The majority of fish I catch is between 2.5 and 5lbs. I very seldom catch anything less than 2lbs. I caught 10 fish Wednesday the smallest weighing 1lb 10 oz. and the largest weighing 3.9 lbs. Eight of the fish weighed between 2lb 8oz and 3lb 4oz. Is it possible that there is a 10lb bass in this pond. Last week I caught 4 fish with the largest being 4lb 8oz and the smallest weighing 3lb 11 oz. Over the past 2 years, fishing from January to July, I caught over a dozen in the 4lb range and 4 weighing 5lbs, the largest being 5lb 12 oz.
how old is the pond? It seems very odd that you are not catching smaller bass.
I have a cousin that built a 20 acre bass pond on his farm. They stocked it with f1's and coppernose bluegills. They had problems with winter kill on the blue gill and then suddenly the bass weren't progressing as expected. They did all kind of tricks to try to get a better blue gill population. I don't think they ever broke 5 lbs on the bass. I moved away and haven't been back there in over 15 years but I was there for the early years and there was a lot of disappointment.
Ironically the 2 acre farm pond on my homeplace is 50 years old, I am too young to remember the early days of the pond but I know we had good bass in the 80's and they petered out. By 2000 weren't catching anything over 1#. In 2003 I took 13 1.5 # f1s from my cousins pond and relocated them to mine (7 hour drive, they all lived). After adding them to my pond they just exploded. The size structure in my pond shifted and I have caught some very nice bass over 8 # as recently as just a few years ago. We never had a shortage of blue gill just too many bass.
With a bit of good management, I am sure there is a possibility of some 10LB LMB or darn close in your pond. Have you done any selective culling of the LMB? Over years without some management your pond will become unbalanced & you will have only skinny 1LB to 2LB LMB, but lots of them.
This is the place to get some good advice! Enjoy the good fishing.
IMO, you really need to read the thread on relative weights and download the chart for Largemouth Bass.
If your bass catches have good relative weights, then your pond is almost certainly healthy.
However, bass are cannibals. If they have eaten most of their forage fish, then they will next eat up your smaller bass.
I believe in the short term, that would produce a pond with mostly big bass. However, over the longer term it would be a recipe for disaster.
I suspect I am wrong (hopefully), but you should definitely check some relative weights on your LMB and maybe fish with some tiny minnows or bits of worm to sample your forage fish populations and perhaps some of your small bass.
Finally, are there any Florida-strain LMB genetics in your pond? If the answer is "yes", then I think you should be able to achieve a 10# bass in Alabama. If you maintain a healthy population distribution of fish species in your pond, and then manage specifically for trophy bass, you can probably hit your goal.
I would start keeping catch records of weight and length. Report those on the forum with your goals for the pond, and there are some members that can give you expert management advice from that point.
Assuming good genetics and lots of correctly sized forage a 5+ lb LMB can reach 10 lbs in an additional 2 years in Ala.. I am not saying it is common but certainly not rare either. Here is a 10 lb LMB that is 5 yrs. old in MS.
I am pretty sure I have caught 5# bass at the end of summer in Kansas that were longer than your 10 pounder. Good genetics and abundant food in the proper size range sure can pay off bigly.
The majority of fish I catch is between 2.5 and 5lbs. I very seldom catch anything less than 2lbs. I caught 10 fish Wednesday the smallest weighing 1lb 10 oz. and the largest weighing 3.9 lbs. Eight of the fish weighed between 2lb 8oz and 3lb 4oz. Is it possible that there is a 10lb bass in this pond. Last week I caught 4 fish with the largest being 4lb 8oz and the smallest weighing 3lb 11 oz. Over the past 2 years, fishing from January to July, I caught over a dozen in the 4lb range and 4 weighing 5lbs, the largest being 5lb 12 oz.
You didn't mention the age of the pond ... but just assuming it is well managed pond that is aged 7 or more years since stocking ... a good rule of thumb would be some representation top end 2 times the average weight. So averaging 3 lbs ... I would feel fairly confident saying you a six pounder in the pond. 10 pounds? It's not impossible but is a low probability. If still young with growth rates still strong ... a 10 pounder could be in the future. Also if mature pond ... you have some good frames in the pond ... a little thinning could take you to the 10 pound mark.
It isn't what we don't know that gives us trouble, it's what we know that ain't so - Will Rogers
This thread reminds me of a pond close by our property in South Alabama. It was my great uncle's pond. He passed away back in 2007 and the pond had not been fished or managed at all since then. This year, his son-in-law decided to go check it out. He and a couple of other guys caught 24 bass, all weighing 2+ lbs and healthy. I went there and had the same results.
The key factor was that the hillside leading down to the pond had cows for several years as well as chicken fertilizer that would run off into the pond, keeping it fertilized. That's the only thing we can think of as to why a pond that had never been harvested or maintained would have so many nice, healthy bass after that many years.
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