Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Bass, 6 Feet Down

This is a 20+ inch LMB in about 6 feet of water next to our dock. The photo was taken at dusk. It seems like this particular fish has no fear of me. Even as I kneeled down on the dock to take the photo it did not swim away. Maybe it is getting used to seeing me by the water!

When you guys get tired of my fish photos, let me know and I will stop posting them.

Never...I love pics!

Awesome pic Dwight. Keep them coming.

More pictures! Show us a picture of you holding the fish after you caught it. How much do you think this fish weighs?

yeah, that's a great picture. In fact it has inspired me to start my own pond photo album.

The last 20.5" LMB I caught out of the Pond was 5.5 pounds, last fall. I am guessing this one would be in the 5 to 6 pound range as well.

The Minnesota LMB State Record LMB is 8 pounds 15 ounces. My goal is to surpass that without supplemental feeding. I think a 10 pound fish is possible in our pond because of the abundance of forage fish. Also, since we are located in the southwest part of Minnesota we should have the warmest water and longest growing season in the state.

If you can provide a length and girth I (or you) can guess based on the avg of these 2 formulas :

L X L X G / 1000

L X G X G / 800

See this thread
http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthread...=true#Post24157

Great pic - tell us about the camera/equipment

I cant even imagine being able to see six feet into the water. One foot is the max in my pond. Cool pic

ewest,

I couldn't physically measure, so I used the dock cross members to estimate the length when the LMB was parallel to the dock and empirical data from a similiar length Bremer Pond fish for the weight estimate.

The camera is a Canon PowerShot SX100 IS. Nothing professional, but a very nice unit.

another way to estimate is if 100% releative weight (I can tell by looking if close to that) which menas it looks healthy would be 4.5 lbs. Your 20.5" 5.5 lb bass is pretty healthy at 110% Wr

catch a few small bluegill, bite off their tails, and i bet you could start handfeeding that fish. Some of the best fish in our lakes live by the docks and get handfed. (bluegills wouldnt be considered supplemental feeding in your situation? would they?)

I agree that this wouldn't be supplemetal feeding. Just another form of forage management.

Nice green carp Dwight! Seriously nice bass.

Not to hijack the thread but did I tell anyone a biologist contacted me a couple of months ago and wanted to know if he could use a pic of my big perch as a "typical perch from Indiana." This is the same perch they disqualified for a state record because it was on a "feeding program" and therefore not typical. LMAO

When you brought up supplemental feeding this came to mind.

I am considering a hand feeding trial, though I worry some about it. It might be sort of hard to set the hook on a pet fish.

Cecil, "Green Carp" reminded me that my brother and I call Walleye "Spiney Carp", much to the chagrin of the fishers of the Minnesota State Fish!

Dwight...

You could always get a couple of feeder goldfish from a local pet store for around 17 cents a piece if you want to give it a try. Even if your new friend isn't interested, a bright gold slow moving target will feed something.

Yeah I hear the walleye is THE FISH in Minnesota.

Speaking of carp I'm going to make a trip over to a local lake sometime this summer and keep the biggest one I can catch. I want one for the studio and believe it or not a 30 or 40 pounds specimen is pretty impressive on the wall. Neat gold colors and scale tipping etc. too.

I'll used crushed Wheaties cereal mixed with water and vanilla extra to produce dough balls. The carp really home in on it. Apparently they have quite a sense of smell and a sweet tooth so to speak.

Cecil...

I used that exact concoction up at my grandparents lake house when I was a kid. They lived on Lake Barbee up by North Webster. I could usually haul in at least one carp a day. We would net them and then release them after the hook was pulled out. It was pretty exciting for a 6-14 year old kid. Fond memories...

Carp really like canned corn too.

That is what we used to "chum" for them. My grandpa would toss some corn out on the bottom of the lake up to about a hundred feet out from the pier for a couple of weeks before I got there. They has a 1000 acre farm they inherited, so field corn was always available.

Definitely dont put goldfish into your lake! I have seen some serious problems with those colorful carp.

Handfeeding that fish has nothing to do with catching her?? you will have so much fun feeding your fish small bluegills, you wont even want to fish there.

We have a dock on our lake called the VIP dock. Absolutely nobody is allowed to fish there under any circumstances, unless you are a VIP. A few lucky VIP's this year were some first time fisherwomen and an outdoor sportswriter who wrote a very nice article about the fishery, but anyways that dock is home to the very biggest and best fish of the entire lake. We have traps to catch the minnows and small fish, and cages to hold them, and everytime someoene goes down to that dock, they toss in handfuls of fish to the big ole fat LMB, SMB, HSB, YP, BC, and even Walleye will come eat out of your hand.
Every single time we go to the lake, the first place we head to is the VIP dock and the fish are very glad to see us!

Canned corn has worked best for me on Carp this year, followed by a whole nightcrawler injected with air, and then dough baits.

I know the lake chain well. It's about 25 minutes from me. Now the lake chain is known for musky.

Yep all the lakes around here have carp in them and some really big ones.