Pond Boss Forums FISH & FISHING Show off your catch Quantity caught on ponds vs. big lakes

I fished a man's ponds last year and always caught quite a few bass. My big lake fishing the past three years has not been stellar. And I would rather catch numbers than chasing lunkers. Can any of you say how many bass or crappie or bream you usually catch at a pond? I know that has a lot of variables but here is a perspective. This year, on lakes, I have probably averaged catching 5 bass per outing. And tops was 9 bass. Not very good, what with all that goes into owning a boat! Many years ago, I used to catch a lot more, lol, and I don't know why. Anyway, again this year, I have gotten interested in pond fishing again. I have access to that man's ponds and another nice one nearby to it. I have entertained thoughts of how to get even more ponds in the rotation, lol, tired of mediocre numbers. I don't even have to keep them, I can catch and release. But reading a bit on here, maybe the average pond needs thinning out! How do your days go?

Wow, that's a question that begs for some bragging. I catch more fish in my pond than I do at other places. That may be because I know the pond pretty well, watched it be built and can almost call the fish by name. Well, some of them ARE numbered, hee hee.

Anyway, in a 2 hour outing I can catch 12 or more nice (8" and over) bg if that is what I am targeting plus a half a dozen very small bass(6 to 10"). If targeting bass, very much depends on the time of year, but I fished for about 2 hours on Sunday and got 2 over 4 pounds, one was over 6, and 8 that were smaller, from 8 to 16 inches. They are spawning now and easy to catch. Will get a bit tougher once they move some. Time of day is important too, not much happens on a hot, sunny day in August at noon, but by 9pm, the top water action will light up.

This is only my experience, and I love my pond for many reasons. Even on the rare occasion that I get zero bites, time by myself on the water with my fly rod is worth every penny and every bit of sweat and tears that goes into having it. I still say it is cheaper than therapy too! But don't get me started on the herons and muskrats.

I don't know about numbers but I have to downsize my expectations on the local public lakes as far as size. After harvesting my trophy gills and perch I manage for, the wild fish in local lakes look anemic.

livemusic - IMO you should spend time here learning about fish management - primarily bluegill and bass. Then use your knowledge to help those pond owners where you fish to better manage their ponds. first thing to learn from the owner is what are the type of fish goals of his pond. If no goals then you can establish some for him. Learn about Relative Weight Rw and Standard Weights. Then set about keeping catch records for each of the ponds to monitor the balance and how it changes as you harvest or use catch & release toward achieving the individual goals. Keep the owner informed of your progress by showing him copies of your results. If they eat fish then periodically clean some of their fish for them. The pond owner has gone to the expense of building and maintaining a pond, the least you can do as a free-loading angler is to help him better manage his pond fishery by using your fishery knowledge that you learned here.

Start your learning by reading, studying, and understanding the concepts in LMB management and Growing Big Bluegill Archive threads.
Bluegill
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=189988#Post189988
BG Harvest Guidelines
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=189988#Post189988
Sexing BG & LMB
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=258505#Post258505

LMBass
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=255372#Post255372

Relative Weight Charts - Standard Weights
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=160456#Post160456

Depending upon the ponds sizes and numbers of ponds fished, a rotation of catch and release might result in some pretty hook shy fish.

LM,

Bill and Tony have given you some great information.

Learn to define your goals and how to achieve them. On our big pond yesterday, we caught over 18 LMB in the 14 inch range and 7 in the six pound range in just a couple hours without live bait. Our RW for LMB over 16 inches is 109. We could catch CNBG all day long if we wanted. We have had a lot of help learning how to achieve our goals and it is very hard work, but sitting in the boat yesterday was worth it every cast.


Learn learn learn.

Ok, I have lots to read, lol.

Still, would love to hear some fish stories to spur me on. I even have gotten into 'finesse' fishing -- going for numbers more than lunkers. Although I like to catch big fish, catching anything reasonable is nice. Little bitty ones, that kind of gets old, lol. But I guess I'd rather do that than catch nothing for hours.

I actually bought a nice ultralight rod today, kind of higher end.

What is RW?
What is CNBG?

I like both...obviously I favor ponds and it's easier to catch fish in ponds if you manage them right, but there is still something I like about being on a big lake or river...exploring new areas...pulling into a cove you've never seen before...watching other boats and fisherman off in the distance. Both big lakes and ponds make for a good day.

Relative weight (compared to length)

Copper nose blue gill

Does your 109 RW mean that your bass are 9% fatter than normal?

LM,

They are not 9% fatter, they are in the group that is on the on the curve 9% higher than the standard.

In addition to the reading material that was outlined for you, there is a TON of information in the archives. Here's a sample:

Acronyms

livemusic - now that you have a list of acronyms used here, when you have questions where you can use some key words plus Pond Boss Forum typed into a web search tool and it should provide numerous links to previous PBoss threads of that topic.

Often one needs to actually fish for small fish with various methods while keeping records of species & sizes to get a good idea of the balance of fish community in a pond. IMO one should spend more time collecting forage fish information than larger fish information. The forage food base is actually more important than the predators. Without a proper and abundant forage base the predators are overall lower quality. Good Management efforts and records are not about regularly catching larger fish or one type of fish. Knowing the ratio of forage, pan fish, predators and their body condition are all important to maintaining the quality of the fishery.

A healthy well balanced fish community based on the goals provides one a long term high quality fishery to enjoy.

IMHO pond fishing will spoil a lake fisherman(person), especially a well managed pond.

Me personally, I won't go fish anywhere else except for big fish (stripers mostly) other than my ponds. It's a letdown anywhere else.