Tried one of the small hike-in seep lakes on Thursday 5/19/2022 that was very murky and borderline unfishable when I tried it a few weeks ago. Fortunately, it had cleared up somewhat to 5 to 6 feet of visibility, and the water temperature was nice at 59 to 61 degrees. Fishing was tough; I only landed 5 fish (all released), but they were all nice ones in the 17 to 19 inch range like this one:
On Friday 5/20/2022 I tried another small hike-in seep lake where I'd been skunked in March, but this time I landed three fish, a 19 incher, 20 incher and 21 incher (all released). Not many fish, but quality fish that were very husky, great fighters and jumpers. Here's a photo of one of them:
Rolling thunder, high winds, rapidly cooling temperatures, incoming rain and probable lightning chased me off the lake early and the falling barometer may have put the fish off the bite earlier:
Anyway, I much prefer quality over quantity and I found it on these two outings. Both these lakes are general regulation lakes, so it just goes to show that sometimes you can find quality fish in waters some would not consider to be quality fisheries. I think there was likely a partial summer kill last year (2021, and possibly 2020) with the unusually long, hot summer that killed off a lot of the smaller fish in these two lakes, allowing the surviving fish to put on good weight. Normally, I would expect the larger fish to die off first due to their higher need for dissolved oxygen, but I theorize that in the case of these small seep lakes, the larger fish dominated and monopolized the areas around the underwater springs, not allowing the smaller fish to get enough oxygen to survive. I have no way to prove this theory, but otherwise I can't explain the near total lack of smaller fish in these two lakes. I do find it interesting that the unintentional and unplanned culling of the fish populations clearly resulted in fewer, but much better quality fish. These fish are the best quality fish I've caught in these lakes in all the years I've fished them. It probably won't last long, as when these 19 to 21 inchers die off, there appear to be no smaller fish to replace them, at least for the next couple of years. But, that's the way it goes with these small seep lakes; it is often boom or bust and they cycle up and down. You just don't know what you'll find unless you go there to try them. Sometimes you'll get skunked and other times you'll be pleasantly surprised. Kind of like Forrest Gump's proverbial box of chocolates...
Rex
On Friday 5/20/2022 I tried another small hike-in seep lake where I'd been skunked in March, but this time I landed three fish, a 19 incher, 20 incher and 21 incher (all released). Not many fish, but quality fish that were very husky, great fighters and jumpers. Here's a photo of one of them:
Rolling thunder, high winds, rapidly cooling temperatures, incoming rain and probable lightning chased me off the lake early and the falling barometer may have put the fish off the bite earlier:
Anyway, I much prefer quality over quantity and I found it on these two outings. Both these lakes are general regulation lakes, so it just goes to show that sometimes you can find quality fish in waters some would not consider to be quality fisheries. I think there was likely a partial summer kill last year (2021, and possibly 2020) with the unusually long, hot summer that killed off a lot of the smaller fish in these two lakes, allowing the surviving fish to put on good weight. Normally, I would expect the larger fish to die off first due to their higher need for dissolved oxygen, but I theorize that in the case of these small seep lakes, the larger fish dominated and monopolized the areas around the underwater springs, not allowing the smaller fish to get enough oxygen to survive. I have no way to prove this theory, but otherwise I can't explain the near total lack of smaller fish in these two lakes. I do find it interesting that the unintentional and unplanned culling of the fish populations clearly resulted in fewer, but much better quality fish. These fish are the best quality fish I've caught in these lakes in all the years I've fished them. It probably won't last long, as when these 19 to 21 inchers die off, there appear to be no smaller fish to replace them, at least for the next couple of years. But, that's the way it goes with these small seep lakes; it is often boom or bust and they cycle up and down. You just don't know what you'll find unless you go there to try them. Sometimes you'll get skunked and other times you'll be pleasantly surprised. Kind of like Forrest Gump's proverbial box of chocolates...
Rex
