NEED some opinions

[Cnorkun]

I'm all about C&R.

I have to admit, I used to throw perch on the ice when my home lake was recovering from two fish kills and embracing a new walleye stocking program.  We would cook some on the ice and leave the others.  I'm trying to remember our logic…something like big schools of small perch will stunt the size of the fry bass as the lake is recovering and will also lower the newly stocked walleye fingerling numbers. 

Then I moved to Virginia for 6 years and watched the bucket brigade poach on all the "put-and-take" trout creeks and poach smalllmouth numbers out of the Shenandoah, Rappahanock, and Potomac that was shocking. 

Now that I'm back up here, I've put everything back in the hole this year. 

I've been fishing in Lynn, MA and the locals put me through the "Stress test" and gave me a lot of guff my first few times on the ice.  They've witnessed the bucket brigade AND the pickerel piles on the ice and those local guys have become VERY territorial.  Most of the ponds up here are urban ponds that get a lot of pressure and the locals keep saying that if everybody came here everyday and kept their legal creel, these ponds would be empty.

[lowaccord66]

When I went to UConn from 2000-2005 I did great for bad there, had some 20 fish days. I heard a 10 pounder came out of there too.

My ex used to go Uconn and I'd fish there frequently.  There certainly is plenty of bass, you just need to know how to catch them. 

[Jfishermann]

to me, 1 bass every 10 trips doesnt mean there alot of bass. if you fish anywhere enough yes you will catch fish here and there.

[Jfishermann]

Late post but was out Monday.  Headed out from the launch and tried a few different spots. Was on the ice for around 6 hours with out a single flag or hit on a jig. Incredibly slow

[Deepwaters]

The lake is pretty featureless for the most part so you really have to key in on channels and structure. That is probably the biggest problem when trying to ice fish that place. And it is a very very slow place for the hardwater. My father works at Uconn and was very good friends with a guy name Rob Neumann. He was in charge of the pike program and at the time was the fisheries biologist. He has since moved and works for a little publication that you may have heard of,..... It's called the in fisherman. He knows that place like the back of his hand and I know for a fact that the pike have not hurt the "big bass" population. Plus the amount of bait, panfish, suckers and lets not forget the thousands of trout that flush into that place, there is plenty of forage in that place for both species.

[Pike Guy Matt]

  A 4 lb bass eats how much? A 20 lb  pike eats how much? Is it five times as much? If so then wouldn't the math say that 5  bass at 4 lbs for each 20 lb pike. Don't know if the math works that way or not. Seems it would but I'm not a fish guy or a math guy.

As a general rule of thumb, a pike will eat 2.5-3 times their body mass in fish per year, and their feeding is spread unevenly throughout different times of the year. Around here, the PRIMARY food source for all larger predatory fish, whether it be pike, bass or pickerel, are soft-rayed forage fish, mainly golden shiners and various types of suckers. These species are very abundant in many lakes, particularly in the lakes which are stocked with pike. Panfish, like bluegills and perch act as a secondary food source for larger predatory fish, but are not preferred due to the extra spines or spikes they have for defense purposes. Considering the amount of preferred forage fish which are available to pike in waters where they are stocked, the number of other large predatory species, whether it be bass or pickerel, which are consumed by a pike is very minimal to zero in many cases. 

[Jfishermann]

if there is so many fish in this toilet, then why do u say its extremely hard to ice fish it?

[Pike Guy Matt]

if there is so many fish in this toilet, then why do u say its extremely hard to ice fish it?

As Deepwaters said, there are river channels and lots of underwater structures which hold most of the fish when they are inactive. When the fish are not actively feeding, they will sit directly on these, and may not move even 10 feet for days in many cases. However, when they do come out from these "hiding places" and are actively feeding, the fishing can be very good. Like I said, you have to be there at the right time, which is usually during "bad" weather.

[kpd145]

if there is so many fish in this toilet, then why do u say its extremely hard to ice fish it?

And that is the 10 million dollar question.   

I 100% agree with you on the ice which is why I never ice fish it. Only open water which is the opposite of pretty much every body of water I hit.

[JohnnyJigger]

It is unethical to throw fish on ice and just leave them.