Man it's a housing development pit/lake so nothing that increases their liability worries. Such as boats, people who don't live there trespassing so it will turn it into deep lakes, etc. It's flat wearing me out trying to cull bass out of there.
Believe me I'd love to help ya out on this one... I need it big big time.
Environment wise it's fantastic as far as habitat. There are large numbers of geese there over winter so I probably need to do some algae treatment but it's far from bad. Other than West Lake Okoboji and Banner Lakes I don't think I've ever seen water this clear in Iowa that also has such nice deep weedlines.
As far as food chain goes... too many BG and BCP (BCP are an owner priority) are coming out. There are a few GSF but the ones that are there are huge compared to most of them you see around here.
There are no shad, minnows, shiners, present, but I do see plenty of craw claws on the banks and freshwater clams? in the water...
There are plenty of big 9 5/8 inches - 11 inch bluegills around but they need a hand in propping up the food chain. Big time... Shad aren't an option but I'm open to suggestion/being the case study beyond GSH. Any clear/clean/rocky/woody/weedy/deep habitat loving fish is in play at this point.
There are both common forms of parasites to Iowa present in the BG & LMB. A worm and black spot in the meat? The BCP don't have any...
The problem is there are somehow decent numbers of 18-24+ inch bass in there so trying to source large enough RES is looking dicey. I full understand bucket stocking is a bad idea but what's the protocol here?
There are a few walleye in there that are really long but woefully skinny. Like 23.5 inches and 3.39 pounds. A 29 incher was also caught that was 6 something. Basically all the predators are under weight yet somehow reaching decent lengths.
This pit has potential. It's deep, canadian natural lake clear, rocky shoreline, deep deep weedbeds, I'm sure y'all get the idea...
The owners would like it to be a fun diverse fishing experience for families etc. In other words a diverse species lake once I get the LMB under control.
Today I caught 21 bass and culled 17 of them.
2 of the 21 were over 17 inches. The largest of the two was 18.5 inches and had a giant EWG worm hook sticking out of her throat which probably accounted for some temporary weight loss? 18.5 @ 2.35 isn't exactly great...
The other two had RW between 84-87 and were 13 and 14.5 inches respectively.
5 of 17 that were culled had RW below 60%. Yeah I triple checked these fish too. They were 9 inches, 11, 11.75, 13.75, and 15 inches.
9 of 17 culled had RWs between 60-70%. All but one was 14-16.5 inches.
3 of 17 culled were between 70-81%. They were 11.5-13.25 inches.
I am now up to 126 pounds culled out of 20 acres for the year or in other words 6.3 pounds/acre.
Next week I plan on hand feeding the bluegills some aquamax and continuing to do so on a daily basis.
Matzilla I'd definitely like to go fish somewhere else relatively soon either way if you're up for it?
