Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations oxbow lake

about 10 years ago i went fishing in this oxbow lake this pic is taken from the trail its a 300 acre lake to the left but i guess if it overflows it forms this smalllake as u see its about 1 acre or so and the only thing i caught in it was bullheads and rockbass no bluegill which is strange im curious how it only has warmouth/rockbass and bullheads? id think ti would lats carry bluegill as well im gonna go tomorrow to see if i can catch some for flathead bait

https://imgur.com/a/dR5Dsn4

iv fished it 2 times hoping id be able to catch a good sized channel or blue but nothing ever but bulls its been since 2009 though so wonder if it still has fish everytime i threw in i caught a fish within 30 seconds using minnows and night crawlers nobody fishes it cause takes 3 miles to walk all the way back there

It looks like a very "fishy" place. Good luck

what do you mean? lol well went today for 45 mins and my god i was using number 8 cricket hooks and missing rockbass thats how small they were lolz i caught 8 in all no bullheads this time but iw as using tiny pieces of nightcrawlers n didnt fish in the deeper spots


hopefully next trip i can catch the rockbass bigger so flatheads will wana jump on themi chunked a old tub of stinkbait i had hopefully the bullheads get in it and feast and threw 3 pounds of crawfish shells as well which im sure they will feast on there is no food source in that pond though the rock bass stomachs are sunken in its quite sad they dont eat fish pellets so i couldnt try to feed them on my walks in the park

i have a question about this oxbow lakehere is another pic about half the lake


https://imgur.com/a/o8h8lHt


the fish r too small to catch now like is aid 10 years ago i went here and caught like 30warmouth and 20 bullheads within hour n half every 5 second si had a fish on they wernt huge but they were great size for bait i even took the bullheads home n ate them

anyways fast forward till 2019 10 years later iv fished it 2 times iv caught 7 rockbass so small they can barely get a sized 8 cricket hook in there mouth which is the smallest hook walmart here has lol they are absolutely tiny largest one was 1.5 inches long.. idk why they are so small now no bigger ones did they die off? i stopped being able to catch them after a few they were to small to get hooked my cork was moving but i couldnt get a hook set due to them being to small

if iw ere to go in and feed them fish food do you think within 4 months i could get them bigger? they ate obviously very stunted due to no food there its nothing but warmouths and bulllheads so im guessing if i buy some fishfood i could help them grow large enough to catch them on hooks

Why not try a trap?

well i just got my 3 crawfish traps n the mail the cone shaped ones i thought about throwing them in there but not sure if ill catch a bunch or not tbh they r so small i need to get them bigger for live bait for flats they r so small they almost die after being hooked

so i hope if i were t go out and feed them once a day theyd get bigger

im wondering why i have yet to catch a bullhead n there id think theyd live over the rockbass but idk maybe a lot of things cna happen after 10 years i know nobody fishes it its 3 miles deep into the woods in a trail and a bit of walk t get down to the oxbow lake maybe 5 feet n deepest