so i started a new job in december of last year (2010), and have lost track of keeping up with you guys on the progress of my dad's pond. Ice fishing coming (i hope) which made me think to re-connect, so I thought I would post it up here, just as a way to say thanks, and to get your guys' opinions.

Bass...this one, i think it is the same one i have caught twice. Once on a hot dog and once on a rubber crawfish. This was the crawfish day, late may 2011.


Definitely not skinny. Now, of course this is not representative of all the fish we catch now, this is the trophy. The new mythical lake beast, now that onezey, the one-eyed pike has been found floating. I think i will name this one Walt, in honor of the first PB'er who came posting to my aid.

Here's a pic from a january ice fishing trip i did in 2011 that is much more representative of what we find in the pond now.

Not a lunker by any means, but at least the bellies are bigger than the heads, a great change from the past when all we would catch were skeletors. Now, if we do catch a small LMB, it's under 10" and has bite marks perpendicularly to its lateral line. Which brings me to the pike situation.

So..as the story goes, in Jan 2010 we caught our first pike in the pond, which was a complete and total surprise, since my dad has been living here since 05 or 06 and there weren't any pike to be seen in those years. Apparently, a goofball neighbor had a friend in the local parks dept, and convinced this guy to dump some pike in the lake in Nov 2009. The neighbor reported that there were 30, only after we confronted him telling him it was against the rules of the HOA to stock fish, before which he had said two other numbers, 115 and 75. So far we have removed 45 pike between the 3-4 households that are keeping track.

here's the first one we ever caught, jan 2010 with my friend nathan in what passes for a beard (beards are a requirement for the annual ice fishing extravaganza..the first person to show without one does the polar bear swim)


here they were in jan 2011


This year in the spring i caught one at 27", and my dad swears he has seen one off his dock that is over 30".

So....thoughts? this year, if there is ice, i want to sink some more xmas trees, but we'll see if there are any left for me to sink by the time it freezes over.

Mainly i'd like to ask...what do you guys think? do you thinkt he pike will be breeding now? how long until i know if they have (meaning, how long until they get to 15" like that first one we caught, big enough to want a shiner)?

Does that ice bass look healthy to you? an obvious improvement from the years of 07-08, doesnt look like skeletor.

There are still tons of crappie, but the big BG have slowed down, and actually we are catching a much more varied bunch now. One thing that scares me is that there seem to be more crappie.

The warmouth and rock bass have all but dissapeared. I Haven't seen one of either since fall 2010.

edit:
that ice bass is actually one of the smaller ones. I don't remember correctly but he may have been removed.

Fish them hard before the spawn and that should help a great deal.

Study their spawning habbits (by books and internet) and find what you have that would best suit those conditions in your pond and keep an eye out for them. Fish till you find them.

Depending on how late your ice lasts, you can ussually get good pre spawn action from the ice.

could you post a like to the other thread about your pond, I would like to read more about it.

Thanks

How big where they when they were put in??

do you guys set minnow traps?? and had any fingerling pike in them?

How big where they when they were put in??

do you guys set minnow traps?? and had any fingerling pike in them?

we dont know the average size when introduced, since the neighbor responsible didnt tell anybody what he was doing until well after it was done.

the first catch was 2 months after introduction and it was 15".

We do use minnow traps, usually just baby gills in there, never found a fingerling pike.

my issue was discussed initially in another thread, but this one has a lot of the same information.
overcrowding verdict

-mike

I have a feeling that fishing for them before they spawn will be easily done. They're calling for temps in the mid 50's tomorrow, with the high temps for the next 7 days in the mid 40's.

Pike will spawn in shallow bays that warm up first. I've heard of them spawning under the ice, but I haven't seen that. In a local lake, ice has gone off the lake on a Friday, and the pike were in 2' or less of water in the bay on the NE side of the lake on Saturday. The bay had a mucky bottom, the black really helped heat up the water quickly there.

thanks for the skinny on the link.! hehe


Its cool to see people take an interest in the fish management.

how do you sink your christmas trees?? tie blocks to them??

I end up with extra concreete and make forms out of plastic bas and boards. sorry no pics. yet.

Yeah, the center of the lake is mainly flat straight across from southwest to northeast (that map on the other thread was pretty accurate). We use concrete and cinderblocks, set up a row of trees, like 4 or 5 of them we can usually get a hold of, and try to start a new row where the old rows ended.

Directly across the lake from my dads lake is a n area that has some of the best fishing, likely because of the sharp dropoff. The homeowner there has added some artificial cover, fake plants and a big boulder or two.

Directly adjascent to my dads is a thick, thick weedbed, where I've been catching a lot of pike, and also the south end of the pond, where the big shallow flat suddenly drops off to the deepest area of the pond, we've nabbed a few there as well.

So there are 3 pike-productive areas we have noted, although those are spring and fall observations.

What of that bass...does it look healthy? As I say on every thread I comment on, im no pro, but compared to what we were catching in '08-'09, id say yes.

-mike

Pike like to suspend in weeds and ambush prey as it swims by.

The condition of the LMB looks good. I'd definately say you are well on your way!

Sweet. That's what I wanted to hear. The goals of the fishery are balance, not to make lunkers, so so long as we can keep them healthy like this, the homeowners will be happy. A few 4-5 lbers, though, wouldn't hurt my feelings at all, so until it is more than just the one that I've caught a few times, I'll keep at it.
Yeah, you guys have taught me that. I suppose, since i will be targeting them under the ice this year, my question is whether or not those habits change. It seems that we've identified 3 pike-friendly areas in the spring & fall, and I was wondering do their habits change? should I look to another area under the ice? Last year, I caught those 3 pike-cicles above all in the area where that really steep drop-off is directly across from my dad's house, near where he is slowly building his cover of fake plants and such (those fake plants were not in place last winter). But since we identified heavier areas in the spring/fall, should I change my location? should i go where i knew i could find them in the spring? or back to where i found those 3 last year in the winter?

Thanks
Mike

Here, I thought this might help explain better what I mean. Unfortunately, straight up is not north, but northeast but Microsoft Paint wouldn't allow me to rotate it without losing the pic.
edit: on second review, there is one red x out of place...dagnabit MS paint!

that one out in the middle should be directly beneath the other one up against the drop-off.

The different shaded colors dont mean much. My dad wanted to see where the weeds were most concentrated, so that is what you can see from an aerial view, the aerial is is from like 2002, and is during the summer, so that is not accurate at the moment. The #'s are the depths we found when ice fishing in 2010.

Some basic facts about pikes.

They breed in the early spring after the ice melts. They find some shallow areas with weeds (they like to choose flooded shoreline) and breed there. After that, they start eating to regain lost energy and they eat much. This period is considered to be the best time for pike catch in the whole year. Try not to waste it and catch as much as possible (fishing nets in possible spawning areas can do a lot of work). But...if they manage to breed then you won't stop them easily

So, during the spring and the summer they live near weeds (shoreline and shallow areas. Bigger ones can be deeper, though). As somebody said, pike waits for smaller fish and hunts them down. In the summer they become inactive and eat not much. The best catch time is in very early mornings and late evenings. Then weather temperature lowers and this fish may try to have a little meal.
In the autumn they go deeper because of rotting weeds. The biggest ones can be found in the deepest areas of your pond. They become more active after summer break. The autumn is considered to be the best time for trophy sized pikes. The best way of catching - trolling with deep diving lures - different crankbaits and silicone lures with jig hook (mostly in lakes or larger ponds, though).

How can they be caught? They may catch any kind of lures - spinners, spoons, crankbaits, jigs or whatever. Simply find the lure that might be interesting for fish that day. One day it will like green spoon, another day little orange minnow and so on.
Fishing nets are also an option if you have possibilities to buy them. But... you may catch some LMB in them too
Bait fish is also a good idea.

How they are caught in winter? Mostly with bait fish (fishing rod with flag like this one: http://www.nodakoutdoors.com/pike-ice-fishing101.php). If you have lots of time then you may try some winter lures. Don't forget about a leader (like fluorocarbon,for example).

EDIT: I didn't see that flag in one of the first pictures...

Hope that it helps a bit.

great map!! Hope you fix your pickerel or i mean pike that your in. HEHE. very bad joke.


If you have time, check out other areas. If you dont, use your stand by's. in open water is it easy enough to cover most of the pond in a day?? or do you guys sit and concentrate in one spot.

That shallow 3 foot island and the 9 foot hole to the right of it look interesting, but it could all be looks

Like grundulis said, hit the peak hours, sunrise and sunset.

Pike dont seem to feed at night, but I have had good luck while pushing dark early in the morning.

How many pole can you guys have out, ice fishing and summer fishing??

its 2 for summer and 4 for winter here.

i think it is supposed to be 3 lines per person, with any combo of tip ups and hand lines. But we've never followed that at my dad's place on the ice. Never seen a dnr guy come out, but i usually manage about 4 tip ups alone, (try for 5 and you just miss fish) plus my jigging rod. When more guys get out, the more traps we set. I have 7 of my own, plus 2 i am building just because i would like to catch a fish on something i made this year.

-mike

By the way, have you got any fishfinder (and boat)? If you say that largest pikes may be even 30 inch long then their weight could be ~3 kg or even more. Advanced fishfinder could show you larger fish (possible pikes) and places where fish can be found. And if you find lots of small baitfish, be sure that pike can't be far from there.

No i dont have a fish finder. I do have a rowboat, paddleboat and canoe on the pond, so it's easy to move about and find fish.

I think, considering the ample sunshine and lack of ice, once ice forms and I get to take my annual ice trip, I'll target the weed bed to the north of dad's pond, assuming there has been a late bloom of weeds (dad says he can still see some from his dock).

If there's nothing there on day 1, i'll head to the other spots on days 2 and 3. My goal is to remove 4 or 5 more pike before the weekend is over, and get my dad set up to continue the trend as long as he has ice.

I wish i could start a poll and get everybody's idea of a good target area. I really need to remove as many pike as i can before they have the chance to lay eggs.

Mike

Too bad. Fishfinder might be useful for finding fish... if you have a possibility to borrow it for a few days, you may try its possibilities.



I might be repetitive but I doubt that it's smart idea to search for pikes near weeds in winter. There might be some but not as much as in summer. It's because of rotting weeds - fish don't like such circumstances. They try to move deeper.

hmm. Good point. The dropoff, then, directly across from dad's pier. I'll start there, and then move as necessary.

Thanks
Mike