jiggerpole

The sky is the limit. You may want to try throwing in a fish Identification (Picture) in with your article and do a segment on each one as a series. Say Bass, Bream, Crappie, Catfish. You may even want to go a little in depth and break it down into species and sub - species. It will take a little research on your part but I think you have a great opportunity to teach kids in your column. Good Luck and have fun.

If you want to know more about your pond then you came to the right place. This site has a ton of info in the articles section. I would spend some time reading them and specifically the lake/pond management section. Pond Boss is another great place to get info. Southeastern Pond is just starting to put together a video segment of pond management related items. Youtube links. It should be interesting. These people are good friends of mine and I have learned a great deal from them. Read Read Read. Then go fish!!!!! Then go fish again!!!!

First I would find out if putting anything in the lake would cause problems of any kind for someone else. Some residents are picky about things and others may not care at all. If it belongs to the city, state, or is under the feds authority you would want to check with them first or you could get into a bind. The fisheries can recomend what you can and canot sink. Having said that. Alot of people will sink cedars with a concrete block. Cedars hold their identity longer than other type trees. Dogwoods make good cover also.(Mostly for crappie fishermen) I have seen hay bales and pine straw baled up like hay and sunk for crappie. Bass will hang around these too. I have took busted up chunks of concrete and spread them out over a hard bottom shallow flat. This will create habitat for crayfish and the bream love to bed right next to each piece. The bass will enjoy this buffet. Any time I add structure, cover to a lake I put some thought into why it needs to be there. I ask myself am I making a place for baitfish, spawing cover, ambush cover, deep water sactuary and what will most likely be using it and at what time of the year. I put it at different depths and I try to concentrate fish into group areas. Big timber mangled together at least 100 yards apart can make for habitat that all species of fish can enjoy. It can be alot of work but the rewards can be worth it. P.S. Don't be suprised when you go to fish your new honey hole to see someone catching fish on it.

Biologist will look at many factors in making a decision on any lake. In a huge lake it would be impossible to take into account everything. So sampling a section at a time over several years with the info they gather from various bass clubs, guides, ect. will determine catch creel limits, slot limits, and strategies for the future. One section of a lake may be doing great while another may not. One end may be more fertile than another area. This is common. It is my opinion that fisherman could help the biologist achieve their goals on a lake in question much faster if they better understood their goals. A slot limit for example is to protect a certain size bass or age class. This means that a bass not in that slot should be kept. Too many times fisherman will release a bass under the slot size when they would be better off keeping that smaller fish. And when a person catches a huge bass. Say double digits? It is a personal decision that emotion takes into account. The truth is, that bass has most likely lived out their life and may not live much longer and will likely not get much bigger. Of course releasing a bass of this size out of reverence to the bass or on the chance that you may catch it again is your personal choice. Weather you release that bass, hang it on a wall or eat it. It won't break the lake!

One thing the article did not mention is that these F1 tiger bass can be "feed trained". An all female lake can definately grow bass that are huge and fast. They will re-absorb their eggs over and over. This is a two year old bass in just such a pond.

I think it was KVD fishing on Lay Lake where he won the tournament on a few stumps. One in particular. He would hang up and break off rather than disturb the stump. (He said "That stump has got to be looking like a christmas tree by now") Alot of times, especially on a throw and wind type retrieve you will feel your line hit something and drag against it and you can feel your bait coming up to it berfore it hits a stump or whatever?

I was night fishing with a plastic worm. Made my cast to the bank and I felt that tap/tap/tap. I rared back and set the hook on a Racoon. Man did it ever make a racket.

May sound different, but I like a Rapala (Floater) around rock banks. Just let it sit and twitch.

Couldn't you be more specific. Ha, just kidding. Denny's 3/8 ounce pro model black and blue jig with a zoom black/blue trailer.

It sounds like you have a good Ideal as to what is happening to this lake. Crappie (stunted and over populated) can cause problems in a lake. This lake is fairly large in size. (Will be harder to manage) The threadfin shad are a good source of food for crappie, bass adult blueguill ect.. But the blueguill have most likely suffered with the compitition for food from the threadfin. "Fry compete for the same foods as threadfin". So depending on the fertility of the lake, proper balance can be difficult to get. This can create an occasional Trophy Bass! if they can reach the size it takes to eat crappie as a food source. You will find that most bass will be either small short and fat from eating threadfin and can reach the 2 to 3 lb. mark fairly easy but that food source that carries them over to the next level could be missing. That is usually a good supply of bluegill in the 4 to 6 inch range. You can never go wrong by creating plenty of cover for your baitfish in the 2 to 6 ft. range. Around areas that your blueguill spawn. ( We sank 300 christmas trees in a 45 acre lake to start with) You can never eat enough crappie! (We have caught 100+ in one sitting on one lake with the same problem) If you don't eat them at least Kill Them! The more you kill the bigger they will get. (We regularly catch 2+ pound crappie now.) If this is a community lake, perhaps get others to join you in management efforts. Get with the local fisheries biologist and get their input. You may be able to poison the lake targeting the threadfin. Knocking back the threadfins could knock back the crappie, which could rebound your blueguill, possibly getting the lake back in some sort of a managable state. It is possible, with poison to control certain things in a lake. (We have managed to get most of our 9 lakes in good shape with only hook, line, sweat and patience.) We are still working to keep it that way. Poison is a dangerous thing to a lake if not done right. If done right it can be a good thing. If you have spotted bass in the lake it could be that the spots are also out of control competing with the large mouth and you should treat them just like you would the crappie in my opinion. (The more you kill the bigger they will get) Good Luck if you decide to try your hand at managing this lake. There is a ton of info on this site and if you can learn to read a lake like a book you will be way ahead of the game. Best advice I can give you is PATIENCE!!!!!!

Lets see????? You have a good women and will soon have a boat to go with her. Sounds like you already have the keeper. Hang On!

I thought you guys might be interested in watching a presentation I put together for our community. This will show a brief history of our management efforts and has some educational value. I'm interested in your comments as well. Hope you enjoy. Thanks.

Depending on the size of the pond, water quality, and many other factors: taking out numbers of bass can vary. A biologist will give you the best advice. Having said that, if all the bass you catch look like they are stamped from a cookie cutter and just don't measure up, you could have a problem. Take a hard look around the banks for baitfish and bluegill that are in the 3 to 4 inch range. That is the main food and size to grow bass to the 14 inch, maybe 15 range. After that bigger bluegill becomes the food of choice. So if you can see all sizes of bream from fry to the 3/4 lb. and up you may be in better shape than you think. To answer the question; the best way to permanently mark a bass would be to fin clip them. Fin clipping done correctly will prevent the fin from growing back. You could clip the left for one size group and the right for another. If you clip enough bass you might be able to gain an overall average of growth in the years to come. An easier quick fix, if you have the money would be to start from scratch and stock what you want. I would definately get with a biologist first and possibly save you some headaches and time. Goodluck.

I have found that when a lake turns over it is bringing all the nasty dead water from the bottom to the top as it does the flip. This water, void of oxygen and dead decay matter can take several days to clear up. During this time it seems that it pushes the fish very close to the shoreline or they will go up in a creek where they can find some current. It can shut the bite down.

Do I get to fish with Kim Kardashian ?????????????

Marty gave you the best advice. Most state biologist will evaluate it for free if the land owner makes the request.

I believe it is a shoal bass. Smallmouth have vertical lines similar to a shoal bass but are much more prominent and have broken blotches or spots alone the back and also on the gill plates. Shoal bass have vertical lines also that are much more suttle.

If you have a pier on this lake I would put some lights on it. Attract the bugs that attract the baitfish that attracts the bass that attracts you. Then have fun, catching, watching and learning. Also a feeder to go off in the daytime.

Lund, that's funny. I thought I was the only one that got pulled over by cops to shoot the bull. My son is in college now and lucky I guess, his Professor loves to fish. I know because they are always wanting to borrow my boat.

I'm fishing this point and had caught a couple of nice keepers. A guy about 100 yards away see's it and starts heading my way fishing right down the bank and went between me and the bank where I was casting. I said to him, it's a big lake and you have to fish right here. REALLY! He never said a word and continued to fish. I put down my rod and cranked up the big motor and idled right next to him and just gassed it, and riding in tight circles just out from his boat. Another time I was fishing down a bank and noticed a ski doo coming my way. He kept getting closer until he ran right up to me and sprayed me with water. Wow are you crazy I yelled! He turned to come back and I picked up a rod with a zara spook and tried my best to catch him as he went by. Barely missed. He didn't come back. One more and I'll stop. A game warden pulled up to my boat while night fishing. I was completely legal in every way. He checked for everything. Then he said the reason he pulled up was because my lights were not on. "They were on" and I told him they had not at any time been off. They have been on the whole time buddy. He said very quickly. HEY I AINT YOUR BUDDY. I never said another word to him as he kept talking. The more I stayed quite the more angry he was getting. I guess he finnally gave up and left when he saw in my eyes that the only option he had left was to take me to jail.

1. Learn to shoot your bow 1st. Go to a Proshop, 3-d shoots or find a friend that shoots better than anyone you know. Shoot with them. Shoot standing, sitting, from an elevated position and at different distance. Know Your effective range. Learn where your broadheads hit vs your target tips. Tune if necessary. Learn what that is. 2. Learn what deer eat? Get a small guide book on trees and learn to identify the different types of Oak trees that drop acorns. When and where they drop typically. 3. Look for those trees in your area and pay close attention to the ground under those trees to see if you can determine deer are feeding under them. The leaves on the ground may be slightly scuffed up and you may see acorn caps but no acorns. Look for fresh droppings and tracks. Rake the leaves back if necesary to see tracks. Learn what fresh deer sign is and hunt the fresh sign. Other critters eat acorns to. 4. Notice the trails where the deer travel and see how they connect with each other and figure out where they travel. Walk them. The more you walk (scout) and the more you hunt this will become the best way to learn what deer do. One day, (years later) you will be able to read the land like a book and just know where the deer are and what they are doing with only a short scouting trip. 5. Learn what a rubline is and why scrapes are strategically place near doe groups or in a spot that marks territory. Learn the difference. Scrapes can tell you when the rut is in (the buck is with a doe) or when he is not. If it is fresh then he is looking for a doe. If it is cold or old then he may be with a doe. 6. Learn where deer like to bed. You can see the oval shaped flattened out spot where a deer has been laying. Look for hair in the bed if your not sure. Sometimes you will find lots of deer droppings that are clumped together near a bed area. Deer like to bed near each other for safety. 7. Most important thing to remember is, You can get allot of tips on the net and from books but you can only learn how to hunt by getting in the woods and doing it. The more time you spend in the woods looking for deer and the sign they leave behind the better you will get at it. Scout hard, Sit still, Be patient, Stay downwind of where you expect to see your deer. Have fun. Go to Bowsite.com I'm DC on the Alabama forum. Good Luck.

A neighbor called me in a panic saying, "Someone has put Jellyfish in our lake! After a brief dicussion I was able to calm things down a bit. It may come as a surprise to some that the presence Freshwater Jellyfish are a great indicator of good water quality and are harmless. They are rarely seen by most people because of their small size and clear bodies. A rare treat! Thought you guys might like to see them.

I live on a small lake and manage it for quality bass fishing. It was a very bass crowded lake to start with and now it is making a good recovery. 8 and 10 oz. was the average per 100 in the beginning. So I mostly fish for numbers to get an overall average, but on occasion I fish for the bigguns. Now that we have them. The numbers for 2011 are: 80, -2 lb. / 124, 2+ lb. / 20, 5+ lb. / 15, 4+ lb. / 6, 5+ lb. / 2, 6+ lb. / 1, 7+ lb. and the biggest 8.1 lb. I know of two bass almost touching the 10lb. mark that was caught this year but unfortunatly it wasn't me. Ha!

Check This Place Out. Maybe they can help. http://www.sepond.com/Mapping.html

What you have described is a bass crowded pond. I would bet that bluegill are present, but only large blugill to big for the bass in this pond to swallow. I would also bet that the crappie are stunted. To correct this problem it will take some effort. Approximately 35 lb. per surface acre of bass must be removed every year just to maintain a pond. To correct overcrowded conditions you will need to take out three times that in a single year. (Minimum) That's 525 lb. of bass. Continue to take out 35lb. of bass per surface acre a year. Take out all Crappie you catch. Allow your bluegill population to return. When you start to see bluegill in the two to four inch ranges then the food supply is making a rebound. After, I repeat after you have taken out enough bass to see the baitfish make a rebound then you may want to consider stocking threadfin shad as an additional food source. The bass will benefit as will the crappie. It will also take away some of the predation pressure on the bluegill allowing them to become well established. If spotted bass are present in the lake then I am a firm believer in taking everyone that you catch out. This has work well for me in the past. BUT! with out actually seeing the lake I would not be able say for sure the best possible route to take. The above however is a good start. P.S. this will take several years to correct so be patient. Good Luck