My brother lives on a 50 acre lake in Alabama that has been there since the 50s. The lake has been maintained by a Lake Management company for the last 10 years. They came in checked the bass population ten years ago. Found all the bass were basically undersized so they fertilized the lake, introduced threadgill shad and have maintained the lake for the last 10 years.  The Florida strain of bass is in the lake and over the last ten years the fish have now done what many managed lakes with Fla. bass in them have done...basically the big fish only feed on the now huge schools of baitfish and have virtually stopped biting lures.  After doing some research on the net, there are several sites that discuss this problem. What happens is that about 3-4 years after managing the lake, the bite is great and then about 9-10 years the big fish wise up and don't bite artificials much.  The residents who live around the lake and paid the company to manage the lake and produce big bass are not catching any to speak of.  There is a type of bass called "Tiger" bass raised over in Alabama that is more agressive than the Fla. bass. Their website says that introducing the Tiger bass into the lake will cause the Fla. bass to be more agressive also so the lake residents are discussing this.

What live bait tactics would you try on a stubborn well stocked  lake like this?

Nightcrawlers, leeches, minnows and most of all LIVE FROGS. There's gotta be tons of them little suckers all over the place around the pond. Hook one through the lips and toss him out into the water on a weighted T-rig and I'd almost bet that you'll get bit big time. Just my thoughts on what I'd do.

32251, fisheries management is one of the most difficult professions out there IMHO, especially in the private sector.  It is imperative to fully understand the situation, the goals of the residents, the reality of those goals, and how to get there.

Newton's Third law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.  This is also true in fisheries management.

Every lake has some called carrying capacity.  Carry capacity is how much life a lake, pond, or environment can support.  For the most part, this number is fixed.  (It can be altered using feeding programs, adding forage that takes up a new niche, or fertilizing)

To clear things up lets put some number behind it.  On average most healthy ponds/lakes can support about 50 pounds of fish per acre.  You have a 50 acre pond, so you can expect to have approximately 2500 pounds of bass.  Now, speaking purely numbers...if you have a bunch of small bass in the 1-2 pound range you can expect to have between 1250-2500 bass.  However, if the average size bass becomes 5 pounds you now only have 500 bass in 50 acres of water.

You should definitely see a decrease in the number of bites you get, simply because there aren't as many fish out there.

There is a ton of information on this subject out there.  Check out www.pondboss.com and their forums.