Bass fishing, and pond management.

Help Support CattleToday:

True Grit Farms

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 4, 2016
Messages
9,453
Reaction score
14
Location
Middle Georgia
I stocked my pond 12 years ago with bream and other sunfish, then the bass. I have more minnows and small bait fish then any pond I've ever fished. My deal is I catch 10+ bass every afternoon that I fish, but nothing over 3lbs pounds. I fish with rubber worms, Rapala lures and spinner baits. What lures do I need to use to catch big bass? And is there a chance that my pond management is the problem? I've never fished with a live bream but I'm thinking about trying that just to see if there's anything worth catching. I'm thinking about having these guy's come out and do a fish count, management plan for me.
http://www.owenandwilliams.com
 
There's a chance that the bass need thinned out. If there are too many they get stunted. Though with that many baitfish it seems unlikely.
But using live bait is usually the most sure way to catch larger pond bass, at least for me.
 
Years ago I had a 25 gallon aquarium with the latest under gravel filters and what nots. After a few years I noticed my fish were not growing. I asked the local guru fish guy why and he told me that fish produces hormones and emits them in the water. Once the water becomes loaded to a point of hormones that tells the fish they have ran out of space and their body shuts down the growth process. I emptied the tank and started over. Took a while but I did notice the fish began growing again. It could be you are just overstocked even tho there's plenty of bait fish.
 



before Irma we had mud...now we got tilapia....fishslayer catch fish in a puddle of pee I swear.
want me to send him over catch the big one for ya?
 
dieselbeef":26b515fn said:



before Irma we had mud...now we got tilapia....fishslayer catch fish in a puddle of pee I swear.
want me to send him over catch the big one for ya?

It would be my privilege to let him catch a big bass and show me how it's done. While he's here he can kill some squirrels and deer to go along with the bass.
 
True Grit Farms":1uu9d272 said:
I stocked my pond 12 years ago with bream and other sunfish, then the bass. I have more minnows and small bait fish then any pond I've ever fished. My deal is I catch 10+ bass every afternoon that I fish, but nothing over 3lbs pounds. I fish with rubber worms, Rapala lures and spinner baits. What lures do I need to use to catch big bass? And is there a chance that my pond management is the problem? I've never fished with a live bream but I'm thinking about trying that just to see if there's anything worth catching. I'm thinking about having these guy's come out and do a fish count, management plan for me.
http://www.owenandwilliams.com

Grit a miller bobcat welder some rebar, lots of electrical tape and some redneck engineering and you can do your own fish count.
I accept no liability for death , injuries, or soiled pants.
 
How many fish do you take out every year? As mentioned, some regular thinning is good for a pond.

If the bass have real big heads and a long skinny body, they are stunted..

I've caught a couple that were over 5 lbs, one on a nightcrawler/jighead, the other on a Rapala.
 
Are the bait fish always there or is this just something that recently happened? Using live bait will just allow you to catch your 10 fish quicker, I doubt it would trigger the bigger bass to bite. They get big for a reason.
Honestly I doubt you have anything much bigger unless your pond is real big and real deep. Like the others have said, it sounds over populated.
 
I have a few friends that come over and take a few buckets of fish out a year to eat. Otherwise it's all catch and release. I feed a Purina fish meal blend at about 5 lbs a day so the bream are fat as a tick. I think I'll just pay the biologists to come out and count and tell me what's wrong.
 
When I want to catch a bigger bass for my boys to see, I take a 4" bluegill and hook it behind the dorsal. I use a hook only, no weight, and toss it maybe 10' off the bank. Then I use my rod to keep the bluegill swimming near the surface, they usually start swimming sideways and in circles, just like a wounded fish. You have to be ready, it rarely takes long and the bites are usually explosive.
 
M.Magis":357uc7g3 said:
When I want to catch a bigger bass for my boys to see, I take a 4" bluegill and hook it behind the dorsal. I use a hook only, no weight, and toss it maybe 10' off the bank. Then I use my rod to keep the bluegill swimming near the surface, they usually start swimming sideways and in circles, just like a wounded fish. You have to be ready, it rarely takes long and the bites are usually explosive.

I still have a 12' fiberglass pole just for that purpose. In Florida I'd catch large bass in the early spring while they were spawning using that method. I didn't want to use bait in my pond, but rules are made to be broken I guess. My thinking has always been any idiot can catch a fish using live bait, and dead bait isn't much harder.
 
True Grit Farms":2wxbw54m said:
M.Magis":2wxbw54m said:
When I want to catch a bigger bass for my boys to see, I take a 4" bluegill and hook it behind the dorsal. I use a hook only, no weight, and toss it maybe 10' off the bank. Then I use my rod to keep the bluegill swimming near the surface, they usually start swimming sideways and in circles, just like a wounded fish. You have to be ready, it rarely takes long and the bites are usually explosive.

I still have a 12' fiberglass pole just for that purpose. In Florida I'd catch large bass in the early spring while they were spawning using that method. I didn't want to use bait in my pond, but rules are made to be broken I guess. My thinking has always been any idiot can catch a fish using live bait, and dead bait isn't much harder.
Been a while since I've done much bass fishing but all the "big boys" on TV bass fishing use to say if you want to catch big bass you gotta use big bait whether live or artificial.
 
I have a similar problem.
This past weekend we threw a buzzbait for the first time and caught some bigger fish, but as other have said probably overstocked
 
3" live bream is a sure way , i hook through the eyes or lips and hook up better . this is like cheating . Finesse fishing with light shaky head jig heads on 3" plastics , wacky worms , drop shotting . I can come behind you and catch fish this way . Another sure way is topwater . try a small size whopper plopper in a natural color . Sink brush piles in areas that are convenient to fish and use the above tactics
 
BobbyLummus1":1afq0pgl said:
3" live bream is a sure way , i hook through the eyes or lips and hook up better . this is like cheating . Finesse fishing with light shaky head jig heads on 3" plastics , wacky worms , drop shotting . I can come behind you and catch fish this way . Another sure way is topwater . try a small size whopper plopper in a natural color . Sink brush piles in areas that are convenient to fish and use the above tactics

Thank you. I have concrete blocks sitting on pallets scattered throughout the pond, with geese or rings around them. I'm a big time believer in FADS.
 
True Grit Farms":1hh6pd8c said:
I have a few friends that come over and take a few buckets of fish out a year to eat. Otherwise it's all catch and release. I feed a Purina fish meal blend at about 5 lbs a day so the bream are fat as a tick. I think I'll just pay the biologists to come out and count and tell me what's wrong.

I don't care for paying someone to do something I can do myself.
 
callmefence":1g75qikd said:
True Grit Farms":1g75qikd said:
I have a few friends that come over and take a few buckets of fish out a year to eat. Otherwise it's all catch and release. I feed a Purina fish meal blend at about 5 lbs a day so the bream are fat as a tick. I think I'll just pay the biologists to come out and count and tell me what's wrong.

I don't care for paying someone to do something I can do myself.

I'm smart enough to know, I don't know, and I can't beat a man at his game.
 
True Grit Farms":35rds9wq said:
callmefence":35rds9wq said:
True Grit Farms":35rds9wq said:
I have a few friends that come over and take a few buckets of fish out a year to eat. Otherwise it's all catch and release. I feed a Purina fish meal blend at about 5 lbs a day so the bream are fat as a tick. I think I'll just pay the biologists to come out and count and tell me what's wrong.

I don't care for paying someone to do something I can do myself.

I'm smart enough to know, I don't know, and I can't beat a man at his game.
Me to Grit....and we get to bytch if he screws it up and raise all kind of he!!.
 
TG
I was crappie fishing and caught this one on a little crappie jig. I'd guess probably a 5-6# fish

IMG_3221.jpg



IMG_3220.jpg
 

Latest posts

Top