Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations What to do with small LMB?

Waste them if you want,but the last thing I would want to do is attract a nuisance animal to my pond or property by tossing a free meal on the banks.

The rule in my house from when I was old enough to shoot a gun and hold a fishing pole was was if you kill it you should eat it.Yes there are exceptions to all rules but that's the rule I was raised by.Don't get me wrong,I have no problem blasting a snake or problem coon or even a bear to it's next life if need be,but I won't offer these guys a free meal around my place either.

I've never had a problem with culling live fish,(pitching them over the bank), but I understand that some might, and I respect that. I'm not sure where I stand on attracting nuisance animals, as our ponds are surrounded by woods, in some cases right down to the waterline. Animals that are native to this area visit them every evening already, with no attractant other than the water itself needed.

Of course, we don't have bears here in Indiana either.... sounds like it depends on where you live, and the geography of your pond/land as to whether or not culling fish on the bank would cause a problem.

Robert, I sent you a Private Message in regards to the crab fishing.

It's funny because I have no compunction about throwing bullheads on the bank to whither and die near a pond that I am trying to rid of them. They always seem to be gone by the next time I go there. I suppose raccoons and perhaps wild turkeys(?) get them.
However, throwing a bass or some other higher form of life on the bank to die would bother me.

I have always used side cutters to cut the skin between the gills under the bass' head. If you cut it all the way through, the fish will bleed out and die very quickly. I always just cut them and throw them back into the lake. Something will eat them. I have had large bass come to the surface and bust them before they die. Now that will get your heart rate up. I would not do this if I caught a hundred bass a day, but a few every week or so is not a problem.

Here's another idea. If you have a issue with allowing fish to die then do it in the name of science. Pull otolith's so that you can age some of those fish. That could tell you some valuable information about population structure in the pond.

sprkplug...............Having bears WILL change how you feel about all nuisance animals.Officially there are bears in NNJ and officially they arent in South NJ.Now I cant get into details without getting folks on both sides of the law(good folks)into trouble on a public forum,but rumor has it a bear in my town met some hot lead


Esshup,I sent a reply

I've never really thought about it before, but I consider my pond management technique to be pro-active. By that, I mean taking a hands-on approach is what works for me. I think that everyone who subscribes to this way of thinking would agree that getting your hands wet and muddy is an integral part of active management.

However, there are occasions when I may need to make what some might regard as unpleasant decisions, ones which may involve getting my hands bloody... whether it be in a literal, or figurative sense. Certainly there have been some excellent ideas discussed in this thread, so it's likely there are viable alternatives if one should so choose, and I do think these should be explored first, if at all possible.

If I were to eat bass, I perfer winter time when the meat is a little firmer.

One way to quickly kill most fish is to squirt their gills with a little vodka. Really cheap vodka in a kitchen squirt bottle are all that is needed. The fish die almost immediately. I first learned this many years ago while on a salt water charter where the captain didn't want large fish tearing up his boat.