I'm learning everything I can about bass management lakes in hopes that our "club pond" will start producing some larger bass. I have no control what others at the camps on the lake do, however. Since the 1 mile long lake is private, our club has our own regs. The bass regs are 10"- -12" take home however many you feel is enough for you. 12+" - -16" is the slot, and take only 1 home over 16" I don't think we have many bass fisherman fish in the summer, but winter, we can clean house, and I'm hoping our members are abiding to the regulations. We've done 2 catch and kill tournaments per year for 5.5 years, and we'll have another this September. Rules- 8 bass from 10"-12", largest weight wins. Winners usually hover around 4.5-5 lbs. Sometimes it hard to even get a 10" bass ! Throw in some 12.5"-14"ers and it can become tough to get a limit. Then we do a fish fry afterwards. We've taken out over 350+ bass. This program along with the start of stocking Golden Pond Shiner fry 2 years ago to help the forage should start working, soon ? We haven't seen any increase in size of bass caught. This past Tournament was the first time we even saw a Pond shiner inside of a bass we filleted, we actually found 2 different ones. Next step is to start stocking larger pond shiners and try to get a good population with these, also. I feel we're on the right path, just may take longer than we think. Thoughts ?
#1588761 - 07/21/1403:19 PM
Re: Time to rethink Bass Management???
[Re: Jon Pski]
onthewater102
Member
Registered: 04/14/05
Posts: 1649
Loc: Kent, CT
I thought stocking indigenous prey was the answer - you're combining it with culling the young competition out - sounds like a perfect combination.
Has your group considered a regular electro-survey to evaluate the progress? Anecdotal feedback based on the catches of your members might not be giving you a realistic view on what's happening.
#1588798 - 07/21/1407:49 PM
Re: Time to rethink Bass Management???
[Re: Jon Pski]
Jon Pski
Member
Registered: 04/15/02
Posts: 5743
Loc: Winsted, CT
Quote:
Sometimes it hard to even get a 10" bass ! Throw in some 12.5"-14"ers and it can become tough to get a limit.
This may be a big part of your question. Does it seem like there is an abundance of those 12' to 14" bass? If so, then its likely an issue of high competition for the same size food. Once they get over 16" or so there is typically more food for them as they can eat bigger prey. If your not seeing an over abundance of those 10" bass, you probably don't have an issue with stockpiling. Give it some time with those goldies. A 6 pound bass in New England is likely 12 or 13 years old. Do you have too many panfish? They can make it tough for bass to reach 12" adulthood quickly.
On some of these lakes that are current Bass Management and don't receive a lot of bass fishing pressure or people aren't keeping them, Id like to see the special regulations go away.
#1588799 - 07/21/1407:53 PM
Re: Time to rethink Bass Management???
[Re: PDona]
Jighead
I love re-re-opening day
Registered: 04/05/02
Posts: 11226
Originally Posted By: PDONA
I feel we're on the right path, just may take longer than we think. Thoughts ?
Keep us posted. Taking out as many as you did sounds about right to me, or maybe not even enough coming out. I think you have crappie, right?, but are there pickerel? I read once that you NEVER want crappie if you are managing for bass. Or large bluegill either. (I know some people hate pickerel, but some of the best small lakes I fish have them, so I think they help somehow)
I was looking for links for you to Ray Scott's private bass lakes. Its call Presidents Lake. Any info you find on that is worth reading. I didn't get that far on that angle... but ran across this.
Sometimes it hard to even get a 10" bass ! Throw in some 12.5"-14"ers and it can become tough to get a limit.
This may be a big part of your question. Does it seem like there is an abundance of those 12' to 14" bass? If so, then its likely an issue of high competition for the same size food. Once they get over 16" or so there is typically more food for them as they can eat bigger prey. If your not seeing an over abundance of those 10" bass, you probably don't have an issue with stockpiling. Give it some time with those goldies. A 6 pound bass in New England is likely 12 or 13 years old. Do you have too many panfish? They can make it tough for bass to reach 12" adulthood quickly.
There are tons of small bass less than 10". Sometimes when bringing the lure to the boat you can see a school following.The 12"-16"ers are fairly rare in our tournaments. Out of 12-17 fisherman, average of less than 10 are caught, and usually only 1 bigger bass over 3 lbs caught. This last tournament, my 13" bass won the big fish contest. There are definitely pan fish, and tons of crappie, that are fighting for forage,as well. These last couple years I think the numbers on crappie have gone down, at least when we fished it's harder to catch them in numbers. Paul D, or LargeFry might chime in ? Pickerel , I'd say a less than average amount. Maybe in our "end of the year" letter, I'll add a poll to see what the members are catching for bass. What we're doing now is all a scheme for our future to start stocking walleye ! Unfortunately we can't get an Electroshocking boat in there due to no motors allowed at all.
The point most people seem to be missing is that the regulations in any given lake or there in an attempt to meet a certain goal. One would hope that after implementing a regulation change that the state would be evaluating the results of the regulation after 5 years or so. Obviously, monitoring and evaluating costs money - no one wants to pay more money and the state folks are already spread thin.
If people are interested in changing regulations I suggest that the first thing you do is develop an end goal and work backwards. If the desire was to catch true trophy bass (5lb+) that might require totally different regulations than if you want to catch more bass of smaller size but still quality (2lb+) etc.
Stocking bait fish is not always the answer as they can have other implications but forage base is definitely important. Other species can certainly out compete bass at various life stages and could be an issue. In general, the issues could be related to something totally different like water quality, water chemistry, habitat availability etc.
I think CTF is a large enough and well connected community that they could get their voices heard, IF, you came up with a plan for a specific lake (start small) based on actual data and proven techniques/regulations.
#1589363 - 07/24/1401:24 PM
Re: Time to rethink Bass Management???
[Re: Jon Pski]
Jighead
I love re-re-opening day
Registered: 04/05/02
Posts: 11226
Well said Mycept.
As I said a ways back. The goal of the bass management lakes is modest - to increase the average bass caught by a little. This was based on angler surveys and what-not.
The part where it doesn't work is where anglers are not removing the small bass as hoped.
The idea of managing for trophy bass falls short as a state fisheries goal with the notion that only above average anglers will benefit from it, as bigger bass are harder to catch. The only downside I see is that bass caught a few times are going to be more cautious about what they eat.
I however think that for those who never caught a 5 pound bass....what better place to attain that goal, than a place managed for that purpose. And wouldn't a lake like that draw more anglers than it discouraged??? Why is mediocrely the rule so often in life. There could be a compromise - for every trophy bass lake...we manage another for lots of small fish and plenty of action. We could even trim all the trees so they don't gets their floats stuck
You could get the opinion of 10 serious bass fishermen...but if they only make up 10 percent of all the fishermen, they are a minority. And how often do regulations benefit a minority.
I am relatively confident that we will continue to set the bar in the middle and shoot for average at best
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