# ND Game & Fish giving up on Bass lakes?



## Rick Acker (Sep 26, 2002)

The reason I say that...Is the few small earth dams around here are no longer listed as bass lakes in my latest proclamation...Larimore, Homme, Mcville all had Largemouths and Matejeck used to have smallies...What gives...Not enough of us? With Devils Lake around us...Do we really need more pearch-pike-walleye lakes?


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## njsimonson (Sep 24, 2002)

I asked the same question last year when G&F stocked walleye fry into the local bass lake I fish. It's basically a weeded up 20 acre impoundment, full of healthy largemouth and perch. It always seemed like a nice system to me. Perch get fat on scuds, bugs and other insects, and the largemouth get fat on perch and frogs.

Why mess it up? I guess someone requested that walleye be tried and they stocked it. What should happen? Test netting showed few if any walleyes survived the summer. There was a good blip in In-Fisherman mag last month on stocking walleyes into bass lakes...they tend to get eaten...in a hurry! I was told G&F won't try it again. And I'm cool with that.

A lot of these bass lakes, from my understanding, are expected to be self-sustaining. My observance of our local largemouth water is that expectation paid off. There are at least five distinct year classes of greenies. So maybe that's why there's no stocking...but that's just a guess.

The VC area is very lucky to have the angling opportunities that it does. Smallies, Largemouth, Trout, Walleye, Pike, Perch, Whitebass and Crappie all within 20 minutes of town. Most available IN town! The only drawback (if you can call it that) is buying more tackle. LOL. :lol:


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## Invector (Jan 13, 2006)

Not all lakes listed give an accurate report on whats in there. You look at other lakes around the state and you will see it clearly. For the most part bass, both large and small mouth, are still being put into the small pond like lakes around the state...I think $$$ and space is why they dont list everything.


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## Burly1 (Sep 20, 2003)

I think the lack of management of our bass fisheries is a sad commentary of the public's view of the resource. In ND, the walleye is king. That will not change. So many seem to view fishing in general as a way to fill the freezer. They believe, with merit, that the walleye is the best food fish around. Fishing for sport, to feel the pull on the end of the line, is way down on the list for the majority of fisherpersons in North Dakota. If we could get more people to experience the thrill of a topwater bite, or the sight of a black bass trying to throw the hook back in your face there might be a brighter future ahead. The best fisheries I have seen have been those in which bass were stocked along with trout. There aren't very many, but those that have been around a while can be spectacular. Hopefully Mr. Steinwand will be able to find a balance in the fisheries during his reign. Good fishing, Burl


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## Invector (Jan 13, 2006)

Burly you are correct

The thing about this state and the way things are run is that what people want has more push then what should be done. Lets take a lake like Speritwood. They use to have great pike fishing out there and for a few years some great open water perch fishing. Now the big perch are gone or just not easily found. The pike population is very low. This means lots of small perch for eyes to feed on, but with very few pike, smallies were able to take that nitch. I do feel that by trying to up the pike population in that lake will not work for the fact bass have that lake now. When the bass population goes down the pike may come back. But we see how not managing for one fish boosed another. The G&F right now dont realy know what to do with the gold mine they could have out there on that lake. Same with other lake around here. Conservation and managing for whats there and not managing for what people want. Put restrictions on these fish since they are whats around right now...dont try and get back somthing that was there...it wont happen.


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