Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations HSB vs. LMB in small ponds

Ewest. Hilarious story and one I'm sure will be retold and laughed about thru the years.

George and Dave, about your hookshy channels and BG.
Let me introduce them to a catalpa worm and we'll see how hookshy they are. The ultimate bait.

BG for the kids is what I am aiming for. And until I allowed the BG stock to multiply (with zero predetors except an Osprey every afternoon) for the past 2 years, I thought I was doing fine. Now I have about 19.7 GAZZILLION BG's making my pond-side a great scene for an African peranha movie shot at feeding time. Question is: am I a simpleton to believe that when I finally stock the 200 LMB to start controlling the BG growth, the kids should eventually have some pretty big (ie: trophy) LMB to contend with? But I say, for those those non-biters, think SCUBA and spear guns.. (-: (ps- talked to Oreegun DFW about stocking LMG. No prob once I get permits, screen my over-flow, get inspected and buy the fish that will indeed be shipped on Greyhound.) I should have the process done by 2014,,,, sheeesh!

BM :

Now you are talking. Catalpa worms -- have not seen that mentioned on the fourm. My uncle had the biggest catalpa tree I have ever seen. We use to gather those 2-4 in. yellow/green worms from his tree , keep a few out to fish and put the rest in pint containers with sawdust to cool in the fridge {not the one in the house} to thaw and use later. Best catfish bait I ever used. Big enough to work and with tough skin they would stay on the hook. I never tried them on other fish but I bet they would work. Thanks for the memory. ewest

ps : sorry I got off the HSB topic , I could not pass on BM's comment.

ML has warned us re stressing HSB in hot weather. Who can inform about 1) HSB activity in cold water (say, compared to LMB), and 2) any problems over-Wintering HSB under ice?

Meadowlark, I know you said you were not going to change your signature bar again, but how about
"Caresser and Stroker of Blue Gill" added in there somewhere?

Ewest, we used to tear the cats up on trotlines with the catalpas. We also would cut the medium sized ones in half and catch coolers full of BG with them. Have caught 8 to 10 bulls on bed with a piece of skin! Used to have a tree in our front yard in Philly. We have one left near pond in Tylertown.

We're not off topic, fishing is fishing.

Sorry, Theo. I did get us off topic.

I read of different post regarding hard to catch fish (Bass mostly, as well as Bluegill, catfish).

At what age did this happen? How old was the pond when you noticed your fish getting harder to catch?

My pond is 2 1/2yrs old. My Bluegill have never seen live bait, I have only used jigs to catch them. My theory was that if they are going to get harder to catch I would put off useing the live bait until I had to pull out the big guns in order to catch a fish. Despite being fed daily with Purina fish chow they still bite good.

I never Bass fished until the second summer of the pond, they are easy to catch as well. They are just native Bass from the local hatchery.

I can understand the fish getting harder to catch
in our ponds, just curoius when this starts happening?

Sunil,

So many signatures, so little space.

Great question, and I can't wait to see some replies on this question.

Burgermeister, We have some catalpa trees in North Texas but no worms. I've looked for them a bunch of times. My Dad used to tell me about using the worms for bait. He would put a hook all the way through them and turn them inside out. He said no fish could resist them.

Dave, if your trees get beans on them, they may be the wrong sex. It seems they only eat the leaves of the trees without beans. I have planted them on trees before, and they would never stay. If you can get some started, you have a little gold mine.

Also, Dave, you will know if you have them. They will strip a tree in no time. They usually come in June, in Miss., just in time for good cat and bream fishing. I have taken one thru the metamorphic stage, and it is a large moth.

John von Neuman (for everyone who scratched their head after Theo's reference...)

There are two Catalpa trees on the farm next door, in the middle of a field we make hay on. I mowed it last night and saw some half-eaten leaves. Went back tonight and found these guys:


BM, both of these trees had cigars (seed pods) and both of them had Catalpa worms. Maybe it's different with the Southern Catalpa? (There are two different spcies/subspecies).

These are the first CWorms I've seen since I was a kid (have been baling that field for 15 years, never looked in the trees). I'll be trying them out as bait tomorrow.

Theo :

Great pic. of those yellow/green worms -- magic fish bait. Go collect a bunch and cool them down just like you would for night crawlers. You can thaw them out later and use them . As they warm up they will get active. Leave a few on the tree so they will come back next year. I never noticed if the trees we mined had beans or not. ewest

For as much as you will ever need to know about the lives and loves of Caltapa worms, see http://www.ag.auburn.edu/enpl//bulletins/catalpasphinx/catalpasphinx.htm#infestations

BTW, If anyone has noticed that caltapa worms look like tomato horn worms, this is because they are pretty closely related, being larvae of different species of sphinx moths.

While reading up on catalpa worms, I noticed several comments to the effect that they are best fished on the bottom. This has been my experience as well. Any comments?
Lou

My kids and I fished with the Catalpa worms for about 45 minutes today. We landed two nice CC and had two more big ones break lines (one actually managed to wrap it around a field tile pile on the bottom, a first for our pond). This is maybe double the catfish action I have experienced using almost all other baits (a commercial stink bait was close), so I definitely agree with CWorms for catfish.

We hooked them all about 2 to 3 feet down - typical depth to get CC in our pond. My guess is that Catalpa worms are best at whatever depth the catfish usually are at in a given body of water.

Great news about the catalpas, Theo. If you have bluegills, try a piece and see how they do.
Dont hear of them near as much as long ago. I was told that they are very sensitive to pollution. I know that is not the case for the tomato hornworm, though. I get them in Houston, on my tomatoes, along with blight, mosaic, nematodes, etc.

As, Ewest said, keep the excess in sawdust, cornmeal or such, in the refrig.

Our HSB are 10-14" long and we catch them again and again. Everything in our lake is catch and release. We use circle hooks and fathead minnows under slip bobbers. I don't know this for sure but it seems that it is easier to catch the pure white bass than the hybrids. We see a few fish dead along the bank occasionally but haven't seen white or HSB dead.

From dumbest to smartest, our lake goes like this: SMB, white bass, bluegill, hybrid bluegill, rock bass, crappie, walleye, LMB, freshwater drum, goldeyes and channel catfish.

meadowlark I agree with you. It's not much fun to watch fish that can't be caught. I originally only stocked florida strain lmb and catfish. After the second year we couldn't catch the bass and it essentially became a catfish pond. I would not reccomend florida strain lmb in a small pond.

I have natives and F-1's in a couple of one acre ponds. Neither of them bite either. I'm not sure I would recommend bass in any kind of small pond.