one of my customers is a private golf club that has a pond on the property they are kind enough to let me fish on mondays when the club is closed to  the reg members  i just got the okay a couple months ago to allow me to fish there and ive caught some 3 and 4 #bass regularly but last night using a black spinnerbait i caught two northern pike in a row which i didnt even no they had in there  i asked one of the groundskeepers about them when i was leaving and he said that one of the golfers stocks it out of his own pocket i was wondering what effect these northern pike will have on the bass population, this isint a real big pond. thanks

They won't have to worry about over population of bass.

yup, a sure recipe for failure

The only place I fish that has both LMB and Pike has a population of bass that are all over 1.5lbs. I have never caught any really small fish or dinks there. I have no idea if that is related to the pike, I'm just saying.

Some of the very best ponds I've fished, in terms of large bass, had pike in them (or pickeral -although the end results are a little different). These fish spawn early, growing to the right size to eat fry of later spawning species -like bass and bluegills. They can be pretty effective at this, keeping 'gills and small bass in check -which leaves lots of room for remaining bass to grow.

There is a small lake/large pond here in CO that regularly gives up bass over 5lbs, with many over 7. It has given up 9s and a 13-1/2 too! This is so outlandishly different from nearby waters that I wrote the biologist in charge. I wasn't surprised at his answer:

...In my opinion, the lake grows such large bass because of lack of competition. The northern pike probably eat so many young bass that the ones that do escape and grow to an adult size don't have many other bass to compete with. The sampling data seems to support this, since we've seen very few intermediate size bass, just young-of-the-year fish and larger adults. ...

Oh yes, this water is very heavily restricted to barbless hook C&R angling only during certain hours and only so many in at a time. It was not open to angling at all this year. So, it is heavily managed from both ends of the age class spectrum -young bass by pike and old bass by angling limits.

aceman wrote:

ive caught some 3 and 4 #bass regularly

That's been my expereince too, in waters with Esocids.

but last night using a black spinnerbait i caught two northern pike in a row

Interestingly, I'd always noticed that in pike/bass ponds much of the time I didn't see fin nor scale of a pike, then on some days I'd raise every darn pike in the place. On those days I avoided using anything with flash. I believe pike are very attuned to weather and when they have the best opportunities to hunt successfully. I believe this for bass too, but they seem more capable in a variety of conditions than mature pike.

So many wannabe fisheries managers out there, LOL.  Pike and bass together?  A sure recipe for a few very large bass.  The biggest no-no most commit is adding crappie to a pond with bass.  A few northern will prevent over population, and the bigger fish can get even bigger.  Pike are not the gluttons most make them out to be.