Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Give me tips for landing some hookshy LMB

At least 3 LMB in my 1/4 acre pond are over 20", even 24" or 25" and have been uncatchable. I want to remove them.
How would you suggest I rig live GSF, BG, or YP? What size and style hook shall I use, what bobber or other float to keep the bait up out of the weeds, how long do I let the bass swallow the baitfish, etc.?
Just tonight one of the bass made a pass at the measured 11" GSF (!) I had on the line as I got it to the boat. Recently bass have attacked and swallowed 10" YP and 5" GSF I was reeling in, without getting hooked themselves.
Or, can I interest anyone who would come for a visit and catch these problem bass of mine?

Puddle
I have caught LMB around 6-7# on a jug line. About 42” of line strong enough to hold the bass with a heavy wire hook like a worm hook under a two liter coke bottle.. throw it out with a BG hooked behind the dorsal fin.... and wait and watch the paddle out and retrieve it.... we fish for catfish this way and usually get more LMB than we want

PS I use 4-5” BG or any fish

Hey, Puddle. If you want to focus on just the very largest LMB, go with a 6" BG and use a two hook rig. I got a monster tiger musky to take a 12 inch bass, but when I set the single hook...nada. Broke my heart!

Also, you could consider fishing during heavy rain events, or at night.

Thanks, guys for these suggestions.
Pat, I was wondering about the effectiveness of a jug for LMB. It sounds like that would work.
anthropic, when you say a two hook rig, are you stringing the hooks together on a short piece of line, then running one of those hooks through the lip of the bait, the other back near the tail?

4 Corners,

Very nice GSF and YP!. Your thoughts about using live bait are on the mark. I've been fishing with BG as bait for a long time now. Years ago, I would fish for FHs and for them I used 8" and larger if I could find them. I think size matters. For LMB, I generally catch fish which are between 3 and 4 times the length of the bluegill. So for fish you are targeting I would recommend 6" to 8" fish. GSF and YP are more slender than bluegill and so they could be longer without deterring them. If you choose smaller bait you can expect to catch smaller fish.

All of the methods described are good but catching by rod and reel is a lot of fun and I would encourage you to do it that way. Over the years I have refined how I fish this way so I will share how I rig.

I use a balloon bobber. I get a bag of 30 7" party balloons at Walmart for $1 and a pack of the 3/0 or 4/0 Octopus hooks. The balloon is filled only to about a diameter of about 2". I like less air, just enough to keep the fish off bottom and struggling. I hook the fish just under the back end of the dorsal fin. I have found I hook more fish with this arrangement. The bass will attack the head and this head toward the gullet arrangement leaves the hook in a good position to hook the fish. Take care not to hook too deeply into the bait. The barb of the hook should not have interference with the back of the bait as this may prevent hook set. Generally I only hook about 1/8 to 3/16" from the top edge.

As far as how long to let it run ...

Generally you will see the bait panicking before the strike. I like to lift my rod tip and want the line to be just slack. You will see the balloon take off and when this happens lower your rod tip and set the hook just before the line gets tight. This seems to work best for me.

Post some pics of your fish, I would like to see them. One last thing, you have a mental note of where you have seen them attack the fish you were catching. That's the most likely place you will catch them.

Thanks so much for your wisdom and experience jpsdad. These specifics will certainly help me out. The partially filled balloon idea seems right on the mark-low resistance but adequate buoyancy.
I hope to document the process and end up with LMB fritters.

Puddle they don’t seem to mind the jug at all you can downsize the bottle to a 20 oz coke bottle but the pull it under and you have to chase it and wait fer it to surface Have caught plenty this way and it fishes all the time ifn you’re to busy to fish

You are most welcome 4Corners.

BTW Pat is correct that juglines are effective. With jugs they need to be of sufficient size such that their resistance to going under will set the hook. The reason I like a balloon not fully inflated is that the bait won't tire as quickly and it won't offer resistance to the fish taking the bait. In the case of the jug, the resistance is just what you need to set the hook. In the case of rod and reel, you are setting the hook so there is no point in having it inflated beyond the minimum required.

4CP, do you have a feeder set up and throwing daily? If so, then catching LMB during feeder throws is very easy. LMB learn very quickly that their food is stacked up once or twice a day waiting for the feeder to throw.

A Trot line baited with appropriate sized suckers, BG, etc is also effective and will give you more bait in the water. In a 1/4 acre pond you can go "shore to shore" with the line to keep the bait off the bottom.