Overcrowded pond question

[bassmaster1983]

One of the ponds I fish is about 10 acres in size. It is full of bass, but most are about 1 to 2 lbs. I just read that to have a premium bass pond you should eliminate the males. I was just fishing it last saturday and got tired of catching those size fish. What I would like to do is show the owner the article and try to convince him he has a problem. If he is agreeable I would have to know how to tell males from females. I would not want to totally eliminate the males, just put a dent in them. As I would think it would scare the owner into thinking there would be no reproduction. So, without any funny remarks about female fish (i.e. the ones with boobs, or something like that) is there any way to mark the difference between males and females? Thanks.

Bob

[FishinMommy]

Take out all of the smaller ones.

[madmarty]

After the spawn it's kind of hard even for an expert to tell. Are they getting enough to eat? If not stock it with bream.

[Bassin_Dude]

you know that after that you will have more females then males...and during spawn alot of females wont reproduce...or be competing over males. the best thing to do is eliminate the smaller bass....not alot, just enough so that the bigguns wont have to compete for food as much allowing them to grow bigger. dont worry about telling the difference, just eliminate some smaller ones. if you still want to do what your plan is, i cant really help you with telling them apart...there was a post on here about it...i just cant remember what it said :P

[bassmaster1983]

Yes, I thought of getting rid of a lot of the smaller fish. The article i read stated that females grow twice as fast as the males. It would probably cost a lot to purchase just females to stock a pond. And by the amount of bass I think that are in the pond it would be prohibitive to eliminate all just to restock with females. The is a healthy population of bluegills in the pond. So food isn't a problem. Just overcrowding and bad pond management. Thanks for the answers.

Bob

[sabass]

this is what happens when you start doing something without knowing where to begin. How do you know its only small fish. Just because you only get small fish on your line doesn't mean there aren't big ones in there. Smaller fish tend to be more aggressive and/or dumb, often times hitting anything that moves, sometimes even after just being caught. For you to accurately determine the size and population, you're gonna have to shock the lake and take a count. Before you ruin somebodies pond based on an article you read, please read hundreds more articles and speak with a handful of experts, not amatuer fishermen.

[Stan]

i know where your coming from bob....i had a lake about the same size..it was an old gravel pit...the owner let all the kids come by but with strict rules not to keep the bass...people from all over town would come in a throw more bass in...now 20 years later it is insanely over stocked...it was nothing to go out and catch 200 under one lb.. in a few hours...almost every cast produced...so he held a tourny kinda..but not for size only amount...it had to me under 2lbs to keep...then we had a biiig fish fry...now the lake is perfect producing nice size fish...it worked for us so u might wanna bring that up to him...just a suggestion

[keeb]

i had a pond with that kind of a promblem, but there was also huge bass in it so i wasnt worried.

[jdkc]

Catfish always work well at getting rid of small fish. Plus when you fish for them they make the best fish frys YUM

[Frank_Eagles]

Ditto to what SS said