Does anyone have a private lake or pond that they wouldn't mind me and a good friend coming to fish at? I don't litter and I will consult with the owner on all my/our catches.

Nope.

BBman,

If you're talking about icefishing try these two sites:

http://www.iceshanty.com/ice_fishing/index.php?board=6.0

http://z9.invisionfree.com/Indiana_Fishin/index.php?act=idx

no ice fishing for me, i only use extra heavy ugly stix

but on a serious note, it can be helpful to cull when trying to reach greater sizes

Well BBM I had up to 400 green carp in one of my ponds to almost six pounds a couple of years ago and did enlist help to get them out from time to time. However I no longer raise largemouth bass as both of my customer niches want the really big ones that take too long to get there this far north. The bass also disrupted the yellow perch and bluegills at feeding time. And being fed, their head and fins were quite small for their bodies which my taxidermy customers did not like.

Sounds like you just need to do some door knocking and get lucky. There are plenty of ponds in Steuben county and even some small private lakes. I took in an 8 lb. plus bass two years ago from one of those private lakes. Unfortunately I wasn't told which one it was. A lake near The Angler in Hudson called Limekiln produced a 21 inch crappie which I mounted. I posted a pic of it here complete with tape measure.

people tend to say no when you just go knocking on their front door, i've found that out lots of times. I use to live about 10 miles from Hudson, not familiar with Limekiln. You dont have a place on Indian Lake just south of Hudson, do you? Now that lake has something special in it, don't know what, but it produces size and quality of bass like i've never seen around these parts. A guy that use to live on it had a bass on his wall that he hit with the boat motor prop that was like 8 or 8.5lb.

Bass that come from that lake are stockier/fatter, livlier, and there has been times where we would catch 5 fish around 5lbs and numerous a little smaller in one day. I know it has a good baitfish population because bass go crazy in the fall chasing after them. Ah, i get emotional when i talk about Indian, it is such special lake. Oh and i forgot to mention, i've had hooks straightened the couple times i've been able to fish there. no joke