actually sounds like my old girlfriend.............

but that really describes a few of the bass I am catching in my pond. It's 4 acres, well managed, good population of bass, bluegill and stocked tilapia last week. I assume that those few that look like that have some health issue. Certainly not all the population look like that. Many are football shape.

Tucson

pretty sure that is a result of overpopulation

Stunted due to a break in the food chain. Too many fish of one size in relation to the proper size of forage available for them to grow out to the next size-class.

In other words ... it's time for a fish fry.

I figured that. I have been recently taking out as many 10 to 14" bass as I can, which seem to be the dominant size. I will continue that process.

Thanks.

General rule of thumb is 10 lbs per acre per year in an unfertile pond/lake. If you have fertile water than move that figure to 25lbs per acre per year. I recently attended a 3 day lake managment seminar and some lake managers were pushing that number to 40 lbs per acre per year, if your goals are to grow trophy bass. Especially in year one, if the lake has not been harvested in a few years.

Start keeping male fish!!

i fished a buddy's pond last year and he asked me to help him thin them out. took home about 25 to clean and all day noticed that a lot of them had the big head little body look which we had attributed to too many predators and not enough prey. when i got to cutting on them i noticed black spots in the flesh and then some of them had yellow spots. i dug at the yellow spots and they were grubs, or immature round worms,they would start wiggling trying to get back into the flesh of the fish as i was cutting them out and the black spots were basically the eggs. finally i looked into the stomach of the fish i was cleaning and this was after about 10 or so fish and it was full of mature worms and they went crazy once i opened the stomach lining. keep in mind my other buddy was on his phone and googling everything we saw. turns out they are pretty common in bass and actually harmless to eat the fish as long as they are cooked properly but they can wreak havok on the bass population of a pond and its health.

I've found them on bream many times as well often in a creek or river. I believe they are pretty much harmless to them unless the fish is also struggling with other health issues like malnutrition..

...and they taste a lot like chicken!

They need to put some Redear bream in the pond. They will eat the snails that cause this problem. Well did you eat the worms lol.

couldn't do it man. not after all the squirmers in the stomach. we trashed it all and went and got some burgers, lol!