Catch and Release Excuses..

[Bassboy15]

Alright, so lately my pond in my neighborhood is starting to get fished by alot of people not living there, and are keeping the bass they catch, I thought about telling them that that water is contaminated with Fertilizer, but not sure if they'll buy it...

[roadwarrior]

Well, if they are keeping your bigger bass, that's a problem.

However, if they are like the people at my public ponds, it's

just small fish and bluegill that are being kept which probably

benefits the bigger fish population.

8-)

[Grey Wolf]

Is it public or private property ?

[Crestliner2008]

I totally agree with rw. Exclusive C&R ponds usually fail. Selective harvest is a much more beneficial approach to pond management. But, just check to see that they are, in fact, keeping just the smaller fish.

[Bassboy15]

They've just been using lil beetle spins, so they haven't caught any yet, but they might just start to catch bigger ones, and they come every SINGLE day..

And I THINK our neighborhood pond is private but not 100% sure

[boomdigity]

If it is private then you should make yor opinion to the land owner. If it is public then the county maybe the place to look to see if it is a C&R or not.

[fishinfiend]

Tell them that the local water treatment facility pumps large amounts of untreated sewage into the pond and that eating the fish could cause adverse effects to their health.

If that does not work I suggest the use of claymores or some other booby trap like digging a hole under their favorite spot and covering it with branches and grass/leaves.   ;D

 

[jiggerpole]

I would do a little research on management practices for ponds and small lakes. I live on a 45 acre lake that for 30 years was just fished and zero management. After a little begging I was put in charge of trying to manage it . The hardest thing I had to do was convience people to harvest bass. Over three years we harvested 9,000 bass and restocked treadfin and fertilized on schedule. We are now in the first year of a great turnaround. One 7.5lb. spot, several in the 2 to 4 range. ( Most of the bass we took were spots and we are still harvesting them) (Largemouths are now on C/R) Bigger bream. Two days ago a 3.4 Bluegill was caught. The largemouth are looking fat as footballs. I'm happy and so are they. Give It a try!

[Brian_Reeves]

Mercury levels scare people away.

Or you could try to explain to them how trophy bass ponds/lakes are managed and work out a sort of slot limit with them.

That or teach them how to catfish.

If all else fails, x2 on the claymores.  Boy do those things work :