man made brush piles

[Dean]

This sounds like a cool idea, just contacted the New Hampshire Fish&Game Department and waiting to hear back. Hopefully it's legal.

[GobbleDog]

I didn't see it mentioned and since I see guys putting some time and effort in I thought I would share a tidbit on man made structure. Place it near spots you already know to be productive. I found this out after I had already sunk an orange tree in 20 ft of water. It has been 8 months and no fish hang out there. Just 100 yards away is a 12 ft hump. It is a hot spot. I am not sure how i am going to move the tree now.

Dropped in Lake Conway? I know there are supposedly a bunch of structures in the 3rd lake (southernmost), but I have no idea where they are.  

[surfer]

Yep. Lake Conway. Middle of the Middle lake. I know of one set of Christmas trees in the 3rd lake. And I know about where a spring is in the third lake, but I haven't been able to locate it exactly.

Are you familiar with the helicopter and bus on the first lake? It is in front of the FOP lodge. It's used for rescue dive training. I never thought to fish it though.  

Update 3-24. I used my sonar to locate and fished it.  Results... one lost jigging spoon due to a hook up with the helicopter or bus.   Interesting picture on the sonar, but not distinguishable as a helicopter. FYI it's directly in line with the FOP dock about 120 yards out in 30 ft of water.

[GobbleDog]

I knew the sheriff department practiced diving on Conway, but I'd never heard about the sunken helicopter and bus. That's pretty cool.

I've seen a lot of people fishing the middle of the 2nd lake and figured they must have sunk (or found) something. During the Wed. night tourneys you could see their luminated boeys which they'd drop on em while fishing.

A few years back, my MONEY spot in Conway was fishing the off-shore hydrilla along the northeast side of the 2nd lake - from the canal entrance on down. But for some reason, that spot isn't nearly as productive as it used to be. Nowdays I generally catch most of my bass in the first lake and work the open water hydrilla in 10 feet or so, around the dropoffs.

I've never had any luck in the 3rd lake. Just dinks along the shoreline.

[surfer]

I wonder if more than a decade of Wednesday night tournaments has transplanted all the bass to the north lake.  No mater what lake the catch them at they are all released at the church ramp.  I just don't picture that many fish finding their way 1.5 miles through three right turns on a lake they have never been in to get to the canal and then make the 1/4 mile one boat wide 2 ft deep canal into the middle lake.  From there it is another mile along the right shore line if they have to get back to the third lake.

Oops.  Thread hijacked.  Sorry.

[Tpayneful]

Surfer,

         My lake is only 211 acres so it doesn't take many boats to hit all of the community holes!  Not all of mine are near prime hotspots.  I saw Rick Clunn mention your suggestion on Bass Pros not too long ago.  I have a topo map of the lake and have targeted steep dropoffs.  The two that I put on flats were on migration routes devoid of cover.  Depending on the time of year I have caught fish off of each one.  Some are much better than others but this strategy has worked for me.  The only consistant shoreline cover that my lake has is docks.  The lake was cleared before it was flooded and it doesn't have much grass so we have to provide cover.    

[GobbleDog]

I wonder if more than a decade of Wednesday night tournaments has transplanted all the bass to the north lake.  No mater what lake the catch them at they are all released at the church ramp.  I just don't picture that many fish finding their way 1.5 miles through three right turns on a lake they have never been in to get to the canal and then make the 1/4 mile one boat wide 2 ft deep canal into the middle lake.  From there it is another mile along the right shore line if they have to get back to the third lake.

Oops.  Thread hijacked.  Sorry.

A couple years ago I looked all over the internet to find the answer to that very question - do bass go back home after being released in a tournament?

The scientific study I found showed that something like 10% of the bass went all the way back home (a few miles away), while 30% or so made it half way back, another percentage only went part of the way and the rest stayed near the area where they were released.  

Their conclusion was basically that bass will stay in the new location... IF there's enough food, cover, spawning areas, etc.  Otherwise they'll start swimming back home until they find what they're looking for.  But it's a double edged sword because you end up with more bass competing for food in the same area resulting in smaller bass.

So based on that, there probably are more bass in the first lake of Conway, but there's also less food to go around so they probably don't grow as big compared to the other lakes.

[LCpointerKILLA]

I wonder if more than a decade of Wednesday night tournaments has transplanted all the bass to the north lake.  No mater what lake the catch them at they are all released at the church ramp.  I just don't picture that many fish finding their way 1.5 miles through three right turns on a lake they have never been in to get to the canal and then make the 1/4 mile one boat wide 2 ft deep canal into the middle lake.  From there it is another mile along the right shore line if they have to get back to the third lake.

Oops.  Thread hijacked.  Sorry.

When I saw the title of this thread the first thing I thought about was Conway and the Wednesday night tournaments.