Quick update and looking for input on current situation 3.75 Acre Pond in South Alabama:
Summary of plan and what has been done:
- May 2025: Electro Evaluation revealed overpopulation of LMB producing stunted bass and severely depleted population of intermediate CNBG, moderate infestation of slender spike rush, extremely low alkalinity (2 PPM)
- Management plan:
- 50 grass carp - June 2025 - grass is virtually gone
- Began fertilizer program - June - October 2025, resumed March 2026
- 25 tons lime - August 2025
- 8000 intermediate CNBG - October 2025
- Truckload Threadfin shad - March 2026
- 1 feeder for CNBG running from March - October
- Annual Evaluation - TBD but assuming next month or June
Have removed at least 175 lbs of LMB since June 2025.
CNBG population appears to be in great shape. Plentiful in all sizes and very healthy. Have not seen much evidence personally of shad activity, but do know they pulled off a spawn because, on occasion, have seen a school of shad fry. Have seen activity on the top of the water here and there but not sure that was the shad. Definitely haven't noticed any sort of obvious signs of a group of bass running the shad.
The weekend before the LMB started to spawn (before the shad were introduced), the bass were crazy active and biting shallow like you would expect. Actually saw 3-4 swimming around that looked to be in the 4-6 lb range. That said, I caught 30 and probably only 1/3rd of those were over 1 lb. All of the fish that I caught looked to be in really good shape. Nice, fat bellies. Just not big.
There are hundreds of bass in the pond between 6-8 inches long. Went out on Sunday and caught 11 pretty quickly and only two of them weighed over 1/2 pound. Again, those two appeared healthy. The rest were barely weighable. I'm not even sure my Bubba scale is even meant to weigh a fish that is 6 inches long. 3-4 oz fish.
My plan now until the annual evaluation is to just keep pulling out the little bass. In 2026, I have pulled out 129 bass for 47 pounds. On the rare occasion that I do catch a healthy, what appears to be adult bass weighing at least a pound, I have been throwing it back. I simply don't think that there are that many adult bass left in there. At least relative to what you would normally see in a pond that size. For reference, I have a relative with a couple of smaller ponds nearby that haven't been harvested really at all in the past several years. In both of those ponds, it is easy to go out and catch 15+ bass within an hour between 1-2 pounds. During pre-spawn, it was just about every cast. Very difficult to catch a small bass less than 1 year old.
Looks to me like the spawned bass from 2025, as opposed to years past, mostly survived and thrived due to the harvest efforts and greatly enhanced water quality.
Thoughts? Keep after the little guys?
