The bad parts of where you fish

[OkobojiEagle]

8 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

That's what you get for living in a state who's topography resembles a table-top.

We were nice and calm until our gouberment started to subsidize all this windmill building...

 

NE Iowa is similar to eastern Tennessee... dueling banjo music and all.

[T-Billy]

4 hours ago, Woody B said:

People.   I completely understand, and accept the fact that they have just as much right to be on the water as I do.....but a crowded lake is still a crowded lake.   I'm usually off the lake by 10 during the Summer.   

I'm with ya 100% on this one brother.  Fortunately my work schedule allows me to fish on week nights much of the time through the summer months. It's often just me and the critters out there.

3 hours ago, FishinBuck07 said:

Too many boats on our tiny lakes and the DNR couldn't care less about the bass population.   Always stocking toothy critters, acting like we live in Minnesota or Canada. 

Bass reproduce naturally in our lakes, no need to stock them. Muskie can't successfully spawn in most of them due to winter drawdown. I fish Leesville and Piedmont mostly. Both have healthy bass populations, even with muskie stocked at one fish per acre on average. 

Our little lakes get PLENTY of pressure, that's for sure. 

[SC53]

Pleasure boat traffic, spraying and fishing pressure.

I’m on the St. John’s river and you don’t even bother to fish the weekends for the boat traffic.  It’s like interstate 95. 
On most of our lakes it’s the amount of fishing pressure it gets all the time.  Harris and  Kissimmee chains have multiple tournaments every weekend of the year.  
same goes for okeechobee and mot of the other larger lakes.
Top all that off with the continuous spraying they do and it makes for tough fishing on most days.

[gim]

33 minutes ago, T-Billy said:

even with muskie stocked at one fish per acre on average

Holy cow, MN stocks muskies at a rate of 1 per 40 acres.

[MediumMouthBass]

6 hours ago, FishinBuck07 said:

Too many boats on our tiny lakes and the DNR couldn't care less about the bass population.   Always stocking toothy critters, acting like we live in Minnesota or Canada. 

Same with the Fish and Boat Commission/DCNR in PA, they would rather the bass population to cease to exist if it meant they could stock another 10 thousand trout more than what they already put in 1 lake in just 1 year.

We had people snagging bass on beds right off the bank to eat and they wouldnt care, just checked to make sure the guys fishing for trout had their licenses for it.

[T-Billy]

1 minute ago, gimruis said:

Holy cow, MN stocks muskies at a rate of 1 per 40 acres.

Y'all have WAY bigger lakes, and WAY more of them up there than we do. I can't imagine the cost of stocking at the density OH does in MN. Our lakes are in the 1K to 3K acre range, and we don't have many. You also get some natural reproduction in most of them don't you?

 Even so, we have a much higher population density than y'all, and still grow some biggins. We have good numbers of mid - upper 40's and a few 50"+ fish swimming around our lakes. Average fish is mid 30's. I wish I'd known what was possible as far as muskie fishing catch rates here earlier. I'd have started fishing for them long ago. I just never knew any good muskie fisherman until I met Chad a couple falls ago.

 Hopefully our stocking program continues without decline. The DNR says the cost of minnows to feed the hatchery fish has skyrocketed since the covid bs, and is now underfunded. 

[thediscochef]

9 hours ago, LrgmouthShad said:

@thediscochef is feeling the same pains. Worse for him actually, since he bank fishes 

Ray Bob is big full! All the lakes up here are. Only one park I tried today was even open at Lake Grapevine. The piers at Eisenhower State Park (Texoma) are under water, it's risen a solid 7ft. We're all watered up! 

[gulfcaptain]

The bad part of where I fish.....oh boy well here we go.

It's California,  everything is expensive.  S. Cal, boat motor requirements,  heavy fishing pressure,  small lakes, operation hrs....nothing like waking up at 2am go wait in line for the lake to open at 6am. Traffic, nothing like LA traffic pulling a boat. Closest big water(bigger lake wise) 6hrs away. Lakes with zero water tolerance (your boat is wet you are banned for 7 days from that lake or any lake operating with that system as you're logged into a computer.  Wait 41 day quarantine hold(no water contact during that time, no boat usage) so you can fish just that lake. If you go to some lakes, 7 day hold before you can go onto adjacent lakes close by.  Yep its awesome to fish these lakes around Southern California,  the biggest which is 6mi long. On the good side, lots of city parks with big bass in them now that they have resumed stocking trout again....lol

[Susky River Rat]

That is exactly why you need a small Jon with a jet with all those rocks! you get used to driving a jet it’s not that bad but, there is some real drawbacks. 

one other downside is pressure and boat ramp Betty’s that don’t even have a fishing rod just show up to gossip.

 

 

 

[gim]

32 minutes ago, T-Billy said:

You also get some natural reproduction in most of them don't you?

 

Yes, there is some natural reproduction here.  It's generally not enough to sustain a population though.  They stock both pure strain (leech lake strain) and tiger (hybrid strain) here.

 

The stocking here has also gone way down in recent years.  Muskie anglers here tend to favor size or trophy caliber fish rather than numbers of them.  There is a public MN anglers survey posted at this time to see if there is interest in increasing stocking numbers again, which I think they will.

 

Sadly, it's the walleye crowd here that tends to control and influence everything else.  Including stocking and/or management of other species, such as bass and muskie.

[Susky River Rat]

@MediumMouthBass what’s wrong with the susky water?😂😂

[king fisher]

Abandoned gill nets.  Nothing makes the Bait Monkey happier than old gill nets.  Even T Rigs get snagged in nets, and I don't even want to think about how many crankbaits I have lost in nets.  Besides loosing lures, nothing feels more like a bite than a net.  A T Rig slowly gets that mushy heavy feeling, crankbait stops vibrating, and a spinnerbait stops spinning, while slowly getting a heavy feeling.  I instantly  think giant bass and set the hook.  Usually I think I am hooked to a bass for the first couple of turns on the reel, than realize It is just a net.  I don't mind the gill nets that are well attended with visible floats marking location, but the old ones left to eventually sink and disappear drive me crazy.

[Bird]

Not living in a big fish geography.

 

Not much pressure but mountainous clear water just doesn't produce many big fish but there's that one.

[12poundbass]

Everyone complaining about pleasure boaters, there’s a reason I only have a 17.5’ tin rig. I can launch it anywhere. Big lakes early in the morning and smaller lakes that most can’t get to! Life is good! 

[IcatchDinks]

I live in Michigan, and we have some great waters for fishing. Unfortunately, I don't live by them. I fish retention ponds, the parts of the Chippewa I can reach on foot, and a couple "farm" ponds. Pressure is massive. And several people I know of harvest the big bass they catch. All the ponds are muck on the bottom, scum on the top, and minimal cover. In the river you've got to deal with drunken caravans of tubers, and shopping carts and electric scooters said drunk college students dump in the river. But none of that really bothers me. Most of that is just the challenges of fishing my area. It's part of the game. 

 

The bad part is all the trash and litter people, especially my fellow anglers, leave in the water and on the banks. Old plastics, packaging, bird nests of string, and on and on. I try to pick up most of the stuff I see. 

[DaubsNU1]

Two things for me:

• Green moss: grows on everything, trees, rocks, etc...gets all over your lures. Ick
• Nebraska Game and Parks: they love to "renovate" lakes, and get rid of Zebra Muscles. And they love to renovate Rainwater Basin marshes (and wreck them). 

[Drew03cmc]

Honestly, the worst part is the gross amount of drinks. I'd gladly sacrifice all of the 12" fish for one or two more big fish each season.

[Columbia Craw]

6 hours ago, OkobojiEagle said:

WIND!!!

Yup. The kind of wind that can swamp you in a second.  

[The Budget Angler]

The frickin scum!!!

 

I handle weeds.  Throws spinnerbaits, seedless soft plastics, etc, but the stupid pond scum is a serious problem for me.  Also, chocolate milk water makes it hard to tell how deep it is.  I'll be fishing prime real estate right under a tree just to find out it's 8" deep and full of scum

[wonkyrig]

Lake yachts and wake surf boats. 99% of the time annoying and 1% of the time a welcome bit of "current" to churn up some activity on an otherwise dead day.

[MIbassyaker]

1 hour ago, IcatchDinks said:

I live in Michigan, and we have some great waters for fishing. Unfortunately, I don't live by them. I fish retention ponds, the parts of the Chippewa I can reach on foot, and a couple "farm" ponds. Pressure is massive. And several people I know of harvest the big bass they catch. All the ponds are muck on the bottom, scum on the top, and minimal cover. In the river you've got to deal with drunken caravans of tubers, and shopping carts and electric scooters said drunk college students dump in the river. But none of that really bothers me. Most of that is just the challenges of fishing my area. It's part of the game. 

 

The bad part is all the trash and litter people, especially my fellow anglers, leave in the water and on the banks. Old plastics, packaging, bird nests of string, and on and on. I try to pick up most of the stuff I see. 

 

How far away are you from the Martiny Chain?

[IcatchDinks]

8 minutes ago, MIbassyaker said:

 

How far away are you from the Martiny Chain?

Not far at all. 30-40 min. I've fished it before, but most of my fishing trips happen before or after work for a couple hours. There are lots of great spots that I can access, but between the wife and kid and work, I just don't have the time. I'm sure as I get older and more established I'll have time for bigger, better trips. 

[Buzzbaiter]

Florida: Bank access and people. 

Bank fishing might be easy in south Florida, but in north Florida, it is a struggle to find water with bank access. Public ponds are few and far between, and most of the natural lakes have privatized shorelines with a boat ramp or two. Even on public shorelines, unless the banks are mowed or burned, it’s usually still difficult to find fishable ground. The ground gets soggier the closer you get to the water, and bushwhacking through the subtropical forest is more trouble than it’s worth.

 

But far beyond that is the fact that Florida is way overcrowded. You can’t fish a beach past 8AM, and any river with springs nearby is bound to be clogged with pleasure boaters. Then there’s the crowd that pulls up to a spot blaring “country” music, hooting and hollering, littering, and generally being a nuisance. I’ll never understand it.

 

On an unrelated note, limestone is the bane of my existence. Those little nooks and crannies eat hooks and heads like nothing else. I don’t bother fishing the Chipola with open hooks.

 

Maryland: I don’t have much bad to say about Maryland. The fishing is good, and the access is good enough. Still, people can be an issue in central MD. On a summer day, you can’t fish the Patapsco without running into a whole fiesta of park-goers, complete with swimmers and obnoxiously loud music. Same goes for any lowland park; the Bay draws a lot of people.

[Pat Brown]

3 things I contend with almost every time I go fishing regardless of body of water or conditions:

 

Dirt Shallow Water - the bass on my lakes are heavily pressured and smart and have learned that they can mostly avoid anglers by occupying parts of lakes that will destroy your boat.  I am not infrequently in 1.5 FOW casting up to 7" of water on a half mile flat and getting bit in 16" of water.  It's not infrequent that I parallel a bank and my bait is in 1 foot of water the entire duration of the retrieve.  This can really limit what works well and also make it kind of frustrating and scary to really commit to hunting the bass - especially when these shallow areas become over grown with vegetation or muck as the hot months settle in every year.

 

Lake Size - another big time limiting factor that makes for challenging fishing is that the lakes and ponds I fish are very small.  All the local sticks know all the spots.  There's very rarely a population of fish anywhere on the lake that you run into that is 'yours' and hasn't been someone else's that day or that week.  The fish get conditioned to things VERY fast and you have to be 1000% perfect with presentation to get the bites out of the schools you're around.  Which leads us to #3

 

Fishing Pressure - the amount of great anglers out there hammering on fish in NC is staggering and the fact that our fisheries continue to thrive is a blessing but the fish that make it are educated and conditioned and completely aware of 'the deal' - that is - the whole 'people in boats trying to hook me and take a picture of me' deal - and they ain't fond of it!  😂🎣

[Bankbeater]

People, and bank access.. 

 

This is the time of year when I start fishing more smaller bodies of water.  Usually no more than 200 to 300 acres in size because a lot of those lakes are either no wake speed or electric motor only.

 

Mo. Conservation is reworking some of their lakes so that they only way you can fish certain parts is from a boat, and they may clear off one side of the lake so it is completely unobstructed.  You either have to hack your way through the thicket or fish with the masses on the open side.