Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations My 12 acre pond, what should I do?

I have a 12 acre pond that I built in 2007 and stocked with 600 LMB fingerlings and CNBG fingerlings in the spring of 2008. The pond is 12 feet deep in the main channel with sloping banks. The water looks murky but there is an excellent plankton bloom. All of my bass are getting very fat in a hurry. It's been 3 years and we are already catching LMB 6 pounds. I'm serious, I've never seen bass grow this quickly. I'm concerned because I've caught people out there fishing and I know at least 15 of my bigger LMB have been taken out. Everyones using powerbait and the fish are so aggressive that they swallow the hook. Anyhow, the fishing was great but now I'm concerned because I went fishing twice and only had one bite. I'm afraid that too many of the good fish have been taken out. Last week we let some kids go and they sent me a picture of the only fish they caught, it was a 6 pound LMB full of blood that died from a bad hookset. I'm like man we took out all our big bass! I've only caught 1 small bass in there which seems unusual, most ponds would have several smaller ones right? I was considering adding some adult LMB from other places, is that a good idea? My fish are super fat & healthy, so i know theres enough forage to replace the bass that've been taken out. But i also keep thinking that maybe the fish population will correct itself over time. Let me know if you have any suggestions on how to make the pond better.

I expect your fish might be getting a little hook shy.

The problem is that you have poachers and no telling how many.

Work on controlling access to your pond and controlling the methods those allowed to fish use to minimize hook mortality.

Certain predators can ruin a new lake. Uninvited guests can be the worst. Controlling access is vital. An electrofishing survey can give you an idea of remaining bass size structure, recruitment, and status of your cnblg population. While you may have lost some of your original bass stock, stocking additional adult bass without knowing the status of your predator:prey populations could have negative long-term effects on your bass growth rates.

I just uploaded some pics of 3 bass that we took out. They all seemed really fat but I wanted you guys' opinion before I add any more adult LMB from other places.

If you are thinking of adding fish from a friends pond or a river. I would suggest thinking twice. You want to only add fish that are from a certified fish farm so you don't add disease to your pond.

Fish diseases can be viral, sometimes bacterial and latent in fish with the fish showing no outward symptoms. This is more common in wild fish. There are also a lot of internal fish parasites. Problems lay dormant until fish or the whole population is stressed and then the vector arises - fish begen dying. These types of problem are fewer in farm raised fish.