[Johnny Skeeter]

Dam water was down again 4 feet from firday and the website is non fucntional!!
water temps 80-83 moderate clarity with changable skies and no-20plus winds.
Managed 12 bass ,7 keepers,no real pattern just area fishing.No spots now i have a t on saturday.After that will give more info if you like.Baits varied as well,had to keep changing in order to keep catching.
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I love rippin on the river!
"How much can ya bench?"

[slimecoat]

I don't know, sounds like a fish story to me!!
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Life's Short - Fish Hard - Take a Kid Fishing

[Justin Tralli]

LOL shhhhhhh no giving away the secret mansfield baits..... THAT PLACE IS A TOILET!!!
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CT RIVER
Every Tuesday Night @ 5 p.m.
EAST HARTFORD LAUNCH
$10 Per Person
Winner Take All!

[Johnny Skeeter]

I agree but i still have a tounrament there to win...
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I love rippin on the river!
"How much can ya bench?"

[slimecoat]

Come on, it's not a double flusher like some other places. I like a good challenge anyway. Justin I hate to bring up bad memories, but we would have taken 2nd instead of 3rd there last year, if I hadn't lost that 2lb drop shot fish between the island and the launch. It's still a tough place to fish.
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Life's Short - Fish Hard - Take a Kid Fishing

[newguy]

What makes mansfield hard to fish? Ive never been yet but plan 2 stop soon. Ive read theres lots of big pike in there.

[Johnny Skeeter]

It can be a very tough place for bass,not many big fish,but you can get some numbers if you put your time in.Water levels can fluctuate on a daily basis..fish move alot.Go there and you will see how much fun it is. Actually i like the challenge of a tough fishery to test my skills..so far i have figured them out a bit.
JOHNNY
_________________
I love rippin on the river!
"How much can ya bench?"

[Just4fun]

I really think it's the pike in that place that keep the bass from doing a lot better there!
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"If people concentrated more on the really important things in life there'd be a shortage of fishing poles."
Mark

[Dusty]

[Johnny Skeeter]

Dusty-I know you have some fisheries knowledge,do you think it could be a lack of forage base for the predatory fish to feed on that affects growth rates of the bass there?
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I love rippin on the river!
"How much can ya bench?"

[slimecoat]

Or maybe the god damn white bucket bandits, that rarely get checked by the lack of DEP officers?

I have to agree with Mark,

Dusty we know you have many connections with the Fisheries Division, but I grew up in Tolland, and have been fishing Mansfield Hollow for over 25 years. It just seems a huge coincidence that about 3 to 5 years after the nothern pike were introduced there, that the bass fishing started going right in the crapper. I'm sure increased fishing pressure has something to do with it, but come on. All the bodies of water you mentioned, are much much larger than Mansfield, which I think must help the bass thrive in those other bodies as opposed to Mansfield. Enlighten us, I know your dying to.
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Life's Short - Fish Hard - Take a Kid Fishing

[Just4fun]

I have no studies or anything to back it up,..but I would think that on small waters with limited depth, where bass are at the top of the food chain,.....that if you all of a sudden dump in large predators like pike,...that it's got to hurt:
1) The pike HAVE to be taking a noticable chunk out of the available forage fish population, and....
2) The bass can no longer roam as freely to forage....

I have no studies or anything to back it up,..but that's just the way it seems to me! Dusty,..what is the trend in the electroshock results for bass in Mansfield from before the pike introduction until now? That data would certainly settle the issue!
(although if it looks bad for the bass, then I can understand why the DEP would want to keep it quiet).
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"If people concentrated more on the really important things in life there'd be a shortage of fishing poles."
Mark

[Dusty]

Bantam???? about double the size of mansfield and it doesnt appear that the Pike are "eating all of the bass" there....

there are a couple thngs said so far i will touch on.

Mark, the data says there are still plenty off bass in there they are just smart as hell!!! Going electroshocking in this state really makes you feel like a POOR angler because there are so many more bass in these lakes than people even believe. We spent the whole night at mansfield measuring fish, it is hands down one of the fishiest lakes in CT. And there were PLENTY of bass to go around

Starting with the "bucket Bandits"

what do you want the enconn guys to do? 99% of the ones they "check" are illegal and provide NO form of identification. This is not an offense where they can detain an individual, and how do your write a ticket to someone who has no ID, and gives you a false name???? They do all they can with a lack of officers....

the forage base....

If you spend ONE night on Mansfield measuring every fish that is shocked up you will come to realize REAL quick that there is no shortage of small prey fish! hence the reason the pike were put in there, to try and reduce the number of those SMALL prey fish becasue there are too many of them and they prevent the smal bass from growing bigger.... meaning that the bass that are produced have an EXTREMELY difficult time growing bigger than a couple inches because of all of the competition with the BILLIONS of prey fish

3 to 5 years after the nothern pike were introduced there, that the bass fishing started going right in the crapper

Thats KINDA true, but the whole story is much more detailed. As with anything involving a system like this there are many pieces to the puzzle, and ill try to put as many together as i can here. pike do eat bass, yes...it happens plenty....but do you assume bass dont eat bass???? Pike eat the excess forage base that i mentioned above...

To start, ill go right into a hard to listen to problem first. TOURNAMENT FISHING. In the past 20 years tournament fish has DRASTICALLY increased on that lake, as well as many others. As of 2001 the lake averaged 22 tournaments a year, now i dont have access to the numbers from the past couple years but so far this yea there have been 30 tournaments registered with the DEP that have ocurred on Mansfield.

Tournametns kill fish, PERIOD!!! Studied on Mansfield by a UCONN student about 8 year ago it was found that about 6% off all fish caught in a tournement will die. So lets be conservative and throw out some numbers. lets say that each tournement say 30 fish brouhht to the scales (might be more migh be less, but i think 30 is probably pretty close to average for a 10 boat tournement there)

30 * 30 = 900 fish brought in so far this year. Multiply that by the 6% mortality rate. Thats 54 dead fish (conservatively) that have been killed via tournaments alone this year. The tourney season is only about half way completed, so lets make the jump and say that about 100 fish will be kiled via tournaments on mansfield this year. Now these aren't the little fish that are dying as much as it is the big fish. We all know that the bigger fish are MUCH more prone to rolling over in the livewells...sowe have that issue. Tournies are killing PLENTY of big fish on the lake a year.

According to the UCONN and DEP study, the population on Mansfield was estimated to be about 1500 bass greater than 12 inches. Through all of DEP research they have put in some numbers for the annual natural mortality (not related to fishing) = 600; and annual fishing mortalities = (240). This is when tournements were fewer, the two years of the study there were 21 and 24 tournaments at mansfield.

So what does it all mean, 1/3 of all of the death of the fish each year in mansfield is due to ANGLING MORTALITY and that about 1/3 of the bass over 12inches die in mansfield every year. With the number of tournaments AND ANGLING PRESSURE in general increasing greatly since that time, its is safe to estimate that annual fishing mortality would be greatly increased as well. Conservatively i would be willing to bet that the annual angling mortality is around 400 fish per year now.

it takes a largemouth bass around 3 years to reach 12inches and about 8 to reach 20 inches..in a system such as this with a SMALL population to begin with and such high angling pressure where a third of all of the bass are killed each year via fishing alone...is it any surprise that the bass are tough to catch???


AND as an additional kick in the balls to the bass, it seems that every year they conveniently FUK up and let the water fall to much during the spawn and kill all of the beds.

Now to conclude all of my rambling, which i hope is comprehendable...i just start typing sometimes and assume that there are complete sentences etc....

Its is solely the anglers killing the bass NO
Are the pike to blame for the lack of bass in Mansfield NO

Is it a combination of angling mortality, pike predation, fluctuating water levels, lack of structure, competition for resources YES
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Well....I guess I'm here too!

[Dusty]

[quote="Just4fun"]I.that if you all of a sudden dump in large predators like pike,...that it's got to hurt:


They didnt DUMP in large predators, they dumped in FINGERLINGS
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Well....I guess I'm here too!

[Bass Addict]

great info dusty thanks for the detailed response.
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Sorry honey, looks like we will be late again due to motor problems.

Justin