Dave, I am already a subscriber but I will check out the books you mentioned.
Somewhere in all the great responses above, someone mentioned over-fishing. That caught my attention and I did some searching on the forum. I think I found one post advising not to fish for larger bass more than 1-4 times per YEAR. Wow. I've been tossing in a line a couple days a week as the pond is only about 10 miles from my house. I am not always bass fishing. In fact I mostly use crappie jigs and smaller lures like road runners; however, I have caught the same (or better) bass on the smaller lures. I usually don't catch more than 2-3 bass in an hours fishing. Usually 1-2 crappie if I'm trying and the occasional heroic bluegill. I have had friends fish the pond and proclaim it to be "fished out" but I know that is not the case.
The fishing has stayed fairly consistent through the fall and winter, but it seems clear I'm probably fishing it too much. The idea of overfishing makes sense; in fact I've seen it in play out on some larger private East Texas communities. Shocking surveys indicate a healthy population of bass that is not supported by catch rates. Yet in my own neighborhood pond - before a significant fish kill - a couple of fisherman could go out and catch 10-15 bass each in the last 2 hours of daylight, very consistently. These fish were not generally "dinks" but solid keepers. Not sure why those fish never became "hook shy".
Assuming that overfishing will take it's course, it seems the best use for the pond is to create a large bluegill population for children's occasional amusement. I suspect one of the by products of fertilization, feeding, and tilapia for algae control may be some healthy bass (assuming some are harvested), but I don't think bass as the primary goal is realistic if it can only be fished once a quarter. It seems better to give this pond up to the kids and do my bass fishing elsewhere.
Last edited by flippinphil; 04/03/14 11:37 AM.
