I'm seeing some success in my pond (1 3/4-2ac). I've removed most of the Black Crappie - saw none in usual spawning spots this spring - maybe because bass seemed to start spawning in April and took over all the usual spots. I caught maybe 20 - most small from last years spawn. Previous years I'd catch a dozen or more nice ones on a good day during the spawn. My goal was to remove the crappie as they seemed to be having a negative effect on the bass fishing with not much recruitment and mostly low RW fish.

I've removed 25 bass - mostly all the males guarding spawning sites. Seemed to have thinned out most of the under 14" bass. Last week I caught a 4'10oz bass on a BG shaped swim bait and today I caught a chunky 4lb bass on a frog.

One thing I've noticed this year is that there is a LOT more bass fry - have a massive school of thousands of them hanging out around some structure I placed in the deep end. I'm a bit concerned I might have an explosion of small bass once these grow up.

Seem to have a lot of good size BG - not so many smaller ones which is one reason I decided to thin out the little bass. I have a pair of 2lb bass that hang out under my dock that I feed. They opportunistically started eating BG I would trap and move from a small pond on the property. Lately I've been feeding them frozen crappie that I chop up into smaller pieces. When the crappie were biting they would also eats 6-7" crappie that I'd cripple and throw to them.

I'm wondering if my remaining bass will do enough to remove this years bass crop or if I will have to go after them in the fall with an ultralight?

Last edited by nvcdl; 05/30/23 08:41 PM.