The Defining Moment of an Angler

Most avid anglers can recall a moment in their life when the interest in fishing escalated to more than just a way to pass time. This moment usually takes place over a full fishing season and not just a few seconds of time one day on the water. This moment for me happened at the age of six years.

While growing up in Southeast Missouri I was fortunate to have lived within walking distance of a stream that held eager panfish. Also, a resourceful mother who encouraged my love of the outdoors. Digging worms for bait was my favorite fishing technique and our yard was full of back-filled holes to prove it. Many times during the dry summer the ground had the texture of sandstone. This made digging difficult for a skinny kid that didn’t weigh much more than the shovel.  When faced with this situation mom would give me a couple slices of bread or bacon to supplement my lack of live bait.

Fishing equipment was simple and designed by my mother who was a great outfitter when resources ran low. I would choose a stick that met my standards for a fishing rod and she somehow always came up with a good length of line and some sort of hook. At times mom would fashion a safety pin as a hook and a small length of stick tied onto the line made a great bobber. She would wish me luck and send me on my way. This was back during a time when parents didn’t have to worry about someone running off with their kids and it was perfectly acceptable for a neighbor lady to discipline a kid that she felt needed it.

During these adventures I would be gone for hours catching fish and playing in the creek. This creek was not anything big or dangerous. There was not to many places that an adult could not step across it with much trouble. However, to a seven year old kid it might as well been one of the Great Lakes. It did have a couple of waterfalls, areas of flat limestone where the water fell almost 18 inches into the next pool. This was a waterfall to a kid and the lower pool was a great place to catch huge four-inch panfish.

Fishing until dark, or until the bait ran out, was a standard practice. Many times as dark approached I would wedge my “fishing rod” in a secure place in hopes of having caught a fish upon my return the next day. Looking back I now realize this is why a store bought fishing rig was out of the question for me. If my fishing rod survived the night without being pulled into the water I often found a fish attached to the end of the line. However, many times it was gone the next morning and I often wondered about the record sized fish that was required to dislodge my gear.

The next year my family moved to an urban area and left the creek behind but my love of fishing just grew more intense. I was blessed with neighborhood ponds for many years after the move and a bicycle to haul all of my gear. Bicycle handlebars make great rod holders but one must be careful when passing nearby trees and mailboxes because the rod was much wider than the bicycle. Equipment damage and bodily harm could always be found just one mailbox away.

My mother always provided the resources for the essentials to chase fish and encouraged me to spend time outdoors. There is not doubt in my mind her intentions were genuine in encouraging outdoor activities but I am sure she enjoyed some peace and quite time at home while I was fishing.

A lot has changed in the almost forty years that have passed since my “defining moment”. My equipment choices have become more high-tech but the basics remain the same. Spending time fishing is more about the experience than anything else.  If I had to give up all of the new equipment and use that old stick with a safety pin hook I would still go fishing at every opportunity.

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Managing Small Waters for Great Fishing

There are countless opportunities throughout North America for anglers to pursue fish in small ponds. Many of these waters are ponds consisting of one acre or less in size. They are located on farms, golf courses and subdivisions that keep the access private, allowing only select individuals to use them. The ponds may have an abundance of fish lurking beneath the surface because of minimal usage. However, the total population of fish is often not as great as it first appears.

Because the ponds hold such aggressive fish the body of water is sometimes over-harvested. A pond of ½ acre of surface water that contains Large Mouth Bass generally only accommodates a small number of harvest-sized bass. An angler who keeps bass on a regular basis can quickly deplete the population and by doing so will allow species such as bluegill to over populate the pond. Without the bass’ presence to control the population of bluegill the pond becomes home to many small, non-harvest sized bluegill. The small bass left behind have to compete with the bluegill for the limited food supply and a popular food source of bluegill is bass eggs. Once this cycle is put into motion it is hard to reverse.

Another detrimental occurrence in small ponds is for the owner to make them easier to fish by removing weed growth along the shoreline. While doing so makes the access to the water much easier, it also eliminates the major source of cover for the fish. Vegetation along the water’s edge produces oxygen for the fish during sunlight hours and allows cover for small fish to hide until they can reach adult size. If chemicals are used to kill off the vegetation, the dying growth consumes oxygen that the fish population need for survival. Removal of vegetation can be just as harmful as over-harvesting for the fish population.

Pond owner should consider keeping records of catch and harvest data to better understand what is happening below the surface in their ponds. Good record keeping is key to knowing the growth and harvest situation in any given small body of water. Owners should record the specie and length of each catch and note if it was consumed or returned to the water. Because pond owners do not generally have access to electro-shocking equipment like state agencies use, this is the next best way of knowing what is happening in their pond. Good record keeping means the fish must be measured exactly. Guessing at the length is not good enough to be successful in this approach.

Ponds generally cannot be managed to produce great size and numbers of several species of fish. The owners should make a decision about what specie they want to produce. Good bass fishing ponds will not have great numbers of big bluegill available as the bass eat most of them prior to reaching a few inches long. The ones that do survive to grow large can quickly be removed with one outing if an angler keeps them for the table.

On the other hand, if big bluegills are abundant bass generally will not reach large sizes because the bigger bluegill will compete with them for the limited food source. Both of these scenarios become clear with good record keeping of the catch from ponds.

Fish can grow bigger and more abundant if supplemental feeding is done in a pond. The drawback is if and when the feeding is discontinued. The extra feeding will produce more fish than the carrying capacity of the water and when the feeding is stopped all of the fish will suffer from malnourishment. When considering supplemental feeding a pond owner must remember the feeding will have to continue indefinitely for this approach to have a lasting effect.

Harvesting fish is a good way to keep a pond healthy and productive. The Missouri Department of Conservation has a great resource for pond management available on their website called the Missouri Pond Handbook by Ken Perry. This publication covers everything from the design and building of ponds to maintaining them as a fishing resource.

Missouri Pond Handbook

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Copyright 2009, Marc Rogers, All Rights Reserved