Guys looking for some advise about a 20 acre pond I fished this past summer.
The pond - 20 acre manmade pond. 90% of it is 3-5 feet deep with the other 10% dropping to 10-11 feet in a narrow band along the dyke build at the north shore. The bottom is almost completely covered with extremely smelly silt 3-12 inches deep. I have found a couple of small patches of gravel, which have produced the 3 fish I have managed to catch. The water is stained with visibility less than a foot. Bank access is limited due to heavy brush along the bank extending into the water. The pond was partially drawn down 3-4 years ago for some work done along some of the shoreline. The pond has both common and grass carp in it. It also has large snapping turtles that love to grab any bait you use.
My experience - I have been able to find a few small patches of gravel. The rest of pond has a thick, chunky covering of foul smelling silt. You can feel the chunks of organic matter, I believe this is what I am feeling, in the silt when using a marker rod. I can access 50-60% of the pond casting from the accessible shore. The commons rarely if ever show, believe I saw 2 show all summer. The grass carp will cruise just under surface exposing their dorsal fin and tail. It has a decent head of grass carp and an unknown common population. As far I know I am the only angler to specifically target carp on this pond. I was able to catch a 44 lb grass carp and a 35 and 39 lb common, unfortunely I have hooked more turtles than I care to remember. The grass carp and 35 lb fell to Ronnies and the 39 took a tiger nut. I have tried 2-3 inch pop ups over the silt and gravel, this stopped the turtle attacks but also did not result in any carp. I have prebaited with particles and boilies but this has only turned the turtles on.
Any advise would be helpful as I am planning my approach for next year. I am hoping to get a boat or kayak on the pond and continue investigating. Any advise on feeling for the drop on shallow water like this? If you have any questions feel free to ask, I will try to fill in any blanks. Thanks guys.
The pond - 20 acre manmade pond. 90% of it is 3-5 feet deep with the other 10% dropping to 10-11 feet in a narrow band along the dyke build at the north shore. The bottom is almost completely covered with extremely smelly silt 3-12 inches deep. I have found a couple of small patches of gravel, which have produced the 3 fish I have managed to catch. The water is stained with visibility less than a foot. Bank access is limited due to heavy brush along the bank extending into the water. The pond was partially drawn down 3-4 years ago for some work done along some of the shoreline. The pond has both common and grass carp in it. It also has large snapping turtles that love to grab any bait you use.
My experience - I have been able to find a few small patches of gravel. The rest of pond has a thick, chunky covering of foul smelling silt. You can feel the chunks of organic matter, I believe this is what I am feeling, in the silt when using a marker rod. I can access 50-60% of the pond casting from the accessible shore. The commons rarely if ever show, believe I saw 2 show all summer. The grass carp will cruise just under surface exposing their dorsal fin and tail. It has a decent head of grass carp and an unknown common population. As far I know I am the only angler to specifically target carp on this pond. I was able to catch a 44 lb grass carp and a 35 and 39 lb common, unfortunely I have hooked more turtles than I care to remember. The grass carp and 35 lb fell to Ronnies and the 39 took a tiger nut. I have tried 2-3 inch pop ups over the silt and gravel, this stopped the turtle attacks but also did not result in any carp. I have prebaited with particles and boilies but this has only turned the turtles on.
Any advise would be helpful as I am planning my approach for next year. I am hoping to get a boat or kayak on the pond and continue investigating. Any advise on feeling for the drop on shallow water like this? If you have any questions feel free to ask, I will try to fill in any blanks. Thanks guys.
In reply to Post #1
I assume with snapping turtles you are in the USA like me. I fished a lake that was silty and with a lot of turtles some snapping and every other kind you could imagine they was the most frustrating problem, coming from the UK and never had anything like this before. The lake I fished was 72 acres spilt in to 4 sections with shallow margins and between 12-27 foot in most spots further out. I found spots further away from the shore and snags so turtles had no where to sit helped and I didn't get as many problems with the turtles there. I also prebaited with a lot of pigeon conditioner, maize and tigers normally I would fish a weekend day and occasionally a Monday and then come back the following weekend so I would put in 20-25kg of bait before I left then a few large Spods when I came back to fish. I feel like the turtles wouldn't be as bad if I prebaited maybe they feed on it in the week then left it alone plus when the carp came in there would be seed or something left.
I used esp and enterprise plastic pop ups soaked in Korda pink almond goo (I think the goo helped definitively gave me confidence instead of just plain plastic) and Korda slow sinking dumbbells for wafters never lost a hookbait to the turtles using these, I did have turtles take tiger nuts off the hair and boilies and pop ups wouldn't last 15 minutes if the turtles was around. I only hooked 2 or 3 turtles the whole season and they was in the foot, I did have a run and reel in with a hook that bent in a weird way that I assume was a turtle. I used helicopter rigs with the bead up to 8 inches depending on how deep the silt was, I also used rigs that I felt would reset when constantly pick up from turtles I used mainly used ronnie rigs but instead of the bead on the hook I used braid to make a slip d set up on the hook because I was worried about turtles picking up the plastic pop ups and moving the hook bead or even managing to get the ring swivel over the bead and having no hookbait. I sometimes used stiff hinge rigs and mono d rigs too for the same anti tangle/resetting properties. Hope this helps managed 95 fish doing this.
I assume with snapping turtles you are in the USA like me. I fished a lake that was silty and with a lot of turtles some snapping and every other kind you could imagine they was the most frustrating problem, coming from the UK and never had anything like this before. The lake I fished was 72 acres spilt in to 4 sections with shallow margins and between 12-27 foot in most spots further out. I found spots further away from the shore and snags so turtles had no where to sit helped and I didn't get as many problems with the turtles there. I also prebaited with a lot of pigeon conditioner, maize and tigers normally I would fish a weekend day and occasionally a Monday and then come back the following weekend so I would put in 20-25kg of bait before I left then a few large Spods when I came back to fish. I feel like the turtles wouldn't be as bad if I prebaited maybe they feed on it in the week then left it alone plus when the carp came in there would be seed or something left.
I used esp and enterprise plastic pop ups soaked in Korda pink almond goo (I think the goo helped definitively gave me confidence instead of just plain plastic) and Korda slow sinking dumbbells for wafters never lost a hookbait to the turtles using these, I did have turtles take tiger nuts off the hair and boilies and pop ups wouldn't last 15 minutes if the turtles was around. I only hooked 2 or 3 turtles the whole season and they was in the foot, I did have a run and reel in with a hook that bent in a weird way that I assume was a turtle. I used helicopter rigs with the bead up to 8 inches depending on how deep the silt was, I also used rigs that I felt would reset when constantly pick up from turtles I used mainly used ronnie rigs but instead of the bead on the hook I used braid to make a slip d set up on the hook because I was worried about turtles picking up the plastic pop ups and moving the hook bead or even managing to get the ring swivel over the bead and having no hookbait. I sometimes used stiff hinge rigs and mono d rigs too for the same anti tangle/resetting properties. Hope this helps managed 95 fish doing this.
In reply to Post #2
Yes, I am in the States. Your reply did help. I forgot to mention that I also used plastic which did slow the harassment from the turtles but like you I did hook them in places other than the mouth. The gravel spots I did find were near shore, within 30 yards of the shore, looks like I will be looking for spots farther out this spring. Like you I was prebaiting heavily once a week then using little to no free bait while fishing as the turtles would show up shortly after putting any in. Thank you for the idea and the reply.
Wondering if there is a way to find "better" silt within a pond full of silt?
Yes, I am in the States. Your reply did help. I forgot to mention that I also used plastic which did slow the harassment from the turtles but like you I did hook them in places other than the mouth. The gravel spots I did find were near shore, within 30 yards of the shore, looks like I will be looking for spots farther out this spring. Like you I was prebaiting heavily once a week then using little to no free bait while fishing as the turtles would show up shortly after putting any in. Thank you for the idea and the reply.
Wondering if there is a way to find "better" silt within a pond full of silt?
In reply to Post #1
I know nothing about snapping turtles, but a few thoughts:
- can you get out in a boat to look for spots that may be clear or have different coloured silt?
- have you tried a zig to avoid the turtles (but for all I know they may love zigs!)
- I wouldn't worry too much about the silt. If the whole lake really is covered in it then that is what the carp are used to.
- Have you tried using a lead with prongs to see when you are pulling back through clean silt vs rotting leaves?
- Have you tried “giving up” on finding the right silt and just watching where the carp show and casting to them where they have shown themselves to be happy feeding?
I know nothing about snapping turtles, but a few thoughts:
- can you get out in a boat to look for spots that may be clear or have different coloured silt?
- have you tried a zig to avoid the turtles (but for all I know they may love zigs!)
- I wouldn't worry too much about the silt. If the whole lake really is covered in it then that is what the carp are used to.
- Have you tried using a lead with prongs to see when you are pulling back through clean silt vs rotting leaves?
- Have you tried “giving up” on finding the right silt and just watching where the carp show and casting to them where they have shown themselves to be happy feeding?
You said you was planning on using a kayak, I bought an inflatable raptor boat and used a deeper to map the lake which helped know all depths and maybe show a gravel spot or something else of significance. The deeper I used was a chirp 2 it was expensive they work okay not the best have some connection issues but will build a depth map for the lake to help you and to look back on. There a few websites that have depths maps I will leave links, depending on what state you are in and how well know the lake is there maybe there is a depth map. I found these sometimes give you a starting point and show something you wasn't expecting.
You saying the fish don't really show that much I found the best time is a hour before light in summer and just watch the water. I found a spot doing this from a single show that caught me a lot of fish sometimes you just need that one show. I'm in New England so it's cold now and the fish are less active and less likely to show at the minute I don't know what state you are in. Going back to the further spots out I think the turtles like to have somewhere they can sit and rest and spend a lot of time near the surface so the middle of the lake might help. I think turtles are less likely to like deeper water also. I have caught some carp this year with definitely turtles damage so definitely think the snapping turtles will scare carp away which is frustrating. Someone on this forum suggested using a can of dog food away from the spot to keep the turtles away from the spot I never tried this. Again this is just my theory's but I hope it helps.
Usa fishermap
Gps nautical chart's
You saying the fish don't really show that much I found the best time is a hour before light in summer and just watch the water. I found a spot doing this from a single show that caught me a lot of fish sometimes you just need that one show. I'm in New England so it's cold now and the fish are less active and less likely to show at the minute I don't know what state you are in. Going back to the further spots out I think the turtles like to have somewhere they can sit and rest and spend a lot of time near the surface so the middle of the lake might help. I think turtles are less likely to like deeper water also. I have caught some carp this year with definitely turtles damage so definitely think the snapping turtles will scare carp away which is frustrating. Someone on this forum suggested using a can of dog food away from the spot to keep the turtles away from the spot I never tried this. Again this is just my theory's but I hope it helps.
Usa fishermap
Gps nautical chart's
In reply to Post #4
kizzi thanks for the reply.
- boat, I am planning to get on the water with some kind of boat but the water is as thick as chocolate milk, testing rigs in the edge is limited to about 8-12 inches down then the rig disappears. I going to use the boat to look depth changes, bottom changes, hidden structure, etc.
- Yes, i have tried zigs with no success unless you count no turtles. Plan to continue using them in 2024.
- Great point on the silt. I have been looking at it all wrong.
- I have used a prong lead only for a short time because it becomes locked up in the debris in the silt, I have gone back to a smooth lead to speed the process up. When I used the prongs I was getting leaves, sticks, and short black weed,
- I have stared holes into the water at all hours of the day. These fish just do not break the surface. You would think feeding in a pond covered with silt they would regularly show to clean their gills, but it just is not the case. I am thinking about purchasing a drone in an attempt to find them but with the clarity of the water I am not sure it will help. I am thinking there may only be a handful of commons in this pond which explains the limited number of commons seen. I have cast to fish that have shown but the turtles have had other plans for my hookbaits.
kizzi thanks for the reply.
- boat, I am planning to get on the water with some kind of boat but the water is as thick as chocolate milk, testing rigs in the edge is limited to about 8-12 inches down then the rig disappears. I going to use the boat to look depth changes, bottom changes, hidden structure, etc.
- Yes, i have tried zigs with no success unless you count no turtles. Plan to continue using them in 2024.
- Great point on the silt. I have been looking at it all wrong.
- I have used a prong lead only for a short time because it becomes locked up in the debris in the silt, I have gone back to a smooth lead to speed the process up. When I used the prongs I was getting leaves, sticks, and short black weed,
- I have stared holes into the water at all hours of the day. These fish just do not break the surface. You would think feeding in a pond covered with silt they would regularly show to clean their gills, but it just is not the case. I am thinking about purchasing a drone in an attempt to find them but with the clarity of the water I am not sure it will help. I am thinking there may only be a handful of commons in this pond which explains the limited number of commons seen. I have cast to fish that have shown but the turtles have had other plans for my hookbaits.
In reply to Post #5
94 funny you mention the can of catfood, I have been keeping old meat and scraps in the freezer, much to the displeasure of my girlfriend, with the plans of putting it in a cage to try and draw the turtles away from my baits. I'm in NY and know what you're saying about the decrease in fish activity. I've been fishing a gravel pit that I bait just for fall and winter. Been catching some beautiful mirrors, haven't seen a carp show in the last few weeks but I know they are there. Have tried a Deeper but like you getting a good connection has been an issue. I will see if the pond is on the sites you suggested. Thanks for the suggestions.
94 funny you mention the can of catfood, I have been keeping old meat and scraps in the freezer, much to the displeasure of my girlfriend, with the plans of putting it in a cage to try and draw the turtles away from my baits. I'm in NY and know what you're saying about the decrease in fish activity. I've been fishing a gravel pit that I bait just for fall and winter. Been catching some beautiful mirrors, haven't seen a carp show in the last few weeks but I know they are there. Have tried a Deeper but like you getting a good connection has been an issue. I will see if the pond is on the sites you suggested. Thanks for the suggestions.