Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations LOVELACE LAKE

I have a 40 acre flood control lake that was stocked with flordia's, bluegill, channel cat, crappie, and coppernose 20 years ago. there never was a time that i could go down there and not catch 10 nice bass in a couple of hours. i was normal to pull a good five pond bass every other day or so. we would average about 4 ten pounders a summer. it wasnt tell last year that i noticed a sudden drop of in the population of bass. you could still catch your fair share of 2 lb crappie and all the bluegill you wanted. well this year it is hard to go out and catch a bass. if we do catch one it is only a pound or so. even the crappie and bluegill are few and fard between. does anyone have an idea as what has maybe happened to all my fish.

They could have become "educated" if there is a fair amount of regular fishing pressure. Florida strain LMB are somewhat notorious for being harder to catch than their northern cousins.

There could be other reasons: Is the forage base extremely strong this year? Any possibilty of poaching? Disease?

it is all down hill this year. myself and my dad are really the only ones that fish it. well except the people that fish in the creek from the road, but they have always done that and it has never effected it like whatever has happened this year.

Have you tried using live bait? If the forage base is extremely good, meaning there are more bait fish than the LMB can handle, then fishing can be extremely tough. Mid July and August are the months around here when the forage base seems peaks in its overall abundance.

You could always hire someone to come in and do an electroshocking survey too.

dad like to crappie fish and he uses minnows but this year he has not caught many crappie and has not caught any that would weigh over a pound. last year we would catch like 20 crappie a day that would weigh a pound to two pounds. i have been doing some catfishing latly so i have tried to catch bluegill with nightcrawlers and that hasnt been working. i have also tried throwing a cast net and i would catch a few but not a nights worth of cat fishing. i know that the forage is not good but the number of bass is not good either. i have noticed a growth in the numer of bullheads but that is the only thing that number has gone up. everthing else has hit a all time low. how would i know if there was a disease that has come into my waters.

i have meet with bob lusk and i think he is going to come out in the fall and do a electroshocking survey.

I'm wondering if you may have too many large channel cat, or maybe have a few flathead cat in your lake. When they grow real large, thay can decimate your big fish.

I agree with shorty. I have 3 small lakes with florida strain LMB and they are very hard to catch. You might want to try to fish with slower moving baits (like texas-rigged worms) on the bottom. Thats how we catch most of ours.

I've experience a similar phenomena of great fishing gone south. Many years ago, my dad and I had the opportunity to fish some of the many ponds on a large Texas ranch. We never caught anything in the 10 lb range, but it was not unusual to catch 20 to 30 bass (1 to 5 lb range) in an hour or so in some of those ponds. We enjoyed this success for the first 3 or 4 years, but it started to fall off after that. We released many of the fish we caught, and we were about the only ones that ever fished the remote ranch ponds, and there were at least 20 that I knew of. And, our trips to the ranch were not that frequent, maybe 3 times a year. I'm thinking that ponds, especially ones that aren't actively managed, have a live of their own. They reach a peak and then as they age, productivity dissipates - maybe for biological, chemical, or habitat changes. Certainly, learned souls in the pond and fish business would have a more definitive take on exactly what causes this situation.

Otters?

Yes, I'm certain that ponds, left to themselves, have boom and crash cycles. Forage becomes plentiful, predators become more and more plentiful to eat it. Then the forage becomes scarce. If you can't intervene by removing enough predators, the predators begin to crash. Then it starts over.

well when the fishing was good we would set out trot lines and catch a twenty pound cc about every three or four days, now that the fishing has gone done i have not caught a cc over five pounds. i just catch about 15 to 25 black and yellow bullheads. we have both species where i live. i have never caught or seen a flathead in our lake and know that we have never introduced them, not to say there not in there. i just have never seen one.

i dont think that is the problem. sorry. i have alwayed fished a variety of lure and plastic and am a big fan of the texas rig, but that has not help with the catch rate. i did go out yesterday and catch a 2lb 3oz bass on a crome/blue rattletrap. i fish for two 2.5 hours and that all i caught.

bobad and squeeky what are yall sugesting i do about. wait it out or do something. what can be done?

LL, what kind of body condition did the bass you caught have? poor? average? good? unbelievably good? You can tell alot about the strength of the forage base based on the body condition of your predators.

I am hoping no one has secretly stocked flathead catfish in your pond, that would be a tough fix.

well he was in good condition, he was fat and thick. he was very light in color though. does that mean anyhting. i have a picture on my cell phone i wish i could put it on here. i am with you on the hoping no one secretly stock flathead.

The best way is to take a survey. If you can't get a shock boat,
you can seine and fish. With enough seining and fishing, you can get a feel for your forage fish numbers and their body condition. If small fish are plentiful and fat, it's a good sign. If your larger bass are fat, it's a good sign too. If there's an abundance of forage fish, they may simply be too fat and lazy to bite right now. You may have to think out of the box to catch them.

both the number of forage fish and the number of bass are way down. i was fishing last night in the 40 acre pond and none of the fish are near shore. what i action i see is in the middle of the lake. all the bait fish i see are near the surface. could this be a problem with the oxygen in the water.

Possibly, were they "piping" for air on the surface? Did it look like they were trying to suck air off the surface of the water? Fish can become very uncatchable when a DO (dissolved oxygen) crash is happening. Usually you will see fish shallow too as most of them will try to survive a DO crash by staying as close to the surface as possible.

You're probably already on the right track when you contacted Lusk. He, if anyone, could advise you properly. However, a 40 acre impoundment is a sizeable task for an individual to manage. I'm kind of suprised that the fishing in a pond of that size and age would deteriorate so much with only 2 people fishing it. Many of the ponds where I've experienced dwindling fish catches, were far smaller than yours. And, while not overfished, they problably suffered more from loss of forage by being underfished. Also, I'm guessing water chemistry, silting, and drastically changing water levels over time diminished spawning habitat - all having a role in destroying the predator/prey equilibrium. Although these problems may not be a factor in your case, the loss of forage might be. Put some bluegill traps out at different locations and bait with 3/4" Purina pellets or even bread if necessary, and leave overnight. Hopefully, you'll have at least 20 to 30 bluegill in the 2 " to 3" range. I make this check periodically in my ponds. I don't mind losing bass, there easy to restart if you have the forage base. But, no so the other way around. I'd much rather have a pond full of bluegill that one full of bass.

well the lake is silting in and the lake water level does change drastically. when we get a good rain like we have in the spring the lake will come up to about 120 acre from 40. the lake is down two foot right now.

there very well could be a DO problem, but everyhting i see is in the middle. nothing in the shallows. i do see some 2 inch minnows in the shallows but i see them in the middle as well. what cna be done.

LL,


How clear is your water? Is it murkier or clearer than usual? If it's slightly murky, what color is it? Does it smell "right", or different? These are all clues that have to do with plankton bloom that can affect DO.

Are there trees around the bank that create heavy shade? This could explain the fish shying away from the banks, because the shade can cause locally low DO.

the water is very murky and always had been. visibility is about a foot. it doesnt smell any diffrent. there is a bloom going on right now, but the fish have not been there for the last year now, so thats not it. as far as shade goes there is more toward the creek but toward the dam there is not many. what fish there are, are spread out in the middle of the lake. so if it is a DO problem what cana be done or is this a timly thing.

How much wind fetch do you get on the surface? Wind and wave action will affect your DO levels.

Of course, since the problem occurred last year, nobody has a guaranteed answer. However, since this happened suddenly, I'm betting on a fish kill, the most normal of which is a DO crash. Last year, North Texas got some VERY unseasonable and huge rains. With a loss of both predators and prey, the bullheads could get a new foot(fin) hold and start thriving.

You haven't said whether you live on it or would positively know if/when there was a crash and resulting die off.