Frustrated with other people fishing my pond!

[kiteman]

To make a long story short, I fish on a 10-acre private pond and the owner let's a few others fish as well. Many of them catch and release but I'm not convinced they all do. I've noticed a decline in the fish population, especially the bigger ones. The owner doesn't fish much so even though I've told him to tell others to catch and release, I'm not sure he gets it. Short of trying to buy the d**n land from him, is there anything you guys think I could say to him that might convince him not to let others take fish home? I don't want to tick the guy off and lose my fishing privileges, but I also don't want there to be no fish in the pond in two years either, so I feel like there has to be something friendly I can talk to him about that may make him enforce more catch and release? Thanks.

[BrianinMD]

$$$$$

[jr231]

10 acres is plenty room for them to hide . Once youve hooked a few of those hogs they will become aware of danger from the outside. Feel your vibrations on the bank , remember your lure that worked last time. They do get conditioned whether anyone wants to admit it or not ! They can still be had though and I'm willing to bet they are still in there. did you get a look during the spawn ?? 

 

Besides, most people know the smaller younger bass are the best ones to eat anyway..  and removing some of the smaller bass can be healthy for the pond. I wouldn't want to eat a big old fat bass. Lol. Think about it ! I never understood why someone would take a big fish unless they planned on mounting it... 

 

 

[Damn Yankee]

I don't think you should tell him anything about His pond.

Mind your own business and just be thankful you can fish there.

[A5BLASTER]

In the first place what makes you think you have any rights to say how the pond is fished or inforce your views and ideas of how to fish it to the owner of said pond and land. 

 

If the pond owner has given others permission to fish the pond and he does'nt have a problem with them keeping some to eat and they aren't taking more then their daily law allowed limit then they are not doing anything wrong.

 

You need to be thankful someone let you fish what they put hard earned money up to buy and build and stock with fish. So stop whinning and learn how to catch them with a diffrent bait other then the one you always use.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And to add one other thing, you need to read a few books on how to manage a pond for fishing, if you don't take some out the population will grow to large for the water and they will eat out all the food and then guess what happen's next all your bass die off.

[RoLo]

 

If your goal is to land a trophy bass, and not partake in a runt fest,

you should thank the landowner for a policy that plays into your hands.

 

Roger

[CTBassin860]

As the others have said as well.Its not your pond.Its his pond.You're lucky he lets you fish it.If you have a problem with the way he chooses to maintain his property,go fish elsewhere.

[kiteman]

Well i'd like to move away from the "it's not your pond it's his" thing, because it isn't exactly his pond, he just works there.  Owners are old, he takes care of the place, etc.  so it's not like the guy spent $$$$ on the property himself, but still of course it's nice to know him and get to fish there at all.  and all i was asking was just a way to politely address the concept of him regulating fishing there.  it's a private pond, so there are 0 rules, no limits.  for all i know 2-3 other fisherman could be taking 20 bass home a day and at that rate in a few years there will be no fish there at all.  the fact that i've already noticed a decline in fish population tells you something.  i just don't know what's going on when i'm not there, and wanted some advice on a polite way to have the discussion with this guy that could potentially have him tell his other buddies to be careful how many fish they are taking.

 

thanks for pointing out smaller bass going helps the bigger ones get bigger, i have read about this and agree.  and there are a lot of smaller bass in there that i catch frequently.  the problem is a lot of people where i live think you throw the small ones back and keep the big ones, since they provide more meat.  they think the big ones are close to the end of their lifespan and the little ones are just getting started.  they clearly don't understand how long bass live or how long it takes a bass to get "big" but unfortunately that is the redneck philosophy where i live.  so while i would HOPE people are taking the small ones and leaving the big ones, my experience has been different, and that's why i am concerned.  i've caught several in the 4-5lb range according to my scale, but it has been months or even over a year since i've caught them.  i'm afraid they are gone already.  maybe i'm being dramatic though.

 

[BrianinMD]

Whether you want to move on from "its not your pond" or not, its still not yours.

 

You got a few options, keep mouth shut and enjoy the fishing you get on it, talk to him about it hoping he adjust and does not kick you off, and lastly buy it.....

[LoweStinger]

Maybe the reason you are not getting the bigger bass anymore is because they are smarter and more aware of you now. Try different baits and times of day when you go.. I bet there are still big bass there.. just wiser ones now  

[Scott F]

Bass don't live forever. 4-5 lbs may be as big as they were going to get and may have died on their own. They may have died from being mishandled. 

I'd talk to the guy who runs the property and find out who the other fishermen are that fish there. Get to know them and maybe you all can work together to keep the fishing as good as it can be.

[Clackincrank53]

Wow I kinda found the comments by everybody rude as heck...anywho, I would ask the guy about the owners and if he know what they want the pond to be and if he says more or less they could care less about if it has good fishing or not then I'd probably let sleeping dogs lie or this,...my thinking is they must care about it for one reason or another or why would they pay to have a caretaker?? Also wondering why does the caretaker get to pick and choose who fishes it?? If you know the owners I would just contact them and tell them what you have noticed about the population and felt you were kinda obligated to tell them since you fish there and give no other reason for saying so...say nothing about u think them and they are doing this or that or you want the bass in there to get big or whatever... That's my .02 cents...

[JustJames]

If I were you I would keep my mouth shut and enjoy my fishing there. The owner might not even know at all if any fish there. If you bring this object to him he might stop all fishing and you might make the guy that give you permission in trouble too. A nice place to fish with less bass still better than no place to fish at all.

[jr231]

Lol y'all are pounding this guy.. 

[Buckeye Ron]

This reminds me of a situation I had many years ago when I asked permission to fish an older gentlemen's pond. He gave me permission on the condition I stopped by his house before fishing the first time. Upon arrival I was greeted with a printed permission slip(carbon copy) that we both signed. Printed on the slip were the conditions I had to agree to abide by when fishing there. 

 

I thought that was the smartest thing in the world. He knew who had permission to fish, and I understood the rules. 

[jr231]

2 hours ago, LoweStinger said:

Maybe the reason you are not getting the bigger bass anymore is because they are smarter and more aware of you now. Try different baits and times of day when you go.. I bet there are still big bass there.. just wiser ones now  

 

Pretty much what I said . And I'm more than sure this is a well educated guess. So sure , that I'm pointing it out again ! 

[Chowderhead]

This went south when you titled the thread "...my pond."  With that said, either have a friendly conversation where you make no demands or just stay silent and keep fishing. Stiring up trouble likely will backfire on you. 

[RoLo]

16 minutes ago, Chowderhead said:

This went south when you titled the thread "my pond."  With that said, either have a friendly conversation where you make no demands or just stay silent and keep fishing. Stiring up trouble likely will backfire on you. 

 

 

Exactly, I call all the shots in "my pond" 

[the reel ess]

I've been told by a state fisheries employee that you can't fish a pond out. They will get over pressured though. You can take some of the big ones out, but more will grow to replace them. If you don't take enough fish out they get stunted. That's probably what you're experiencing. The rule of thumb is to take 25 lbs of bass per acre per year to avoid stunted bass. I caught a previous PB at my friend's pond 14 years ago and I haven't caught a big fish there since. Stunted. Strict catch and release is not a good way to manage most ponds.

 

I have another friend with a pond that lost a lot of fish over the dam last spring when they had a flood. The average fish there have gotten bigger and they have bellies. I would suggest you start showing them some lures they haven't seen and fish lower light periods. There will still be some big ones there. There are always some more wary fish that just won't bite artificials well.

 

 

[the reel ess]

If you fish a place with healthy bigger average bass, a 3 year old might weigh 4 lbs. The same fish that grew up in a pond with a large population and a finite supply of forage will weigh less. There a 3 year old might weight 1.5 lb and cannot get the nutrition to grow larger. That one stands no chance of being trophy size. Nor do most of the fish in that pond. That place needs a lot of people to take everything they catch.

[RoLo]

46 minutes ago, the reel ess said:

I've been told by a state fisheries employee that you can't fish a pond out.

 

A small pond can be fished 'down', but it cannot be fished 'out'.

It's a self-fulfilling prophesy on the fish's end, because increased fishing pressure

results in more highly conditioned and harder to catch bass.

It's self-fulfilling on the angler's end as well, because when fishing production dries up,

the number of anglers dries up in kind.

 

Roger

[preach4bass]

Three things come to mind:

 

1.  Don't talk to the"owner" (who isn't actually the owner) about your concerns anymore.  You'll probably annoy him and potentially lose your fishing privileges.

 

2.  Find out who the other fisherman are, and find out how they fish.  Don't try to educate them on your doctrine of catch and release only.  Simply learn how they fish, and develop a strategy around it.

 

3.  I've been blessed to help manage two large ponds.  After consulting our regional biologist, I learned that the best thing we could do for both ponds was to KEEP the RIGHT fish.

 

One pond had several bass in the 5-8 pound range, but we wanted bigger.  The biologist recommend that we keep every bass under two pounds.  It worked.  That pond got to the point where it was rare to fish there and NOT catch a five pounder, and the eights got more common.

 

The other pond was full of tiny bass.  You could easily catch 50-75 bass in a trip, all around 11 inches.  We fished it hard for a few years, and kept out around 600 little bass, and every bream we could catch.  Over the first three years we only threw three bass back, that we wanted to stay in there and breed!  Now, when we fish that pond, we only catch 20-35 bass, but they average 16 inches, and several will be over 18.

 

Other people fish both ponds, and don't necessarily have the same goals we do.  We've never asked them to change (even when we saw a five pounder in a bucket), but have started discussions about how the ponds have gotten a lot better, and then told them what our strategy was.  An amazing thing happened when we showed them instead of told them..... we're all on the same page now, everyone is catching plenty of bigger fish, and most importantly, we're all having fun!

[Bluebasser86]

A friend of mine has a nice pond on his property that only a him and a few others are allowed to fish. It had never been fished until we did the first time several years ago. We wore them out, nice fish too up to 7 pounds. We hammered that little pond almost daily after that great first trip. After the first few weeks it got really hard to catch them on anything. If we didn't know better, it would have seemed like there weren't hardly any fish in there. The fish didn't go anywhere, they were seeing our baits, just not eating.

What I'm saying is, without any proof that anyone is actually removing fish, there's no way for you to know that the other guys are keeping anything. They might be struggling like you and thinking the same of you, that you're keeping 20 fish a trip and ruining the pond. They might just be getting conditioned to the fishing pressure and becoming more wary of angling pressure, especially if you fish the same baits and areas every time like we all tend to do at times. 

It's a slippery slope trying to bring this up to the property manager. Maybe he agrees with you that people are keeping too many fish, but that's not his job to keep track of so he decides to just pull the plug on everyone. I think I'd try to talk to the guy, get to know him over a period of time and break your ideas and concerns to him slowly so if it starts to rub him the wrong way you can pull back without him shutting it down on everyone. 

Good luck in whatever you decide to do. 

[Raul]

Well, it's not your property so ........

[The Bassman]

18 hours ago, kiteman said:

To make a long story short, I fish on a 10-acre private pond and the owner let's a few others fish as well. Many of them catch and release but I'm not convinced they all do. I've noticed a decline in the fish population, especially the bigger ones. The owner doesn't fish much so even though I've told him to tell others to catch and release, I'm not sure he gets it. Short of trying to buy the d**n land from him, is there anything you guys think I could say to him that might convince him not to let others take fish home? I don't want to tick the guy off and lose my fishing privileges, but I also don't want there to be no fish in the pond in two years either, so I feel like there has to be something friendly I can talk to him about that may make him enforce more catch and release? Thanks.

 

First off, I notice that you're a newer member so I want to welcome you.  Secondly, I can relate to your concerns.  I've been in the same situation. Much of what's been said is true regarding the privilege to fish the pond. I've learned that I can't control other's behavior and have to accept that. Likely a lot of those larger bass have been removed. People are going to keep larger fish regardless of their eating quality. Seek out other ponds. I'm a shore fisherman and have always had to find new spots as others went away.  Good luck.