Big mouth/head, small body

[woodell14]

I've been catching a few bass out of my pound that should be at least 3 pounds but they're only about 2. they have big heads and mouths but a smaller body, like the malnourished or something. I never keep any of them, should i start? 

[ww2farmer]

Classic signs of "too many bass, not enough food"................unless that pond has an un-known disease problem effecting those bass. You would NOT be doing that pond a disservice IMHO by keeping a bunch of the smaller, legal keeper size bass. If you own the pond, and don't want to keep the bass....start feeding them, or introduce a prolific spawning bait fish that will bolster the forage base to bring those stunted bass's body condition up. I had a pond on the farm that I stocked with bass, and golden shiners.............. for some unkown reason,the shiners out grew the bass very quick, and after 10+ years, it was impossible to catch a bass from this pond that was more than 2 lbs or so...............except for a few odd ball GIANTS........like 6-7lbers. to "right the ship" I added bluegills, and took a lot of 12" bass out. I left this pond alone for almost 5 years after this.The last time I fished this pond a summer or two ago, the hoards of dink bass were gone, and I had a great day catching 3-5 lbers.

[Gundog]

Add more bait fish and cull some of the small (legal size) bass is the best and easiest way to go. Also make sure the bass have places to ambush their prey. Weeds and tree lay-downs are a necessity in small ponds.

[Hog Basser]

Where is the pond?  What climate?  And the most important thing to do is cull bass in the small to medium range.  You have to remove several of the predators to improve the forage base.  If you just stock new forage and they are edible size, they will get wiped out quick and it is likely a waste of money.  The new forage needs to get established so they can spawn and make more forage.  There are a lot of options and a lot of it depends on where you are and what you want.  I highly recommend reading the articles on this website's fish and lake management section before you make any decisions.  They can be found here:  http://www.bassresource.com/lake-management/ 

[WIGuide]

From the size of the fish you're stating it's not too late quite yet. Get a bunch of the runts out, add some cover, and if possible add some forage as well. If the little ones start looking the same way and continue to, they'll become stunted and will only produce stunted bass as well. 

[RHuff]

My uncle has a pond in Georgia that has been stocked with largemouth for the last 30+ years. He has bluegills as his primary baitfish. There have been multiple 10+ lbs caught out of it. He had a problem with algae a while back and added grass carp to keep it ate up.