Frustrated with other people fishing my pond!

[rsagebrush]

I know where you're coming from guy, I really get agitated when people fish my rivers and streams too.

[The Bassman]

I dearly love to wade creeks. It's a big disappointment when I occasionally cross paths with someone on the same stretch. If we're  wading in the same direction I turn around. If we're going opposite I continue. Either way he's got as much right to be there as I do. Meeting someone with like interests makes the situation enjoyable.

[CTBassin860]

2 hours ago, The Bassman said:

I dearly love to wade creeks. It's a big disappointment when I occasionally cross paths with someone on the same stretch. If we're  wading in the same direction I turn around. If we're going opposite I continue. Either way he's got as much right to be there as I do. Meeting someone with like interests makes the situation enjoyable.

I run into guys all the time on the pond i fish.We mostly BS about what they caught and what lures they are getting bit on.If i can give another a tidbit of info on whats catching fish for me,and tat in turn works for him,maybe we both have a great day.

[Deleted account]

I love to have a section of water to myself, but everyone else has a right to fish it. I'll often choose where I'll fish based on that, which is why rainy overcast Wednesdays is one of my favorite times. Big fish seem to forget that they are supposed to be smarter on hump day...

[ClackerBuzz]

from what i know you want to identify the 'slot limit' and remove that size.  normally this is done via electroshocking a sample of the pond.  if you throw a 5" senko all around the lake what is the average size bass you'll catch?  8-10"?  if so that is the overcrowded population of the lake and you want to start removing those. ask the owner if it's okay for you and everyone to only remove 8-10" bass.  this rebalances the population by freeing up bait which moves up the food chain to the larger fish... making them even bigger.  you're growing bigger fish while encouraging bucket fisherman to only take small fish. win/win.  there is a great video on pond management on BR. I'll post it if i find it.

https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-videos/bass-fishing-fish-biology.html

[Hawkeye21]

On 4/22/2017 at 1:06 PM, Clackincrank53 said:

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...

 

I guess it's all personal opinion.  I actually found the OP's post to be a bit rude as to how he's handling the situation and how he titled the thread.  "Frustrated with others fishing my pond!"  Seriously?  When I read the title I thought it was a thread about people fishing his pond without permission, not other people fishing a private pond that he doesn't own.  I kept thinking, where does a guy get off telling someone else how to run their pond?

 

I completely understand his concerns though as I would want to keep that pond in pristine condition as well and wouldn't want others to ruin it.  The fact remains that I would have zero right in telling the owner on how to manage his pond or tell him who can fish his pond.  There are ways of having a friendly conversation about how the owner wants his pond to be and how to manage it, if he actually cares to.  If he doesn't care though, you're SOL and you'll just have to put up with it or talk to the other fishermen.

 

Regardless of any of that, I can't imagine that there are enough fish being taken out of a pond that size to affect it.  It just doesn't seem realistic unless they are taking a lot of fish every day for months. 

[kiteman]

well the whole thing really wasn't meant to be rude or forceful no matter how it came across.  usually exclamation points in casual writing should be taken as "i mean this comment lightly/jokingly/etc" and that's all i was trying to do...playfully title my post so that it got attention.  well at least i got the attention

 

thanks though for all of the responses.  several people keep referencing me on how to keep a good population in a pond and pull out the small bass, i know all that but not sure how much my efforts are going to assist the situation.  also as i mentioned before there is no such thing as slot limits in a private pond, at least not this one.  if anybody is catching and taking home, they are doing so at their own discretion as no park rangers monitor this pond or anything.  i understand it would be good to talk to those who are also fishing there, but i've only seen a couple and one catch and releases and another said he throws everything under 10" back and keeps the big ones.  i actually casually told him once he should try and throw the big ones back since they are the ones reproducing and are more fun to catch than eat.  but he was super redneck and the next time i saw him out there he was taking several bigger ones home.  so i know for a fact some people are taking them, but how much or how many i am unsure of and also unsure of the eventual fate of the pond as whole.

 

i will say that pond used to have a ton of perch, like there were so many it was not uncommon to hook one just by reeling in and catching it's body.  i know someone was taking 30+ perch home a day because i caught him doing it once, and in the last 6 months i have not seen or caught a single perch.  i don't know if it's possible one person could take thousands of perch from a 10 acre pond in less than a year, but there are either very few or none left at all when the population used to be thriving.  needless to say where i'm going with this is that some of the people who do fish out there have absolutely no respect or care about the ecosystem status of that pond and are seemingly completely OK with fishing the pond dry.  that doesn't sit well with me but i don't know what i can do other than talk to the people that run the joint.  talking to the guys that fish themselves doesn't seem to get me anywhere.

 

lastly i'll add that i would love to fish other ponds, but there simply aren't many where i live.  don't want to get into all the details but you either have nasty city ponds that are way overfished (literally one of the few places people fish here a guy saw a dead body floating in about a month ago, that's how limited my options are), or you have situations like this which are private land and getting access is very unlikely.  i lucked out for now, but hate to know it may not last.  so the easy thing would be to pack up and go down the road to the next place, but the next place i could have access to that actually has fish may be more a myth than anything.

[Choporoz]

On 4/22/2017 at 1:22 PM, LoweStinger said:

Maybe the reason you are not getting the bigger bass anymore is because they are smarter and more aware of you now.  

I've read this reply at least five times now....and I can't help think it is a subliminal message.....

 

(My mind replaces 'bigger bass' with 'the answers you want'; and 'aware of you now', with 'experienced'

[kiteman]

7 minutes ago, Choporoz said:

I've read this reply at least five times now....and I can't help think it is a subliminal message.....

 

(My mind replaces 'bigger bass' with 'the answers you want'; and 'aware of you now', with 'experienced'

 

i actually like this answer the best of all, because if it is true it makes me try new lures, fish new ways and outsmart them.  but at least if this were true i could know they are still out there, and as long as they are there then the possibility of catching them is always there as well. but obviously my concern is that the big ones are simply not there anymore, and if the midsize to large ones are still there, they will soon be depleted as well.  

[NCbassraider]

I own a similar sized pond.  There is probably just too much pressure being put on the bass by you and the few others that fish it.  It only takes a few people to do this on a 10 acre pond.

[flechero]

Well, you could convince the owner that he has a real gem and that he should charge for the privilege of fishing there.  Although, you need to be prepared to pay. 

 

There is a 50 acre pvt lake close to me and we used to run an annual membership- $750/yr.  Salty good fishing and a wait list to get a membership.  We used the money to fertilize and for electro shocking, shad/bluegill/tilapia stocking, etc.  But the point is that he may like the idea of making a few bucks on it to help cover taxes on the property, or he may reinvest as our owner did. 

[hunterPRO1]

i notice one thing here, in your title you called it your pond... "you don't own the water bro" has never been more true.