Thanks Rick, and everyone else for the replies/advice.

When I visited initially with the pond owner's dad, he mentioned that they went ice fishing on this pond last winter and caught lots of bluegills and crappie, also the aforementioned largemouth shorties. So there are bluegills in the pond.

This guy's wife has a computer. (Well, they both own it but she's the only one who knows how to use it.) I don't know if a person has to be an FAOL member in order to read our BB posts, but I'll steer her in this direction anyway; if she can access the BB then he can read your reply, Rick, plus the others, too.

If the computer option doesn't work, I'll pass along these suggestions verbally. I told him that I was asking for your advice, Rick. But for now I'll go with passing along your suggestion about removing more of those little bass, as the main suggestion. That should do the job. And actually, this was the same solution the landowner's dad voiced to me.

I saw the Dad this afternoon, but it was before I checked my email inbox. Consequently, I didn't have all these suggestions handy to pass along. This afternoon he told me that last year a number of 5 and 6 lb. bass were taken out of the pond. I told him it was just my guess, but removing those largest predators might be what threw the pond out of balance, that the best thing to do with bass this big is to shoot a quick photo then release them so they can keep the panfish in check. He said his son always tells people to do exactly that, but not everyone complies?


Joe