Paradise lost

[king fisher]

     I was told today, that my favorite big bass lake Presa Pocho, near Tepic Nayarit has been discovered by a lodge owner in the area.  He has made arrangements with the local manager of the lake to get exclusive rights to the sport fishing.  Commercial fishing was already on a permit basis.  I'm not sure if he will be able to keep people from fishing on their own, or if he will only have exclusive rights for a commercial sport fishing operation.  Either way I don't expect the fishery to be able to sustain the trophy numbers, with the extra pressure of a guiding operation.  The lake is only a little over a mile long, and a half mile wide.  Their are not many bass, but they grow big.  I caught many more bass over 7 lbs. than 1 to 5 pounders.  I don't know why but almost every bass I would catch was big.  Four or five bites a day was a good day, but when one was over 10 pounds and the rest over 7  I considered it world class fishing.  Most days I was the only sport angler, a couple other kayak fisherman would fish the lake once every couple months.  The lodge owners home lake has incredible numbers, but no trophies.  He wants a place to take people for a shot at a DD.bass.  He said it will be catch and release, and he will only take a few people a week, but I'm sure his costumers will pressure him in to taking more people than the small lake can handle.  Even if they catch and release, the camera mortality will be enough to hurt the fishing.  Not to mention the bass will become educated to bass fishing techniques quickly.

      The lodge owner told a friend of mine, he wants to bring some bass from Baccarac, and plant them in the lake to improve the genetics of the bass.  For the past 2.5 years I have landed a bass over 10 pounds one out of every four days I have fished there.  I don't know how he plans on improving on those genetics.  I know of one bass over 14 pounds taken in the last year by one of the two other kayak anglers that fished there, and I have hooked true giants that got away myself.

      I new this day would come due to the close proximity of the small lake to a large reservoir with multiple lodges.  I was hoping to get a couple more years of incredible fishing before the end came.  My wife and I bought a small piece of property near another lake with decent bass fishing, but no real trophy potential.   I am looking forward to fishing the new lake often, but will always miss fishing my once hidden lake loaded with 10 pound bass that lived their whole life with out seeing a lure.  I only wish I would have found the time to fish there more often.  If I ever find a place like that again, I will fish it every chance I can possibly get.  I will never again say I should have set aside more time to fish a lake, because I now realize time in paradise is limited.

 

[Skunkmaster-k]

Hindsight  is 20/20. 

[TnRiver46]

Eh, they still have to eat. And somebody still has to catch them. People still catch 12 lb bass in Florida and Texas 

[king fisher]

4 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Eh, they still have to eat. And somebody still has to catch them. People still catch 12 lb bass in Florida and Texas 

     Problem is in Florida and Texas bass are not subject to thousands of gill nets.  I doubt you will see Largemouth bass caught from Lake Fork on the menu in  a restaurant.  Many lakes in Mexico have a very low population of bass.  The fishing is good only because there is very little sport fishing pressure.  The small lake I fish can not handle constant pressure from sport anglers.  It would be like taking a farm pond in Texas, that has great fishing for the owner of the pond.  Then netting 90 percent of the bass leaving only a few DD. bass to catch.  Then instead of the owner and his family fishing once in awhile, put a lodge on the pond and have constant angler pressure.  Some bass will survive, and like you said they will have to eat, but they wont have to eat lures.

[TnRiver46]

They have gills nets on chickamauga, but not a thousand of them. It also happens to produce the biggest bass in the area.  I’m not sure about FL and TX laws. Many have reported giant bass in the gill nets and many have gotten props tangled in them. They aren’t allowed to stretch a net across the entire creek channel but the current washes them all over the place.