I have a question and can't seem to find an answer. We have a pond that is about 5 years old, 18 acers, and plenty of water. We were until this year catching nice healthy fat bass and now we aren't seeing the larger bass like we use to. We are now catching more smaller bass and the larger ones that we do catch have an 8 or 10 pound head with a long skinny body. Does anyone know what the problem might be and how to fix it? If not does anyone know where I might find an answer. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Brian

I have the same problem in my lake I fish here in FL its 22 acres and the bass have sunk in bellies and some are pitiful looking. I feel that there is no bait fish for the bass in my lake I cannot catch bream or shiners in the lake . Some bass are fat and healthy but 4 out of 5 look like they are starved to death.

they should be fat and healthy in a newer lake like yours , the lake I fish is about 25 years old.

Possibly the bass are over populated or there isnt enough food for them

I will add a pic of one its not a good pic but it has a sunk in belly and actually had a crease where its belly should be bulged out. There is a few more pics of some skinny bass in my members challenge pics.

Thanks for the information. We feel like it may be lack of food, but you can see thousands of minnows when you look around the edges. Hopefully I will get more input on the matter.

Yea... sounds like a lack of food. Bass can go for weeks without eating. You need to go bluegill fishin and stock that pond up.

 I have come across this a few times in ponds. They are always small ponds that look as if they have been there quite a while. The water always "looked" OK, but there was something just different looking. It's kind of like looking at a piece of land and knowing if you put a garden in, it's not gonna produce.

 IMHO it's always a lack of forage. Somehow the ratio of predator to prey gets so far out of sync that I don't know if it will clear itself up or not. When I have come across these places they were so far from where I lived, I didn't go back to see if things got better or not. There was one in particular (first one I found) that the bass looked like they had come from a hatchary on Three Mile Island . The first one I caught, I thought it must have some kind of disease...

                                                                As Ever,

                                                                 Skillet

BTW I just realized you said the lake was 18 acres. The places I'm talking about were always a lot smaller than that

Thanks for the information. We feel like it may be lack of food, but you can see thousands of minnows when you look around the edges. Hopefully I will get more input on the matter.

I see lots of minnows here as well and the bass feed on them but they are small minnows under an inch long. I think the bass expend more energy catching these small minnows than they gain from such a small meal

Do you have structure for bass in your lake ? The lake here has no structure no trees around it its all mowed grass , And its clear water , Also there is very little underwater grass because its stocked with grass carp.

I think this lack of structure has a lot to do with the bait fish not being plentiful because they have no where to hide.

But I am far from any kind of expert just going on what I have seen here, so I am curious as what to do myself . All I know is to keep a few bass to reduce their numbers and let the biggest healthiest females live for good breeding stock.