I caught this fish at the family pond but on one has ever stocked it with any type of bass. I want to say it looks like a large mouth bass. http://www.flickr.com/photos/68069997@N05/6200065305/

looks like a largemouth to me...nice one

No, it's a big mouth bass, or, maybe it's a bucket mouth, the striper fishermen call them trash fish. I've even heard them called ditch pickels. No matter, you caught some awesome fish. Good job. Were you useing artificial or live bait?

I was cast a net for bait fish. No one in the family remembers ever stocking the pond with any type of Bass.

One of life's great mysteries...how ponds never stocked become teaming with fish of all types.

As Jeff Goldblum said in Jurassic Park "life finds a way"

A well meaning friend or neighbor.

The fish looks dead..

birds can carry eggs from pond to pond from what I hear...and yes, that fish looks dead

really? That's crazy. Can they carry zebra mussels too?

wonder what kind of beer that was.

So I dont know if you were being sarcastic, but if not here's what I've read...birds can carry fish eggs on their feet, beaks, feathers, and even poo from pond to pond. If they can carry fish eggs, I dont see why they couldnt carry zebra mussels. Fish and other things get into ponds by one way or another, I wouldn't put anything past nature.

nope, no sarcasm time. I never knew birds could carry fish eggs from pond to pond. Pretty crazy to me

it was a A&W rootbeer.

Root is my least favorite kind of beer! But I still like it.

Not just fish eggs....

Next time you see a kingfisher working watch it. Like my old boss when I worked in Crockett would say, "Son, nature teaches the kingfiher to stock ponds."

The kingfisher catches live fish, sunfish, minnows, small bass, etc. Flies off with them, and drops them into ponds. Actually stocking new bodies of standing water with fish. Once those fish multiply, the kingfisher has a new source of food and can now expand its population and range.

That just one way fish spread. Here along the coast where its flat as a pancake, when it rains a lot all the lakes, ponds, creeks, bayous and rivers become connected allowing the fish to move around pretty much as they please.

A common carp can actually jump over a four foot high dam and into a new lake when water is running over the dam.

Nature abhors a vacuum and will fill any niche soon after it is created.

+1 to Fishbreeder. My friends pond was never stocked but caught 5 good 3 pounders in an hour or two. He said that his neighbor told him that the bass probably swam through a little canal that forms when it rains. And be careful with that cast net, it is illegal to catch gamefish in it. And from the looks of that bass, I guessing your water is muddy?