The reason we bought this place was for the fishing. We really want to have this place teaming full of big bass but also catch alot of fish too. We took out over 700 bass in the last two years to make room for the smallmouth that we stocked Dec 2019.
Well the smallmouth appear to be a bust so far.....haven't caught one in 7 months (I did hook a nice one on Friday on a whopper plopper that spit the hook). I think its mostly because of a massive cormorant flock that invaded after we stocked it. The cormorants came back again this past winter too. I'm pretty sure some of the larger fish survived but I think most of the 4-6 inchers got annihilated.
The were native northern bass in here when we bought it and since we don't want to totally start from scratch..... we are going to add 500 Florida strain largemouth fingerlings (F0) and also add in a couple hundred F1 hybrid fingerlings as well. F1's get pretty dang large in their own right. I want a diverse gene pool and I like the fact that the northerns are so aggressive....but we also want to DD sized bass....so we are hoping to have all three strains in here in a few weeks.
To feed them we pumped up the 1 acre duck pond and put some threadfin shad in it to spawn. So far we haven't seen any threadfin fry yet but hoping we do in the next week or two. I also just ordered 500K golden shiner fry for delivery. We plan on putting some of them in our fry brood pond and then putting about 50-100 of our F0's in there for a few months to see how fast they grow. We will put the rest of the golden shiner fry in the big lake and transfer the shad fry there too (if we get them to spawn).
On a side note the fishing has been really good lately....caught 32 largemouths friday evening in about 2.5 hours....all of whopper ploppers. Nothing big....best five averaged a little over 3 pounds. Got to love the aggressive nature of those native northern bass though.
Are you VRBO’ing yet? My wife and I need a weekend getaway with out kayaks
Not yet. We will be on AirBNB sometime in June. Still have a few projects to complete.
We wont be allowing any outside water craft into the lake (zebra mussel threat). I will provide either kayaks or a boat for fishing but will have that clearly stated on our listing.
Have you considered getting a Depredation Permit thru TPWD to try and control the cormorants? We had one for a few years to try and control the numbers on our 200 acre reservoir down here because they were wreaking havoc on the bass and crappie.
Have you considered getting a Depredation Permit thru TPWD to try and control the cormorants? We had one for a few years to try and control the numbers on our 200 acre reservoir down here because they were wreaking havoc on the bass and crappie. https://tpwd.texas.gov/business/perm...on/index.phtml
Yes I have looked into it extensively. There was a rule by USFW a while back that allowed states to issue Double Crested Cormorant Control Permits. There was a lawsuit that took place by some stupid leftist vegans and the old ruling allowing states to issue permits was vacated and it now falls back under federal control.
Yes I have looked into it extensively. There was a rule by USFW a while back that allowed states to issue Double Crested Cormorant Control Permits. There was a lawsuit that took place by some stupid leftist vegans and the old ruling allowing states to issue permits was vacated and it now falls back under federal control.
That's unfortunate. I thought I had heard that it had gotten more difficult to get the permit, didn't realize they had completely done away with it. It's not like us having it stopped them, but I like to think it made them more leery of treating our place as a fish buffet.
The reason we bought this place was for the fishing. We really want to have this place teaming full of big bass but also catch alot of fish too. We took out over 700 bass in the last two years to make room for the smallmouth that we stocked Dec 2019.
Well the smallmouth appear to be a bust so far.....haven't caught one in 7 months (I did hook a nice one on Friday on a whopper plopper that spit the hook). I think its mostly because of a massive cormorant flock that invaded after we stocked it. The cormorants came back again this past winter too. I'm pretty sure some of the larger fish survived but I think most of the 4-6 inchers got annihilated.
The were native northern bass in here when we bought it and since we don't want to totally start from scratch..... we are going to add 500 Florida strain largemouth fingerlings (F0) and also add in a couple hundred F1 hybrid fingerlings as well. F1's get pretty dang large in their own right. I want a diverse gene pool and I like the fact that the northerns are so aggressive....but we also want to DD sized bass....so we are hoping to have all three strains in here in a few weeks.
To feed them we pumped up the 1 acre duck pond and put some threadfin shad in it to spawn. So far we haven't seen any threadfin fry yet but hoping we do in the next week or two. I also just ordered 500K golden shiner fry for delivery. We plan on putting some of them in our fry brood pond and then putting about 50-100 of our F0's in there for a few months to see how fast they grow. We will put the rest of the golden shiner fry in the big lake and transfer the shad fry there too (if we get them to spawn).
On a side note the fishing has been really good lately....caught 32 largemouths friday evening in about 2.5 hours....all of whopper ploppers. Nothing big....best five averaged a little over 3 pounds. Got to love the aggressive nature of those native northern bass though.
For your pure Floridas contact Todd Overton and get the Lonestar Legacy strain. These came from the Camelot Bell strain. Camelots are what we stocked
Comment