Taking over a family 13 Acre lake in Northeast Mississippi....pond is fertilized yearly and limed every few years when needed but not fished enough until now. Population as far as i know consists of Largemouth Bass, Crappie, Bream, Shellcracker, and Blue Cats. Recently took over trying to get the fishing under control and balanced. As far as I can tell the bass population is way overcrowded and I have started pulling out anything under 12 inches but in 40 bass have yet to catch one over 12 inches at all, they are all around 10 inches and less than a lb. I have instructed the people that do fish to keep all the crappie, bream and bass (under 12 inches) and to let me know what they catch so i can keep some records on what is coming out. I do have SE Pond management coming Thursday to do an electrofish evaluation so we will see what all they find out after that is one. My main goal is to at the very least have a balanced population where the family can go out and catch 3+lb fish. It is def fun to go out and catch 30 bass in 2-3 hours but i want more size to these fish. Cant wait to see where these new efforts take me and hopefully can grow some decent fish.
It takes 10 pounds of forage for a predator(bass) to gain one pound. And, that prey needs to be 1/4 to 1/3 the size of the predator. It’s a matter of protein received vs energy expended.
A 5 pound bass will starve to death catching minnows.
So after the electro fish survey yesterday the initial suggestion is to stock Bluegill this winter and Threadfin Shad this coming March (i think that was correct month). We shocked up roughly 70 bass all under 11inches and 1lb and down. maybe only 25-30 Bream with the biggest relatively close to the size of your hand. According to SEP we need to continue taking out bass and stock forage fish as well as continue fertilization. Will have to wait a week or two for the full analysis but that is the initial suggestion.
That does not seem like a huge quantity of LMB for that size bow. if there are very many BC in there they should keep your LMB in check. Just thinking out loud here, you don't have otters in that pond do you? They will eliminate your biggest bass first, regardless of what Mr Van Shaik might try to tell you, I know first hand what they will do, I have an empty lake to prove it.
With the e-shock survey, if there are no places in the lake to "trap" the fish in the current, then getting enough current to the fish to stun them is hard. You have to speed up the boat to get the fish "in" the electricity or as soon as they feel the slightest bit of a tingle they scoot off and get out of the current "halo" area.
Trees laying down in the water, fingers of land going out into the water, etc., are all good places to hold fish, and those places are good places to shock up fish.
If you have to run the boat fast to get the fish "in" the electricity, that speed makes it all the harder to net any fish that DO get stunned.