Interesting posts. I can only imagine how frustrating it would be to go to all of the expense to create what one would hope to be a great fishing pond, stock it with a good mix of fish only to have a pond in which fish wouldn't bite.
Originally posted by Bruce Condello:
[QUOTE].... I'd say that the smaller the pond, the more generally true this statement is.
Bruce (and any others that would like to respond) can you give me an idea of what size pond you find are most effected? Of course logic tells me that it would depend upon the amount of fishing pressure put on a given body of water that Theo could probably express in a algebraic equation of fishing hours to pond volume or something like that but I digress (go figure). What I am really trying to find out is does this seem to be more of a problem in ponds say less than an acre or less that 3 acres or less than 20 acres? Does any of this question make sense? What I am really looking for is reassurance, sort of like you would for an 8 year old child, that follows along the line of "JHAP, since your pond is 3 acres you will never have to worry about your fish getting too hook shy, they will remain stupid and easy to catch even given your amateurish fishing skills."
Originally posted by Bruce Condello:
[QUOTE]The one common thread between all of these ponds is that the more food availability there is, the more obvious the negative conditioning from angling is. In other words when food is abundant fishing can quickly deteriorate from fishing pressure. However in the ponds that I manage where food is scarce the fishing remains fantastic in spite of very high pressure. Makes sense doesn't it?
It does make sense yet it flies in the face of the old pond boss rule of thumb of stocking enough forage fish to allow a bass to go to sleep with it's mouth open and wake up with a full belly. So we stock just enough forage to make the fish as large as we want yet not so much forage that they aren't always hungry?
How in the heck is a novice pond meister ever suppose succeed?
NOTE TO THEO: Please do not calculate and post a formula for optimum fishing pressure per volume of water. If you do my bean counter/type A/alter ego personality (and I use that term loosely) will take over and I will be forced to create an excel spreadsheet whereby I attempt to determine the optimum remaining fishing hours per month while considering the average monthly water level and the cumulative fishing hours to date. This would probably involve a multi-layer, linked cell spread sheet that would produce a dynamic three dimensional graphic of remaining fishing hours. As I'm sure you've been able to determine, I'm dangerously close to the outer edge of sanity as it is. Your cooperation in this matter is greatly appreciated.
