Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Impatient Pondmeister

Here in Northeast Ohio we have had yet another sunny spring day with temps in the 60's. Over the last two weeks we melted two feet of snow and about 6-8" of ice off the ponds/lakes.

Of course the only thing I can think about is landing a nice LMB and surveying my resident fish population.

Water temps are in the low 40's here with yet another cold front in tap next week.

So I tried to fish for a half hour today and the only thing active in my pond was two new muskrats that moved in over the winter.


I digress, this is my sophomore campaign on the pond and I can barely remember when things started last year. When can I expect BG, BC and LMB to become active again?

Furthermore is the proportional relationship between water temp and LMB activity, Bell Curve peaking in the mid 70's, hold true throughout the life of a fish or does it's age and size play a role?

The reason I ask is b/c I have read reports of very nice LMB(5-6 lbs) being taken in Portage Lakes down the road which is roughly the same depth of my BOW but much larger. I can only assume the temperatures are colder if anything there.

What gives, why are my younger and smaller fish not active yet?

More details are probably in order BB, but what I can suggest is that, this time of year, right after ice off, is some of the toughest fishing conditions there is. Any CC in the pond? Might be able to get them in these conditions.

If the larger BOW had a stream or 2 entering it in a shallow cove on the North side, that is where they probably were getting the LMB. Any place where there is a dark bottom, in shallow water when there's full sun in early Spring will warm up the fastest, and that's where the fish will be.

Yeah I have about 20 CC 1-2 lbs each.

I acquired the property in the Spring'07.

As far as I can tell the original owners stocked a mix bag of sunfish (HBG, BG, GSF, PS) with BC in a 3/4 acre pond in '04 after pond was built. The pond is spring fed averaging 3-5' deep with a large pool 12' deep that encompasses 1/4 of the pond.

The sunfish had hybridized and were badly stunted as were most the BC. There were a handful of big slab BC and everything else was in the 3-7" range and skinny. I culled all the small fish I could and all the BC I caught. Then stocked 75 4-6" LMB, 25 CC, and 150 PS fingerlings in Spring '08. I stocked another 30 5-7" LMB the following spring and implemented a feeding program for the sunfish. Oh yeah and also added 3 Grass Carp.

I do realize that the pond is transitioning and the ice has just melted. I am curious what is normal for the rest of the pondmeisters out there and wanted to get a plan together for the spring. Also wanted to know when it's worthwhile to start hitting other area LMB lakes. NE OH is chock full of them.

I don't know what the water temp was, but I used to do really well fishing a 9" Uncle Josh Black Magic Eel rigged on a unweighted 4/0 weedless hook. Cast out, let sink to the bottom, hop it back in 1' or so hops, letting it rest for 10-15 seconds between hops. I would fish the shallow areas that were lily pad beds before the leaves would break the surface in the Spring on sunny days, and also around the piers on the North side of the lake. Fish on heavy line (12# min) and when the line starts to move off, try and rip their lips off. You'll seldom catch a LMB less than 14" on that lure. It didn't work near as well once the lily pad leaves were above the surface.

You should be able to catch BC now. Once water temps hit 45 degrees or so they will start heading shallow. By 50 degrees things will get much easier. Hang in there, as others have said fishing right after ice out can be tough.