Shiner.

We have those Golden shiners here, they get pretty big too, up to 12", We always called them Roach, Dough baits work good for them.

Sounds like there’s not enough predators in the pond. Bass do need kept too, we’ll hit the ponds once a year and everything we catch 14” or under ends up in the grease. These ponds also produce some huge bream. The only ponds I’ve ever seen with the stunted bream are the catfish ponds they stock for kids rodeos.
Now my question is why won’t y’all’s bass eat bream? If there’s enough bass to keep the shiners in check, then there’s enough bass to keep bream in check. If there’s not, then it won’t matter what’s in the pond.

I never said that bass wouldn't eat sunfish/bluegill/"Bream".

My point was that golden shiner are a better choice for forage
because they don't tend to over populate and stunt like "bream".

Golden shiner are a cash crop you can grow/sell from your pond
that also regulate oxygen depleting algae blooms that can cause
high biological oxygen demand (B.O.D.) and resulting fish kills
during periods of low water & high water temperatures.

We don't have many big bass and our state record
is just 11lbs, 4ozs due to our cold water and short growing season.

Just doing a google search proves my point, the best & most highly
recommended forage species for growing big healthy bass is golden shiner.

I stand by my assertion that golden shiner is a better choice
than "bream" as a bass forage species no matter what part
of the country we are talking about.

walleyed

I was told by PFC Fisheries Bio that shiners would not do well in my pond
because of high water temperatures. She recommended LM bass and blue gill.
I also introduced local chubs. The bg did seem to over populate and were quickly
checked by me, those long legged yettie birds, snappers, and the bass.
I "think" it is in balance right now. It'd be great to know for sure though.
Edit PFC not GC, dummie.

I believe if you had a pond that was extensively managed, then yes Golden Shiners would be the ticket. I’m talking a Bill Dance managed pond with oxygenated water, not your everyday run of the mill pond. The balance has to be kept in all no matter what. If you have stunted BG then you most likely have stunted Largemouth as well. We had a pond we used to fish, but no bass were allowed to be kept. Over time almost every cast produced a 10-12” bass. What bream were in there were stunted as well.

When I was a kid in the 50s and 60s, they were called a roach, or a shade roach. Excellent bait for largemouth bass.

We caught them on tiny hooks we called roach hooks. We crumbles saltine crackers into dust, threw them in a certain pond, and caught the roach with a minnow net or a small dough ball on the roach hook.