http://imgur.com/gallery/ONqBvmyHi everyone,
Just wanted to give everyone an update on the situation in my pond.
In case anyone doesn't remember or know, I will give a very brief update on what happened. Basically, my pond is about 1 acre, located in Ontario, 16ft deep, stocked with brown trout, has a lot of natural, small forage. Towards the beginning of the summer, I realized that there were many small bass swimming around. They came from three very sizable bass that must have gotten in there somehow, which I saw later on swimming around. The young bass are literally everywhere and very eager to eat anything. It seems that they have completely eliminated my minnows and my concern is they will run out of food. I am already sticking to a pretty clear plan of removing fish, especially next year when they are presumably bigger. I want to remove about every one I catch, in order to allow the others to get bigger and not overcrowded.
Here's the update:
Firstly, the bass seem to be doing very well. There are certainly a lot of them and they bite about any lure I throw aggressively. They are everywhere in the pond, and school in large numbers. I have caught a few and attached pictures. The picture of the smallest bass is one that was caught at the beginning of the summer. The rest were caught today. How do they look health and size wise? Are they well fed? Most fish are approximately 5", with the smallest being 3" and the biggest maybe 6" or up to 7". They certainly seem very small. Are they way too small for this springs spawn? Not sure if this is important, but they seem to have different colourations. Many looks like the one on ice in the photo, but others look like the ones I have in the other photos. Just an interesting thing I noticed.
Trout wise, I haven't seen any this summer, but I have caught a nice sized one that appeared healthy. It is in a photo attached and was 18"-20" long. It didn't take much more that 3 minutes casting by the fountain, so I think a few probably suspend there, making me thing a lot are still alive. Haven't seen any dead ones since the ice went out.
Anyway, what does everyone think about the fish? Are they healthy? Is my plan still a good one? Any input is appreciated. Thanks.
