Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Re-catching LMB (duration to bite again)

Wondering what your experience is here...
Say you catch a LMB on a certain day. Do the fish go through a period where they won't bite for a while. If so, how long?

The reason I ask is because three weeks ago I started tagging the LMB in my pond. The first weekend I tagged 6. The second weekend 5, and this weekend (now been three weeks) another 4. I have yet to re-catch any of the LMB that have been tagged, yet I see them from time to time swimming around, and one is even gaurding it's spawning bed right now.

Maybe they are just more leary to something that is familiar to a recent being caught experience?

KGP,

This has already been covered to some extent. The concensus is fish learn fast to avoid recapture especially with the same lures. In fact it can be a problem in ponds as there are only so many fish and after awhile recapture becomes difficult.

Additonally some fish are faster learners than others just like people. I actually caught and released ths same bass twice once off of my pier within five minutes. I know this because of a conspicuous mark on the top of his head the other fish don't have. However this is the exception.

I can actually spook my bass that I feed daily by walking out onto the pier with a fishing pole in hand. It's really true! But my water is very clear.

However one thing that may be a factor in your lack of recapture is the spawning season. Once spawning commenses bass can be harder to catch as they are preoccupied. Procreation takes precedence over feeding sometimes to their demize, as in stress, which leads to reduced vitality and subsequent disease, and morbidity (sick fish).

Thanks. Maybe it is nearing time to switch up the lures. But, since I have some fish tagged, I think I will give a good effort to try to re-capture using the same lures, as it will be a fun learning experience. At least until I quit catching fish!

My pond is also clear, and is only 1 acre in size. I can't imagine that there are all that many more sizeable bass that I haven't already tagged (I have not tagged anything under a pound). The interesting thing is that last year all of them were incredibly hard to catch, but a little over a month ago I installed an areator. It was like flipping a light switch on and catching fish on, seemingly, every other cast. I'd like to think the aerator had something to do with it, but I don't know.

One other question: Would something like the Tiger strain of LMB be more likely to be re-captured on the same lures? They are supposed to be more aggressive, right?

I have tagged some largemouth in my pond. One of the tagged fish has been caught 5 times!

Frank

No prize for that one if you have a tourney amongst friends! Thanks, Frank - that's good to know!

KGP,

Since you are in St. Louis (Go Redbirds!) presumably you have the northern strain of LMB and not Floridas? The northerns are, in my experience, the most aggressive LMB you can have...but even northerns can and do get conditioned in a small catch and release pond.

I have struggled with this issue greatly...many say you are just a bad fisherperson , others say you need to change lures, and some say you need to give up lures and fish with live bait.

Those comments notwithstanding, my experience is that without question, LMB become conditioned to flys/lures in a small C&R pond. The only solution, only solution I have found is to either reduce fishing pressure or add more ponds and rotate among them thereby reducing fishing pressure.

What level of fishing pressure will LMB tolerate and still allow good fishing? I'm not sure, but know that weekly is too much and about 4 times a year or less will give me tremendous fishing results.

Part of this depends on what you define as good fishing, also. For me, I have defined it as a catch rate of at least 8 LMB per hour on artificials by a skilled fisherperson with a 50% probability of one fish meeting or exceeding 5 pounds. I'm achieving that catch rate in ponds with light fishing pressure and not achieving it in others.

Also, I'm convinced that LMB in a small pond do not have to be caught to be conditioned...seeing their buddies caught on artificials is conditioning enough. I'm also convinced I can condition every LMB in a 1 acre pond in a matter of a couple of weeks...conditioning that takes time to unlearn, perhaps a long time.

I hope you can find a better answer to this perplexing problem.

KGP I more or less gave up on the black bass for this very reason and switched to a much more aggressive fish as my main focus for fishing. The HSB seems to be at this point that fish.

Yes, northerns.
Not really a problem. Just a matter of interest. While they were tougher to catch last year on artificials, we had no problem with shiners (just to have fun catching something). Also, I am on a blue ribbon portion of a trout stream, so we always have something to set a hook into.

We have gone with the BG/HSB combination in our 1/4 acre pond, but have HSB and LMB in main pond.

Don't know how sucessfull the BG/HSB pond will be since still 4ft low due to drought that has never filled since construction early last year.

I would not stock LMB in a small pond at all if starting over - no reproduction problems as associated with LMB - as well as catchability problems.

To let you know F1 "tiger" is northern x florida. While they are known to be agressive It is NOT as agressive as pure northern. Also Frank's bass caught 5 times was F1, right?

I'm a bit confused. How can an F1 bass less agressive, yet gain weight and size faster than a pure northern (same conditions)? It kind of defies logic in a sense.

KGP,

Asking for fishing location is like asking someone her age
....but if you don't mind and speaking only in generalities do you mind mentioning your favorite trout stream there? I love the White and Norfork rivers for great trout fishing in SW Missouri and northern Ark. and try to hit them once a year, if possible.

What kind of tags are you using? Some of them cause infections and don't last very long from what I have seen.

I don't mind at all. First, it's not my favorite - it's just that it's where my land is located. The Current River, a few miles downstream from Montauk trout park. I visit Norfolk, the White and the lakes (Bull and Norfolk) at least twice a year. Some of my favorite places.

Cecil, they are plastic dart type tags.

Greg

I am assuming the one I caught 5 times was F-1 Tiger bass from Am Sport fish. But if you remember you did the stocking for me and stocked 150 F-1 and 50 Florida.

Cecil, The tags are plastic with a tiny "T" shaped end that goes into the fish. The only problem I have is algae on the tag sometimes makes it hard to read the tag number. I bought the tags and tag gun from Greg.

Frank

Frank I fogot about the 50 pure Florida. If you have caught a Florida bass 5 times that would prove everyone wrong, Yep the tags last but algae gets so thicjk after 3-4 years making them hard to read. I have yet to find a better system however.

I've seen those cause nasty infections around here. In a nearby lake a guy tags everything and one of my customers is furious about it. He says everyone he catches is infected at the point of insertion. Maybe the guy is doing it wrong.

A trout club I belong to plants browns trout annually. We were going to tag some of them to monitor growth rates but a local biologist told the tags don't last long enough to make it worthwhile. Maybe he was wrong.

Update...
Fished for a few hours yesterday and caught 7 LMB, 4 of which were tagged within the last 3 weeks. Hopefully I have dumb and agressive LMB.