Kicked off the fishing season. . .

[r00s7a]

As far as I know, if your fishing a pond that was not stocked by the ODW you can do what you want. I have a pond that we cleaned out years ago, and restocked it. The bass started getting stunted, so we pitched them out on the bank for the coons and birds. So full of worms, that we didn't want to eat them. 6"rs aren't worth cleaning.

Found out that to properly manage a pond, you have to take so many fish out each year to keep the food chain intact. The ODW has a pretty good tutorial about this. Its in their pond management handbook, and might be on their web site. Haven't looked for it on the web.

Good to know. Place is pretty much unfished, packed full of 3-5 lb fish, but have never caught anything above that. Would imagine there are a few lunkers in there, but I hadn't spent a whole lot of time fishing for bass.

Not sure if this is the same as what is in their pond management book.

http://www.wildlifedepartment.com/wildlifemgmt/managingponds.htm