There's a little place I know...

[Poopdeck 0]

Remember I gave the simple answer. It could also mean their simply isn't any big bass food in the pond so no matter how many are culled there's just no forage to support any big bass. In which case you might as well eat them anyway.

[Bryon Anderson 0]

Okay, an interesting twist -- I just learned that the minimum legal size on smallmouth and largemouth bass is 14", which is about the largest bass I've ever seen in this lake. So it's not even legal to cull the smaller ones. So unless I'm willing to take them illegally (I'm not), the status quo will remain. I guess my son and I will just harvest some bluegills tomorrow.

[mikechell 0]

Bluegill ARE food for bass. Another adage I've heard often: If there are big bluegill, there are bigger predators, too. Bigger predators that feed on medium sized sunfish.

It is possible that the larger bass are in there, but are preying on the sunfish. Just like trout, they may be so keyed in on sunfish that nothing else interests them. Tie up some streamers in as exact a copy of the sunfish you're catching and throw them around the heaviest cover you can find.

[Bryon Anderson 0]

Bluegill ARE food for bass. Another adage I've heard often: If there are big bluegill, there are bigger predators, too. Bigger predators that feed on medium sized sunfish.

It is possible that the larger bass are in there, but are preying on the sunfish. Just like trout, they may be so keyed in on sunfish that nothing else interests them. Tie up some streamers in as exact a copy of the sunfish you're catching and throw them around the heaviest cover you can find.

Certainly worth a try.

[Poopdeck 0]

I've always heard that bluegill inhabit crappy water so if it's got lots of bluegill it's not the best water. I have no idea if this is an old wives tale or not. It's just what I've heard growing up. I'd thin out the blue gill.

[Fisherboy0301 0]

Whats common in lots of ponds here in Ga is that you will have a long full of big sunfish and small bass, then every once in a while a few fish will break the mold and get bigger, say 2-5lbs, and start eating other, smaller bass. And they just grow into tanks. I mean 9-12lb monsters. Eventually they get big enough that the sunfish and bass are their prey items, as where at smaller sizes there were very few prey items. Its not uncommon to hook a little bass and have one of these big ones grab it while youre bringing it in. It happens about once a month in my pond. Im trying to establish shiners to give my smaller bass something to eat.

[Bryon Anderson 0]

I've always heard that bluegill inhabit crappy water so if it's got lots of bluegill it's not the best water. I have no idea if this is an old wives tale or not. It's just what I've heard growing up. I'd thin out the blue gill.

Made a start on that today.