No gills

[walkerd]

I fish a small lake that has produced good catches of gills in the previse years, this year nothing but a few. Have tried all different techniques of jigging, light jigging, not moving, every color i have and have only caught about 10 fish in three outings with a buddy of mine. Dont know but wondered there where a few guys the last two years have taken buckets full of fish on first ice. Do u think they hurt the lake. Used to love going there but now i feel like im wasting my time. There have been alot of guys fishing but no one catching a thing, well nothing to write home about. Do u think I should find another lake, or does anyone have any suggestions. Like i said its a small lake maybe 20 to 30 acres, sandy bottom, weed beds, actually a really good lake but not sure any more. Used to go there and if you where lucky to see five guys on lake you where lucky now its like wow.
dave

[dkfry]

Missed the lake size.

If guys have taken buckets of bluegills out several times it can hurt a lake that small in a hurry. I'm shure there are some in there but no doubt the population was cut down.

[fishingking]

How many acres is the lake?

I fish a small lake that has produced good catches of gills in the previse years, this year nothing but a few. Have tried all different techniques of jigging, light jigging, not moving, every color i have and have only caught about 10 fish in three outings with a buddy of mine. Dont know but wondered there where a few guys the last two years have taken buckets full of fish on first ice. Do u think they hurt the lake. Used to love going there but now i feel like im wasting my time. There have been alot of guys fishing but no one catching a thing, well nothing to write home about. Do u think I should find another lake, or does anyone have any suggestions. Like i said its a small lake maybe 20 to 30 acres, sandy bottom, weed beds, actually a really good lake but not sure any more. Used to go there and if you where lucky to see five guys on lake you where lucky now its like wow.
dave

[flyman1002]

I am sure you will get a lot of opinions on this topic but I think you can affect the population.  I have a friend that fishs a small private lake(not many other people fish it)  Used to have great perch and crappie fishing.  They had a small cove that the crappies used to spawn in the spring.  Every spring for a bunch of years they would take huge amounts of them.  Now you are lucky to catch one or two a year.  They same way with the perch.  Used to be great perch fishing as well.  They wonder why the crappie and perch fishing sucks now.  And don't get me wrong I love to keep panfish but I think you have to be careful with small bodies of water they are a lot more sensitive.

[tjsnipehunter]

There could be a million answers for why it is that way now.
Could just not be biting. Could be an abundant food supply, happens in some shallow lakes in the northern plains where there are a lot of freshwater shrimp. Could have winter killed or summer killed, dead fish aren't always noticed. Could have been fished out, especially if the good fishing in the past was mostly from one age class. Lakes that have good spawns every couple years are much tougher to fish out then ones that have good spawns every 4 to 6 years. Just cause the fish spawn every year doesn't mean conditions are good for the eggs or young.
Bluegills are probably the toughest fish to overfish but then every lake is different. I fish three lakes in the 70 acre range and one you could keep every bluegill you catch and not see a drop, no huge ones but usually nice keepers. Another lake with a poor food supply you rarely get a good gill because once they reach keepable size they are caught and kept. On the last I will get some very big fast growing gills but they will get pressured and taken out pretty fast. Even though the population will plunge for a short time in a year there is another batch growing to take their place.

Are there small bluegills pecking at your bait? Any keeper gills last winter had to spawn a time or two already and there should be little ones if it isn't a lake condition issue.

And yes you should find another lake. Even if the fishing is great you should try to find another lake. 

Tim

[panfishman13]

i would say just talk to the fish and game and have them put a maximum limit on the lake for a few years

[dav]

Buckets Full     I just don't understand the question   

dav

[jayswimmer09]

its a shame to hear about your fisherie, i would say yet taking buckets of fish out of a pond that size would def kill the population fast