Raising big pond bass

[Pondboss16]

anyone know how to raise some big ol healthy bass from a pond. Noticed a lot of them are skinny and all the baitfish in there are half pound bluegills, providing no food for this hungry bass. Other than restocking is there anything else I can to to beef em up?

[Catt]

Bob Lusk at Pond Boss!

[Hog Basser]

Try the pond boss forums.  There's also a lake management section on this website with tons of info.  There are a ton of factors that go into it, but without proper and constant management, this will happen to 99% of ponds (stunted bass).  Probably need to cull as many bass as possible and start from near scratch at least before you dump some new bluegill in there.  Give the spawn of the current bluegill a chance to grow up and create a situation where there's less competition for the surviving bass.  

[FloridaBasser1]

Stock plenty of bream and have good shore cover like grass, lilly pads.

[Raul]

Cull the fish first ! those 6-10 inch fish will continue to be 6-10 inch fish next year and next year and the next year too, nothing wrong in taking out a couple of hundred and making a fish frying parade.

[Hog Basser]

^^This!!  Don't stock before you cull. 

[Pondboss16]

15 hours ago, Raul said:

Cull the fish first ! those 6-10 inch fish will continue to be 6-10 inch fish next year and next year and the next year too, nothing wrong in taking out a couple of hundred and making a fish frying parade.

Do I really need to cull that many there are some 15 inches and a lot of 6-7 inchers I feel like fishing them all out is going to take ages!!!!

[Raul]

44 minutes ago, Pondboss16 said:

Do I really need to cull that many there are some 15 inches and a lot of 6-7 inchers I feel like fishing them all out is going to take ages!!!!

Then do whatever you want, I don´t know why I even bothered in giving you advice.

[Hog Basser]

44 minutes ago, Pondboss16 said:

Do I really need to cull that many there are some 15 inches and a lot of 6-7 inchers I feel like fishing them all out is going to take ages!!!!

You need to figure out which size you need to cull.  Likely as many of the smaller ones as you can.  For me, I have a 53 acre lake I'm managing through cull and it will always be an ongoing process (albeit a fun one).  We need to cull about 1,000 lbs. worth of bass per year to keep it from getting stunted (there's research to back this up and biologists have confirmed these numbers).  Our slot is 10-15 inches, we keep everything within that slot, if it is over 15 inches it goes back (unless visibly unhealthy) and if under 10 inches it goes back to get a chance to grow big.  Also, the ones under 10 can be additional forage for the really big ones.  Your slot might be a little lower based on how many large bass you have.  With this slot, most fish are in the one pound range, so it equates to about 1,000 fish per year on my lake and it doesn't hurt to take out a little more than that.  Bass recover quickly.  

It sounds like you need to thin out the numbers of those little guys quite a bit to get started.  Read and study the articles here: http://www.bassresource.com/lake-management/ Decide what your goals are and manage accordingly.  You will want to keep length and weight records of your catch to track progress.  Best thing to do is get professional advice, hire a consultant or a fisheries biologist to come out and take a look.  You can even have someone bring an electroshock boat out to get a real idea of what you have (and they can cull a lot while they do it to get you a head start).  Most of this costs money, fishing them out is the least expensive and most fun method.  The amount you need to cull is based on how many surface acres you have.  If already overcrowded, many recommend to take out 35 lbs per surface acre per year.  Remember this is over the course of a year and doesn't need to be done all at once.  But a jump start for an already overcrowded pond won't hurt too much.  

[Gundog]

6 hours ago, Hog Basser said:

.  We need to cull about 1,000 lbs. worth of bass per year to keep it from getting stunted 

I'll be down there to help ya. Just send the GPS coordinates and I'll bring the sandwiches. 

[bigbill]

My small hot spots are fed by springs and runoff from larger lakes. I feel it's a plus to have moving water. Next comes what is the food supply. Big bass eat panfish like bluegills, red ear, perch, dace, anything that will fit in there mouths. The overall Eco system needs to be balanced.

sammiches is good, salami can be bait on a slow day, lol.