Help Solve A Muskoka Lake Mystery

[Andrewschunk]

Hello everyone. I need your help to figure out these bass in a chain of lakes in the Muskokas. I have been going to these lakes for close to 5 years and my Dad has been for over 20 years. We average two trips a year to these lakes, one on opening day of bass season for 3 days, and one closer to the end of July for 3 days. The lakes are quite wierd considering some parts can be 25 feet deep when your 30 feet away from shore and other parts of the shore are straight drop off but only 8 feet deep. The deepest parts in these lakes are around 60 feet. They hold Largemouth and Smallmouth and of course the little Panfish but no pike, muskie, trout, walleye or any other major predatorial fish. Now we nor the people we go on the trips with cannot figure out these bass. Some trips we can have 220 fish caught between two people and some only 90 fish caught between two people. The lakes hardly ever get fished because the amount of portaging and canoeing it takes to get to them. Now out of the 220 fish we catch in a trip, 217 are under 2 pounds. The other 3 fish are over 6 pounds so where are all of the 3,4,5 pound fish? We have caught 6,7,8,9 pound bass out of these lakes but rarely do you catch a 3,4,5 pound bass. Now the Biggest Smallmouth Caught was 6lbs but almost every smallmouth we caught in these lakes have been under 1.5 pounds. Also everytime we go there the fish are tight up to the shore are just out. We have tried fishing deeper water with DT's and jigs but not much luck. The lakes have rarely any weeds and it is mostly all rock bottom. This summer has been really hot so the water temperature has rised so we thought the fish would be deep but no they were still right up to the shore in 3-8 feet depth. Even the bigger bass this year that were over 6 pounds were caught in less than 10 feet of water. We rarely see minnows swimming around and most the fish we clean have empty stomachs and only some have little fish or crayfish in them. As we were picking the smallmouth up out of the water to release them they were throwing up some kind of extremly tiny water insects. Now does anyone know why these fish are so shallow throughout the summer and spring and why 95 percent of fish caught are under 2 pounds while 5 percent are over 6 pounds? Thanks, Have a great day

Edited August 15, 2010 by TheFIshermanAndy

[SudburyAngler]

well,bass grow a pound for every 8 pounds of food eaten, the limit of 3-5 pound fish good signify a bad year or two where food was limited. If their main diet is small insects and crustaceans their growth could be very limited. As for bass hanging tight to the shore this is where the food/structure may be? I am not entirely sure but I hope this or someone else gives you some insight.

Tight Lines,

Tommy

[ADB]

I think Tommy is on the right path...sounds like the population is a bit too high, and therefore food is somewhat limited, and most of the fish don't have much growth potential.

[Cudz]

you catch 6,7,8, and 9 pound bass?!?!

My hat is off to you sir.

[SudburyAngler]

I'll get on that boat Cudz

 

 

[steverowbotham]

Doesnt sound terrible to me... I'd fish all week for three 6 pounders.

[Andrewschunk]

Doesnt sound terrible to me... I'd fish all week for three 6 pounders.

 

 

Its not a Bad thing just wanted your guys opinion on whats going on with the bass there.

[SudburyAngler]

I've noticed very similiar patterns on smaller lakes. Props for asking, stuff like that makes you a better fisherman.

[Garry2Rs]

This lake is not very fertile...no weedbeds.

The main forage is going to be Crayfish, insects and young of the year all of which will be huddling in the shallows.

Since you are not catching mid-size bass, it sounds like you are missing complete year groups. In those years there may have been a problem with the crayfish population, therefore the young bass might have been totally harvested by the adults.

Alternately the spawn might not have been successful for a number of years...Bad weather, sudden cold snap, something toxic dumped into the lake etc, etc, etc.

[SudburyAngler]

That seeems to be the case here I suppose

Edited August 15, 2010 by Tommy

[cram]

considering the ontario record LMB is 10ish lbs, you're doing pretty well :-).

[fish_fishburn]

If your catching 6,7,8,9 lb bass There must be 3,4,5 lbers around. Are those upper end weights confirmed on a good set of scales or are you just guessing? All the small ones you have to fish through signify a healthy population. And the MONSTERS signify good sustainability. The midrange sizes gotta be there somewhere. In 30 yrs of bassin my biggest smallie is 6.5 lbs and he looked almost prehistoric he was so old and almost black in colour. I would give my left you know what for a 9 lb bass either lm or sm. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I don't believe you but bass in the upper size you mentioned are very rare anywhere in Ontario but I'm pretty sure there out there somewhere. I just haven't found them yet but I'm still looking. My hats off to ya bud.

[cram]

i have seen small lakes and ponds where all the bass were small, with teh odd big one. The big ones always looked *different*....skinny or something. Always assumed the fish were overpopulated, with a giant race amongst the bass to whatever food falls in. No one gets big, except the odd one that breaks through and eats other bass.

 

That said, all just one big guess (probably wrong) adn doesn't explain your lake if there are giants in it.

[SylvanOwner]

The missing year class(es) certainly is a plausible explanation and to help prove/disprove this it would be useful to know how long you've seen this trend, if it's been for more than 5 years or so then maybe that's not the culprit .

 

I actually like Cram's explanation, the 1% or so of the population that turns canabalistic would experience much higher growth rates and would explode past the 2lb. threshold to quickly attain the 6+ mark. Try harvesting a 7lber and see what's in it's stomach

 

Sounds like a cool spot.

[OhioFisherman]

Just random thoughts, like mentioned a bad spawn some years, lack of expansive shallow shoreline area, habitat for young bass and their food supply. Most fish are cannibals, lack of food? eat the first thing you can ambush! A lot of ponds here are stocked, and I don`t think some use good judgment stocking them, if you only put in bait fish that grows to a small size they might all disappear as food. Larger bait fish can possibly become too large for bass to eat them all, hence some survive to spawn.

 

I know people here that have to throw pounds of bait fish in their ponds each year, little fat head minnows that don`t grow very large, and a bass has to eat a lot of them for a meal. By the end of the year few if any are left. Lack of minnows, whether chubs, shiners or what ever and the small pan fish, and bass become the food supply, especially with little shallow weedy water to hide in. A poor insect hatch can also affect the survival rate of small bass, there is a size limit on what they can eat.

 

Some lakes have the ability to be fish factories, others just have fish. There is a reason lake erie is considered the most fertile of the great lakes? it has the right blend for the majority of the species in it.

 

LOL, plenty of lakes here you can fish for a life time with out seeing a 6 pound bass, even one some one else caught! On others they are fairly common, but not normal.

[SudburyAngler]

this is a perplexing one

[jedimaster]

Don't forget that woman that caught the would have been new record largie up near muskoka lake. It got dq'd as her outdoors card was expired. Lots of monster Bass in some of those lakes up in the muskokas.

[Sharkbait22]

Cannibalistic bass. Little food to go around. Bass are great at accessing shallow water to forage and can clean-out Shield lakes littoral forage base. Bass are not native to much of the Shield and can make things difficult for native fish such as lake trout by taking over the littoral zone. Once the bass get big enough to forage on other bass their growth rate increases greatly. I've seen this before up near Minden were terrestrials are likely the main food source e.g.. frogs, mice. my 2c

[Cudz]

Do you by chance have any pics of an 8 or 9 pound bass from that lake? I have never seen an ontario 9 pounder. That would be sweet!!! Are the 8 and 9 pounders smallies or largemouth?

 

Also, if you wouldn't mind sending me the lake coordinates, it would be much appreciated.

[Andrewschunk]

Thank you soo much everyone, as this has really helped us out. Don't get me wrong there has only been one 9 pounder and one 8 pounder caught but there has been more 6-7 pound bass than 3-5 pound bass caught in all the trips we have done. Every bass that has exceeded 6 pounds that have been caught were largemouth except for the one smallmouth. Now we have noticed an EXTREMELY huge decrease in the rockbass population in the last few years as we can barely catch them now even when using earthworms. All fish over 6 pounds were weighed on a rapala digital scale and were measured by length and girth. In the past years the only cameras brought were those throw away ones from Walmart with the film. So I have pictures of the monsters but they are not on the computer. Does anyone know if you can scan them on? We have started to bring digital cameras in so I have some pictures of 6 pounders on the computer but I only found one on mine but I will keep looking on the other computer. P.S NO fish over 3 pounds have been harvested, cleaned or filleted. The bass in the picture below was just 5.6 pounds.  

Edited August 17, 2010 by TheFIshermanAndy

[2kj]

You need to check your scale, that's not just under 6 pounds of bass. I'll give it 3.5 lbs. That would explain why you think you're not catching bass in the 3 to 5 lb range, you are, your scale is telling fibs.

Edited August 17, 2010 by Jbird

[muskeybugged]

You need to check your scale, that's not just under 6 pounds of bass. I'll give it 3.5 lbs. That would explain why you think you're not catching bass in the 3 to 5 lb range, you are, your scale is telling fibs.

 

 

That is a very nice fish you got there, regardless!!!!

 

As for the hard copy pictures just take a picture of the (hard copy) picture with your digi cam and upload!

 

Thanks for sharing