Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Bass scared of boat?

I have a 2 1/2 acre pond and i love to go out in the jon boat its a 14 ft flat bottom with a cheap walmart trolling motor and feed the fish. I have alot of coontail in my pond so i refer to it as my aquarium now because u can see like 6 to 8 feet down. Its cool to see all the different kinds of fish in the pond when i go out in it. I usually take the boat out to the middle and feed the HSB. Its hilarious to see the HSB start flying by underneath the boat in a school. They know its dinner time when they see that boat. I see a few LMB when i go out but not as many as i should. Question is will the majority of the lmb swim away from the boat as soon as they see it coming? The pond is 17 foot in the middle so you cant see down to the bottom everywhere.

I rarely ever see LMB in my pond and my pond is a little LMB crowded. LMB like to stay hidden.

I only have a little over an acre pond...when the jon boat is in the pond, all fishing shuts down...

On my pond most of the fish flee from the boat when it gets close (within about 10 feet) but farther than that away doesn't seem bother them much. Bullhead don't seem to care how close you get to them. We mostly fish from our boat, half of our pond is almost impossible to get to on foot. We don't use any type of motor though, we paddle our boat around the pond. We catch much more fish from the boat then we do from shore. With the ultra light rigs you can sail even a very light lure or hook set up (1/16oz) quite a long distance so you're not fishing anywhere near the boat anyway.

DIED's pond is about an acre and I can tell you from personal experience that his fish aren't bothered much by his jon boat. Once again though no motor is used.

If you feed the LMB from the boat something they like to eat they will come running when they see the boat.

I tried feeding from my canoe several times 3-4 years ago. Nothing (at that time, CC and GShiners were what was eating pellets) would show up to eat.

I find this very intresting and would like to hear more from you guys. Mainly now that I have a 5 acre pond I am thinking about some form of boat. I have never fished from a boat so never really thought about this.

JHFV, do you think that becuase you pond is so clear may have something to do with it?

I don't think that the fish care whether you have a boat with or without a trolling motor.

In the case of the HSB, when they're feeding, I don't think any fish like to be around. Now granted, this might just be the case in my pond.

LMB don't typically take to feed unless they were raised as feed-trained.

My SMB will come within 3' of me standing in the water. I've fed them so many yoy frogs I think they would follow me anywhere waiting for a frog to hit the water.
It's fun to watch them fight to get to the frog first!

When im in the boat the fish swarm to it. The bluegill are stacked on the top and u can see HSB, Tilapia, Catfish and a few LMB underneath them. They never try to eat each other when im in the boat but when i feed from the shore sometimes u will here a big crash like a LMB just had dinner! Its funny i can tell u by the splash which kind of fish is eating. I stocked 20 6-8" F-1's last fall that were feed trained so they are usually the ones that hang around the boat.
JAKEB Catching fish in the boat is fun because if you catch a 5# it can pull you around the pond trying to reel it in. I really like the water so clear but its really bad for my weeds.
I just got an aeration system so im gonna try and keep a bloom next year and kill back most of the weeds.

Fishing from a boat is a blast. We use two. We have a two person kayak that is a lot fun. It is easy to paddle and very stable. We also have an alum. boat that we paddle. We have an electric trolling motor but it almost never gets used (came free when we bought the boat). I just prefer to paddle.

I find that fishing from a boat allows you to access areas that you might not otherwise be able to (at least on our pond) and also allows you to fish shallows and structure from a variety of angles.