Three months ago, I purchased 40 acres in Johnson County, Illinois, near the Cashe River basin. It has a 5 acre spring-fed pond that was built less than ten years ago. It is beautiful. It is over 20 feet deep near the dam and a 6-12 foot channel runs through standing timber (which was a former creek bed) emanating from a large artesian spring. I want to turn it into a trophy bass and bluegill mecca. First bass caught was about a half pound little guy, less than 10 inches. We started catching multitudes of similar size bass (10-12 inches and low relative weights) so we culled 250 (50 per surface acre) of the most abundant skinny bass. We are catching bluegill, most of which are very large (6-9 inches, and very plump) and we have returned all of those to the pond. We have caught 3-5 bass weighing over 5 lbs. But those nice bass are few and far between. There is plenty of structure in the lake, as it was carved from a tree-lined valley and many of the trees remain, as it is a relatively new lake. The water is crystal clear (being spring fed) and visibility is between 4-6 feet. I treated it early in the year with 50 lbs of copper sulfate, which worked very well. I have also applied Diquat directly to some of the underwater vegetation, that prohibited shore fishing. I tried posting pictures, but all of my photos are above the 2 MB limit for files.........SO, do I stock bluegill in the fall? Wait and see what happens after the culling of 250 bass? Suggestions? I don't want to pay the "dumb tax" and buy things that will make do a hand plant in a year or two. Thanks in advance for your opinions and suggestions.

BelleVegasBob