11-13-inch range. I very rarely see or catch anything in the <11inches. I am not a highly experience fisherman. I have expected more of a change in the RWs.

I believe I have more BGs than in years past. Last year I used my Z-trap baited only once & caught Zero BGs. This year I average 10 a night in the 3–7-inch range. With a baited minnow trap, I very rarely catch BGs in the .7-1.5-inch range. The range of sizes caught in the Z-trap are roughly equal for each size & RWs are near 100%. There is not a size that is predominate. I do hand throw 2lbs of food a day. Osprey, Anhinga, & great blue Heron have spent many more hours fishing at the pond than in recent years past. I am surprised with a few BG & Redear crosses, also BG & Warmouth crosses.

When angling for BG, they are easy to catch, are in the 8–11-inch size with the RWs at 100% range. While angling the <6-inch BGs are very rarely caught. All BGs from 3-10-inches have been fin trimmed, with only 2 in the 4-7-inch range being re-caught out of 80 fish.

What to do now? Electro-fishing is not an option.
Continue on as before? Removing skinny poor performing LMB. BGs are fine & numbers recovering? LMB will follow?

Reduce the number of brooder BGs 5-9 inches? Remove females, return males? Trying to reduce competition & increase the numbers of fry & fingerlings?

Survey recatches? Increase number of marked fish? PSD?

It depends?

Thank for your time & help!

Aside: Tug of War 1 to 1. I caught an 8" 7 ounce CNBG because of PP poor planning my scale, ruler & hemostats were not close. Leaving the BG in the water, I tried to develop a plan. Then the tug of war was on, line quickly being stripped from my ultra-light reel. After a minute the BG was released & I weighed, measured & fin trimmed the BG. 15 minutes later it happened again. This time I lost the BG, leader, hook, & sinker to a demon of the deep. I did not think I had a LMB big enough to take a BG that size, >16". Hope she does not have indigestion.

Last edited by J. E. Craig; 11/05/25 08:09 PM. Reason: Sp