Is there something up with WHITE LAKE ??? Read this....

[kunobasski]

So yesterday I competeted in the SEBO event on White lake. My partner and I had a surprisingly terrible weight, but we caught over 100 bass, none to exceed 2.1 pounds.

Thats pretty exceptional fishing, except the fact is that We stared to notice that many of the fish caught (est. 30%) had very fresh hook marks in thier mouth, less then a week old.

More astonsihing, we caught 3 bass with actual wide gap owner #3 worm hooks in them! And one with a hook in it's back!

Here's another very interesting point...yesterday was the first day of bass season! Why were all these fish already caught!

In investigating this issue I have spoken to several other anglers who have noticed the same thing, as well spoken to a resident of the trailer park on the lake. This person has aledged in confidence, that out and out poaching is rampant on the lake and that many large fish are kept from picking them off the bed for the freezer.

More shocking is that he mentioned visters from the south are the least to blame. Though they have been witnessed working beds for spawning bass, they apparently release the fish after a photo. Still this is Against the law!

The kicker here is that the fish being kept out of season are being harvested from locals! "Hundreds" is the word he used....


I'll tell ya, I'm not a biologist, but this lake has a seroius imbalance of bass. There seems to be entire year classes missing....I wonder if you remove all the large fish when thier spawning, well all the little bass flourish to incredible populations....

I've fished this lake for 15 years and have always been on the right side of a good bite from the larger bass....in the last 3 years...its the attack of the clones....1lbs 10 oz to 2 lbs 1 oz.....

Does anyone have any insight to such odd populations of year class or info regarding bass poaching on this lake?

militant kuno

[Eli]

No real surprise there at all. Some people assume that because they own waterfront property or live within walking distance from a lake, they have carte blanche to do whatever the hell they want on the water. They blatantly and knowingly disregard provincial regulations.
It's not just largies either. Good luck trying to catch a decent pike on that lake. I've seen photos of fish caught there a few decades ago, and it's just not the same any more. I'm sure there are still some larger fish there, but they are few and far between.

What can be done?? I don't know. You can stiffen the rules, but without proper enforcement it wont make any difference.

[bucketmouth]

I think Trevor poses a great question here, there could be so many reasons for the increase in younger fish/decrease in older, bigger fish.

I disagree with ya Wolfman in saying that cottage owners are to blame, no one is even sure that there is a problem or that anyone is poaching fish from the lake. Has anyone else experienced the same results as Trevor? It's been years since I've fished the lake but from those I've talked to who have fished tourneys there said it can be tough to find the bigger fish.

[jig head]

I fished the Renegade Pro/Am today and we could not and i mean could not bring in anything over 2 pounds. The winning weight today was around 15lbs and the big fish was just over 5. It seems that most teams we spoke to had the same problem. I have never seen so many 1.5lbs clones in my life.

I don't know whats up but its weird

-Anthony

[OBD]

Yep, anthony is right. Everyone or almost at the Pro-am had some 1-2 pound clones. Biggest fish of the whole tourny was 5.98 if I remember right... Not much big fish caught either, average weight being around 9. Still had a blast!

[StratosBoy]

Okay Guys, Just remember fishing after a cold fronts dosen't help either. There alots of big boys out there. My dad blew it when my net wasn't there on time , Go ahead blame it on me. So Trevor white lake is not your type fishing dude. See you on soon on they crazy Missippisi Lake.

[kunobasski]

Russ, Are you dim?

I have made over 4 thousand dollars on white lake in tournament winnings. And have like 3 first place wins with countless top tens in almost every trail. Not my kind of lake......you must me touched....hahaha!!!

Where is the problem.........???

I checked your lakes....looks like none of them are "your kind of lakes"

that or you miss every fish at the boat with the net....such an old excuse....wait must of been the cold front? no wait my line broke, no wait, my motor broke, no wait.............

Stay on topic. If you have the capacity.
militant

[Pepe]

Trevor - Stay on topic?????????????? Thanks for telling us about all the nickels you "won" on White Lake - puh-leeze .............................................

Good Luck to you and Kenny in 2007 ........................

[Bobber]

Let's keep on topic guys and not get into who's a better tournament fisherman than the other. Keep that for the camraderie around the boat aferwards, when joking around doesn't lead to mis-interpretation.

I can't speak to the phenominon that Trevor is observing, not coraborate the reasons as to why this may be happening. We need to be careful however when making accusations as this is a topic that treads on very thin ice at times.

Cold fronts and North west winds definately have an impact on the activity of the fish. I have found that during these times, you tend to catch more clones in the 2 lbs range than the larger ones. Perhaps they are more active as they are still in the eating phase of their life, and the larger ones just go deeper and deeper, becoming more lathargic and more difficult to catch. Again, just a hunch as I'm not a biologist either. That's one explanation.

As for people catching and keeping bass and pike in the lake, one can only assume and yes it is a shame if this is indeed the case. I love White Lake, haven't fished it a lot in the past couple years, but fished it a few times before. I've never caught big Pike there, but I've gotten into some good largies a few times.

I suppose the only way to fix such a problem would be to encourage the businesses and cottages on the body of water to communicate the catch and release preference. We have rules in Ontario, but unfortunately we don't have enough people or resources to enforce them at times. Again, just another explanation I suppose, but both of them just theory I guess.

[Eli]

I disagree with ya Wolfman in saying that cottage owners are to blame, no one is even sure that there is a problem or that anyone is poaching fish from the lake. Has anyone else experienced the same results as Trevor? It's been years since I've fished the lake but from those I've talked to who have fished tourneys there said it can be tough to find the bigger fish.

Don't get me wrong. I don't just blame (some) cottage owners. All sorts of people poach fish from all sorts of water bodies, and white lake is certainly not immune. I think saying that there is no proof that anyone is poaching fish from that lake is a little naive.

Like I said, there are big fish in white lake. One of my biggest bass came out of there two years ago (and it was well over 2lb ). My point is that fish like that are very hard to find there and that illegal OOS fishing is at least partially to blame.

[StratosBoy]

Yep You're right Trevor, I hate them all but I still like to go out and try my best dude. About excuse I love cold fronts it keep me working even harder. I never complain about broke offs or other excuses. It just a shame that I'm not a good net men.
Weather uptodate another cold front coming through again this weekend YEH HA.

Cheers Russ

[troutnmuskiehunter]

No real surprise there at all. Some people assume that because they own waterfront property or live within walking distance from a lake, they have carte blanche to do whatever the hell they want on the water. They blatantly and knowingly disregard provincial regulations.

Wolfman, I don't think you should jump to conclusions and start accusing the waterfront owners or locals. I am a waterfront owner on the Ottawa River and I can tell you from expereince that OOS fishing/poaching happens here every year and annoys the hell out of me and in most cases it's not locals. There is a small fire lane on my road and I have witnessed dozens of vehicles parked on the side of the road with boat trailers before Walleye and Pike season is open...none of these vehicles are from around here as they are not familiar to us...Are they from the "city" perhaps?

When I have approached some of the boaters and started a friendly conversation they would tell me that they're going out for mudpout and crappies, yet you see some of these boats trolling .....I remember one year watching 2 guys trolling with 2 rods on either side of the boat the end of April...I was standing on my deck with binoculars trying to get the boat registration #'s when all of a sudden, one of the guys flips me the bird!! (you don't know how much I wanted to put my boat in the water and go pay that lad a little visit , but my wife didn't want me to go to jail!!)....it's frustrating to say the least knowing that these individuals and OOS fishing and that it's out of our hands...

[Big Jim]

Hey "K" Man, although I have not always agreed with your posts, you are bang on here my "NEW BEST FRIEND" .

I am sick of hearing about "the Yanks and the Indians"...and I am not talking baseball, when the lakes and rivers are loaded with local anglers pounding the shallows as soon as they can.

One incident comes to mind where I bumped into a very well known local tournament angler fishing a 6 inch jerk-bait for crappie last April so he couldn't even cry PIKE...he had the most startled look on his face when he realized it was me sitting in a 14 foot jon boat tossing bubbles for panfish with a buddie.

I will now respectfuly refer to them as U.S. anglers and Aboriginal anglers to be fair and correct, and rest my case before I go right of the freakin' deep end.

Please don't send me any rude e-mails or PM's...it is not about "you as an individual"...it is about everyone as anglers.



BIG JIM

[dana]

Yes there may be poaching factors but indeed there was a leveling cold front


They could not eat EVERY fish in that lake...


this weekend...59 people did not bother weighing in at lafaive..

[Scum Frog]

Hopefully I'm qualified to answer this thread.

My family has been cottaging, fishing, hunting up at White Lake since the 40's. I personally have spent every summer of my life from the age of 2 until about 20 ( yep..had to find a real job ) up at White Lake. Family still owns cottage and I fish there regularly still.

The lake is fine in terms of bass and pike populations. If you want to worry about a species, put some effort into Walleye in White Lake, don't worry about the bass, they are fine. Huge largemouth and smallmouth still get hooked regularly.

Chalk it up to the cold front, or whatever, but because a tourney did not weigh in some impressive weights doesn;t mean the lake is in a downfall .
Now as far as poaching or people eating bass, it happens everywhere probably on a pretty equal basis for heavily fished lakes like White Lake, Mississippi etc, etc. I've eaten my fair share...hopefully I'm not directly responsible for the downfall LOL