Smallies on Leech

[thatoneguy]

Fished in the Excel team event on Leech yesterday, caught lots of fish but never found anything big. Tuma and Ahlstrom won with 33.97 pounds - more than 5 pounds more than 2nd place - and his team's bag was ALL SMALLIES.

That's two weeks in a row that a bass tourney on Leech was won by a bag of brown bass (the week before Tyler Winkka and Chad Foster won the SuperSlam event with all smallies).

Guess I'm going to have to learn to find the brown fish on Leech!

[Cecil]

Will be tough after they are done spawning.

[TonkaBass]

It makes me all happy! Huge bags. Im with Cecil though, they are gonna be way harder after they spawn.

[thatoneguy]

Oh no question it would be tougher once they scatter. Fun knowing there are big ones in there, though.

[TonkaBass]

Oh for sure. I would actually fish a spring tournament there now Do you know if any of the other teams for the excel had them?

[bassinator]

I fished the tournament as well. One other team weighed in two smallies and six largies. I talked to them and they said they were not spawning but they found them by accident pre-fishing and went back tournement time and cuaght some and 2 made weigh-in. Not sure how many they caught that didnt cull.

I agree with you guys that it must be only becuase they are spawning, what makes me wonder is that yesterday Leech was absolutly rocking with the wind and would have made sight fishing most of the day impossible.. however it did calm down for 45 minutes and maybe just long enough to catch all of them? I have to beleive they were on beds tho...

[thatoneguy]

We put a lot of fish in the boat in that calm period, and sight fishing would have been a definite possibility. Once the 25 mph wind picked up...not so much. That was a rough ride in!

[Craigums]

How did you guys do?

[thatoneguy]

Not too great...weighed 8 green fish for just under 23 lbs. About 75% of the field weighed between 21-25 pounds. Lots of fish in the boat, but never found any piggies. Had one big girl hit a frog in some rice, but got wrapped around a pad root and she got off. My pardner got busted off by a good fish once as well. That one alone would have moved us about about 10 spots - pretty tightly packed in the middle of the field.

[bassinator]

Yep same story for us too. lots of fish, not much size. We weighed 24.69 but didn't have any fish that were over 3.5lbs..

[RK]

I think it's fascinating that smallies are all of a sudden getting established in Leech, at least in one area. I know some were stocked there illegally fairly recently, so these may be the result of that. The area's right if where I heard the fish came from is accurate.

Why there aren't smallies in Leech has always kind of puzzled me. Several of the other Boy River chain lakes (Little Boy, Woman, Baby, Mann) are good smallie lakes, but they've never been in Leech as anything other than random fish that probably wandered in from the Boy River.

Have to wonder if it's an isolated population that is temporarily established due to the bucket biology that went on, or if some of the changes happening there (rusty crayfish, clearer water, climate change) are making it a viable habitat for smallies virtually overnight. Time will tell, but it'll be interesting to watch what happens.

[bassinator]

RK, can you confirm if the fish were on beds or not? I think it would bring an awesome element into Leech if all of sudden there becomes a catch-able population of Smallmouth... Kind of like Pokegama river largies vs lake smallies. Guess next time up i might need to bring more than just my flippin sticks...

[RK]

RK, can you confirm if the fish were on beds or not? I think it would bring an awesome element into Leech if all of sudden there becomes a catch-able population of Smallmouth... Kind of like Pokegama river largies vs lake smallies. Guess next time up i might need to bring more than just my flippin sticks...

I can't say whether or not they were on beds. I wasn't there, but got some fairly precise details from a friend who lives in Walker and guides in the area.

Whether or not they were on beds at the time though, they'll make an attempt to spawn. Just a matter of whether or not it's successful and if recruitment is high enough to establish any kind of population.

I'm torn on wanting them to get established (I like smallies as much as anyone walking) and being concerned about the unintended consequences. Pickle bucket biology doesn't always end well.

[thatoneguy]

The tournament the weekend before was also won with smallies, and I chatted with that team and they did say that they sight-fished them on beds. I would love to see a population of smallies established in Leech, if for no other reason that it would add some variety to the bass fishing on the lake.

[RK]

The tournament the weekend before was also won with smallies, and I chatted with that team and they did say that they sight-fished them on beds. I would love to see a population of smallies established in Leech, if for no other reason that it would add some variety to the bass fishing on the lake.

I can't not say this... Catching fish off beds and hauling them off to a weigh in is probably not going to help their spawning success a whole lot...

[Cecil]

That lake is not what it should be on the largemouth side due to the tournaments being held in the middle of the lake and the fishing not finding their way back to the bays they were caught at. Can't imagine what it will do to a fragile smallmouth population...

[NoWiser]

I can't not say this... Catching fish off beds and hauling them off to a weigh in is probably not going to help their spawning success a whole lot...

Exactly what I was thinking...

[thatoneguy]

Good point, RK and Cecil. And tournament pressure on Leech gets greater and greater every year. We're in the midst of a stretch where there is a bass tournament four consecutive weeks on Leech. While Leech is a freakin' huge lake, the amount of territory that works well for largemouth is relatively small (compared to the lake as a whole) - and is far removed from any of the weigh-in sites used.

I've wondered about the impact that would have on the population longer-term...perhaps that's part of the reason that a tournament with a lot of good hooks in it struggled to put together good bags on Sunday? I dunno...I just know that I was shocked at the lack of quality fish Sunday not just in my boat but in almost every boat at the tourney.

[Cecil]

They need to move them around to some of the larger bays where the bass will stay and spawn. Keep it in horseshoe bay and resort stayers will pick them off all year long and keep them.

[RK]

I think the transport of tournament caught fish on Leech is really an issue, and has been for a while.

I know some locals up there who think it's really a serious problem. When exceptional bass fishermen that live on the lake tell me they don't see bass over 4 pounds in certain areas you're seeing the consequences of huge numbers of tournament caught fish being redistributed. Largemouths from Boy Bay or Steamboat don't do too well when they're released in Walker Bay. After some tournaments that have in-town weigh-ins, you can go catch a lot of skinny bass under the boat docks at the marina. I agree that it's not nearly the bass lake it could be as a result.

[Cecil]

Had a tournament out there in the fall that I cashed a check in and this was well over a month after the last tournament out there. Caught 5 of our 8 fish in marina's within a mile of the take off and where other tournements had gone out of. Shouldnt happen a month after the last tournament.

[thatoneguy]

I know fish are capable of traveling a long ways, but boy it's a long ways over a lot of territory they're not used to for a bass released in Walker Bay or Horseshoe Bay to get back to the territory they need. I agree this is potentially a big problem, especially as tournament pressure increases. So how does a fellow like me who lives on the lake (Steamboat Bay) go about addressing this? I'm very open to suggestions, and willing to invest some time and effort in lobbying for a solution.

[Cecil]

Need to work with the local DNR

The weigh-ins need to be moved around to resorts in bays (non main lake). I know there are not a lot of options, but there are a few.

Or in order to have a tournament out there you need to have a live release boat that you can drive to a bay or 2 and dump the fish. You can make anglers do it, but lets face it, not all will.

[thatoneguy]

For the Excel tourney, they had to be released outside of Horseshoe Bay, but for most boats that just meant going out just past the buoys and turing them loose (understandable that nobody wanted to buck the big waves to go back to Boy or HQ Bay, I guess, on Sunday).

I'll definitely look into working with the DNR on that. I don't want to pish off any fellow anglers, but I don't want to bass fishery on my main lake to be hurt long-term, either.

[Cecil]

Yeah, that was the way it was when I was there too. But those fish turn right back around and find warm water and set up. Which, in that area, is in the marina's around there, which is easy pickins for a bobber and a leech