so i here in Massachusetts we had a bad winter few years ago, one of my favorite ponds had a die off. i didnt see it first hand but few buddies saw it. bad die off.  they said they didnt see any big fish tho. biggest were 3-4lbs. i know theres absolute giants here.  
how long does it take for fishery to recover.  

the pond is big. 10 feet deep. weedy. but not matted weeds to choke out the fish. good submereged weeds. water is clear, tons of structure, from deep holes, to logs, stumps and trees to lilly pads and random reed islands with good depth under em. killer fishery.  no predators  like other game fish. crappies perch sunnies snakes frogs birds and shiners were the food source. the bass were top predators and not competing with other fish like pike muskie waleyes or pickerel 

I would think it'd be a couple yrs. And as a local, I'd love to know what pond you're talking about. Ha. 

south shore pond, between norwell and the cape

 

Couple years depending on a bunch of factors. Up here the growing season isn't that long so if you lost some 4 and 5lb fish, you may not see any replace them for a while.

I would say 3-4 years until the fish start getting to that keeper 12" size, unless the lake was restocked with adult fish from another location/fishery.

im considering fishing it cuz its been few years i think 3. my buddy claimed there was no giants floating. like 4 plus fish but who knows what could of happened to them. ive heard people still fishing it catching some nice fish, but they could just be stories. 

Sounds like you don't know if there was a bass die off do to low dissolved oxygen levels from extend ice covering the lake surface longer than normal. 

Does this small lake have stream or spring feed water source?

I would contact your local fishery management and ask them what electro shocking surveys indicates about the bass population.

Tom

the fishery program isnt very good in my state. they usually do the more popular lakes. this is a spring fed pond. that year we had record snow fall in a short amount of time. february-march was brutal.  december and january were normal.