ok....to put the trip in perspective as far as the species present goes....
by far more bass than anything else. A total of about 40 by the time the trip was done. 1/4 of them were emaciated. Removed them, released the ones that had been eating well, longest was 19", caught around midnight on Saturday night on a tip-up with a thick night crawler, the rest were caught on roaches....night ice-fishing is fun, seriously..all you folks in the southlands might not understand.
caught dozens of panfish, more BG's than crappie, and the BG's were as a general rule smaller, the crappie were enormous. Small shiner minnows were the bait of choice for the crappie.
Caught a total of 6 pike, the largest being 21" long. I'm guessing the age for all of them, based strictly on size, at 2 years. it coincides with the addition of Onezey to the lake...either there were 2 introduced, or the larger one is making an impact on the fish that would normally predate on the pike minnows, allowing them to get of size.
There are more, tip-ups would flag constantly, and a fish would be on (using massive roaches as bait, and the spools would spin out of control, very fast moving fish), set the hook and the fish would let it go...the minnows inspected afterward had the classic pattern of perpendicular attack like a pike does...deep teethmarks, many chewed in half, but obviously the pike are small, by the size of their bites (and the fact that they could bite into a big minnow and not get the hook).
Walleye....there is at least one, and it is fair sized, which means there are many smaller ones in there.
Weeds are still thick on the bottom of the lake, and after talking with my dad, this year they actually did 20% less of the weed control that they have in previous years (the lake committee was trying to save $$, to make the homeowners have to pay less...he says that the lake committee, part of the HOA, has a distrust for the consultants they have hired, because they cost so much and seem to do so little....honestly from the reports i have heard i think they might be getting scammed. You guys seem to take a much more in-depth look at a lake than the people the HOA hired for the past few years...I think they test for bacteria to make sure it is safe for swimming, try to control the weeds, and that is it).
Found a few pieces of artificial cover in the lake using the aqua view camera. One stack of pallets, one big wire spool, a few piles of rip-rap. I don't think it will be much of an issue to convince the HOA to do more of that, especially if I can stay away from pvc or anything that could potentially harm a swimmer. I made a few smaller ones out of stumps, logs and wooden slats (anchored in a bit of concrete) and left them on the ice near my dad's property. One thing i did notice were new retaining walls instead of natural shorelines. It may be difficult to convince homeowners to plant grasses and reeds.
Now...the goal still is to improve the fishery, and maintain a healthy population of the bass, crappie (and i guess pike...although the amount of flags that went up and showed evidence of pike makes me think there are too many....there should be 2 per surface acre, right? that means 14...i know that we caught 6 distinctly different ones and there must be more...plus one very large one at least...)
any thoughts?
Last edited by skinnybass; 02/01/10 12:03 PM.
