stunted northern lake, why?

[leechlake]

My folks have had a place near Walker for 50 years. I'm 38 and for my whole life catching snake after snake is no problem. 1-1/2- 2 pounders make up 90% plus of the catch. Rarely over the years do you ever catch anything over about 5 pounds. There are some walleyes (that average 3 pounds or so and I've caught many over 26", along with 14" plus crappies)and crappies, but the "stunted" northern population is gigantic. Is this due to the gene pool of the northerns? If it were a food issue I wouldn't expect the walleyes to be so much bigger than an average lake or for the crappies to be so much bigger than average also. Also, the lake is about a 1/2 mile square, so it's very small but has a river coming into it and a river going out.

[MJBo]

Too many mouths, too little food. If I were managing the pond I'd stock additional food species and actively cull out the smaller pike. This situation is extremely common and shouldn't have much of a genetic component.

[Surface Tension]

In those 50 years there had to have a been multiple cycles in the forage/predator relationship to where there was a abundance of forage. You should have noticed an increased size of the pike too.

Heres my take, your fishing tactics for this oh so familiar lake don't vary. Meaning you can go out and get a mess of pike in no time but they are all small. Problem is your doing the same thing over and over. Same spots, same depths same old same old, your in a rut. Try looking at this lake in a different perspective.

[Bobb-o]

how big is the lake and how deep does it get? what are the main forage species present? are their tulibees? does the lake have a well-defined thermocline in the summer? How are you catching the northerns you do catch? a lot of times larger fish will become loners and will just suspend out in the main lake. Do you have access to electronics? try trolling large lures near the thermocline in the summer, you might be surprised at what you pick up

[carlcmc]

This is a combination problem. It requires different tactics to catch 10+lb northerns than 1-2 lbers. Additionally, harvesting of 10+lb northerns depletes the predator that eats the 1-2 lbers.

[leechlake]

I was nearly offended when I started reading the posts...then I reviewed the past and for some reason I catch bigger northerns ice fishing than any other time of the year and in the late fall. I still think the lake has a snake issue, but I do agree with the tactics thoughts, "in a rut" although painful is right on, thanks guys.

[carlcmc]

it wasn't meant to offend if you are refering to mine. One individual takeing a large northen probably won't impact the population a lot. A practice by many will. I prefer to release northerns larger than 5-7 lbs to let the large ones predate the small ones.

[Powerstroke]

I can catch a crapload of small northerns on a few lakes I frequent, but my dad employs different tactics than me and he routinely outfishes me sizewise. Nort's are easy to catch, but fish don't reach 30" without learning to avoid the predators.

Same thing with bass. Most of the big ones aren't in the slop hitting buzzbaits.

Challenge yourself to new techniques and you'll be very suprised. I went to the library and went through back issues of Field and Stream, Outdoor Life, etc and looked for articles of techniques I've never used. Copy the pages and try to incorporate them into your routine.