To Bass or not to Bass

[Eric]

I wanted to start this thread to see what most of you guys thought of local bassing.
This started from seeing Jockey's comments herehttp://www.sportfishingbc.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=4597&whichpage=2

Thats so cool that there are largemouth in elk lake now. I caught a really small one the other day. First one!

IMO no, it's not cool that LM are in Elk. Why? Because some discard has been rampant in his bucket brigade tactics. In this way there is too many lakes with illegally stocked bass in them. If you're gonna possibly damage a lake's ecosystem, leave the others alone for those that seriously disagree with your illegal antics. This also allows some time to see what kind of impact the stocking has on trout. And I bet trout fishermen get pretty ticked when they are constantly shaking off bass when they are targetting trout.
Many flyfishermen are pretty serious about their fishery. I really don't like the way I have been treated by admitting to being a bass fan. I didn't stock them here, but I enjoy the fishing.
From what I have seen so far, many of the trout are getting even bigger when smallies are present. Fuller, Elk, Shawnigan and St Mary's have some seriously bigger trout that I think are due to feeding off of bass fry. But I may be wrong. I am no expert for sure.

Let's keep it simple eh?

 

[darmin]

im getting a little disgruntled with the river fishing scene(flossing and snagging ) so im looking at different oppurtunies bass fishing sounds like something to try I actually went to spider lake today didnt get any bass but did get 12 inch trout a fellow beside me got a bass he fishes there all the time says he seen a guy get a 6lbs rainbow out of there (pics at gone fishin courtney) so the bass didnt seem to effect that fishes growth p.s is it getting to cold for bass now

 

[Jockey]

Bass are fun I love fishing for them in the summer months when they are on top and jump around. I have no problem with some large mouths in elk lake, if any lake can withstand it its elk. That lake has been stocked with many different species that should not be there and has flourished. Maybe the largemouth will attack some of those pearch that shouldn't be there.

 

[Eric]

@Darmin -Actually the water has stayed too warm for the smallmouth to go into there hard Fall bite. They know when it gets colder they will slow down and they need to fatten up before that. So coming up in the next coupla weeks is the time to start finding big smallies putting on the feed bags.
@Jockey -yeah there are too many perch in Shawnigan and Elk. If you want to have a ton of fun, fish for smallies all the time except for when it's really cold ie wet rainy winter months. Spring is a great time for big fish.

 

[darmin]

hey eric any other info you have would be much apprieciated for examples do jigs work or are liures better???

 

[knucklebuster]

I LOVE bass fishing. On the fly especially.Shawnigan,St.Marys and Quennel are my favs.

 

[Eric]

@Darmin (and anyone else who cares)
Right now I am partial to fishing Elk and Shawnigan with tubes on exposed hook or grubs on darter head jigs. I use some crankbaits and spinnerbaits. For Quennell's constant soup and hang ups I use a texas (buried hook) tube with internal weight, buzzbaits and spinnerbaits.
I am finding that darker colours work best. Black tubes with some sort of coloured spackle. Grubs are generally all black with silver flake or a darker white with black speckles.
I am fishing in 18'-25' of water along drop offs and humps. I just found a super flat in Shawnigan with drop offs nearby. Big fish!
Docks are good in Shawnigan but only some of the time. The bite is really hit and miss there I find.