I have a 1 acre pond about 25 feet at the deepest point all the banks slope to the deepest part has a bunch of bass in it all of them about 10 to 12 inches long. How do I get them bigger? I have a lot of bass and a lot of bluegill, somebody help me get minnows or should I protein feed the What’s best choice?

Over population is what usually stunts growth along with food supply

Absolutely Spot On

Reduce the bass population by half and fill it with an over abundance of minnows. Keep removing bass until you start seeing bass of all sizes (successful spawns).

How do I know how many I need to remove? it been like this for a couple of years. I can go out there and catch 5 in about 30 minutes no problem 10" yo 12' long.
and I have a big turtle problem, how do you remove them turds!!

As others have mentioned, the short answer is there are too many bass in there for the forage base to support. But, that may not be the sole variable leading to that outcome.

For now, harvest every bass you catch that is skinny. Even if it's 20+ inches. If you catch an exceptionally thick one, it can go back. If you keep this up, you'll catch fewer over time but their average condition and size will start to improve. An exact number or pound quota of fish to remove is often misleading in my experience, but for reducing over-crowded bass a general number is at least 35lbs / acre / year harvested. Just keep harvesting aggressively and you'll start to see gains. When that day comes, you can be more picky about what comes out (you keep harvesting aggressively but you'll have more thick ones that can be put back).

A few questions before suggesting more advice:
- Are your bluegills also small or do you have some really big ones like 7-9+ inches?
- How deep can you see a white lure in the water?
- Is the water more brown, green, or clear?
- Do you have any weeds in the pond and how much area do they occupy (rough percentage estimate is ok)?
- Do you have any hard cover (logs, stumps, brush piles, rock piles, commercial fish attractors ect) and how much of the pond is occupied by this cover? (a percentage estimate is ok)

Another quick answer for the turtles, look up "turtle traps" online and you'll find dozens of images, diagrams, and videos showing how you can build DIY traps or buy completed ones online. They work surprisingly well. Turtles get a bad wrap for ponds. They eat fish, but turtles are not exactly ferocious predators. They usually eat the dead or sickly fish and help keep the pond clean of unsightly corpses.

It’s not just about food but food of the right size. A predator needs prey that is 30 to 40% it’s size. It’s a matter of calories obtained vs energy expended. A 2 pound bass or cat can lose weight eating minnows.

Concentrate on feeding the prey and the big guys will be fine.

Outdoordude thank you for your input …and my bluegills are 5-6 lg. water is brown to clear, can see lure to 2' ft. pond has weeds around edges in summer, no hard cover.

I'd prioritize in order, 1) fertility, 2) habitat, 3) harvest, 4) stocking.

1) Fertility
- Get with the county Extension office about getting your water tested. Alkalinity, hardness and pH are the most important but comprehensive mineral and nutrient testing would be nice to know.
- If water is acidic, add ag lime to neutralize pH and increase alkalinity/hardness.
- If water is not acidic, or after you've completed lime treatment, fertilize using a 10-50-0 or similar powdered pond/lake fertilizer according to the product label (it'll be based on your hardness and will give you lbs/acre to apply and how frequently).
- Your goal is to establish and maintain a planktonic green algae bloom at 18-24 inches of visibility (up to 36 inches is acceptable). You'll need to adjust your applications during the growing season to keep the bloom in this density range.
- In addition to water quality treatments, or if you don't want to do water quality work, install an automatic fish feeder and feed at least once daily a 40-45% protein, 10-12% lipid floating sportfish fish feed. "Optimal" or "Purina AquaMax" are widely considered the best by most pond pros currently. Feed as much as the fish can eat within 5-10 minutes. Adjust the spinners run-time to reduce or increase feed amount according to fish response. Generally start feeding when the water gets above 65F and stop in the fall when it drops below 65F. Bass will not eat the feed, but bluegill, catfish and grass carp will. The bluegill will grow tremendously faster and make babies faster = more food for bass.
2) Habitat
- Add cover to occupy up to 20% of the total area of the pond. Lots of logs, brush, commercially-sold fish attractors, bamboo buckets, PVC structures, stacks of worn-out pallets, just about anything you have available and can think up can serve as cover. Try to mix up large, wide open forms of cover (like the main trunk and primary branches of a tree, for example) with narrow densely packed cover (like Christmas trees) all in the same area to diversify the forage refuge and predator access options of the cover site.
3) Harvest
As mentioned already, continue aggressively harvesting skinny largemouth bass until their condition improves, then you can start turning back the chunkier fish.
4) Stocking
I'd prioritize 1) bluegill (500 2-3 inch fingerlings), 2) tilapia (20 lbs fingerlings), 3) golden shiner (10 lbs). Bluegill are the best bass forage for the pond environment. They'll grow great on fish feed and make babies all summer. Tilapia are second best. They'll compete with bluegill for habitat a bit, but usually not cause serious trouble. They also make lots of babies all summer. Golden shiners are the only "minnow" shaped fish I would recommend, and I don't really recommend them in this situation to be honest. Much more nutrition can be gained from a 3-4 inch bluegill or tilapia than a 3-4 inch shiner, and the shiner's won't breed enough to maintain their population through the year.

Get your fertility, habitat and harvest in order and you shouldn't need to stock unless you just want to. If this doesn't get it back going in the right direction within a year or so something is terribly wrong.

Check out "Aquatic Biologist" on You Tube. Guy "fixes" ponds like yours for a living. Good news is, he tells you how to do it yourself.

I would bet the farm that he would say in your case it would be easier to drain the pond, put in your habitat and start fresh with proper stocking. That would mean at least two years of just bluegill and fat head minnows in the pond. No predators. To include redears, cats, greenies and for sure NO crappie.

The other way is actually slower... Keep removing every bass you catch, for sure anything else other than bluegill, get your cover in as mentioned above, feed your gills and etc. as mentioned above.

But I guess the first question is what are your goals with the pond? If you are looking for trophy fish 1 acre will not be large enough. If you just want some healthy 3-4lb fish and way less dinks, you can do that.

Lots of options. Check out his You Tube channel and you will learn more in a few hours than most internet "biologist" can ever tell you... and its his living, so he has to know what he is talking about or he would be homeless

Good luck bud! And if you need help catching those 10-12 inch bass out of there, I am a PRO! lol

Gene, turtles are seldom a problem re the balance of the pond. They are the cleanup crew and are part of the balance of the aquatic environment.

Bob Lusk once told me that “Anytime a turtle catches a fish; the fish deserved it.”.

However, a 22 will eliminate them.

The only problem I have with Turtles, are that was I have the little kids there to catch bluegills, with bobbers the turtles try to get the worms first

There are plenty of traps. BUT if your like me, just shoot them. A 22 to the dome will do it.

I am no expert ,

but are you taking out the bigger bluegills ? Until your bass are big enough to eat the 6 inch bluegills,
those bluegills are competing for food with the smaller bass.

good luck

MO

catch a lot of little bass & enjoy dinner
we had a 5 acre spring fed tank in Jacksboro
back then Texas stocked tanks
we had 10 K bass
same with catfish & blue gills stocked
they told us 1% would survive
we fed the fish with an automatic feeder
the blue gill became large like really large

this tank already had a pretty good population of bass
a #5 bass was pretty regular

enjoy your tank