Meadowlark and George,
I'm convinced this is happening on larger bodies of water too although maybe not to the extent of our smaller ponds.
I live in a natural lakes area where public lakes run anywhere from 100 to 3000 acres. The largest lake near me at 3000 acres gets pounded every weekend by tournament anglers in the summer. Not knocking them, but as a taxidermist I have seen the the amount of big bruisers (over 6 pounds) go steadily down over the years. I realize there is more of a catch and release mentality these days, but I am convinced these fish are becoming hook shy. An interesting things is once in a while I'll get one of these really big bass in caught by a guy fishing for crappies in really early spring with a crappie minnow. That tells me two things:
1.) The fish was caught on live bait and on something different than he usually gets thrown at him all year.
2.) That fish may have had all fall and winter to forget about hooks and was really hungry coming out of winter where little if any feeding took place.
Thoughts?
