KGP,
Since you are in St. Louis (Go Redbirds!) presumably you have the northern strain of LMB and not Floridas? The northerns are, in my experience, the most aggressive LMB you can have...but even northerns can and do get conditioned in a small catch and release pond.
I have struggled with this issue greatly...many say you are just a bad fisherperson , others say you need to change lures, and some say you need to give up lures and fish with live bait.
Those comments notwithstanding, my experience is that without question, LMB become conditioned to flys/lures in a small C&R pond. The only solution, only solution I have found is to either reduce fishing pressure or add more ponds and rotate among them thereby reducing fishing pressure.
What level of fishing pressure will LMB tolerate and still allow good fishing? I'm not sure, but know that weekly is too much and about 4 times a year or less will give me tremendous fishing results.
Part of this depends on what you define as good fishing, also. For me, I have defined it as a catch rate of at least 8 LMB per hour on artificials by a skilled fisherperson with a 50% probability of one fish meeting or exceeding 5 pounds. I'm achieving that catch rate in ponds with light fishing pressure and not achieving it in others.
Also, I'm convinced that LMB in a small pond do not have to be caught to be conditioned...seeing their buddies caught on artificials is conditioning enough. I'm also convinced I can condition every LMB in a 1 acre pond in a matter of a couple of weeks...conditioning that takes time to unlearn, perhaps a long time.
I hope you can find a better answer to this perplexing problem.
