Hello,
Before I get started, mods if this thread is in the wrong spot please move. I’ve been a part of this forum for some time now but mainly a lurker and someone who has always dreamed of having my own pond and growing trophy bass. I got kind of lucky and the girl I’m going to marry, her family has a 50 acre quarry that’s already a good fishery. I have been given the green light by the family to turn their lake into a trophy bass lake.

A quick run down of the lake, 50 acre limestone quarry that is spring fed, 85 foot depth with some rock shelves so not straight vertical walls. There also is decent amount of trees that have fallen and or submerged in the lake. The average bass is around 2.5 pounds (lots of lmb in the 14” range), no crappie from what I can tell, and not many bluegill. I’ve seen a couple of baitfish schools.

The pond is located in North Alabama. Any suggestions and pointers is much appreciated.

Welcome to Pond Boss!!!

You've got a very unique situation, so congratulations!!

First, you have a lake, not a pond, so that's awesome.

When growing large bass, you've got to have some focus on the food chain of forage fish. In some quarry situations, there may not be proper spawning areas for certain forage fish like bluegill. You probably have a lot of open water, and perhaps threadfin shad should be considered.

Also, instituting a feeding program can give you a lot of advantages.

From the sound of it, with average bass of 2.5 lbs, and a lot of 14" bass, you probably need to institute an aggressive culling program. Doing that by fishing would take a lot of intensive effort to impact a 50 acre body of water. Electrocshocking might be an option to help with culling as well as gaining more knowledge of what all is in the lake, but water depth may affect that potential.

Thank you for your input and response! Is there a management company in Northern Alabama that you would suggest? Also we are contemplating adding Tiger Bass to the equation. Any pros and cons with adding those?

Newman, congrats on upcoming nuptials! Always good to marry into a family with lots of liquid assets.

I'd strongly suggest you do major LMB harvest and begin feeding BG prior to stocking more bass, be they F1 (which should do very well in your climate) or otherwise. Also, threadfin shad, if water isn't too clear. You may also wish to make some artificial BG spawning beds, perhaps kiddie plastic pools full of pea gravel and/or sand fixed in an otherwise barren area a foot or two deep. Try to locate this near weeds or brush to give young of year a chance to survive predation. If no weeds or cover naturally, make some of your own and sink it fairly close to pools.

Golden shiners might be good if you have lots of weeds, but otherwise they won't likely make it.

Have you checked pH, alkalinity, and hardness yet?

NEWMAN....welcome to posting on PondBoss. I've always been fascinated with old quarries as fishing ponds. When I was a kid we would sneak in one and catch fish. The water was always very clear. But like Sunil states, it does make for some odd "shoreline".

I am sure others can suggest pond management in Bama, but if I lived in Bama I would at least talk to these folks. (see link below) I live in Texas so I have never dealt with them, but I've always been impressed with their informative videos and website. They have offices near Birmingham and Auburn. Again I have no experience with them so they should probably be one of a few you consider. Their owner wrote an article for PondBoss. (see below)

Good Luck and post some pics when you can.

http://sepond.com/

https://www.pondboss.com/news/free-articles/just-what-is-a-trophy-bass---by-norman-a_-latona-jr_

I would contact Greg Grimes of Ball Ground Georgia. He knows his stuff and is known to a lot of people here.

Start keeping written notes of what is caught (log book), and any other historical stocking information you can gather.

Thanks everyone! Im scheduled to have the lake electro shocked in the coming month so stay tuned. I'll try my best to bring you guys along for the ride.

Anthropic, I have not checked the PH or done any other water testing yet. I'll post results when the analysis is done.

And just so everyone knows, the goal is somewhat complicated for this lake. We want to produce a record LMB and also have a healthy Walleye population for her old man to have fun with. Should be interesting

A friend of mine had a quarry lake/pond in Ohio.

As I recall, there was a basin kind of area that was like 5-8' deep, maybe half acre in size. The rest of the lake was straight drop at the 'shoreline.'

NEWMAN, can you describe your lake in this regard?

Look through the Pond Boss Resource Guide for qualified, vetted references for pond management help, services, and supplies.

https://www.pondboss.com/Resources

Sunil,

I briefly mapped out the lake yesterday with electronics and it appears that around the bank for 85% of the lake there is a shelf that is consistently 6-14' deep. They do have a man made beach that extends out into the water that would occupy about 700 feet of shoreline on one side. Continuing on the north side of the lake there is about an acre that is rock pebble bottom and its approximately 8-10 feet deep with scattered boulders mixed in. Spawning areas should not be a problem in my mind but I'm no expert.

I'll try and get some pictures this weekend if possible

That sounds like good news.