Well, in our pond (about an acre) we have bass, bream, catfish, and some amount of crappie. Whatever else, I don’t know. Visited a friend a couple of days ago, and he had fishing rods leaning on the front porch. I asked him where he fished, and he had a pond - about 3/4 acre. He had it shocked recently (I didn’t know you could do that) to see what fish were in that small pond. He had pictures of a 48# carp, two big bass of about 8# each, and a few real big catfish. Lots of other smaller fish too, he says.

I had no idea that fish that size could get to that size and survive in a pond that small. Obviously, I am not very knowledgeable about ponds, though we’ve had one for 15 years - when we bought this place in the country.

I asked if any of them had ever caught one of the big bass. They had not, and didn’t even know the big ones were in there. I wonder what might be lurking in our pond.

Crazy isn't it? One of my ponds was dry 5 years ago. I have been catching 2 to 4 lb bass in it the past month. I am waiting for them to quit biting, I figure after I have caught most of them a couple of times they will get wise to me. who knows , maybe they are too dumb or have no memory.

603- yeah you never know sometimes!! My aunt has a small pond and all anyone catches are 12-14" bass with an occasional 3lber. But one day we caught one almost 8lbs out of it! And then caught here again a year later!! Who knows where she had been hiding!

reelslow- sometimes the bass just don't have anything to eat and because there are so Many of them it is extremely competitive for food. That same pond I talked about you can literally catch 30 bass one day come back the next and catch many of the same fish(we like to trim a top fin spike just to track) again. Since you said the pond had gone dry they are all probably part of the same initial spawn class. Has to be at least ONE big girl in there though to have started it all!

What we usually catch-


The big girl caught twice!

I got all excited and went out to the pond while it was still raining. Decided to fish deep, and used several enticing lures and caught nothing but a wet shirt. Grabbed a crappie rod just to not get too depressed, and caught a few sunfish.

Nice fish.

Nice fish bassmanrudy!!

The LM in my pond are FAT. My grandkids catch bluegill small and large. There are crawfish skeletons all over the shoreline from the coons and Blue Heron feasting on them. So I think they have adequate food source. I caught a 4.2 female couple days ago, She may or may not be that big girl you speak of. I fished a neighbors pond last summer and caught several 24" 2.5 skinny bass that had very little fight in them. Those boys were starving. They would hit anything you threw as soon as it hit the water.

48lb Carp you say??

Where is this pond exactly?

Excellent post guys. Love pond fishing. I have 4 nice ones in TN. on the farm. They have adequate food sources; but we feed them twice a year anyway with 1K Bullhead Minnows and pellet fish feeders for the Bluegill and Sun fish. We tag and release fish on a rotating bases from one pond to another every trip. This has doubled the size of our Bass in 5 years of doing the program. I also fish several other ponds on neighboring farms; incorporating them into the program. They are seeing great results and it doesn't cost them any dollars. I usually go to TN. for 10 days at a time and can fish two different ponds each day and never fish the same ones twice. Color tags for each of the 20 ponds I fish allows for release of fish that will not be removed until they have been in there for a 3 year period. It seems to strengthen the gene pool. All of this is done from shore and have the aerated containers to transport. The fish truck comes to our local Coop. once a month and sells the fish needed for feeding and stocking at a reasonable price per pound. It is a fun program to talk to your neighbors about and as a result will give you more productive places to fish.