First fish on a Ned Rig!

[BigAngus752]

I recently received permission to fish a nearby neighborhood pond.  The guy told me that it was stocked 20 years ago with crappie and bluegill and no one has done anything with it.  It's less than 2 minutes from my house so I planned to use it to try new gear and practice techniques.  It's been completely frozen for more than two weeks but a few days of warm weather and rain opened it up.  I hardly took anything with me as I was only trying out my new Terex MH spinning rod.  I worked with it for awhile and then grabbed a M/XF Powell spinning rod (the only other rod I brought) and put the smallest thing I had on it in the hopes of catching some panfish.  The smallest thing I had with me was a Shroomz jig head and I cut a coppertreuse ZinkerZ in half and stuck it on.  I've only tried the Ned once before but I was moving too fast and setting too hard and kept missing.  I've been reading and watching videos on it and this time on the third cast I caught this one.  I had to leave at that point but where there's one, there's more.  Looking forward to telling my friend that his lake has LM in it!  I always love catching on something new.  Looking forward to more Ned fishing!

[TOXIC]

20 years of unchecked Crappie and Bluegill growth may...just may....have them overpopulating the pond.  You will know if you start catching them and they are all stunted and in large numbers.  If so, do your friend a favor and aggressively start culling the panfish.  Either take them home for a fishfry, use them for fertilizer or whatever purpose to get them out of the pond.  You didn't say how big the pond is but the smaller the more likely the panfish have overpopulated it.  

[Bankbeater]

Nice December bass.

[Sam]

On ‎12‎/‎17‎/‎2018 at 7:35 AM, TOXIC said:

20 years of unchecked Crappie and Bluegill growth may...just may....have them overpopulating the pond.  You will know if you start catching them and they are all stunted and in large numbers.  If so, do your friend a favor and aggressively start culling the panfish.  Either take them home for a fishfry, use them for fertilizer or whatever purpose to get them out of the pond.  You didn't say how big the pond is but the smaller the more likely the panfish have overpopulated it.  

X2.

 

And the bass may be overpopulated, too.

[BigAngus752]

Quote

On 12/17/2018 at 6:35 AM, TOXIC said:

20 years of unchecked Crappie and Bluegill growth may...just may....have them overpopulating the pond.  You will know if you start catching them and they are all stunted and in large numbers.  If so, do your friend a favor and aggressively start culling the panfish.  Either take them home for a fishfry, use them for fertilizer or whatever purpose to get them out of the pond.  You didn't say how big the pond is but the smaller the more likely the panfish have overpopulated it.  

 

7 hours ago, Sam said:

X2.

 

And the bass may be overpopulated, too.

 

Thanks for the info.  I hope I can fish it often without wearing out my welcome.  I did see one thing that concerned me while I was there...I watched a bright orange koi/goldfish/exotic of some sort that was at least a pound or more roll on the surface.  My wife mentioned it to the guy who gave me permission and he said, "Yeah, we gotta get that out of there".  The neighborhood knows it's in there but doesn't know who dumped it.  Any idea what effect an exotic such as that could have if there's a breeding pair in there?  It's a very expensive subdivision full of houses I could never afford.  I can guarantee that if I start pulling numbers of ANY kind of fish out of there one of the other homeowners will complain.  I'll have to talk to the guy that I know and we will work something out so he is present and taking responsibility for what needs to be culled.  Thanks again. 

[TOXIC]

Koi are just brightly colored carp....basically....We see a lot of them on the Potomac every year.  Unless they are breeding, they are of no consequence.  Take some  dough balls out there and see if you can catch it.  I know to most people it is counter intuitive to try and understand why harvesting makes the pond healthier but it is a fact.  Maybe show your buddy some articles or even see if your local DNR will come out and take a look.  I saved a small pond that was over run with panfish and bass by taking large numbers out.  The bass and panfish got bigger and healthier which in a couple of years.  

[MN Fisher]

10 minutes ago, TOXIC said:

Koi are just brightly colored carp....basically

Carp are just oversized Goldfish - they're the same family...like Largemouth, Smallmouth and Spotted Bass are the same family.

[OCdockskipper]

Since the bass you caught was keeper size and just slightly thin, it may be a good sign. 

 

For ponds that have no shad population, bluegill are the main forage for bass.  If there aren't enough bluegill available to sustain the bass population, then you typically won't catch a bass like you did.  All of the bass will be stunted, in the 8" -11" size range with the exception of 1 or 2 really large bass that are the queens of the pond.  If the bass in that pond had been stunted, you would have caught one every cast and probably never caught one the size you did.

 

Now, if the bluegill population was stunted, the limited number of bass in the pond would be fat & happy.  They would have an enormous amount of small sized (stunted) bluegill to feed on.  The bass you caught would be able to feed to his hearts delight and most likely would have had a pot belly instead of being slim.  So again based on the fish you caught, most likely the bluegill population is not stunted.

 

I would wager that there is a healthy balance in that pond.  The bass will range all sizes, but not too many will have pot bellies.  The only bluegill you will catch will be the over sized ones, too big to fit in the mouth of all but the largest bass.  The number of smaller bluegill is sparse, for they are constantly being eaten by bass like the one you caught.

 

A tip & a suggestion.  The tip is that the Ned rig & other small baits will produce well in a pond like this full of northern largemouth.  That matches what they are used to eating and doesn't look out of place.  A big giant swimbait may catch the queen of the pond, but is a bit of a unicorn as for as matching forage.  The suggestion is in regards to the health of the pond.  If the homeowners want more bluegill & crappie around for the kids to catch, recommend that they do a couple of stockings of crayfish.  The bass will often choose to eat the crayfish over the bluegill and if they establish a large enough population, the bass will back off decimating the bluegills so that a decent amount of mid sized bluegill end up surviving (to be caught be the kids).

 

And don't worry about the Koi.  He can be the pond mascot, he won't affect the wild fish population.

[BigAngus752]

3 hours ago, TOXIC said:

Koi are just brightly colored carp....basically....We see a lot of them on the Potomac every year.  Unless they are breeding, they are of no consequence.  Take some  dough balls out there and see if you can catch it.  I know to most people it is counter intuitive to try and understand why harvesting makes the pond healthier but it is a fact.  Maybe show your buddy some articles or even see if your local DNR will come out and take a look.  I saved a small pond that was over run with panfish and bass by taking large numbers out.  The bass and panfish got bigger and healthier which in a couple of years.  

I will try to catch that koi just because it would be hilarious (and I'll use it as fertilizer).  Here's something interesting...I went back to the pond today.  To the exact same spot where I caught the above fish.  I used the same Ned Rig with the same 1/2 Zinker Z.  First cast I caught a dink.  Second cast a 1.5 pounder.  Third cast a 2.5 pounder.  I actually stopped at that point and went somewhere else.  I did that because I clearly have found (for the moment) a honey hole.  I have a place and technique guaranteed to catch fish right now in this season and I want to get my 15yr old son there so he has a positive fishing experience.  I don't want to burn it out until my son catches some fish there. 

 

I'm curious, though, if this catching spree is a good sign or bad sign for this small pond (it's about 2.5 acres and the majority is 2 feet deep. I'm told that is gets to 10-15ft in the middle but my casting hasn't found anything deeper than 5ft or so).  Thanks for the help!  

6 minutes ago, OCdockskipper said:

Since the bass you caught was keeper size and just slightly thin, it may be a good sign. 

 

For ponds that have no shad population, bluegill are the main forage for bass.  If there aren't enough bluegill available to sustain the bass population, then you typically won't catch a bass like you did.  All of the bass will be stunted, in the 8" -11" size range with the exception of 1 or 2 really large bass that are the queens of the pond.  If the bass in that pond had been stunted, you would have caught one every cast and probably never caught one the size you did.

 

Now, if the bluegill population was stunted, the limited number of bass in the pond would be fat & happy.  They would have an enormous amount of small sized (stunted) bluegill to feed on.  The bass you caught would be able to feed to his hearts delight and most likely would have had a pot belly instead of being slim.  So again based on the fish you caught, most likely the bluegill population is not stunted.

 

I would wager that there is a healthy balance in that pond.  The bass will range all sizes, but not too many will have pot bellies.  The only bluegill you will catch will be the over sized ones, too big to fit in the mouth of all but the largest bass.  The number of smaller bluegill is sparse, for they are constantly being eaten by bass like the one you caught.

 

A tip & a suggestion.  The tip is that the Ned rig & other small baits will produce well in a pond like this full of northern largemouth.  That matches what they are used to eating and doesn't look out of place.  A big giant swimbait may catch the queen of the pond, but is a bit of a unicorn as for as matching forage.  The suggestion is in regards to the health of the pond.  If the homeowners want more bluegill & crappie around for the kids to catch, recommend that they do a couple of stockings of crayfish.  The bass will often choose to eat the crayfish over the bluegill and if they establish a large enough population, the bass will back off decimating the bluegills so that a decent amount of mid sized bluegill end up surviving (to be caught be the kids).

 

And don't worry about the Koi.  He can be the pond mascot, he won't affect the wild fish population.

You were actually typing this as I typed an update to @TOXIC  PLEASE read that post about my experience there today and let me know if that is any kind of indicator to you.  Thanks!

[OCdockskipper]

Again I would say it is positive.  The bass are of varying size (i.e., not stunted) and they are hungry (i.e., no stunted bluegill).  The difference between you and some of the homeowners is they may be casting a 3/4 oz spinnerbait that scares the bass in the pond instead of attracting them ?.  The Ned rig you are using can catch every single sized bass in that pond.

[BigAngus752]

6 minutes ago, OCdockskipper said:

The Ned rig you are using can catch every single sized bass in that pond.

I'm starting to figure that out!  LOL!  I may have hooked myself with the Ned Rig. ?