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MANAGING SMALL WATERS CAN BE A TOUGH JOB
By: Ron Wilson
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Blaine with a solid 5 pounder from
the big pond |
June 24, 2004…. For
several years I had the pleasure of fishing
Kelsey Bass Ranch. I can
remember taking my mom and grandson and they could catch fish up to 10
pounds with 5 pounders being just another fish.
After the first couple
years the big bass suddenly disappeared from the private pond. These fish
were big enough to eat the great supply of 3 pounders making me think they
had help leaving the area!
The fish were soon
eating each other as several 3 and 4 pounders were found locked together
when one tried to eat the other.
A vast majority of the
fish started getting real skinny. While it was blamed on plastic the
reality was that there wasn’t enough baitfish to keep the fish health.
The size rate dropped,
making you lucky to catch over a 3-pound average. In fact some tournament
events were won with less than 10 pounds for three fish!
The black bass in
Kelsey’s started reminding me of the stripers I caught several years ago
in New Hogan, those fish had 12-pound heads and 6-pound bodies! Any
fisherman worth his salt can tell when a fishery is in trouble.
This year I joined
another private bass club. The Florida strain black bass are all healthy
and very pretty to look at, and they flat pull your string!
While I fish and study
this pond, I have found there seems to be about 3 year classes missing.
This year’s spawn
seems to be pretty well gone. I don’t see them in the moss. Of course
there is lots of coon-tail and other mosses in the lake that they could be
hiding in, but I think perch are eating them, the are large numbers of
Perch in every part of the lake.
Now the 3-year-old
class I think has pretty well been taken out for dinners. This is a catch
and eat pond also.
The year old bass seem
to be few and far between as well. I have spent some time targeting these
fish with small jigs with little success.
These fish could be
hiding in the moss. I’ll have to wait until we get a cold enough winter to
kill the moss to tell what’s been hiding in there.
In my experiments I
have been using friends who all have their specialties. Ron Fisher and
myself for perch and crappie finesse, Norval Pimentel and Tim Paes for
their bass expertise along with yours truly were trying to figure out
these ponds and what to use.
Last Saturday I took
several experimental baits, looking for something the big boys would eat.
I tried Jigs with
Super Pork Sleeky’s, but they didn’t want the black one I had anyway. I
threw a 6-inch brown gitzit that I knew they would gobble up, but didn’t
get so much as a smell.
Norval and my cousin
Blaine were using
Senko’s and catching bass in numbers but no big boys.
Blaine caught a bass
and as I turned to check it out I saw Blaine prying on the hook that was
in its throat! “Don’t do that”, I exclaimed, “You kill fish by doing
that,” I grabbed the fish and cut the line leaving the hook in it and
dropped it back in the pond!
I explained to Blaine
the importance of using barbless hooks when playing catch and release.
When they swallow it, just clip the line and the fish will get rid of the
hook in a few days with no problem. However if you twist on the hook and
puncture the fish’s stomach lining with the point, the fish will probably
die.
A short time latter
Blaine’s fish popped back to the surface and soon died! Blaine has been a
catch five and take them home to eat fisherman for years, but since I
showed him how much fun I have playing catch and release in the local
lakes as well as the private ponds, he has seen first hand at how fishing
can be an all day affair without having to clean anything!
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Norval with a nice pond lunker |
The day was an
enjoyable one, especially for Norval who mopped up the pond in front of us
like a seine. Norval loves catching fish!
I gave up trying to
catch a monster bass and helped Blaine get on track with what Norval was
doing. Soon he was putting fish in the boat.
I rigged Blaine with a
light hook and a Keeper senko. The
Keeper
Custom Bait senko doesn’t have as much salt
as Yamamoto’s, so it has a slower fall. The bass liked this presentation
and Blaine caught the last 5 bass of the day including the largest of the
day at 5 pounds.
Took him awhile to
catch on but he put his share of fish in the boat once he knew how we were
fishing the baits.
One of the worst
places to be in a boat is 3rd base behind Norval and me but Blaine said he
was just happy to be out on the pond catching fish!
The bass in the pond
will stay healthy as long as the food supply is there and from what I can
see its fantastic. In fact the perch are so plentiful that all a bass has
to do is hide in the holes in the moss and when a perch comes swimming by
just suck him in. |
