Originally Posted by
cricket george
The owner and myself went to his 10 acre lake to continue trapping coppernose bluegills and thinning the bass population. We trapped 340 coppernose today and landed 23 12" - 13" LM bass. Since last year the bass have grown about 1" to 1 1/2". Those bass clobbbered a 7 1/2" purple worm with a white tail. This is my #1 color that I fish for bass with. The temp was 104 degs with little breeze and fishing was tough to endure. We each drank 1 gallon of fortified liquid.
An interesting thing happened to us as we were getting ready to leave. The owner had seen a LM bass last week that was approx 7-8 lbs cruising around his dock. The fish paid no attention to anyone on the dock even the people that were dangling their feet in the water. It kept cruising back and forth. They tried to catch it but it showed no interest. Tonight was different. The fish kept cruising up to our 2 stringers of 12 - 13" bass. The fish got within 2' of the stringered fish. The owner would walk away from the dock and come to the truck to load tackle and every time he returned that big fish was hovering over the stringered fish. This happened 3 or 4 times. We threw 2" - 3" lively coppernose at it and the fish ignored them. We released a 5" leopard frog near it and it showed mild interest. Finally the owner started throwing bass carcasses in the water for the turtles. The fish swam up and ate a carcass of a 12" bass. You read that right a 12" bass carcass. It disappeared after it got what it was after. This is an old female that has a territory and she was on patrol looking for a stressed bass. She is just a big old predator that is feeding on 10 -12" bass. She looks to be around 22" to 24" long. To catch that fish will probably take a 10" to 12" bass hooked behind the dorsal and fished under a bobber or freelined but worn down from continually fighting him so he becomes an easy meal for her. SHe is a real trophy fish in many peoples eyes. Since she appears to be continually by the dock we may start feeding her carcasses and observe her. That sure made my day seeing her. We do not plan on trying to harvest her. Remember she is a predator on these stunted LM so she is helping reduce the bass population which is our goal anyway. I am sure many people will think I am nuts for not trying to catch and have her mounted but I have no interest in doing that.
We do not have to kill or harvest everything we see in the wild to prove ourselves as humans.
A side note: I have been watching a pair of bobcats along the Deep Fork River in downtown OKC for a while now and it is interesting to see that they do not perceive me as an enemy. They pretty much ignore me and go about my business. Several people have suggested to me to shoot them. I have asked why? They are not bothering me they are just trying to make a living. The fur season is not until winter so shooting them would be out of season and the pelt would be thin.
That's all for now.