McTucker Ponds 5/11/07

[BrianID]

I had time to fish the McTucker Ponds for about 2 hours yesterday. The bluegills were much more active than the ones at Twin Lakes. I think the difference is the water temperature. The average water temperature that I found at McTucker ponds was 11 degrees warmer than it was at Twin Lakes two days ago. The water was crystal clear in most of the ponds so I was able to do a bunch of "sight fishing". I spotted just about every fish I caught before I casted to it. It is fun watching how fish respond to different lures, flies and baits. There were many small (3"-6") bluegills, green sunfish and largemouth bass in the shallows. These little fish were not difficult to catch and I could often see 30 or more of them surrounding my fly or worm/bobber.
small green sunfish (4” long ?exact size?)

small largemouth bass (5”?)

small bluegill (5”?)


There were a few bluegills over 6” to be had but I didn’t find many of them. Here’s a picture of a slightly larger bluegill.


I was also able to get a few largemouths that were around 12". If you take time to look around the ponds it isn't hard to find the slightly larger bass but they are difficult to catch. An experience bass fisherman should be able to catch these largemouths without too much trouble but someone that doesn't have much experience fishing for bass will find them very difficult to catch. Out of about a dozen slightly larger bass that I caught, none of them had any previous scars in their mouth from being caught. So I don’t think they weren't highly educated bass. Maybe they just weren't very active when I was there or had no shortage of food with all of the little fish in the ponds. They just weren't as aggressive as 12" bass typically are this time of year. Here are a couple pictures of these bass.


I didn't catch any trout but didn't try fishing the far East Pond which should have at least a few trout in it. I did not find any trout in the NE pond like I typically do.
I didn't catch any bullheads either but I wasn't trying to catch them. I have caught many bullheads from the McTucker Ponds and shouldn't be to hard to find if you are trying to catch them. There are a few channel catfish in most of the ponds but I've only caught one channel cat from the McTucker ponds and that was last year.
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[windriver]

Thanks for the great report. The mctucker ponds might be a closer option for me to take by kids panfishing in the future. The gas prices start to make you think about things like that .

Windriver
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[mbright]

[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]The off side about McTucker is that, too many mosquitoes there, especially in the dusk.[/size][/font]
[size 3][font "Times New Roman"]You know what, I got more bites from them than fish [/font]L[font "Times New Roman"] [/font][/size]
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[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]Can BrainID share some experience on how to catch the larger LMB there? like bait, setup, spinning or bobber? [/size][/font]
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[BrianID]

Welcome to BFT!
I caught most of them on a purple worm. You can see the worm in one of the pictures. The 10"-12" bass were more difficult to catch that bass of this size are typically in the spring. Any good finesse bass fishing technique would have likely worked. The key was to spot the fish before casting and then not spook them. They weren't very interested in the faster moving reaction baits (Spinnerbaits, jerk baits, etc).
There are a lot of mosquitoes around the McTucker ponds. Bingham county also had one of the highest (if not highest) rates of West Nile Virus per capita in the nation in 2006. Good place to bring bug spray.
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