You cease to amaze me Bill Cody! After getting skunked on Monday with spinners and other useless tackle, we went out yesterday evening loaded with night crawlers. Ended up catching 3 LMB, same size as the one shown above. We also caught 14 RES, all in the 6" to 6.75" range. 4 of the females were gravid and the males were quite feisty, only fished for an hour as the sun was going down. Family had a blast, I would finish up measuring one and they would have another one waiting in line.
Going to continue fishing to hopefully get a handle on what happened. Possibilities:
1) Hitchhikers with FHM (April stocking) or RES (June stocking). I looked through them all but I am not a fish ID expert, so it is possible. Confusing at least 4 LMB with something else is pushing my lack of expertise. If we hit 10 LMB caught I am confident enough to think I didn't miss that many and will take this off the list.
2) Upstream source. There are 2 ponds upstream with heavy vegetation (waterways) between us, closest being 1000 feet. My understanding was there were only catfish in those ponds but maybe that info is inaccurate. YOY bass were swept out the pipe of neighbor pond and brought into mine, most likely scenario in my opinion. Need to fish them all out this fall before sexually mature in the Spring. What are some options to keep this from happening?
3) Bucket stocking by "friendly" person. Current LMB caught are from a spawn in my pond. Catching a 12"+ bass will probably point to this source.
Thanks again Bill
