A Great Week To Be A Teacher (spring Break)

[OzarkFishman]

My friend has put me in charge of managing his 3 pits/ponds (I am NOT the best fisherman, it just fell in to my lap.) He calls them pits, since two of them are up to 30 feet deep. I mainly focused on one of them, but also got some action on another one.

A little history: They were dug in the 1970's, before his family took over ownership of the land. They do not get much pressure, but they do get fished every year multiple times.

ONE BIG POSITIVE: I have talked him into making it catch and release, unless we deem it necessary to harvest in order to make the pits more suitible for trophy bass.

ONE BIG NEGATIVE: It is private land, SORRY.

Now to the good stuff.

3/24

Fished 3 - 7:30 pm

10 bass (mostly small, but a few between 1 and 1.5 pounds)

3/25

Fished 8 am - 7 pm (obviously there were a few breaks)

70 fish (65 bass and 5 decent crappie)

Of the bass:

(1) 6 lbs 2 oz and 23 inches (11:15 am)

(1) 5 lbs 15 oz and 21.5 inches (10 am)

(3) 3 to 3.5 pounds

(5) 2 to 3 pounds

(~20) 1 to 2 pounds

(~35) less than a pound

I LOST MY TAPE MEASURE ABOUT MID-DAY, SO ALL I HAVE IS WEIGHTS.

3/26

Fished 8 - 10:30 at a different pit.

15 bass

(1) 2.5 pounds (10:30 am)

(1) 2.2 pounds (8:45 am)

(6) 1 - 2 pounds

(7) less than a pound

Fished 11 - 5:30 back at the first pit.

41 fish (38 bass and 3 crappie)

(5) 2 to 3 pounds

(13) 1 to 2 pounds

(20) less than a pound

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If anyone would like to offer advice on making these pits better fisheries that would be wonderful. I have been studying as much as possible, but multiple brains are better than 1.

[RSBreth]

I know it's hard to get pictures by yourself, but holding the Bass with the lower jaw hyper-extended like in a couple of the pictures can break their jaw.

Sorry to mention that first off, but there it is. Is that management tip #1?

Anyway, the more cover you can add in various depths will help young fish make it to big fish. Christmass trees, whatever.

I don't manage anything besides an occasional hangover, but I know some landowners that have some good ponds. They go to the experts, not us fishing fools.

Click links below.

Pond Management

MDC Pond stocking

MDC Pond management

[OzarkFishman]

RSBreth,

Don't be sorry, after taking a second look at a few of those pictures ... all I can say is those fish aren't comfortable. The only positive is that all fish were out and back in the water within 30 seconds and all were CR, CPR, or CPMR.

I am going to start a new topic about the management under general fishing topics. I have done quite a bit of research over the last few months and those sources are good ones, but now I am looking for people with personal experience with everything from stocking (bass, bluegill, even golden shiners or other bait fish) to harvesting and everything in between.

OzarkFishman