So pre turnover. It wasn't uncommon to catch 20 or 30 on a low front in a few hours, ranging in that 1 1/2- 4lb range.commonly a 5 or 6, and rarely larger one. For the first 2 years after the turnover, I didn't catch any bass. Even bluegill were poor "10-15" in a few hours of fishing. I caught 3 bass all year long, around that 1.5-2lb range. They looked like little footballs with great color. The bluegill numbers blew up last year. I caught roughly around 400 in a week in early may throwing those tiny mepps #0 spinners with single hooks. Thats when I noticed a bunch of small bass. I caught around 100 small bass last year on those spinners in that 4-5" range. I took the kids out last night and caught 6 lmb in that 5-7" range. The body size seemed to have tripled from last year. Unless they were last years spawn, which still seems like slow growth to me. Also, I had stocked gs in there years ago, and last year we caught over 100 in that 5-6" off of spinners. Before that, had never seen them before.
Clint,
The fish kill kind of throws a wrench into the works. Much less predictable results. Some might advise to kill it out and start from scratch. That would "not not" be good advice. You didn't mention if you want the same results or fewer bigger LMB this go round.
From a remedial stocking perspective, it will be very important to stock LMB that are large enough to exploit the current large population of intermediate sized BG. Not 2" size LMB fingerlings. If I were to remedial stock LMB in this BOW, I think I would go with 1lb to 2lb fish. I think I would personally go with 56 of them in total, I would fin clip at least these fish in such a manner that I could identify them as the initial (post kill) remedial stocking. If things are like you say. A half ton of intermediate sized BG to eat, it should be four or five years before food is limiting growth and you might grow bigger fish than before. One current advantage is an extremely low population of adult LMB. It could work. Best of luck to you. Please let us know what you get worked out and please record in a thread here so we can follow your progress.
