When one gets a brand new pond, they are often 'rarin to go' for some quick fishing. Let's stock some BIG fish for immediate fishing fun. Hold on. It's not quite that easy or simple.
Many think if they right away put in some bigger bass with a bunch of minnows and a respectable number of various sizes of BG things will be great. Rarely is this really successful and here is why.
Those big fish grew up in a habitat with enough of and with a proper diversity of foods to allow bigger fish to get to that size. The rule usually is - the bigger a fish gets the bigger the food items it needs to maintain its big size and weight. Now, for it to maintain its current healthy standard weight and grow, it needs the same or BETTER foods. Very rarely is this possible in a NEW pond. Many new pond owners and fishermen do not fully understand this concept. They think a some bluegill or a bunch of bait fish are enough for this big fish usually a bass.
Natural ecosystems that are able to produce large fish not only have the proper sizes of forage items (usu fish) but ALSO the PROPER NUMBERS and DIVERSITY of those forage numbers. LOTS of different kinds of foods with some of those foods quite vulnerable to predation by big bass or bigger predators. For example larger sized BG getting weak, and swiming poorly from old age. The only fish able to eat these larger BG are the largest bass. If one proper sized food item is not available then another type of the optimum size is readily available to the biggest bass in these ecosystems. Thus the larger predator can always (year round) find good food to maintain its big lifestyle.
Big fish live in Natural 'balanced' ecosystems that have enough of the right food to produce big fish. Balanced ecosystems often have overabundant numbers of the optimum food source that routinely become naturally vulnerable (senility-illness) to predation by the larger predators. A freshly stocked resource can not duplicate this phenomenon. Taking that big fish out of its 'home' and placing it in a newly built pond with a standard stocked food base is making life very difficult if not impossible for the big fish.
If a big fish has to eat fish too small and/or too few, it has to use all the consumed food for energy and cannot grow or even maintain good body condition. That is why you sometimes catch a large skinny bass - inadequate food. OR the food chain has changed or competition with from other predators has increased causing fewer food items per predator. As has been learned by many fish nerds here, in new pond systems, it is best to start first with building a reproducing food base. Then when natural foods become abundant and more diversified (example frogs, crustaceans, insects), stock small or medium sized fish and allow them to grow to a large size that your new ecosystem will produce. You will have healthier fish in a more balanced community.
I have seen way too many ponds initially overstocked with predators and way too few food items and the wrong food items for a proper food chain for these bigger fish. This results in less than optimum growth and size due to too many predators and not enough of the proper foods (numbers and size of items). If you desire larger fish and your pond is not growing fish large enough for realisitic desires obviously you are not doing something correct and you should seek more knowledgble and experienced advice.
Here is a link to one example of what I am referring to.
http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=114268#Post114268 
