I've finally realized why I haven't caught a bass over 14 inches here. I'm sure there are some big bass in here, but this is pretty demoralizing. This is the place I can get to most often and take my kayak...

Don't give up hope. I have a lake like that close to me that rarely produces a fish over 15" and annually produces 0 fish over 20" even in the states shocking samples, but they're still in there.

I've got a few lakes like that around by me. The lakes are a little bigger than that one, but the population is stunted. This one lake in particular that is close to to my house I use as a practice lake. It's not uncommon to catch 50-70 fish in an afternoon there so it's a great place to go to try out a new technique, but even with those numbers in the last two years of fishing I've only managed to catch 4 fish over 14". That's out of 300-400 fish sampled. That's why it is important to harvest bass in smaller lakes as they can easily overpopulate and then become stunted. 

I'm not sure if this is the case at that lake, or if they are just lacking the food to grow.

2 hours ago, WIGuide said:

I've got a few lakes like that around by me. The lakes are a little bigger than that one, but the population is stunted. This one lake in particular that is close to to my house I use as a practice lake. It's not uncommon to catch 50-70 fish in an afternoon there so it's a great place to go to try out a new technique, but even with those numbers in the last two years of fishing I've only managed to catch 4 fish over 14". That's out of 300-400 fish sampled. That's why it is important to harvest bass in smaller lakes as they can easily overpopulate and then become stunted. 

I'm not sure if this is the case at that lake, or if they are just lacking the food to grow.

The problem is that since it's a "big bass lake" the minimum harvest length is 15"

11 minutes ago, stk44 said:

The problem is that since it's a "big bass lake" the minimum harvest length is 15"

What is your size limit elsewhere? There are a few lakes around me that have different size limits used to help increase population. The worst part about doing that on such a small lake is that it can cause stunting. If you look at the fish you catch there, do they have what looks like oversized heads in comparison to their body? If they do this is usually a pretty clear sign of it.

51 minutes ago, WIGuide said:

What is your size limit elsewhere? There are a few lakes around me that have different size limits used to help increase population. The worst part about doing that on such a small lake is that it can cause stunting. If you look at the fish you catch there, do they have what looks like oversized heads in comparison to their body? If they do this is usually a pretty clear sign of it.

For the most part, the size limit is 12" with some exceptions.

The majority of the fish look like this: 

 

21 minutes ago, stk44 said:

For the most part, the size limit is 12" with some exceptions.

The majority of the fish look like this: 

Although that one is small, it doesn't look overly unhealthy. As they get bigger it usually gets more distinct. This is an extreme example of what a stunted one will look like.

The fish all seem healthy looking but I've yet to catch any with guts on them. I've heard that there is a fairly healthy mix of smaller class bass, but it's a rarity to pull anything over 1 lb out of there.