Need some wisdome on Small Pond

[bazzdude]

I have a 30 acre in all pond, with a small creek comming in year round and a small tricle leaving out in the summer time, winter lots more water leaving and entering. Kept up my a few beavers. planted 80, 6-10 inch bass in 1998, 1999. The deepest the pond gets maybe reaches 3-4 feet deep. But it is choked with weeds now. Maybe 5-10 small spots to throw a top water. I mean small as in 15' X15'. The biggest bass i have cought in there in the last 10 years is around 3 lbs. Fishe it early, mid summer( now) nothing really happening at all. Labor Day comes around and wam, it is on. 30 fish evenigs easy. Biggest ranging 2 lbs as nice! most 1 lb and under.
My questions are, Y so late in the year?( it is like this every year, even the pond we transplanted them from) And where are the big ones? Do otters eat the big ones? Does the decaying of the plants kill them off? How long does it take for a 5 lb. bass to grow? Are all the weeds choking out all the oxegyn? Or are the big ones just to smart and full to hit my baits? Lots of questions i know but i can not figure them out. Used to be huge trout in there, now no trout at all. Any info. will help me figure this pond out.
Thanks Bazzdude

[T Dot]

How long does it take for a 5 lb. bass to grow?

WA STATE

growth = 0.5 lbs / year

[GJorgy]

Try night fishing with texas rigged big black worms or topwater baits or put on a jig & pig beefy enough (1 ounce or bigger) to punch through the weeds. Otters will eat the fish but they aren't as selective as we are...they are happy with anything they can get into their paws, and they haven't heard of C&R either.

[kevinb]

I'll leave the bass questions to the pros here.
I have a similar set as you in terms of the waters.
If you've got otters here,they can play a giant role in the low numbers of trout and over fishing too.
Otters will eat a big bass,if they can get ahold of it. I know our lake spot has had a few otters take a few nice bass,we always find the carcas. If other people share this lake/try to encourage C&R,especially cosidering its small lake. This is another problem with our lake. No one owns a camera and at 55acres...the growth off bass around here.Well it takes many years.
Then somebody wants bragging rights and kills a great fish.
One uneducated angler could easily destroy a lake of this size.

[JWerner]

Is there a food fish in the pond like sunfish or bluegill?

[bazzdude]

My bro father and i are the only ppl. who fish this little pond, it is our personal pond. You can not fish it unless you drive right past the house. so no one else does. And yes there are bluegills and some catfish(not many) and there used to be trout.

[Ditch Pickler]

A family friend has a no more than a 15acre lake that he put bass in it back in 94' He stuck in about a few bass around 4lbs that year as well as a bunch of small ones. The lake now has average bass size of 2 lbs which you dam near can catch a nice bass on any lure.

This year 2 "5lbrs" and 1 "6lbr" was caught out of there. Plus bass is the only baitfish thats in there. So they are just eating the fingerlings and smaller bass for the most part.

[Trent Hale]

I have found that craw fish are in most all lakes and there the #1 food for bass. I have been useing the craw for the past few weeks and have done very well. And in early spring and in the fall big worms do the trick and the jig. Dose your pond have any structure. If not get some in there!

[BassFanatic]

I'm not a pro at all but I would say put some baitfish in the pond. Something like perch and bluegill

[fishnislife]

I'm thinking you might have a stunted pond bazzdude. Over the years the population of bass has far exceed the forage. Such is the case of a whole bunch of small fish and no large ones. You'll have stunted bass because they're all sharing/spliting the same food resources that your lake has to offer. Weed a bunch out. You'll see the weights increase and trust me, you can't catch enough to weed them all out. If your lake has healthy forage fish like you say they will fatten up and of coarse re-produce like rabbits and then once again you'll have to weed them out.
Or another suggestion would be to introduce a couple larger bass. That way they will control you smaller population and get rid of all the weak ones.
Keep stocking it with cat, gill and trout fry. They can never have enough forage fish. But monitor them as well because eventually they can take over an entire lake too. Your looking for the perfect balance. Another thought like Trent mentioned, maybe consider introducing some crayfish in the mix.
One more thought, in a lot of personal ponds fish will adapt to there surrounding and find the best method of food. If your bass have found that the forage in your lake is not enough they will eat bugs. Just like trout, some times bass eat a lot of bugs. Try flyfishing for your bass in the other seasons. Try the evening bite when the sun is down and it's still light out. Toss a bug that resembles something you'd find flying around the shoreline. Just a thought.
Hope this helps ya out.




fishnislife

[BassinBomber]

I'm not a pro at all but I would say put some baitfish in the pond. Something like perch and bluegill

I'm with you nephew,..I'd find a way to get some Perch in there,..but how,..and would it be frowned on by the WDFW,..or would it matter,..would they even care?

BB

[Ditch Pickler]

It takes 10lbs of forage for a bass to gain 1lb. So the more forage the better.

I'd add a healthy supply of 8-10" trout, if your really want them to get big fast!

[bazzdude]

Hey thanks everyone for all the info so far. Great feed back. The lake is on the west side of the lake just over the cascades on the other side of white pass past yakima. It is more like a swamp them a pond. You can not find a hole anywere. Choked out with weeds right now. We want to dredge out about 10 acres of it to make a nice bowl in there. It would take a lot of work and $ for that though. Any ideas? I have a hard time reducing the popolation of the bass in there. I do like the idea of planting some bigger bass in there though. And also adding some smaller pray for them to eat on. I do know there are sunfish in there. Thanks everyone.

[Trent Hale]

You could run a rake on the boat but don't take all the veg out. Some fence and weights would work good and cheep.