11-09-2017, 01:19 PM
[#0000FF]As with most of the community pond fisheries, Bountiful Pond suffers from sudden heavy harvest syndrome...after every DWR planting. What the cormorants don't slurp up while the newby fish are still swimming around near the surface in a daze, the local harvesters clean out within a few days. There are some folks who treat the ponds as their own private fish market...bringing the kids to increase the number of fish they can take home and then staying until they have their limits...or more.
Over the years DWR and bucket biologists have dumped in just about every species you can think of. Besides the planted trout and catfish you may also catch carp, sunfish, largemouth bass, white bass and even a stray walleye or two.
A few years ago my wife and I participated in the DWR youth fishing program on Bountiful Pond. This was in early summer...just after the trout stocking was ceased for the year and the catfish were being stocked. Our session with the kids was on Wednesday evening each week...with a fresh batch of catfish stocked each Monday. But from after the Monday stocking until the new plantings of about 500 fish were gone, the shoreline was lined with rods. There was usually only one or two adults in each group...tending the rods and putting fish in coolers. The kids were all off playing and were not even fishing. But the fish from their rods were all kept for the totals. Needless to say, by Wednesday evening our kids had a tough time catching any fish, even if they could find a spot along the bank that did not already have a rod set up on it. The good news is that we were usually able to get our kids at least a fish or two. Here is a picture of two sisters, each with their "fish du jour"...one bass and one catfish. We usually released the fish but on that trip they wanted to take one home to eat.
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Over the years DWR and bucket biologists have dumped in just about every species you can think of. Besides the planted trout and catfish you may also catch carp, sunfish, largemouth bass, white bass and even a stray walleye or two.
A few years ago my wife and I participated in the DWR youth fishing program on Bountiful Pond. This was in early summer...just after the trout stocking was ceased for the year and the catfish were being stocked. Our session with the kids was on Wednesday evening each week...with a fresh batch of catfish stocked each Monday. But from after the Monday stocking until the new plantings of about 500 fish were gone, the shoreline was lined with rods. There was usually only one or two adults in each group...tending the rods and putting fish in coolers. The kids were all off playing and were not even fishing. But the fish from their rods were all kept for the totals. Needless to say, by Wednesday evening our kids had a tough time catching any fish, even if they could find a spot along the bank that did not already have a rod set up on it. The good news is that we were usually able to get our kids at least a fish or two. Here is a picture of two sisters, each with their "fish du jour"...one bass and one catfish. We usually released the fish but on that trip they wanted to take one home to eat.
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