Lakes Sampling Report

[Guest]

I've been reading a bunch of the POA's emails about electroshocking.

There's a tremendous amount of small bass 8"-11" bass in the lakes that need to be harvested.

The "small bass syndrome" has helped the redear and channel cat populations.

It's time for crikets, chicken livers, and finesse worms maybe a swimmin minnow since panfish and small bass love em....

The fillet knife's going in the boat. LOL

[Quillback]

Take it easy on the little fellers . Yeah there are a lot of those small bass, I'm strictly catch and release when it comes to bass, but you're right, on some of the lakes it would not hurt to harvest the some of the smaller ones.

The lakes bio tells me that he has just gotten approval from the AR DNR to begin some sort of nutrient enhancement program for the lakes, in the long term that should help bass sizes improve.

[Guest]

I talked to the biologist about the small bass problem.

He suggested that fishermen keep the bass that are 8-11" in Lake Rayburn.

This is not all lakes just Rayburn. He was pretty direct about the need for harvesting these small bass. So, I wanted to pass that along.

Maybe we should hold a "small bass only" tournament then hold a fish fry. LOL

The lakes bio tells me that he has just gotten approval from the AR DNR to begin some sort of nutrient enhancement program for the lakes, in the long term that should help bass sizes improve

Can you explain what this means, exactly? Fertilizer maybe?

[Quillback]

I'm not sure what it means either, they used to dump fertilzer in the lakes but some of the non-fishermen who lived on the lakes did not like the pea green water color so they stopped fertilizing. We'll probably get something more specific soon as to what they'll be doing. Back in the fertilzer days Lomond had a pretty good shad population and some sizable bass so I'm hoping they come up something that will improve overall bass size. They have stocked threadfin shad in Lomond in each of the last 2 years, first year they either got eaten or died off during the winter, I haven't fished Lomond in a while I wonder if the shad made it this year.

[Guest]

I'm not sure what it means either, they used to dump fertilzer in the lakes but some of the non-fishermen who lived on the lakes did not like the pea green water color so they stopped fertilizing. We'll probably get something more specific soon as to what they'll be doing. Back in the fertilzer days Lomond had a pretty good shad population and some sizable bass so I'm hoping they come up something that will improve overall bass size. They have stocked threadfin shad in Lomond in each of the last 2 years, first year they either got eaten or died off during the winter, I haven't fished Lomond in a while I wonder if the shad made it this year.

Interesting facts...

I was told that BVPOA lakes were initially designed to resemble florida lakes.

Grass, lilly pads, big bass, etc.

I was told that fertilizer was used to kill the grass.

Apparently, the darker water prevented sunlight from reaching the lakebed,

which resulted in dead grass.

They stopped fertilizing in 2007, I believe.

Since then, floods have cleaned out the lake beds, resulting my very clear water.

Now grass is beginning to grow again,

That is, until a bunch of lake residents complained about it constantly.

This forced the POA to stock grass carp in Windsor, as well as buy a grass harvesting boat, and setup solar powered lake circulators. (solar bees)

This was extremely expensive, just to appease to minority of residents.

POLITICS...

I hope all this rain has Windsor on the rise. Maybe this could result in the POA opening the boat ramp gates this weekend or next week.

[Quillback]

Yeah it's a political furball, people that live on the lakes but don't fish want clear water, if there wasn't a fish in any of the lakes they would be happy. I'm hoping that they allow the fisheries biologist to manage the lakes, and just stay out of trying to give their "advice".

Drove by Windsor today, ramps still closed, the water has reached the bottom of the ramp so I'm thinking by next weekend,or maybe the middle of the week, assuming it rains as predicted, the ramps will be open.

[Guest]

I'm going to stop by Windsor tomorrow, maybe bank fish for a minute.

Man, if theres any muddy water in there

those bigguns should be up shallow lurking in the mud.

Spinnerbaits and jigs will catch you a monster