It seems that I need to get my lake shocked to be able to know how to proceed to bring my lake back to good LMB fishing. It seems best that I not try and build a shocker. Therefore, who is around here (Greene County, IN) that I could talk to about shocking my lake? Thanks.
I don't know anybody yet but I'll find out. I'm building a house east of Bloomfield on a 5 acre lake, I'd love to be around when you shock your fish if possible.
-Greg
Sounds good. Give me a call or post when you do. Thanks.
Give Matt @ American Pond and Lake Management a call. He has a shocking unit, and was planning on getting a boat to use it with.
765-437-5118
Im qurious whats the problum
The "problem" is that I am not catching LMB like I use to do. So trying to improve the lake. We kept 30 crappie and 6 bass the last two days. But caught no big bass.
Also, yesterday I checked the clarity with the Secchi disk. I had 53 inches over several places in the lake. Someone mentioned 18-24 as being ideal. Does the 53 inches help, hurt, does not matter?
It was still fun fishing, tho.
18-24 inches is the sign of a good planktonic base. 53 indicates a shortage. Phytoplankton are microscopic plants that are fed on by zoo plankton that are fed on by tiny "bugs". They are groceries for larger bugs that feed tiny fish and so on up the food chain. 53 inches indicates a shortage of the basis for pond life.
Since I don't know Indiana ecosystems, I will let others advise.
It is rather ironic...I grew up in SW Louisiana where clear water never existed. Period. Now in Indiana, to deep of clear water is not good.
So, what is the best approach to help this? As always, thanks.
Best approach to having clear water is "what are the goals". Fish production is best with plankton causing 16"-24" visibility. More fish poundage grows in plankton rich lower visibility water. Murky, mud colored water is a sign of more suspended sediment & lower plankton. Swimming and house domestic water use want clearer water since the filtration has less clogging easier water processing and clear water is appealing to swimming & aesthetics.
Thanks, Sir Cody. We do drink the water from the lake. And since we live next to it, it is nice to look at a clean lake. Periodically people swim in it. So, over all, with the beauty, the occasional big bass, the good drinking water, plenty of crappy and bass to eat, clean swimming,....that makes it sound pretty good. (And in addition, I got the best girl friend of 52 years and I am still in good health)Praise God.
The goal then is to enjoy and slowly improve the lake. Always open to suggestions, since I am not the brightest star in the sky.
For a basis,,, how big is the lake?
If I had a lake or lived on one IMO clear water is better for the all around most benefits. Clear water for lakes IMO should be in the 4ft to 10ft+ secchi disk range. The less the secchi disk readings are on a lake, the closer the lake is to having or developing harmful algae blooms and vice versa. In lake situations clear water results in fewer fish poundages per acre (lower productivity), however the lake as a whole can contain very adequate numbers of larger fish depending on how the fish balance is managed / harvested.
Your comment - " I am not catching LMB like I use to do" suggests an out of predator-prey balance situation. Something has changed between more bigger fish numbers and now. Most often the change is too many bass being recruited into the predator portion of the community and not enough bass harvest resulting in "too many hogs feeding at the trough" that over eat the natural food base production.
Large ponds and lakes of larger acres than 10+ can require a significant amount of fish management to maintain correct fishery balance. Even more intense management is required when the fishery becomes out of balance due to the total number of fish involved especially when angler harvest is limited. Thus clearer water in a lake situation can be a good thing when trying to reduce fish numbers by angler harvest to maintain or change the balance.
The lake is about 30 acres with about 4 being only 2 feet due to the Army Corp being involved 18 years ago when we built it. It was the height of wet lands craziness. They claimed we were covering 4 acres of wet lands, so we had to have about the same amount of shallow water. The rest of the lake is from 10 to 12 feet with a hole of 14 with the average being about 7 or 8. There is a creek that we covered, so there is some deep water there also. One can see it on Google just north of Bloomfield, IN.
Thanks for your comments.
My trout line has not caught anymore big catfish, so perhaps I have gotten most of those.
We just got an inch or so of rain. Smells good. Will keep the lake up for a while, but obviously more important for the farmers.
TC. Goodnight.