I brought this subject up a few years ago but am curious what folk's thoughts are. I also just had a thread about the quality and type of feed that is used for our fish and how much difference it makes.
I have hunted a number of south Texas ranches over my years. On many of them there were the common stock tanks - anywhere from 2-30 plus acres. These ponds were not managed. No feeders. No culling. No stocking of bait fish, etc. Just ponds that nobody paid attention to but still produced huge bass.
Some of the largest black bass I have ever caught were in these ponds.
Attached are a few pics of bass caught out of some of these ponds - I caught a legit 10lb bass our of one of these ponds plus had days where we pulled in 10 plus bass between 5 and 10 lbs on a regular basis.
So the question is ...... how does this happen in water that is totally left on its own?
One big reason those south Texas ponds, lakes, and "tanks" grow huge fish is pretty simple. My very first pond management client was a hunting ranch northwest of Laredo in 1983. Learned some interesting lessons there. First off, they have a 365 day growing season for bluegills. Second, those ponds ebb and flow with water. A 30 acre lake today may be three acres in two years, then fill back up with a tropical storm coming across from Baja. When those water bodies drop in size, big fish grow huge, small fish are eaten, and the fishery adjusts to its environmental circumstances. As the water drops, fish eat each other. When the lake fills again, forage fish spawn like crazy. They've got more room, "new" habitat, and a fertile food chain enriched by mineral-laden soils. Perfect circumstances with a favorable climate.
A pity we didn't know then what we know now. Slot limits would have helped tremendously. Of course, the general public would not have supported such a course, as big bass were "keepers" that could be harvested without much concern so long as the small fish were released.
I follow a lot of Catfishing pages on Facebook, and most people don't have any issues with taking 30, 40, 50+ pound catfish from public waters, not realizing how long it takes for fish to get that size, and the potential negative impacts it may have. Their excuse is always: "It's not illegal, so there's nothing wrong with it" or my favorite, "why do you care what someone else does with the fish they catch?" I know Bass and Catfish are different, and I feel like *most* bass fishermen release their catches nowadays. Catfishermen are a different story.
