Subdivision lakes - a little help please

[t-dub]

The subdivision that I live in has several good size lakes. The lakes were stocked w/ channel cat, bass, and perch around five years ago. My four year son and I fish the lakes frequently and have caught some pretty good fish (20 inch cats, 12 inch bass). My problem is that I can't consistently catch the cats. I've got the bass figured out. I know the cats are there, they don't have anywhere to go. On a good day, we've caught five or six nice ones in an hour or so. Other days, I can't buy a bite and my son gets bored pretty quick and moves on to poking ant beds. We've used assorted varieties of stinkbait and shrimp, on the bottom and under a bobber (his favorite). Any good ideas on how to catch them when I want to? Where do they consistently hang out, in the middle or on the bank? I'm guessing the lake I normally fish is 15 feet deep in the middle, not a lot of structure, probably 150 yards long and 75 yards wide. I realize this is fishing (and not catching), but I'd like to be able to let him reel in something on a more regular basis to keep him interested. We had a neighborhood fishing tournament a couple of months ago and he won the perch division for the 11 and under age group. He proudly shows off the trophy every chance he gets ( a little fatherly bragging, no other significance).

Another question - - do y'all think these fish are safe to eat on an occasional basis? I worry about the fertilizer/pesticide runoff from all of the homes that surround the lake.

Thanks for the input. I'm a saltwater guy and this freshwater stuff is new to me.

TW

[podnuh]

I wouldn't eat them myself...

[pondstormer]

Try consistently baiting out one spot about 10-15 in diameter. I fish a lot of ponds, and one of the challenges is the lack of structure that holds fish. i have noticed that fish tend to move around.

I would buy a couple of minnow buckets and a bag of range cubes. Fill the minnow buckets about half-full with the range cubes, tie a rope to the handle, and toss it out. Do the same thing about 10 feet away. Check and refill when the range cubes dissolve. This gets the scent in the water but does not feed the the fish, so they hang around hungry. You could also do this the night before you were going to fish the next morning, or even just an hour or so before you fish. Try hotdogs for bait on a #6 treble hook. With kids (I have three sons 10-13) I avoid using punchbait or other stink baits; too messy. Hot dogs are easy to use and cheap. Get the 58 cents a package el cheapos from Walmart. Slice them .25-.50 inches thick, use the line to cut a slit from the outside to the center, run the chunk down the line and onto the tines of the hook. A #6 is just a hair smaller in diameter than the hotdog. So far, hotdogs alone or with some kind of stinkbait have acoounted for most of my fish caught from ponds, although my largest to date (about 8 pounds) was on a live sunfish.

Hope this helps.

[pondstormer]

I forgot one thing: about eating them, I would call a TPWD biologist. I honestly don't know how those chemicals affect the fish.

[Big_poppabear]

We have 2 ponds/lakes in my neighborhood that I take my son and nephews fishing. I would not eat any of the fish in there.

But I always have luck with worms. Call me old fashioned but it works.

I usually have my son and nephews fish off of the bank.

[KillaHookset]

I will second the Hot dogs, however I cut them in D shape pieces and thread them on a small J hook.
Another idea would be to take some shrimp, peeled and cut into pieces then layered in salt to cure to toughen it up and keep it from spoiling works as good or better than fresh dead since it will hold the hook better.
Try chumming the area as mentioned before a few handfulls of range cubes, let the kiddo throw them in and then go for a walk and come back 20 mins later and get to fishing.
the hot dogs will tend to get mushy in the heat so keeping them cool with help them stay on the hook.
If you get bored then take some bread and ball up very small pieces on a small hook on a cork and have fun catching all the sunfish you want.
Take a Daddy sized rod rigged carolina style to put one of these sunfish on and set it out and get ready for some fun for yourself.
Here is a pic of my 6 year old's largest neighborhood pond catfish
You can see the Hot Dogs in the pic too!

http://i12.tinypic.com/4kbd46p.jpg

[golffisherbob]

Jerome what lake are you fishing in? I think Gunnar and Shane would like to got there. :)

[pondstormer]

KillaHookset:

Do you eat any of them? And what size standard hooks are you using? One downside of the treble is that if the bite is light, the fish will not always take the whole bait into their mouth, so they don't hook. I was thinking of trying some smaller circle hooks, so the fish hook themselves. This will help my kids, as they tend to just start reeling when the bobber goes down.

I can second the live sunfish also. Caught a big one this summer out of a private pond that way. It was 27 inches long and around 8-9 lbs.

I fish mostly city and county park ponds, and eat or give away to be eaten all I keep. I looked on TPWD's website and could find nothing that suggested any problems eating pond fish.

As far as the dangers of runoff from lawn care, I am not sure that would be any worse than the runoff into any of our major rivers from ag. chemicals. Cotton, a common crop in both the Brazos and Colorado watersheds, is the most extensively sprayed crop their is. They spray pesticide, herbicide, and fertilizer, some of which winds up in the rivers.

Hope everyone has a great weekend fishing.

[KillaHookset]

Bob, thats the duck pond in my neighborhood. That is the largest one we have pulled out of there most run very small. PM me and I can give you another location very close that hold some much bigger cats.

Pond: This pond is catch and release only. I guess you could eat them put I prefer to put them back and give them a chance to grow. I know a few folks who will catch and eat cats out of Cypress Creek right near Barker Cypress like these guys out of kayaks who float between Barker Cypress and Telge Rd.
http://www.texaskayakfisherman.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=74644&highlight=cypress+creek

Hook size, I use the smaller J bait hooks, around 3/4" I dont know the size # the Majority of the fish in this pond are on the small side 8-10"

this pic is of a Tilapia caught out of the same pond, you can see the size of the hook compared to the bobber.
http://i24.tinypic.com/fwsop5.gif

[catzilla]

I am surprised at all the reason for not eating fish out of subdivision ponds. The only difference between the pond and say Lake Livingston, Conroe, etc. is the subdivision ponds do not have all the runoff from cattle farms, corn fields, cotton fields, municipal sewer plant discharges, hiways, railroads,septic tanks, illegal dump sites, etc. etc. that ends up in most of the lakes in this country. And then the lakes overflow into rivers which end up in the bays and Gulf of Mexico. The subdivision fish probably have the least amount of exposure to pollutants. Bring me a big plate of subdivision fish anytime!