LAKE LU Fishing Newsletter

Transcription

1 LAKE LU Fishing Newsletter

2 January March May July September November Inches of Rainfall Three Year Rainfall Comparison Monthly Rainfall 2016 Monthly Rainfall 2015 Monthly Rainfall 0

3 January March May July September November Number of Anglers per month Three Year Monthly Angler Attendance Comparison Angler Attendance 2016 Angler Attendance

4 January February March April May June July August September October November December Number of Bass Caught Three Year Bass Harvest Comparison Number of Bass Harvested 2016 Number of Bass Harvested 2015 Number of Bass Harvested 0

5 January March May July September November Number of Bream caught Three Year Bream Harvest Comparison Number of Bream Harvested 2016 Number of Bream Harvested 2015 Number of Bream Harvested 200 0

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7 February 2017 is in the books and we have March Madness Bass Fever to look forward to. We got 4.75 inches of rain for the month of February. It is a very warm start to spring here with water temperature at 63 F! This is surprisingly warm considering the water temperature was 60 F in February 2016 and 55 F in The lake is still maintaining its green color. I will begin small applications of fertilizer when the water temperature reaches 65 F. Secchi disc readings indicate 30 inches of visibility.

8 Brian Allen caught and released this nice 7.5-pound bass last week. Looks like a bunch of rattletraps in that tackle box. Photo by Brian Allen.

9 Robin Burroker caught this nice 22.5-inch, 8.75-pound bass. Robin decided to keep the bass because it was deeply hooked and would not live. Jake Garner caught and released this nice 9-pound, 25 inches long bass. photo by Brandon Watson.

10 Tommy Hedrick caught 30 nice frying sized bass one day.

11 I decided to take a vacation day fishing trip. I went out, caught and released a nice 6.5-pound, 22.5-inch bass. I caught this fish on a watermelon red worm. About 20 minutes later my fishing partner hooked into a monster bass that jumped and threw the hook that would have swallowed this 6.5-pounder whole. He was sick, saying that was the biggest bass he had ever hooked in his life, but I told him that if he had landed that big bass that it would have ruined our fishing trip. We would have had to ride all around town showing that monster to all our friends and we wouldn t have done anymore fishing. I received the 2017 Lake LU harvest regulations last week from Jay Haffner. The bass creel and throwback slot remains the

12 same as it was in The ONLY change is that the bream harvest has been reduced from 50 to 25 bluegill per person, per day BASS HARVEST REGULATION Anglers have an unlimited bass harvest at Lake LU, as long as the bass is less than 14 inches in total length. In addition, anglers may also harvest 1 fish greater than 22 inches in total length, per person, per day at Lake LU. Please continue to encourage anglers to harvest small bass. ~ Jay Haffner Bluegill harvest REDUCED to 25 bream per person per day In general, big bass fishing has slowed down a bit as compared to January. My guess is that the bass are moving around in search of spawning beds. I saw a 4-pound bass yesterday that someone caught and its tail was very red, indicating that it had been fanning beds. I have been catching small bass from farm ponds and I have been taking special notice of their egg sacs. Bass from small ponds have large egg sacs that are totally engorged with blood. This indicates that they are very near to spawning. Bass from Lake LU have egg sacs that are not as blood gorged and are about 2-3 weeks from spawn. I believe that small ponds are warming much faster than larger bodies of water, hence more developed egg sacs and earlier spawn times. Bass are not the only fish that is preparing to spawn. Last Sunday I was at the pier and Ryan Harris was complaining of catching too many golden shiners. While I was there he caught a

13 shiner and gave it to me. I noticed that it was gravid with eggs and I set out to conduct some research. The shiner was 296 mm in total length (11.5 inches long) and weighed 315 grams. I took a knife and removed the egg sacs and weighed them at 70 grams. Once I finished the math I determined that the egg sacs composed 22.2% of the shiners weight! Even more shocking is that an adult female golden shiner is capable of laying up to 100,000 eggs! (according to Wikipedia). It s a good thing we have a vast multitude of large bass at Lake LU. They ve got some shiner eating to do! It would take a big, big bass to eat this golden shiner.

14 Bream fishing has been improving. Veteran anglers are pleased with their success rate, particularly at the numbers of shell crackers they have been catching. Jerry Jones and Suzy Fortner were the bream anglers of the month. They used 6-pound test monofilament and red wigglers fished on the bottom to catch a nice amount of red ears. Artificial jigs have not been doing so well. The biggest news concerning bream fishing at Lake LU is the regulation change. A few anglers have complained about the bream harvest reduction, but when I explain that they can catch all the sub-14 inch bass that they want, their attitude sweetens up a bit. March is typically when the big slab shell crackers are caught. REMINDER: Bream harvest has changed and anglers may only catch 25 bream per person per day.

15 Jerry Jones and Suzy Fortner had a nice catch of some slab shell crackers. Small red wigglers are the best live bait to use.

16 The old bench was rotten beyond repair so we put a large picnic table on the pier. Visitors LOVE it! I should have put a table there 20 years ago!

17 We stapled some roofing shingles down on Birdy Finger Bridge for some non-skid footing.

18 The creek channel is big and muddy. I am sure glad that Daniel and I put those support piers under the bridge when the creek channel was dry. I d hate to have to get in that cold water and do it now.

19 We have some Dewalt powered carpenter bees around the lake. The Choctaw plums are in full bloom.

20 All the rye grass that we planted for erosion control is really making a green statement. A cool February sunset.

21 If anyone wants any information regarding fishing, nature trails or prairie wildflower blooming times, please give me a call at or me at lrr@uwa.edu. Feel free to visit the Lake LU website at Thank you, Robby Limerick Lake Manager Lake LU The University of West Alabama lrr@uwa.edu All photos by R. Limerick unless otherwise noted.