Changes in fish populations based on natural morts (deaths from all sources other than humans/fishing) and reproduction can take a while. From the limited info I would guess that your BG have been eating the food (you can't see it much of the time) and their feeding/eating (improved condition) has increased their spawn - thus the "lots of small/baby BG" but the LMB condition does not reflect the increased forage base yet as the BG are still small (less than 3in). A very important Bill Cody point that is not considered enough - feeding with out maintaining population balance by removal often results in higher biomass of small hungry fish not a population of bigger better conditioned fish.
Thanks. I guess I need to give you more info then: I didn't know what was in my pond until this year when it cleared and I'm guessing it cleared because of the lack of rain so it wasn't heavily fertilized from the runoff? Now I can see in the shallow end (which is REAL shallow this year) so am able to get a better idea of just who is down there lurking. Until this year I didn't even feed regularly enough to even make a difference (1 time a week maybe a handful and never in winter)and even until the last few months I bet I only threw out about 1-2 cups of feed a day (which mostly floated forever). Even now I only throw out about a cup or two and if half gets eaten by fish I'd be surprised although a couple snapping turtles seem pleased. I can look straight down at the fish and see them all clearly so I know what they are doing and eating. The one skinny bass is about one inch longer than a cement block and I've watched him hunt for hours at a time - he's just terrible at it. He can be surrounded by bluegill of all sizes, strike every which way and still not catch a thing. The other bass catch!
I don't get around very well and right now I probably spend an average of 3-4 hours a day back there sitting under my umbrella looking down into the pond so I do get to observe a LOT and I have to tell you that whoever said ponds are tranquil is someone that doesn't spend much time at one as my pond is about as tranquil as Grand Central Station.
Until I started feeding a caught grasshopper or two, I didn't have much action at all. Then the pond started clearing a bit and I got encouraged enough to start experimenting a bit and I did find food they would eat (just not commercial food). They will eat some bread and meat and I will be trying the Aquamax.
Now I see I have many bluegill from about 10 inchers to tiny little ones that just look like eyes with tails and every size in between. I have bass that range from babies up to about my largest is one and a half the length of a cement building block and a lot are about the length of a cement building block or a little bigger. Only one looks real thin (but he doesn't anymore).
I don't know how many fish I'm supposed to have but I'd like to take some of the real big bluegill out as I suppose that's about as big as they get and they are ready for harvest. Now if I can just get my family to believe they need to stand BACK from the bank when they cast they might be able to catch them. No one seems to believe that my fish SPOOK big time and they will disappear in an instant if they see someone cast out there.
I did have a funny looking fishing bird for awhile out there this summer and I'm sure he got his fill but he would beat feet whenever I arrived. Took me forever to find out what he was because he wasn't maturely feathered so wasn't black.
I think I'm going to lose all my fish when the weather changes anyway as I almost have no pond left except the big giant hole and that probably doesn't have oxygen. The pond is about 17 feet in the deepest part when it's full but now who knows. I have no elec source back there anyway. I think my pond is down about 3 feet and I'm feeding in just inches of water in the shallow part now. There were some larger catfish that used to live in there when I bought the place but each year I noticed a few dead at the end of the summer and I saw one that I thought was eating off the top and acting funny about that time (gasping for air I guess). I didn't know why until this year when I started taking an interest. I even thought of putting in the paddleboat and paddling around but I'm afraid to stir up the water at all.
