Do Stocked Trout Affect Bass?

[Quarry Man]

1 minute ago, MN Fisher said:

A little Google search...and you are correct. Umbrella/Alabama rigs are legal in PA.

 

https://www.pabulletin.com/secure/data/vol44/44-12/583.html

good to confirm. Do you think to would work? kinda like a big inline spinner I guess. I have caught these trout on chatterbaits and spinnerbaits before as well. might give it a go the morning after opening day

[Glaucus]

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MN Fisher]

4 minutes ago, Quarry Man said:

good to confirm. Do you think to would work? kinda like a big inline spinner I guess. I have caught these trout on chatterbaits and spinnerbaits before as well. might give it a go the morning after opening day

Dunno - never used one since they're illegal in MN.

[Quarry Man]

well, contrary to what I thought, the bass were going after the trout, hooked a 14" rainbow and washed it get obliterated by a 6+ lb bass. got it on video too, just don't know where to upload it. pretty epic. I hooked the trout onto my frogging rod and was unable to find the being bass. also saw 3 8+ lb trophy trout!

[J Francho]

18 minutes ago, Quarry Man said:

just don't know where to upload it

YouTube is probably the easiest.

[WRB]

During the late 50's to early 60's summers I worked on and later managed about 5 years a boat landing or what's called a marina today. Every Wednsday the DFG stocked 12" rainbow trout at various places around the lake and our marina. 

The marina area had resident largemouth bass anywhere from small to about 6 lbs, lots of crappie and bluegill living under the docks and boats. When the DFG planted trout they used a large diameter flex tubing to pump out the trout and water froma truck into the lake. The newly planted trout stayed together near shore and slowly moved out into the lake.

The resident LMB were curious and would swim around the planted trout but didn't attack them. In 5 years I never caught a big bass with a trout in it's mouth or watched bass attack trout at Big Bear lake.

Back in 70's 1st time I watched a LMB chase and eat a trout was at lake Casitas. Florida strain LMB eating trout since that time has become a common experience at every lake with FLMB population. Every once in awhile you find a struggling or dieing bass trying to swallow a fish too big for it's size or other bass attacking a bass with a fish too big to swallow. Fish don't know thier own size relative to anything else and learn by trail and error.

Tom

 

[soflabasser]

That is crazy that this bass weighed 9 pounds yet only measured 21.5 inches. Most 9 pound or better bass I catch are 25 inches or longer with a healthy body frame. Goes to show you bass get big quickly on dumb easy to catch stocked trout.

[cyclops2]

Lets remember a fact of hatchery trout.  They DO attack the smallest & weakest other fish all the time.  So there you go.

Resident fish quickly learn that sound of splashing water is loaded with weaker fish.. 

[70diesel]

On 4/7/2019 at 7:56 PM, Munkin said:

They maybe good prey but I hate fishing lakes here in Merryland that are stocked with trout. There is someone every 3' on the bank with 3 poles in the water and I always have to argue with people when trying to launch my boat. Even though there are 3 signs that say not fishing on the boat ramp there is always someone with lawn chairs setup when I get there. They get ticked off when I ask them to move so I can launch and yell about how they were there first. I try pointing to the signs but they still give me a rash of **** because they were there first. Same goes when I try to come in to put the boat on the trailer. I have cut at least 10 lines that I caught with the TM because they cast out in front of me when trying to come in. I respect my elders but it is always some senior citizen that is doing it because I have the nerve to put in and takeout on the boat ramp that they considered their own fishing pier. Now I just try and avoid that mess all together.

 

Allen

I'm guessing you can't stand the people catfishing on the ramps on the Potomac either. They look at you like you're the a-hole for using the boat ramp. Don't get me started on the kayakers in MD either, they're the worst. Those guys will cut between you and the bank when you're clearly fishing there and there's about 20 ft between. They also like to use the boat ramps like it's their personal set up station taking forever to load/unload. I don't even slow down when I see them on the river. Wake up, it's payback time.

[Munkin]

19 hours ago, 70diesel said:

I'm guessing you can't stand the people catfishing on the ramps on the Potomac either. They look at you like you're the a-hole for using the boat ramp. Don't get me started on the kayakers in MD either, they're the worst. Those guys will cut between you and the bank when you're clearly fishing there and there's about 20 ft between. They also like to use the boat ramps like it's their personal set up station taking forever to load/unload. I don't even slow down when I see them on the river. Wake up, it's payback time.

 

So I had a dummy once at Cunnigham Falls Lake put his Kayak on the ramp. I was ready to launch and all lined up. There was what I assume a grandfather and grandson that had just launched a Jon boat. I was giving them plenty of time but had everything ready I just needed to back the boat into the lake. Well as I was waiting this guy in a Jeep shows up, pulls his Kayak off the roof and lays it sideways across the ramp while he goes and gets the rest of his stuff ready. I said hey I am ready to launch can you please move your Kayak so I can put my boat in? He said wait a minute I need to get my stiff ready. He gave me the well I guess you are beat you will have to wait. At that point I lost it and said I am launching my 2800lb metal boat and if your plastic Kayak is in the way sorry about your luck. He was able to drag it out of the way just before I ran over it. I am a polite person but have my limits for things like this.

 

Allen

[geo g]

Might as well be ringing a dinner bell!  

[Big Hands]

I made a jointed wooden imitation trout swimbait with a rubber tail for a friend that wanted one bigger than the 11" to 12" standard sized one I had made previously for him. So I made him one that was every bit of 13" and slightly larger diameter. 

 

He claims he had a bass eat it that had completely swallowed the lure. He said he got it near the boat and all he could see was his 20 lb Trilene XT coming out from the behemoth's mouth. . . . just before the fish broke the line.

 

Is it true? 

 

I don't know. What I do know is that when I got home from work, his rig (truck and boat) was parked in front of my house and he was standing on my front porch, literally still shaking (I call it the 'double-digit-shakes'. . . . . if you know, then you know), asking me how soon I could have more made in that size.

 

All of the time I was fishing those baits, all but one bass we caught were over 5 lbs, except for one. That weighed 1-1/4 lbs and wasn't much bigger than the bait.

 

We caught a lot of bass on those baits, including my second biggest ever, a 12 lbs 4 oz fatty that I actually water skied across the surface on it's side with 25 lb mono (as happy as I was to boat he fish, there's a part of that considers that fish to be the most unsatisfying catch of mine ever TBH) and into the net. Literally every one of those bass was hooked on the front treble, meaning that they always ate them head first. I am pretty sure we could have left the rear treble off and caught just as many fish.

[thediscochef]

On 2/28/2022 at 9:32 PM, Munkin said:

 

So I had a dummy once at Cunnigham Falls Lake put his Kayak on the ramp. I was ready to launch and all lined up. There was what I assume a grandfather and grandson that had just launched a Jon boat. I was giving them plenty of time but had everything ready I just needed to back the boat into the lake. Well as I was waiting this guy in a Jeep shows up, pulls his Kayak off the roof and lays it sideways across the ramp while he goes and gets the rest of his stuff ready. I said hey I am ready to launch can you please move your Kayak so I can put my boat in? He said wait a minute I need to get my stiff ready. He gave me the well I guess you are beat you will have to wait. At that point I lost it and said I am launching my 2800lb metal boat and if your plastic Kayak is in the way sorry about your luck. He was able to drag it out of the way just before I ran over it. I am a polite person but have my limits for things like this.

 

Allen

I know this thread isn't about these incidents but this sort of thing makes me insane. I fish near and around ramps, sometimes on the ramp itself.

 

But it's a *boat* ramp, not a fishing ramp. If there's a boat, they get priority. That should just be plain sense. 

 

I also get the same level of annoyance for boaters who decide to troll along the public fishing piers and cast within 10 feet of where folks are standing and fishing. I've seen it three times this week at my favorite lake, I had one land within five feet of my boot (he heard about it). I just don't understand it. It's not that hard to give folks space or just come back later when the bank is empty. Or just ask. The level of entitlement from some folks, both boat and bank, can be astounding. It's not hard to share the lake and just talk to the people around you. 

 

 

Ok back on topic:

 

So I'm not sure how trout and bass relate exactly but I'd have to think it varies. I *do* know that there's a city pond here that gets stocked with trout in the winter, and people lose their minds trying to catch em. This pond would easily fit inside a football field and you'll routinely see 20+ people fishing it. If you're trying to use anything but powerbait dough there's simply not enough room to work it. 

I last caught a bass there on my birthday in early December. They began stocking it the next week and my catches abruptly stopped, though I think much of that was related to weather and pressure and not so much the trout. 

The biggest bass I ever caught there was about 3lbs (sample size probably 50-70 bass), but the trout stocked are all adults. I have heard of 5+lbs bass there and have seen channel cats caught up to 7lbs. The bass come from stocking 10+ years ago and most recently from a nearby pond emptied for dam repairs. I also see people keep undersized bass from this pond, as well as Cast netting against TPWD regs. Game warden could rack up some tickets if they wanted to. I digress. There was a blue cat in there this summer but he didn't look so hot last time I caught him. I've picked him up a few times. I know there was a channel spawn in there for the first time a couple years ago and there was another one this year - folks with smaller hooks targeting bluegills were pulling out fingerling cats 10:1 vs gills/sunfish. This pond is also stocked with keeper size channels and has a healthy population of shads and minnows.

 

I went and checked up on it a few days ago and the clarity has gone way downhill and you can see where people have chopped down the dead reeds to get more water access. Line and packaging everywhere but thats normal for this location. I was unable to catch anything. I plan on coming back to that pond when summer is in full swing and the fish are hanging out in the aerators.

[Quarry Man]

glad to see my thread is still active. After recording that video of a huge bass attacking a large trout, I will be throwing a trout swimbait in search of bass in the coming months after opening day.

[Bird]

Yes trout colored baits work great in trout stocked waters. Lol

[Fishing_Rod]

I have not noticed a significant change in bass catch rates between the lakes / ponds that are stocked versus those that are not. This is just based on observations about southern Arizona for several decades. Usually the lakes / ponds are stocked periodically during the colder months. Historically some waters didn't get stocked with trout for various reasons, typically poor water quality.  During those times the bass and sunfish would still play occasionally. 

 

While catching bass during the colder months does slow down, it doen't stop from my experience. I will say using ultra lite rigs, curly tailed crappie grubs on 1/32 oz jigs, or small 3 inch weedless worms work all year long catching bass, trout, sunfish, and the occasional catfish too.