Burring out a Pond?

[MoeBass]

I mostly fish ponds and smaller lakes in residential neighborhoods and or business's in industrial parks. I tend to have way more success then the local City parks or Forest Preserve parks, for obvious reasons. My question is has probably been asked 1000x, but ill ask it 1001. Can you over fish a location? I know places like I mentioned above, parks, public fishing areas are for sure pressured. But is it possible to over fish places single handedly? There is a good size pond (small lake) that I got permission to fish. Its almost cheating at times. Every cast a Bass. Nothing under 2 lbs. Even some freak of nature monster blue gill. I've been fishing it 3-4 days a week. I don't want to burn this place out. I've read so many different articles all saying different theories on Bass memory. I cant say I recall catching the same Bass or not. Hate to say they all look the same, but... they do. Unless of course there are definite characteristics like wounds or other obvious things. But I cant say I have caught the same ones or not.  Now, some days are better then others. One day I might reel in over 15 bass in a couple hours, others maybe reel in 2. Yesterday evening I went out for 2 hrs. and caught 1. with zero bites.  Any input would be great. 

[TOXIC]

While I think there is some validity to fish “conditioning” I don’t think you are going to experience it in low pressure ponds.  If your lures are mimicking food, the bass are going to eat it.  

[MoeBass]

3 minutes ago, TOXIC said:

While I think there is some validity to fish “conditioning” I don’t think you are going to experience it in low pressure ponds.  If your lures are mimicking food, the bass are going to eat it.  

Kinda what I was thinking as well.. thanks 

[Deleted account]

1 hour ago, MoeBass said:

I mostly fish ponds and smaller lakes in residential neighborhoods and or business's in industrial parks. I tend to have way more success then the local City parks or Forest Preserve parks, for obvious reasons. My question is has probably been asked 1000x, but ill ask it 1001. Can you over fish a location? I know places like I mentioned above, parks, public fishing areas are for sure pressured. But is it possible to over fish places single handedly? There is a good size pond (small lake) that I got permission to fish. Its almost cheating at times. Every cast a Bass. Nothing under 2 lbs. Even some freak of nature monster blue gill. I've been fishing it 3-4 days a week. I don't want to burn this place out. I've read so many different articles all saying different theories on Bass memory. I cant say I recall catching the same Bass or not. Hate to say they all look the same, but... they do. Unless of course there are definite characteristics like wounds or other obvious things. But I cant say I have caught the same ones or not.  Now, some days are better then others. One day I might reel in over 15 bass in a couple hours, others maybe reel in 2. Yesterday evening I went out for 2 hrs. and caught 1. with zero bites.  Any input would be great. 

In a really small body of water, you can singlehandedly shut down the fishing if you fish it often enough, but it's a temporary thing, and not easy to do, so I wouldn't worry about it. I was the only one allowed to fish a local golf course, and it wasn't like cheating, it was cheating, 20-40 3-8 lb bass every outing, good for practicing, just like a driving or putting range.

[Tennessee Boy]

There is strong evidence that fish learn to avoid lures very quickly and that fish that have never seen a lure are very easy to catch.  I don’t think they necessarily connect the dots between a lure and being caught but they learn that lures are not food and loose interest.  

[WRB]

Over harvesting happens for year class bass do in part lower population of a specific year class. 

Timing maters, can’t catch inactive bass. Try again 2 to 3  hours earlier or later. If the bass are easy to catch use single hook soft plastics in lieu of treble hook lures.

Tom

[king fisher]

     I fished a river that had very few small mouth bass in it.  The fish that were there were big with an average of around 4 pounds.  I was almost the only one that fished there.  

     In the summer the water would get so low, I could jump from rock to rock and cross it without getting my feet wet.  The bass were only in a few places.  The spots were very predictable and the bass easy to catch.  I would catch one or two out of each hole, then walk down to the next place and catch another one.  I rotated the stretches of river I would fish.  In a couple mile stretch of river there would be two to three places were I could catch one or two bass from.  I had access to about 20 miles of river and would fish almost every day. I was able to fish a stretch, then rest it about a week before going back particular spot.

      If I only rested a particular spot a day or two, I would either get skunked or catch a couple 8 inch bass.  One time I got skunked at my favorite whole.  I hadn't fished there in over a week and was very shocked at my lack of luck.  I found out later a friend of mine had fished there a couple days before and caught two over 4 pounds.  That solved the mystery of my skunking.

      If the river didn't almost dry up every summer, I'm sure a couple other locals and I that fished there would not have been able to over fish it, as long as we were careful to release the bass in good condition.  As it was, the river was marginal for survival of bass.  Fish and Game said there was only carp and a sucker like fish called a northern pike minnow in the river.  An old man that had a house on the river kept the bass a secret for years, but let it slip one day when I was talking to him about trapping there.

     I'm sure I repeatedly caught every bass in the river.  If it would have been a pond instead of a long river there is not doubt in my mind that I could have over fished it all by myself.  As it was I could keep catching the same bass as long as I rested each section of river for a week or so.