Joined
·
164 Posts
Guys,
Keith, thought I should post a thread about my pond so here goes......
I live on about a 3 1/2 acre lake, when we first moved into our house the lake was 100% lifeless except for frogs, snakes and tadpoles, not even a minnow was seen. I started stocking the lake just about 5 yrs ago, I contacted a stocking company here in Florida, who I found out later actually provides to other stocking companies and the FWC. The initial stocking was 300 pure strain Florida Largemouth, 500 blue gill and 500 shellcracker ( all fingerlings ). About 3 months later we stocked another 750 shellcracker and bluegill fingerlings and 300 channel catfish fingerlings. At about 1yr after the initial stocking of bass we started catching 1 to 1 1/2 pounders ( all catch and release ) things were going well. Fast forward to year 3, Keith can attest to the following. We could go out any time of the day, and catch dozens of bass on plastics, rattletraps, spinnerbaits, crankbaits, ect.. you toss it out, we caught em.. up to about 5 pounds. one after the other... it was fishing heaven. Fast forward to year 4, catch rates started to slow down this past summer, but I was still catching quality fish, PB 6.7 pounds and over summer and just into the fall had several 5+ pounders, I was still having pretty good success. But since the fall the catch rates have been pretty bad. We have not had a fish kill and there is no outlet for the fish, they are trapped in the 3+ acre lake, depth is to about 12 foot, with an average depth of about 6 to 8. Water clarity is gin clear with allot of weeds ( Richardson's pond weed ) but not choked. I also stocked last year 1500 threadfin, the bass hammered them, also 3 months ago put another 1000 bluegill fingerlings for feeder fish for the bass to get them through the winter, and 300 black crappie. I have a kayak and often just paddle around to see whats going on, and I see ALLOT of bass, so they are still there, and allot of BIG ones, the fish look very healthy, small ones and big ones. But they are not biting artificial lures anymore.. I used to do very well on chatterbaits, swimming jigs,ect also.. , they seem to be keyed on bluegill, I feed the bluegills every day - bread, and I see a few BIG bass come in close and hammer the bluegill, I have tried blue gill type baits even tried a Matt Lure's bluegill and the bass come up nose it at move on.. even have sprayed it down with different scents, lunker sauce, bang, ect.. no luck... I have resorted to catching bluegills and using them for bait.. so far I am not doing to well there either as I am not too good at live bait fishing..
Today I was attempting to catch a bluegill to place on another rod, and saw the oddest thing, 2 large bass everytime I would cast out the breadball and bobber , the 2 bass would shoot out from the bank to the bobber and wait for a blue gill to be caught, seems they have spooked the bluegill up close when they are around so I am casting furrher out, this did not work, since the bass were following the bobber, so I decided to move over about 10 feet on the bank.. these 2 bass followed me,, and they were only a foot or so off the bank, each time I moved, they moved with me,, I moved back to the initial spot I was fishing and they moved back.. what the heck is going on here..... smart bass or what.. they seem to have been conditioned to us feeding the bluegill and the kids catching them " ITS DINNER TIME " and they come in for a easy meal.. I spoke the fishery that I get my fish from and they stated that sometimes , very often in a pond or small lakes life, the 3rd or 4th year can be tough fishing, the bass get accustomed to the baits and will not bite.. Well thats were we are now,, I have fully stocked lake , enough tackle to put BassPro to shame and cannot get bit, just the occasional smaller fish... the dinks are not even aggressively biting anymore.. Another bait I used to killem on was a junebug senko.. I would go through a couple bags in a 2 hours.. that is how many fish we were catching and releasing...... Any thoughts,,, would be greatly appreciated,, also I have 1000 crawfish coming soon, maybe that will stir up some action.... but for now its like sitting in front of the tank at BPS and reading the sign NO FISHING PERMITTED.........
thanks for reading..
Brian
Keith, thought I should post a thread about my pond so here goes......
I live on about a 3 1/2 acre lake, when we first moved into our house the lake was 100% lifeless except for frogs, snakes and tadpoles, not even a minnow was seen. I started stocking the lake just about 5 yrs ago, I contacted a stocking company here in Florida, who I found out later actually provides to other stocking companies and the FWC. The initial stocking was 300 pure strain Florida Largemouth, 500 blue gill and 500 shellcracker ( all fingerlings ). About 3 months later we stocked another 750 shellcracker and bluegill fingerlings and 300 channel catfish fingerlings. At about 1yr after the initial stocking of bass we started catching 1 to 1 1/2 pounders ( all catch and release ) things were going well. Fast forward to year 3, Keith can attest to the following. We could go out any time of the day, and catch dozens of bass on plastics, rattletraps, spinnerbaits, crankbaits, ect.. you toss it out, we caught em.. up to about 5 pounds. one after the other... it was fishing heaven. Fast forward to year 4, catch rates started to slow down this past summer, but I was still catching quality fish, PB 6.7 pounds and over summer and just into the fall had several 5+ pounders, I was still having pretty good success. But since the fall the catch rates have been pretty bad. We have not had a fish kill and there is no outlet for the fish, they are trapped in the 3+ acre lake, depth is to about 12 foot, with an average depth of about 6 to 8. Water clarity is gin clear with allot of weeds ( Richardson's pond weed ) but not choked. I also stocked last year 1500 threadfin, the bass hammered them, also 3 months ago put another 1000 bluegill fingerlings for feeder fish for the bass to get them through the winter, and 300 black crappie. I have a kayak and often just paddle around to see whats going on, and I see ALLOT of bass, so they are still there, and allot of BIG ones, the fish look very healthy, small ones and big ones. But they are not biting artificial lures anymore.. I used to do very well on chatterbaits, swimming jigs,ect also.. , they seem to be keyed on bluegill, I feed the bluegills every day - bread, and I see a few BIG bass come in close and hammer the bluegill, I have tried blue gill type baits even tried a Matt Lure's bluegill and the bass come up nose it at move on.. even have sprayed it down with different scents, lunker sauce, bang, ect.. no luck... I have resorted to catching bluegills and using them for bait.. so far I am not doing to well there either as I am not too good at live bait fishing..
Today I was attempting to catch a bluegill to place on another rod, and saw the oddest thing, 2 large bass everytime I would cast out the breadball and bobber , the 2 bass would shoot out from the bank to the bobber and wait for a blue gill to be caught, seems they have spooked the bluegill up close when they are around so I am casting furrher out, this did not work, since the bass were following the bobber, so I decided to move over about 10 feet on the bank.. these 2 bass followed me,, and they were only a foot or so off the bank, each time I moved, they moved with me,, I moved back to the initial spot I was fishing and they moved back.. what the heck is going on here..... smart bass or what.. they seem to have been conditioned to us feeding the bluegill and the kids catching them " ITS DINNER TIME " and they come in for a easy meal.. I spoke the fishery that I get my fish from and they stated that sometimes , very often in a pond or small lakes life, the 3rd or 4th year can be tough fishing, the bass get accustomed to the baits and will not bite.. Well thats were we are now,, I have fully stocked lake , enough tackle to put BassPro to shame and cannot get bit, just the occasional smaller fish... the dinks are not even aggressively biting anymore.. Another bait I used to killem on was a junebug senko.. I would go through a couple bags in a 2 hours.. that is how many fish we were catching and releasing...... Any thoughts,,, would be greatly appreciated,, also I have 1000 crawfish coming soon, maybe that will stir up some action.... but for now its like sitting in front of the tank at BPS and reading the sign NO FISHING PERMITTED.........
thanks for reading..
Brian