Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Bass Psychology

I am an amateur angler removing LMB from an over populated #3 acre retention pond in NE Fl. My goal was 2-3 # per week fishing an hour or two in the early morning. Things went well for the first 6 weeks. I met my goal easily. Then for the last 11 days nothing. In that time period I would normally catch 3-4 LMBs. Different plastic baits & lures = nothing! I miss the LMB dinners.

I am fishing from about 80 yards of shore on the SW side of the pond. This is the most forage/structure rich portion of the pond. I assumed that as I removed LMB from this area, LMB from the remaining areas/population of the pond would quickly redistribute themselves to this area because of the forage/structure. Forage/structure are a scarce commodity. I do understand July-September are the difficult fishing months in FL. We do have a Major Cold Front due next week, highs only 85-91.

I know LMB will re-occupy this area but how long will it take? With an overpopulation of LMB, I thought it would be a matter of just days? Is there something else I am missing?

Can you get permission to fish from another spot on the other side of the lake?

That would help determine if the bass are just turned off from feeding right now, versus you having fished them out along your stretch of the shoreline.

I know that it is possible to "chum" fish like catfish and carp. However, I don't know if there is any signal you can put into the water to draw bass back over to your area.

Perhaps next time you go, also take some gear to catch BG. If you strike out on bass again, maybe catch some BG and clip their tails and a few fins. I don't know if the bit of blood and the swimming struggles of the BG will draw distant bass?

Also, do you have a buddy that feeds bass in his pond. Maybe throw some floating pellets FROM your good spot. After a few occasions, the bass may start tracking the tasty snacks back to their source.

Hopefully an expert that fishes their own pond a lot can answer your question. I sure would like to hear from some experts how much bass move to fill vacated niches in ponds.

Sorry to hear that your culling project is currently on pause ... and you are missing out on your LMB dinners!

I'd try live bait for a few days and see what happens.

" try live bait for a few days"

I thought that was a good idea! The 8" female BGs thought that was a very good idea along with the turtles. The LMB not so much. I caught BGs & was annoyed by turtles.

Talked with a friend, an experienced local angler, he went fishing during this time period to a lake that he fished often & knew the local honey holes. He spent a day fishing & was skunked, NOTHING!

I did some reading looking for a possible reason and came up with water temperature. One magazine article talked about the range of temperatures that they had tournament fished & how ease of fishing declined as the temperature went down & up. His chart only went as high as 85F my pond temperature is 89F. I do not think it it will cool off soon tomorrow's high 97F.

I have seen some LMB, since the water has cleared a bit, slowly patrolling looking for a meal. The best was a very tight school of 5 swimming close to the bank all about 12-14" skinny. They quietly swam through a school of 3 dozen BG that were resting in the shade all to big to eat. The BG barely got out of the way.
I will find something more productive to do till the water cools.

At first I thought you were using 8" BG for bait ... but I realized you must have been using something like earthworms. To catch 12 to 14 in LMB use 2 to 2.5 in BG ... they will tear them up ... or a 3 or 4 in Shiner. Guarantee this will work with the water temp at 87. This size BG is probably in short supply in that pond but if you can find some ... fish on!

I agree with live bait of the correct sizes and balance. This from a guy with 4 tackle boxes full of stuff to fool fish.

Fishing with worms, if that's what J.E. Craig was using, is certainly a bit frustrating when you want to catch bass yet have a lot of bluegill.

You just need to use worms of the correct size!

Tried the worms also had a very few 1.5-2 " BG. Only the BG & turtles were interested. Hard to find any small fish in the pond. Took 48 hrs for the minnow trap to capture the few I got. I did have more nightcrawlers than fish. A bit of a drive to get live shiners for me. Thought I could easily get something from the pond. Tried worms on some shad/shiner like lures. All with no luck.

Thank You for the help. I will spend the time restoring the wooden seats in my 30 y.o. fiberglass canoe & wait for cooler weather. Also amuse myself hand feeding the BG & big tilapia. They easily out sprint the turtles for pellets. I am not fond of the turtles. I enjoy seeing them swim hard & get little.

Forgot to mention that I agree on those high water temps. That's probably a substantial factor in the lack of bite.

THE ANSWER IS : High water Temperature !

I think it has been the water temperature. It was warm in July but got up to 91 degrees in late Aug -Sept. I have started fishing again for them now that the water is down to 72. The activity, location, feeding habits have changed for ALL fish in the pond. From what I have seen, I would hazard a guess that the LMB had hunkered down because of the hot water. "This is my spot & it is to hot to move." I have recently seen LMB breaking the water surface to go after prey. Only saw BG doing that when it was hot. I am not a good nor experienced angler but I was able to catch 4 LMB 75% RW in the 12-14" range in less than 4 hours time this weekend. All from the same area that was productive in late Jul & early Aug. An all time record for me. Enough for a nice meal. I endorse the Rapala fillet knife & board. Terrible fillet knife I had. Canoe repaired & ready for use. Handles much better with a clean & polished bottom.

I hope to remove enough predators to rebalance the pond. All the LMB that I have caught this summer are 75% relative weight.

Sounds like an overstocked bass pond to me also and you have educated the remaining fish. Bait size does matter
and you need to back off until they get stupid again.

In the meantime spend time on the bluegills. That’s tough to do with existing predators like bass. According to Lusk, 95% of the fish eggs laid, hatched, etc get eaten.

The best cattleman is a grass farmer and the best bass raiser is a bluegill farmer. And that bluegill needs to be ABOUT 20 to 25% the size of the bass. It’s a matter of calories received vs energy expended.
Catch some bluegills and use them as free swimming bait, Plastic and/or rubber lures aren’t close to live bait.