Basslover
The aggressive striking was up till about 2 years ago.
There is no reason that I have not fished with live shad yet. I have been meaning to do it I just have not had the chance to yet as I am not at home a lot of the time.
I have tried swimbaits that is the closest thing to a shad. Can catch one fish on the 1st or second cast then after that nothing.
I don't want my fish to be able to only be caught on live bait. Especially when I know others that have stocked the same way that I have and they tearing them up on artificial lures and the bass are staying really aggressive.
So the first 3 years were strike happy bassland, and now the last 2 years have been different. Couple of things:
1) Try live shad as mentioned and just see if you get more strikes versus one or two strikes then nothing for hours
2) I'm presuming you're moving around the pond to areas where you know bass should be given forage and structure/cover?
3) The other ponds you reference that the bass are still tearing it up - are they also 5 years old, same bass strain and forage fish?
My hypothesis: The bass have plenty of forage to dine on from what you've indicated. They aren't starving. It seems that the RW would be high and that you have slabs, chunks and hogs for bass, is this correct? So if there is plenty of forage available, why hunt for anything else? If we presume bass have some level of either intelligence or learned behavior, then it is plausible that if I eat this fish and I swallow it and swim away, why would I strike that funny odd looking thing (lures) over there? It doesn't look like or behave like what I eat daily. Further, if you've landed X number of bass 2 or more times over the initial 3 year period, perhaps they've learned if I strike anything other than this fish (shad) I'm going for a ride, and I don't like that ride. So maybe they have learned after years of being hooked to stay away from lures.
If you're not wanting to fish only with shad then what options have you?
- remove as many bass as you can (electroshock, netting, shooting, fishing)
- stock new bass
- section off an area of your pond if feasible and stock the new bass in this area and do not fish it for 2 years, allowing them to grow, grow, grown and not be hooked, so that when you release them you are landing larger fish
- barbless hooks (I always crimp off my barbs and fish barbless only)
