Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose stripped hybrid bass??

Never caught a Pacific salmon. Have caught steelhead and if they fight anything alike, it would be a great fight. I'd be interested to see how a 20 pound striper compared to a 20 pound king... A lake I fish in PA has lake trout, Atlantic salmon, rainbow and brown trout along with stripers. When trolling or bait fishing the thermocline you never know what you are going to hook into. All are great fighters, but I have to say the stripers fight the best.

Anywhere from 20 feet to 65 feet of water depending on time of year and where we are fishing. I fish for perch all alone the Indiana and Illinois shoreline. The gobies are a pain in the butt in shallower waters (under 45 feet). We don't catch many gobies in water over 45 feet deep.

I have caught many 20+ pound kings over the years and they are a ball. I much perfer catching them on downriggers, dipsies, and 2/3 color lead cores. The full core is the rod no one wants to grab. I only got out once last summer (building a pond does take alot of time) but did manage a 21 pounder on the full core. We did notice less kings caught last summer but they were bigger.

Check out around Muskegon. My brother lives there and we go all the time. Salmon in the morning, pike and bass during the day, salmon again in the evening and walleye to finish off the evening.

I disagree, Lake Erie is doing great with walleyes, perch, and smallmouth bass as does Lake Michigan. Be it that the Walleye on LM is mostly in the northern part of the lake.

Look to the UP of Michigan and little and big bay Denoc. The walleye fishing hasn't been as great lately as in the pass. Or further down into Green Bay. I haven't hired any guides in those areas but I spent a lot of time fishing there through the 90s and first half of 2000s. This is doable in that area.

Not to go too far off topic, but I fished heavily for Striped Bass, Steelhead and Salmon before our estuary was decimated. Steelies fight great better than salmon. But Striped Bass are better than both. Salmon are slow and heavy. They will pull for a long time, but don't rip out the line like stripers. One trip I caught both a 20 lb salmon and a 20 lb stiper. They fight much differently in the bay. But the salmon was easily the best fish of the day catchwise. My best ever two fish limit was a 32 and a 21. Splitshotting or fly lining live anchovies out off of Pacifica, going under the Golden Gate. Our skipper was so crazy he would back all the way in to the surf and the hull would bounce on the sand. One guy snagged a body surfer, oops. That trip I won the pool, 38 guys $3 bucks a pop. But that is all ancient history now as the salmon fishery is closed, and the striper planting program long gone. All of the bait fishes are less than 1% of thier former count.

MKG and north to the Dolly Parton's, and still further has been productive. Our center was Whitehall for the charter boat. Ran it out of MKG and Grand Haven also. Too many boats pulling iron in GH, then they cut you off and then it takes you a half mile to turn around watching what is down, then some Cigarette or sailboat comes along not watching

I think it only took three trips out dealing with that mess that we pulled the plug on GH.

Only tangles we ever had were in GH. And we usually ran two planer boards, two DD's attached to dr and four independent dr's at various levels.

Largest King (Chinook) was 38lb and that was taken by a gal on a Womans bowling league we took out. We were one of five boats, 20 gals, we had four. Headed North and Out of Whitehall. One gal was really queasy on the ride out, and then some. Once "Fish ON", the symptoms went away. She got two, as well as our other guest's aboard. We won by sheer numbers, because we limited and had to return.

We were sipping some CptMgn and munching deep fried stuff for a while at the Crosswinds, while we waited for the others to return.

Our camp was really happy that night. But get into another 16 gal ... Not for me!

Hey, I only drive the boat.

So Pond Frog explain to us what's gong on out there? Why is the forage base so far down and why did they stop the stripper planting program? I think I know but thought I'd ask.

I think I did hear the salmon numbers are way down on the west coast but no one knows for sure why?

Multiple causation and major denial. From my preNavy days peaking in late 70's there is close to nothing left. First the Salmon started going down the drain, so they blamed stripers and quit planting them, but still charged for special striper planting stamp for fishing license. Got sued. Did not help. Then they blamed pumps moving water to the famers down South, tons being found on pump screens. Cut back water. Still, populations across the obard plummet. Close all Salmon fishing, commercial and recreational, destroy the livlihood of all involved. Still nothing. Population counts on salmon show less than 9% fall run native, all hatchery fish. Almost every baitfish down to less than 1%, American Shad, Threadfin Shad, Delta smelt. Some less than 1/3 of 1% of late 70's levels. Most expert biologists say entire estuary beyond repair. And still the numbers are dropping. There are so many reasons why they don't want to do anything about. Pollution, ag run off, inadequate waste treatment, you name it, complete decimation of a ecosystem that had been here for millions of years, in less than 30. Salmon still closed, to all. Never see any large stripers anymore. Just killed the entire estuary and shrugged thier shoulders and played the blame game. At this juncture there is zero hope for recovery.

Ok, Ok, so what is "the Dolly Parton's?"

A freeway?

A lake?

A mountain range?

Ahem - so....anyone seen any good movies lately?

I wish it was a movie, I grew up fishing these rivers, lived less than a block from the Sacramento River. The Southeast Asian migration did not help either. They hook it, they keep it and eat it. Poach everything.

http://www.californiachronicle.com/articles/view/79142

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2010/sacramento-splittail-01-22-2010.html

http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/report/R_207JLIntroductionR.pdf

No movie here, just the grim facts.

I hear you - I don't have much time for movies either...

All kidding aside, I'm just trying to lighten the mood a tad - thus far this post has discussed eradication of premier fisheries in the Great Lakes and now in NO Cal. It's all accurate and tragic testimony, and shameful - no one here will argue that. More reason for the migration to pond management - public fishing is wilting under the pressure and damage we're doing to the environment. Much simpler to manage one's own water....

Sorry Jeff, locals only. Not my rules! I could get into a lot of trouble explaining, because I may not do it delicately enough. Third guess is as close I dare. Add symmetry and about 400 ft ht from a couple miles out, projection... And people think mermaids are fictional This is where they come from

Pretty much last stop for me. And our local government is one step away from putting the kabosh on private ponds. I have thousands of dollars of equipment for fishing I can't use. From salmon to Pacific rockfish. Can't even fish for some of them if I wanted to. I go to Bodega Bay and the entire fishing fleet is gone, one guy is left. Baitshop is closed and it used to be packed with fishermen in the morning. I have baby photos of myself with stripers twice as long as me my father and grandfather caught. Salmon bigger than my kids on the wall in my hallway. Ponds are the last place left, as public places are either fished out or pay to play with planter trout. Not my deal. My three year old landed 8 LMB to 4 1/2 lbs in one half an hour last year in one of the ponds I manage. What will be left for my kids? Stories.

Your family is welcome to fish anytime at my place, PF.

What is the basis behind your govt stance against private ponds? Water use?

we like photos of kids with fish. Size of fish is irrelevant.
the fact that they're outdoors and not in front of a TV or video game is what's inspiring.

this is TJ's post. I doubled with him.......

+100

My oldest honor student once told me Dad, you are the only dad I know that does all this stuff with his kids. That is my number one motivation.

You would not believe what happened, Stanford law students got bored and sued Cal Fish and Game for planting fish, which they had done for over 100 years. A judge ruled in thier favor. Soon the regs come out, and they are going to hit everything, mostly planting fish and adding about 75 species to the endangered list. I have only heard rumors of what the regs are but they are extremely invasive on private pond owners. All of the pond stocking hatcheries are calling it quits or moving into food fishes or quintupling thier prices, see Aqua.

The competitive landscape for pond management companies in NE is pretty flat. Like snow, corn and good football?

There are definitely some sad stories but not all is lost nationwide...

There is still a lot of messed up things about the Potomac River my home water. But, in the last few years the American and Hickory shad have come back strong. Runs of both species are the highest they've been in 2 decades. Striped bass numbers are back from dismal lows of the 80's. You can catch them consistently when they make their spring spawning runs. Often very nice sized fish, some days til your arms hurt. The Potomac River is still one of the best tidal LMB fisheries in the world. Lot's of 2-4 pound bass with a bass or two over 10 pounds caught every year. Not bad for a public fishery on a tidal river with mostly northern LMB genes! Even with the recent introduction of snakeheads things are still going great for the LMB. I think the snakeheads will actually be an interesting addition to the river's ecosystem. A recent introduction of blue cats into the Potomac has led to a phenomenal blue cat fishery with the record being broken every other year or so and biologists except the record to go over 100 pounds in the next few years. The upper Potomac is seeing musky naturally reproducing, where they came from no one knows but they are there now and doing quite well. Same with walleye, a few original stockings in the late 70's and early 80's has led to a healthy population of fish. Smallies are also doing quite well, in spite of male fish sometimes growing ovaries and producing eggs and the occasional water quality related fish kills. There are challenges facing the fishery but a lot of organizations are working hard to improve it. The economic downturn and subsequent cut in funding isn't helping. The continual growth in the human population in the area isn't helping either... But I am not giving up yet.