Jetfisherjohn Posted January 1, 2017 Report Share Posted January 1, 2017 Today as I went out to try out some new baits I stumbled across a shad that had died when the ice started coming on. It has since melted but he didn't make it. Im able to fish in a pond that has 12-16" gizzard shad in it. Are those big? Huge? If you've caught one or have found a dead one, post a picture, but I want to hear what species and what the "normal" size of main forage is in the water you fish in. Make sure to tell the difference on if a lake or a pond. This is one the I found. My lure below it is a 9" megabass magslowl. Gives me plenty of ideas of baits to get this coming year Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Campobassmaster Posted January 1, 2017 Report Share Posted January 1, 2017 Go get a hinkle, phoney, hph or something like that haha, maybe a realprey or burrito. No pics atm but my lake I primarily fish in the summer has mostly bluegill, shellcracker, green sunfish, but also carp cats and smaller bass. The bluegill are probably around hand size for the decent ones at most, I've caught a few 2lbers and countless 1lb+. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pzoutdoors Posted January 1, 2017 Report Share Posted January 1, 2017 Today as I went out to try out some new baits I stumbled across a shad that had died when the ice started coming on. It has since melted but he didn't make it. Im able to fish in a pond that has 12-16" gizzard shad in it. Are those big? Huge? If you've caught one or have found a dead one, post a picture, but I want to hear what species and what the "normal" size of main forage is in the water you fish in. Make sure to tell the difference on if a lake or a pond. This is one the I found. My lure below it is a 9" megabass magslowl. Gives me plenty of ideas of baits to get this coming year 12-16" is a really big gizzard shad....I've seen them that big in Wisconsin, but the 3-6" shad are the schools of bass candy I look for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esmin23 Posted January 1, 2017 Report Share Posted January 1, 2017 Jeez that is huge! In my neck of the woods (lower NY), we have alewife everywhere. That's mainly what they chase in my reservoirs and big lakes. Some golden shiner in the small lakes. The alewife' safe between 4"-6" and the shiners are about the same size. But I've seen a few very large. 8-9". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcaetano2905 Posted January 1, 2017 Report Share Posted January 1, 2017 (edited) I live in Portugal, but we have some exotic fish here (including largemouth bass ). I know that's bad for our native species, but I LOVE fishing for bass! I release them, although I know I shouldn't. This year the fishing laws have changed and I think now we have to kill all exotic species. As a biologist I know that's the right thing to do to protect our native species, but as a bass angler I don't like it... Mixed feelings... In some smaller ponds and lakes without connection to rivers there aren't many of our native species. They don't thrive there. In those places I don't think it's bad to have bass. I don't know if I can take home a big bass. Maybe smaller ones... This way it's better for the native species because there will be less bass, but because there's less competition, the bass will get bigger. I think that's what happened in Japan, where you have to kill all bass... I don't know what I would fish here if there were no bass. We have native brown trout, but only in northern Portugal. I live in the south where the climate is similar to California's. Well, now back to the original post: bass forage here is red swamp crawdads (in many places it's the main forage) and pumpkinseed sunfish (average size is 4"). This is on smaller lakes and ponds. In bigger lakes one of the main forages is bleak (Alburnus alburnus) with an average between 4 and 6". It's a fish similar to shiners or shad. We have carp, but bass rarely eat them. They eat baby bass more than carp. The lake with bleak that I fish the most is one of the biggest reservoirs in Europe, with a surface area of 62.000 acres! I'm starting to use smaller swimbaits because I've used 7 and 8" swimbaits for years and only caught a bass on a 7" swimbait (a 4lb bass on a 7" Slammer). If big bass here eat mostly 4 to 6" baitfish, then that's the best size of swimbaits to use. This Summer I almost caught my PB on a 168 S-Waver (the bass in my profile picture, just under 5lbs). But even with 6" swimbaits I go for many many trips without getting bit. In this lake bass eat crawdads and 3-5" pumpkinseed. I caught most of my biggest bass here on 4-6" swimbaits (with my 4th biggest on a 7" Slammer), jigs and spinnerbaits. Edited January 1, 2017 by mcaetano2905 pzoutdoors and swole_t 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clarkkorper Posted January 13, 2017 Report Share Posted January 13, 2017 I live in wa state at the main forage for a trophy bass are rainbow trout and Kokanee ragingimg from 8-12in mcaetano2905 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcaetano2905 Posted January 13, 2017 Report Share Posted January 13, 2017 I live in wa state at the main forage for a trophy bass are rainbow trout and Kokanee ragingimg from 8-12in i wish bass in the lakes where I fish had some big forage like that, but forage here is mainly 4" pumpkinseed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
basssavage24/7 Posted January 22, 2017 Report Share Posted January 22, 2017 Main fish forge around here is sunfish carp and kio with the fish and game stocking trout Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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