I know this isn't what many people consider a big LMB, but at 17.5" long, it clobbered the previous 9" record, hahaha! This is from my 1/8th acre pond (on property we bought about 6 months ago), and I had seen a few that I guessed were between 16-18", so I am happy to prove it now. I got my new dock installed, and was happy to put it to good use!

That's a peaceful looking spot you have. There will be years of enjoyment happen.

Good looking dock. The fish looks well fed and healthy.

Fish does look well fed. Very nice color. If you have very many that size in a 1/8 acre pond you need to keep them plenty to eat and probably remove smaller fish to keep from having too many and the growth stunts. Great job and beautiful place.

Perfect situation to start a pellet feeding program.

Funny thing is, we just bought this property late last year and I haven't done anything with the pond yet, other than add the dock. I don't think it has been touched in at least 10 or 12 years. This is simply mother nature doing some mighty fine work!!! I am pretty impressed with how healthy this one was. I figured I would just have a bunch of stunted sized LMB's in there.


This was on my list of things to do. Do you have any recommendations on how to properly start pellet feeding, or do I just put up a feeder and start throwing the food out there for them?

If you go to the pond daily or close to daily (or if you live there), feeding by hand is a pleasurable event, and you can do it somewhat regularly.

But in a pond of your size, most likely, the fish will come to wherever you are throwing feed.

Usually, Bluegill are the first fist to take to feed. Bass take a bit longer, but all it takes is one or two to start eating the feed, and then the others catch on pretty soon after.

If you do go with a feeder, that is a very steady way to go and the fish will eventually start to gather at the feeder before it goes off, which is also a joyous event to watch, repeatedly.

Also, as you are in Houston, you can easily purchase a few largemouth bass that are already feed trained from the fish supplier. That's the quickest way to get the native LMB to start feeding.

Great looking dock? Where did you get the metal "connectors" and poles that attach to the wooden structure? I'm looking for something similar.

Thank you. I went with recommendations from this forum, and bought the Tommy Dock kit. I got the cedar 12' T-dock. I timed it perfectly, and got it from Home Depot while they were on sale, so I only paid about $730 for it. That included all of the cedar, the dock brackets, dock poles with PVC caps, and the foot pads that go on the end of the poles. I spent about $60 more on the waterproofing stain and deck screws (instead of using the galvanize nails that were included). I am very impressed with the way it turned out. Check them out. You can just buy the components if you want to supply the wood and build it yourself.