Rasing Trophy Bass

[BASSMAN1301599783]

Over the past 6-7 years I have noticed the size and number of Bass, Bluegill, and Crappie in my pond rapidly decreasing.  There are approx. 9-12? Channel and Blue cats in there and they range from 7-24 lbs. The pond is only about one acre.  Are my catfish trashing the place?  We feed the Catfish and Blue gill with small pellet dog chow, but I guess it isn't enough to slow down the big ones.  Any Ideas on what to do?

[L.D.]

Sounds to me you know what the cause is. Time to reduce those big fish down to two.

If you don't want to eat them, find a neighbor or two that has a pond with too many small bass and needs them thinned out.

I have a spring fed pond that had too many small bass in it. I put in a bunch of walleyes in it to control the bass. When the bass got down in population and the bass got bigger, I started to take out the walleye and eat them. Not a perfect check and balance but it worked ok.

[TRITONBOATS]

;D

  I think that the catfish should walk out of the pond and go to the lake

[Chris]

You might want to thin out your catfish. I would bet that they might be eating more than the puppy chow.

[Raul]

You have too many predatory fish eating up the forage base, baby bluegills, you need to thin out the catfish and bass.

[Nick_Barr]

I heard in a magazine that most marine bioligists in your areas or state are interested in research on ponds. You can get them and their students to help you out with tests, electrofish sonar and other things that could help you raise that world record bass and most of the time it is free.

[Fatdaddy150]

You might want to take out several of those cats, maybe down to one 20lb and a 10lb as far as the big ones go. Also consider taking out several of the small ones along with big Crappie and several small bass. Sounds like your pond is over populated and there isn't enough food to go around.

Tight Lines,

Fatdaddy151

[Aaron_S]

I agree with everyone else there are too many big catfish in your lake.  I  have/had this problem in a lake that I fish frequently.  There are several 10 to 15 pounders and the bass were really small so I have been trying to get the big cats out and so far the bass are getting a whole lot bigger.