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My 12 acre Pond
The pond is 12 acres. It was a creek bottom with willow trees that we cleared out and dammed up. I left two lines of willows standing in the center of the pond which is 11 feet deep at full pool.

Construction
My dad and I installed a dam and then we laid a blacktop road around the lake in hopes of one day selling lots on the lake. Once we finished the blacktop we started to worry if the lake might leak so we took the asphault rollers and rolled the lake for a week, so the bottom of the lake is very hard which I figured would also help the fish spawn. Another significant thing I did before we stocked it was I spread 0-46-0 in hopes that it may help get the food chain started.

Stocking
In 2008 I stocked 350 Native (Northern Strain) bass fingerlings and 6000 bluegill fingerlings.
No Florida Strain, No Tiger BAss, No CNBG, No Crappie
Polywog Catfish found their way into the pond.

Aeration
I left a fountain style aerator on for the first 3 years, constantly and I fertilized the pond for the first two years with Biologic PErfect Pond which got expensive and in 2011 I fertilized again but used 0-46-0

My water looks like it's full of plankton, you can see into the water column about 12-16 inches. Never added dye or killed any grass, etc. The only grass in the lake is alligator grass near the bank.

The result
We are now catching bass up to 9 1/2 pounds, and had some on the line over 10 pounds. I am not exaggerating, we nicknamed the pond "Little Falcon" On any given day I can go out there and catch at least 10 bass with 5 of them between 5 and 8 pounds and we have been reluctant to land a few of the giants over 10 in there. They are unusually fat/healthy/strong. I have never seen LMB like this. I only stocked bluegill but I have a feeling that the hatchery accidentally had some other fish mixed in because I catch all different types of sunfish. The Bluegill are schooling all over the middle of the lake and back in pockets in big balls everywhere. And the bass are getting really big. It's an awesome fishery.

I would like to know, can anyone tell me why these fish are so healthy? Friends are calling asking what I did, how they can get their pond like this. I actually even gave a couple of lunkers to a friend but I think that was a mistake because I believe his pond is unhealthy. I would like to somehow figure out if it's the water chemistry, the hard bottom, the selection for species stocked or the ratio at which I stocked them, the watershed, etc... Or maybe just a combination of everything. Possibly there is one main thing that makes the lake so healthy and I would like to identify it if so. Any advice on who I may be able to come and take a look or possibly electrofish it? the pond is near Lafayette, LA
I really think it could be a benefit to know everything there is to know about the pond's entire condition from minerology to water chemistry and species, etc...

I have never seen bluegill school at the surface out in the middle of the lake in huge balls like this. What are they doing?

One last thing, there were a few bass with some red marks on them, like maybe some type of parasite. It was like sores and I thought it was from getting bumped in the spawn but I have never seen a fish have that many bump marks...

Congratulations on your success!

Here's one of the pics:

And the other...:

beezaboy, you may get more replies to your questions if you repost in one of the more viewed categories.