Good grief couldn't buy a bite today on the pond in front of the house

[taxi1]

Went out for a couple of hours before dark after I closed up the shop. Even moved five times! Two days ago got 4 perch and a gill in about the same amount of time.

Gonna have to stop fishing naked and break out the Vex. Just waiting for a new battery I ordered off of Ebay.

Not my day. Peeked out of the shanty to see what the dog was barking at and noticed I'd put the flag up upside down this morning.   

[GrnHornet]

It's OK went out to three rivers this evening just for the last few hours of light. Just to drop the camera down in the hole and watch perch and bluegill swim by. I feel your pain lol

[taxi1]

It's OK went out to three rivers this evening just for the last few hours of light. Just to drop the camera down in the hole and watch perch and bluegill swim by. I feel your pain lol

When I wasn't married very long and the wife lead me around by a chain and nose ring we went for a drive up in Michigan and I wasn't allowed to bring any fishing gear.  . Stopped in Traverse City and some guys were pulling smallies out of a stream that ran into the bay. I could have cried! 

Fortunately the wife has mellowed out, as have I, and we don't put restrictions on each other anymore.
 

[GrnHornet]

That's hilarious! I do the same thing especially when goose season is in and I see guys out in a field. But ya my wife calmed down a lot also, realized I won't ever change my ways with the outdoors.

[taxi1]

That's hilarious! I do the same thing especially when goose season is in and I see guys out in a field. But ya my wife calmed down a lot also, realized I won't ever change my ways with the outdoors.

I have an aquaintance that owns several businesses and can afford just about anything he wants. One day I asked him if he was up to some fishing one day. He said he'd have to ask the wife's permission.

 It's one thing to talk it over and make sure there are no commitments or conflicts but permission? That just floored me.

[Hack58]

Flag flying upside down  = distress = fish not biting. It all makes sense to me....

[tightliner812]

I think you know the guy that stocks those ponds maybe you could talk to him and have more put in . Or just put in the ones that will take one for the team and bite anything . 

[RoeBoat]

Taxi1, I was wondering if the same thing could be said about those big perch as they say about big bucks,  they don't get that big by being dumb?

[taxi1]

Flag flying upside down  = distress = fish not biting. It all makes sense to me....

Yeah well I wanna know who trained my fish to read flags -- and through the ice! 

[taxi1]

I think you know the guy that stocks those ponds maybe you could talk to him and have more put in . Or just put in the ones that will take one for the team and bite anything . 

He puts in a new age class every year he hatches in the back ponds, grows them out each winter in the basement and three high school tanks, so there is no shortage of fish.

[taxi1]

Taxi1, I was wondering if the same thing could be said about those big perch as they say about big bucks,  they don't get that big by being dumb?

Actually you have an excellent point but it's a little different in this particular pond. Contrary to popular belief, catching fish in a pond is not like shooting fish in a barrel IF there is a lot of catch and release, as there are a more limited amount of fish vs. a larger body of water. This is especially true with largemouth bass or other top of the food chain predators that make up the fewest number of fish in a pond.

Back when I raised largemouth bass I found that once I caught one on, for instance a spinner bait, they would no longer hit one again at least for a long time. It got to the point with my smallmouth that it had to be live bait or I would never catch one. The smallies were even more easily conditioned by catch and release than the largemouth.

To make a long story short every spring I invite a up to six anglers at a time to help me harvest the fish I sell whole frozen to taxidermists all over the country. All yellow perch under 14 inches go back and all bluegill under 10 inches go back. Even though there is no reproduction in the pond (only female yellow perch and male bluegill) there are quite a few that don't quite make the grade. Those fish could become hook shy.

That said I have found the yellow perch a pretty dumb species, but I suspect the really big bluegills are much wiser -- especially how they are noted to look over a bait in detail before biting. In fact a few years ago before I drained this pond and refilled it, I and some friends fished the pond really hard before running a seine through it. One friend was really surprised by the big bluegills that were left. He could no longer catch any bluegills but were still 50 to 100 bluegills left.

[sprkplug]

Yeah, that whole "shooting fish in a barrel" comparison to pond fishing always makes me smile. It's obvious that most who feel that way have never dropped a line into that "barrel". Sure it's a smaller BOW, and it's full of fish......fish that have been caught and released a few times, AND are fed a particular diet everyday to boot....easy pickings? Not hardly.7

I fished the managed hybrid gill pond for a couple hours yesterday, only managed three good fish and no big ones. And there are a number of big fish swimming in there.

[RoeBoat]

Nothing like fishing in a barrel full of mounters!

[taxi1]

Nothing like fishing in a barrel full of mounters!