Originally Posted By: tjstubbs
Thats a good question TJ. As of right now the pond owner is happy, yet questioning the future. Since I have been here (1 year). Him and I have been keeping some hook and line sampling data. We have yet to catch a LMB under 14 inches. The Wr on these fish is great, Upper 90's average. There are also BLG, and Golden Shiners present. The BLG are stunted at 5-7 inches, which is what he wanted as he wanted a primarily LMB fishery. The only problem is, he is seeing less and less bass, and they are all between 3-5 pounds. With the exception of an 11 pounder last summer (09). He says this is a definite decrease in numbers from previous years. Once again, according to the landowner, who only catches acouple of these blues a year. Says that they have really been packing on the weight the last 5 years or so. The fisheries researcher in me wants to cut open some blue stomachs to see if there is smaller LMB in them, which is what I suspect is happening. The BLG populations seem to be the same, and the golden shiners are thriving. So to answer your question, I think if he were to of put in more blue cats, he would be having bigger problems. I also suspect that this will continue, and could crash the bass pop. Has anyone else experienced anything like this with blue cats?


Bob wrote an article about this in a back issue of Pond Boss Magazine. Blue cats pretty much took over the fishery, and while the BC fishing was crazy, the rest of the fishery suffered, especially the LMB.

Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. ~ Henry David Thoreau

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