Where are the mid-sized fish?

[ANYFISH2]

Myself a buddy have been fishing a small(40 acre) lake the past two seasons. a great lake so far, we have caught up to 156 bass in a day(Saturday) and have know caught 10 over 5#, including a 6# 8oz and a 7# 2oz. The funny thing about this lake is you either catch 12.5-14.5" bass or pigs over 20". We have only caught 5 fish at 15", none at 16", none at 17", 1 at 18" and 2 at 19 and 19.5". Where are these mid sized fish? we are puzzled!

The lake is clear and drops off quickly along the shore(12+' within 10 yds) very sparse weeds, lake has bullrush along much of the shore but only 5 yards wide in most places. Very little cabbage and sparse at that. The bottom is covered heavily with bladderwort out to at least 14'. Substrate consists of probably 80% sand 10% mud, 5% rubble, 5% gravel. There is also alot of fallen wood along shore out to 10' of water. There is also only one dock on the lake with one pontoon. Mostly a bowl shaped lake with one suken bar that streatches out about 100 yds.

Any ideas where to look to get more of these mid sized fish?

[Chad_Fish]

I dont think I would worry much about getting those mid sized fish if I was getting those big ones!

[ANYFISH2]

Certainly not complaining!! But those small fish have to grow to 15,16,17" before they get to be big. Just can't figure out where they are, plus if we find them I think we might find more big fish. It can get to be a long day catching cookie cutter 13" fish. The big fish make the trips though.

[mabr]

Any chance the lake froze out and was re-stocked. Seen that happen where a couple year classes were missing.

[mainbutter]

I had the same thing happen to me when I ran into a mess of crappies on some lake.

A couple big ones, LOTS of small ones, and the size difference seemed to be large enough that they were not from neighboring year classes.

[grab the net]

The lake could be at the end of a cycle. New year class coming with the smaller fish. Sounds like it has good genetics going for it. Should make for some interesting fishing in the years to come. It would be fun to see how fast thos fish grow, an inch per year? Keep us posted. What do you think he main forage is?

[ANYFISH2]

I never really considered a winter kill as the lake gets deep 40' and doesn't have alot of weeds to decompose. It a possiblity though.

I believe the main forage is bluegill, perch and small yoy bass. The northern pike exibit the same thing very small 15"-18" caught but seen 2 in high 30's to 40".

They did seem to grow on average since last summer but it is really just a small sample size as we have only fished it 6 or 7 times between the last two summers. We stumbled on to it in the winter panfishing and caught 3 20+ bass in the winter and decided we need to try it in the summer. Plan worked flawlessly.

I might need to be carefull how much info I give out about this lake maybe.

[MN BassFisher]

Yes, feel free to give me the coordinates anytime and I will come and try to find those mid size fish!!

[thatoneguy]

any pics?

[ANYFISH2]

I have pics of the 6-8 on my cell, bad pic quality and can't get it to load onto this computer(old puter puked on me). The pic's of 7-2, 5-3, and another 5 are on my buddies cell that I am going to try and load next time he visits. I will post them if I can get pics soon and figure out this computer.

[RumRiverRat]

Yes, feel free to give me the coordinates anytime and I will come and try to find those mid size fish!!

Go to google earth and start searching in ever expanding circles from Randall.

[slipperybob]

Sounds like there's a bunch of lunker females and the rest of the smaller fish comprise of the males.