Bryan,

Thanks for the report. Great information. When we evaluate a lake through an electrofishing survey we look for overall body condition of all size classes of fish. When we see fish that are significantly below their ideal weight (Relative Weight) it can be a myriad of reasons. Usually it is a lack of forage issue. However, it can be that the fish has a soft plastic stuck in its intestinal track. This happens on occasion, especially in lakes with lots of cover (brush piles, timber, trees).. Some members come ill prepared and get "broken off". We hear this at Timber Lake. Bringing light test line or fishing line that has been on your reels for 6 months or longer to a lake like Timber Lake, Heartland 10-10, Hat and Star, or Indian Hollow to name a few, is like bringing a knife to a gun fight. You are going to loose. We recommend a minimum of 17 lb Monofilament/Fluorocarbon test or 50 lb braid. And just importantly, change your Monofilament/Fluorocarbon at least every 6 months; especially if you store your reels in the garage, boat or storage facility. Personally, I store all my reels inside my home and still change out at least twice a year. If you store your reels in the garage; you should change more often. The way I look at it is, you are paying $50 to $150 to fish, another $50 on gas, and spending a day doing what you love. Don't let being broken off on a fish, because of old fishing line ruin your trip when you can spool a high quality line for under $10 per reel. Seth and I often talk about how many times we read fishing reports where members get broken off. Many members think they lost a state record or double digit fish. While it is possible that you may have lost a double digit fish it is far more likely that a 5 lb bass fooled you around a log because of a knick in the line or old fishing line. If you are getting broken often multiple times in a single day of fishing, it is probably time to change your line.

Bryan, you mentioned nothing about getting broken off or even losing fish, so I thought this might be a good time to talk about it, without throwing anybody under the bus. Thanks for giving me the chance. Rant Over.

An electrofish survey is probably overdue at Timber lake and time to see how the forage base and bass health are doing. The skinny fish is likely due to a forage issue. We may need to harvest more and add additional forage. We will check it out.

Thanks for the report!

Steve

Hi All, what a wonderful Fall we are all being blessed with this year… some buddies and i fished Timber Lake a couple weeks ago and All the bass we caught were in excellent shape and strong as bulls, and "stuffed bellies" on them,, we even commented among ourselves how they must really be feeding up.. our thoughts were that Timber Lake and its bass were in excellent condition,, enjoy the great weather and as Steve said , change that line around twice a year

Excellent Phillip. Thanks.

It could be the case of one mans skinny is one mans fat. Or we just had a couple of skinny fish. That is why we like to evaluate the whole population and use a standard table.

Two of the fish were obviously "way" underweight. I have caught fish previously in prior years at Timber that had parasites, but not this trip. We got taken down into the brush several times requiring us to break off and re-rig. The best results occurred by attempting to move the fish as quickly as possible your way to have any chance of landing them.I definitely agree braid is preferred at Timber Lake. I replace line frequently as I do store rods in the garage and the heat takes its toll.

It is very common for bass to have parasites. We see it often. They rarely effect the health of a fish. However, on occasion they do. Parasites are usually a symptom of a fish that is stressed or was in stress at some point. Parasites are brought in by snails. The snails are hosts for the parasites. To counter this all lakes that we stock have red ear sunfish also know as a shell cracker in the southeastern part of the United States. The reason they are called a shell crackers is because they eat snails. So, Red Ear Sunfish are a great tool to reduce or eliminate parasites in or on our bass.