Thread: A few things to think about!

I never really looked at stake beds and structure as helping the population so much as it concentrates the fish to that location and gives you a spot to fish. JMO

Back in the old days before fish sonar. They was no way to find crappie except to put fish habitat out. To help concentrate the fish to different places that was marked by triangulating the places with trees,light poles,and other thing on the shore line where they were dropped because we did not have GPS either. Now with all the new technology with down imaging, side imaging, even underwater video and GPS it is getting harder for fish to hide. The only thing that the fish have going for them now is to just not bite when they are found and they are good at that when I go fishing.

This is why Our group took the holistic approach....you can actually damage a lake if people just add attractors and do not try to build up the surrounding area to keep everything in balance, you can keep an area sustainable if you just spend alittle more time!

We knew our lake was dying and stagnant, and people knew exactly where the fish were concentrated! It was void of any cover AND VOID of vegetation from two severe drawdowns for a Marina and Main Boat Ramp!
The only way to bring the lake back and keep it from the up and down cycles, was to build it up from the bottom first.
We loaded it with laydowns, Christmas trees, brush blocks, cedar, pallets, etc., in the shallow areas to help the basic food chain, all the micro-organisms, natural minnows, baitfish, etc.,....Then we branched out deeper with the same cover in deeper water for the perch and other smaller fish to use and grow, built Bass Cover, Cat cover, Places for the Walleye fingerlings to hide.
We actually even built 2 huge REEFS, made out of crumbled concrete first as a base, then added Concrete blocks, and 10 hole bricks...talking about a Craw Paradise!
Then we started adding 'Boo, Piled Plastic skids, Whole sections of Plastic Fence, PCV Trees/Cover/etc., Big Limbs, untreated lumber Trees, Posts, anything that people could make, and drop!

After 10 years...we have a Monster on our hands....
The lake has so many fish now, it is unbelievable, our baitfish population is amazing, you can't go anywhere without your screen being loaded with schools of baitfish, and big fish all around them.
The GOOD Problem is that our lake is now tough to fish...except for the Spawns (anyone can catch fish then)!
With so much available food in our lake and it being HEALTHY, you can't just sit back and wait for fish to eat your offering....You have to be a fisherman and get those fish to eat!
People are mad and upset that the lake has change...it is now alive and vibrant, and healthy....but people don't care about that, they want their 100 fish a day to take home, because they feel they are owed that!
I guess they should learn and adapt like the dumb fish did...then they might catch a few....as for me, I like when all of the "Townies" get mad and don't fish...it makes the lake more peaceful and quiet!lol

Good Fishing!

Originally Posted by INTIMIDATOR

This is why Our group took the holistic approach....you can actually damage a lake if people just add attractors and do not try to build up the surrounding area to keep everything in balance, you can keep an area sustainable if you just spend alittle more time!

We knew our lake was dying and stagnant, and people knew exactly where the fish were concentrated! It was void of any cover AND VOID of vegetation from two severe drawdowns for a Marina and Main Boat Ramp!
The only way to bring the lake back and keep it from the up and down cycles, was to build it up from the bottom first.
We loaded it with laydowns, Christmas trees, brush blocks, cedar, pallets, etc., in the shallow areas to help the basic food chain, all the micro-organisms, natural minnows, baitfish, etc.,....Then we branched out deeper with the same cover in deeper water for the perch and other smaller fish to use and grow, built Bass Cover, Cat cover, Places for the Walleye fingerlings to hide.
We actually even built 2 huge REEFS, made out of crumbled concrete first as a base, then added Concrete blocks, and 10 hole bricks...talking about a Craw Paradise!
Then we started adding 'Boo, Piled Plastic skids, Whole sections of Plastic Fence, PCV Trees/Cover/etc., Big Limbs, untreated lumber Trees, Posts, anything that people could make, and drop!

After 10 years...we have a Monster on our hands....
The lake has so many fish now, it is unbelievable, our baitfish population is amazing, you can't go anywhere without your screen being loaded with schools of baitfish, and big fish all around them.
The GOOD Problem is that our lake is now tough to fish...except for the Spawns (anyone can catch fish then)!
With so much available food in our lake and it being HEALTHY, you can't just sit back and wait for fish to eat your offering....You have to be a fisherman and get those fish to eat!
People are mad and upset that the lake has change...it is now alive and vibrant, and healthy....but people don't care about that, they want their 100 fish a day to take home, because they feel they are owed that!
I guess they should learn and adapt like the dumb fish did...then they might catch a few....as for me, I like when all of the "Townies" get mad and don't fish...it makes the lake more peaceful and quiet!lol

Good Fishing!

I like this I live on lake St. John in la, not long ago the lake commitee wanted to do a draw down but it was stopped. I really believe what you are saying

Originally Posted by Andrews

I like this I live on lake St. John in la, not long ago the lake commitee wanted to do a draw down but it was stopped. I really believe what you are saying

It is amazing what a little common sense can do!
This is just basic life....too many people have got away from understanding nature and how things work....we have these great ideas, but don't think them through, and see what the consequences may be, or how it effects the whole ecosystem.
Man has caused Man's Problems, we have to be able to sit down, think it out rationally, and fix it!

A dying lake, or one that cycles all the time, or one that has a depleted species, etc., can be fixed....but most of the time it has to be done by the fishermen!

Guys ask me all the time if you can "fish out" a lake...the answer is yes. You can also "fish out" an area in a healthy lake and it won't recover.
One good example is our MARINA AREA in our home lake...
At one time we filled that entire Marina with Christmas trees...the Marina only had floating docks, with 2 sets of docks that had permanent posts for mooring the gas dock and another. No other cover was there except for rip-rap around the entire inside and breaker wall...it is 13-17 feet deep in all areas.
There were hundreds upon hundreds of trees and brush blocks added...next thing you knew, fish were everywhere!
For 3 years the Marina was fished to death...it is one of the few areas that people can easily bank fish....it has sidewalks all around, a covered Restaurant and bait shop on the water, easy fishing off breaker walls, docks, and handicap areas.
The Marina was packed every day all through the year.
Of course, people abused the area, they took limits every day, they took illegal fish, they fought for fishing areas, they drug cover into different areas tearing it up, they pulled cover out because they lost bobbers, etc., they ran handicap people, elderly, and children off from "Their" areas, and it became a total disaster!
Soon every fish that was being caught was an "aquarium fish"...and they took these home???
We never did replenish the Marina with cover again, all the Christmas trees are degraded and gone...right now the entire Marina area is pretty much dead until the spawn, and then it dies again soon after....there is no worthwhile cover and the fishing is terrible and they can't understand why? You just can't fix "Stupid", so we concentrated our efforts on the rest of the 2500 acres...and that part of the lake is a MONSTER!

Good Fishing!