Hello everyone, I am having a problem with the fish I am catching in the lakes I am fishing in. I have a pond and a lake/pond behind my house and the fish over 8 inches are very skinny. I'm guessing it's from over population because people don't keep what they catch for the most part. Is there anything you suggest I do to get the bigger bass to stop starving? Should I keep any bass between a quarter and a pound? Or would you suggest hiring a biologist to come in and take them out?

Have you looked into buying a feeder? Like the one in the ponds that Roland Martin fishes in for his show that can be seen on Dish network on demand? Feed em up to catch them big!

Toss 'em a couple 14 ounce ribeyes every time you go fishing!

You will have to thin out the bass population. No way around it. Maybe introduce some type of minnow's and bream?

I toss them to the raccoons. I've heard of people adding a couple hybrid tiger musky to thin them out but that would depend on if you own the pond, how big it is, and what climate you live in.

Thank you for all the replies so quickly! I will look into some feeders, and the lake is owned by the neighborhood so I don't think they would go for adding in any musky. Also, my smaller pond is 1 acre and about 10 ft. deep and the aerator has just stopped working and the bigger is a 2 acre and about 50 ft. deep. Does anyone have any suggestions for another aerator/bubbler for either of the two to increase activity of the fish?

Hello everyone, I am having a problem with the fish I am catching in the lakes I am fishing in.

 

In my opinion, rather than trying to bail out the ocean,

you might be better off selecting another waterbody.

 

Roger

Do you know how old the lake/pond is? There's a lot to pond management. I looked in to it a little for a couple farm ponds here. Pretty tough to get one balanced out. If the pond is new and was properly stocked its possible it just hasn't come into its prime yet. Could also be overpopulated and need thinned out as mentioned. I did have a pond here that was similar in that I caught alot of thin buck bass for two years. I would have sworn it needed thinned. I ended up leaving it alone for two years and now its stacked with 3# fish. That was a pleasant surprise. I don't know if it thinned itself or if I mistook something that happens in fish populations as overpopulation that was maybe just part of the life cycle of a pond.

Here's a link for Lake Management here on Bass Resource

 

http://www.bassresource.com/lake-management/

 

Good Reading and Welcome  to Bass Resource

I grew up fishing a 30 acre lake that was overpopulated with 12-14 inch bass. I started keeping every bass I caught under 15" and 5 years later it was a much better ratio of small fish to big fish with fish over 18" becoming pretty common. This was a private lake that didn't have length/creel restrictions so the process was accelerated versus what you'll be able to do on a public body of water though. 

I tend to agree with the overpopulation theory, but as one poster pointed out that was not the case on his ponds.

If you have several fisherman utilizing the neigborhood pond maybe you could split the cost of a shock analysis. It doesn't harm the fish and it will provide you with the most accurate assessment. The results will tell you if it is overpopulation, a lack of forage, or possibly another factor that is causing your issues.

Bob Lusk is an expert on pond management and would be a great resource. His website is pondboss.com I believe. If not just google his name and you will find him.

Back in the 80's I was fortunate enough to gain access to a beautiful, secluded 40 or so acre lake.   The down side was that it hadn't been fished regularly and it was stunted, totally overloaded with bass8 to 11 inches long, with very few larger ones.  I had permission to keep all I could catch, so I did.  The first few years I fished that lake I regularly had 100+ fish days and I learned to fillet 8" bass.   They are tasty.

 

That's what I'd do in your case, i.e. catch & keep all I could and eat them.

 

The best lures day in and day out were a 1/8 or 3/16 Brewer Slider head with 4" worm, fished on 6 lb test or a 1/8 oz crappie jig with a small pork frog trailer.  Later on, once I learned how to fish spinnerbaits, I had a few great spinner bait days.

2 acres and 50 foot deep. I'd get a nice fillet knife and try to wear it out .

Bob Lusk was the resident pond manager that visited this site, try searching his name.

These are not your ponds, are you a member of the HOA and can make decisions?

A 1 acre pond is about 1/2 of a football field, 2 acres about 1 full size football field....very small and limited carrying capacity for predator fish like bass that eat a lot of prey every day. The 2 acre pond being 50' deep sounds like a quarry and can have some big bass managed properly.

You can go online and research aeration systems for ponds of whatever size is needed and repairing the system that is already in place would be the first step.

A biologist would do a electro shock survey to determine what is in the ponds before proceeding with any management techniques.

Tom

Hello everyone, I am having a problem with the fish I am catching in the lakes I am fishing in. I have a pond and a lake/pond behind my house and the fish over 8 inches are very skinny. I'm guessing it's from over population because people don't keep what they catch for the most part. Is there anything you suggest I do to get the bigger bass to stop starving? Should I keep any bass between a quarter and a pound? Or would you suggest hiring a biologist to come in and take them out?

 

The bigger bass do not starve, they have tons of food, all those 8 inchers you see are what they eat.

I've never seen a fat fish if it was only 8" long and a bass.

Big bass eat smaller bass. The breeders are larger. Up size your bait or fish with smaller sunfish. Your not throwing the baits the bigger bass are eating. Try fishing at 5am?

Be very stealthy, quiet.

Bob Lusk was the resident pond manager that visited this site, try searching his name.

These are not your ponds, are you a member of the HOA and can make decisions?

A 1 acre pond is about 1/2 of a football field, 2 acres about 1 full size football field....very small and limited carrying capacity for predator fish like bass that eat a lot of prey every day. The 2 acre pond being 50' deep sounds like a quarry and can have some big bass managed properly.

You can go online and research aeration systems for ponds of whatever size is needed and repairing the system that is already in place would be the first step.

A biologist would do a electro shock survey to determine what is in the ponds before proceeding with any management techniques.

Tom

The sizing of the lakes might have been a bit off. The smaller is about one football field and the other is about four or five and yes it was a quarry. Also, I am a member in the HOA.. thanks for the help!

Catt posted Bob Lusk business is pond boss; pondboss.com.

Tom