Pond Boss Forums FISH & FISHING Show off your catch A little winter ice fishing. And culling.

I’ve been absent a while and I apologize. My computer died and I’m struggling with the new layout on my phone.

I fished my pond through the ice a couple of weeks ago. I caught 28 bass, 3 RBT, one 10.5 inch BG, and one BC.






It was a great first trip, but some of the bigger bass seemed kind of thin.

I decided to cull some 10 to 14 inches the next time I fished. Some buddies came over a couple of weeks later and we hit the pond for a couple of hours on our lazy day.

Bass were caught from 7 to 17 inches.
8 were culled.



I didn’t have a scale to weigh the ones we released. The ones we kept averaged a RW of 95%. Not bad for mid winter. Of the 8 we kept, 6 turned out to be males. I would not have guessed that looking at them.


One of the better bass we caught.

We also caught a bunch of crappie, but no small ones, so they went back.

You did right in keeping the LMB, the bigger ones do look a wee bit thin. I would keep all the crappie that you catch though, that is if the goal is to grow the bass larger.

Normally I’d agree about the crappie, but now it seems all they are doing is feeding the bass. They either don’t spawn well in this pond, or all the spawn gets eaten by the bass. It has been several years since I caught one under 10 inches.

My bluegill are kind of in the same boat. A plan is in place to get some advanced size bluegill. The gravel bed I added seemed to help some.

Great report!!

Beautiful BC. slabs!

Good winter ice fishing report. As you thin LMB number you will likely see more smaller BG and BCP show up in the catch. .

BCP are notorious for make or break spawns. Everything seems to indicate no BCP reproduction sometimes, them BAM.. 3-4" fish are every cast. That's an advantage of fyke nets, they show you what's there and not just what bites a bait.
I also know these nets aren't for everyone but keep a close eye because once you see them on the hook, they've been raiding nests for a year prior to that.

The crappie spawned in my upper pond this summer. It has been a challenge. Bluegill didn’t take. Catfish grew but didn’t spawn. Trout only last 2 years, too dirty. Put some YP and BCP in it last year just to see what happens. I caught some crappie spawn in my minnow traps. Still seeing piles of fatheads.

Great looking fish.

I'm wondering what technique you were using to catch those bass. I would like to be able to cull some bass through the ice if I can. Is there any specific structure or depth you think LMB stay at under the ice? I've never been able to catch a bass in my pond much past mid November, if that.

Thank you and thanks for sharing the post.

Wow that's impressive. Nice bunch of fish. Bet that was fun on small gear!