Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Bad fishing

Hey PB's
I've had an awful fishing year this year at my pond... 2 acres. I've been working on thinning out the bass population for about a year now, but have probably only taken out 60-100 small bass (8-10 inches).

My parents caught a few mid size bass (2-3 lbs) back in March/April but we really haven't caught any bass since then, except for maybe 5-10 bass from 8-10 inches. We have gotten pounded with rain and storms(Oklahoma), and my pond gets a lot of run-off. Doesn't seem much muddier than usual though. I wen't fishing on my neighbor's small pond and the bass were hammering. But after spending 12 hours fishing on my lake, I caught 0 bass, and 1 catfish on the trot line

I don't think we had a fish kill but I suppose its possible... No aeration but the pond is close to 20ft max depth. We didn't have a kill 2 years ago when the ice froze over the pond 6 inches thick. Also, we don't have much vegetation/algae at all.
How long do the remains stay around after a fish kill? Seems like we would've noticed a kill, even if we weren't at the lake couple of weeks.

Are any of you having trouble getting the fish to bite after these heavy storms?

Heavy storms can have an effect.

Are you fishing with live bait or lures?

Your pond sounds very similar to mine, and I'm having the EXACT same result. My big pond is deep and has lots of runoff...unlike yours mine is noticeably more murky than it has ever been before - what with all the rain. My 2 ponds are literally right next to each other and I've probably caught 60-80 bass out of the little one - and exactly 1 out of the big one. The fishing has been TERRIBLE in the big pond.

I keep waiting for the turbidity to calm back down and I'm hoping that's the issue. If it's not

Yeah I'm hoping its just the storms...

I'm going to do the old mason jar test and a visibility test next time I get to the pond. It definitely is more murky than before, but it's hard for me to tell since I don't get to spend much time there

Sunil, we're using lures/aritificial worms for bass

Cutbait and doughbait for catfish

Live bait like shiners or minnows will give you the most fish caught, so you may want to try more of that to get a good grip on the bass population.

Your water would have to be pretty darn muddy for the fish not to bite. I fish some waters here in Arknasas that you cant see your white lure more than 8 inches and we still catch bass. They will find your lure if they want to. If your water is more murky throw a rattle trap or a buzz bait and try to see what you can find. Sometimes you need to wake em up! Maybe a Hula Popper? I also think it has to do with how much food they already have. If they are being fed well it's going to be harder to catch them of course.

RC

Tell us results from jar test, this is important.

If you need to remove LMB, try a fyke net, perhaps?

Keep us in the loop - I'm glad you guys are getting some rain, just wish it was distributed from May through October. Same thing up here. Keep strong down there, OK brother. We're thinking of you all up in Husker country.

Your bass are probably still there but one of the consequences to thinning their numbers down means that there are a whole lot groceries left for those LMB still in the pond. My guess is that your LMB are fat, happy, and not very hungry.

One idea...The pond is surrounded by hills on 3 sides. Maybe a bunch of worms surfaced during all the storms and became fish food

I hope its that they're just fat and happy! Time and more fishing (and hopefully catching ) will tell.

The CC i caught was 80% RW: 20 in., 2.7lbs. Should have been 3.4 lbs
Don't really want CC in there anyways -> we're harvesting all the CC we can catch

Somewhat good update here: fish seem to be biting again... no big catches but we caught about 14 LMB from 8-10 inches, and 6-7 GSF from 4-6 inches.

My father caught a nice LBM back in March, somewhere 2-4 lbs.
We haven't caught anything between the 2 extremes of .2 - .4 lbs for smaller LBM, and 2-4 lbs for LMB.

GSF: