Fishing pressure is jut one factor. We, as anglers, tend to hyper-focus on it because it's one of the more obvious factors to us. It's one of the few factors that happens above the water where we can easily count the number of boats we see on a lake. But there are many, many other factors that aren't so obvious that can have just as much of an effect, if not more, on the catchability of the bass in that lake. Fishing pressure is a bit of a boogeyman.
Now, I'm not saying that it's not a real thing. Because it certainly is. Most all of us who have been fishing for a long time have seen the effects of it. But fishing pressure collects more than its fair share of the blame due to its highly visible nature. If fishing pressure was as big of a threat to catching bass as many of us are led to believe, then most of the world's best fisheries would have collapsed long ago. But the reality is, the world is filled with high quality bass fisheries that get pounded year after year with boats, and still continue to produce plenty of large and catchable bass. It's a factor. But just one of many, many factors.
Either way, a 60 acre pond being fished by one person once a day isn't likely to produce enough pressure to make a significant difference. Bass aren't geniuses and they don't talk to each other. If a bass is caught on one bait, it might still be susceptible to another. And they have no way to tell the other bass to avoid jigs or spinnerbaits or whatever. They might eventually grow line shy. In which case, just switch to fluorocarbon. They might eventually get shy of noises or other signs of humans being near by. In which case, be stealthier and make longer casts. Fish, pressured or not, still have to eat. Pressure makes them harder to catch because it makes them less aggressive. But it's doesn't make them stop eating.
As an example, I fish a 59 acre pond regularly that almost always has at least a half dozen other anglers on it any time the sun is up. And there's probably a minimum 30 anglers at a time on it during the weekends, and I don't have problems catching bass there due to pressure. Now, pollution, algae blooms, excessive heat or cold, wind and other factors can affect how that lake fishes. Some years it's better than others. Some days it's better than others. But since the fishing pressure is always about the same, logically, I have a really hard time blaming the changes in fishability on fishing pressure. Just yesterday, at around noon, I was fishing that pond and I don't think a five minute span passed by the entire time I was there that someone wasn't reeling in a fish. And there were probably a dozen of us fishing it at once. I even got a few myself from the limited access I had from the bank. And I literally only fish three spots on that pond on a near daily basis, and still catch fish. Not every day is that good. Not even most days. And this year has been particularly bad. But it's been bad at all of our lakes, which tells me it's something weather related. And if I were guessing, I'd say it's probably related to the three year long drought we just got out of this summer and record breaking extreme heat we've been seeing the past two years.
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