Creating a Lake

[patrick_g]

Does anybody know how to tell the males from the females?


Eddie

Uh, yaw Eddie. When you are cleaning them, the girl ones have a pair of egg sacks. If they are large and full of yellow eggs don't toss them out with the rest of the innards, fry 'em!

Couldn't resist. I have a friend who is a PhD biologist and he can't always tell (maybe usually tell.) I use the method described above.

Different species and different conditions result in different male to female ratios but once you have several fish it is virtually assured you will have both sexes and after they reproduce the initial ratio won't matter much. Unless caught at spawning time when behaviors might be significantly different the odds favor getting a mix of sexes that will generally follow the proportion in the waters being fished.

Short version: If you put in enough fish (10-20?) you will be pretty assured you will have enough of both sexes to get things going.

Pat

 

[EddieWalker]

Pat,

Thanks, that's pretty much what I was thinking too. I'm not much of a fisherman, so I didn't know if it was possible or not to tell them apart. Nobody that I've spoken too knows for sure, so they mystery remains on what I've put in there so far.

Does anybody know at what age they need to be to reproduce? All of them are pretty good sized, but I have no idea how old a two pound bass should be? A wild guess is that should be old enough to spawn next year, but I honestly don't know for sure.

I'm also getting them from two different ponds that he fishes. My thoughts are that I'll increase the genetic diversity this way. Of course, I don't know if that's important with bass or not. Both ponds are private and are really great for fishing, but nobody to our knowledge has cought one over five pounds. That seems to be about the biggest for both ponds. One pond is an acre, the other is over ten acres.

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

I received a PM asking about wether it's legal to move fish from one pond to another, since it's not legal in some places.

Here in Texas, if you own the pond, then you own the fish in it too. Privately owned ponds do not have any fishing regulations, you do not need a fishing license and the landowner can pretty much do what he wants. There are a few laws restricting what you can put in there, but it's minimal and not really something that concerns me with what I'm doing.

Fish from one private pond are legal to catch and carry to another private pond. The key is privately own ponds here in Texas.

Eddie

 

[patrick_g]

Here in Texas, if you own the pond, then you own the fish in it too. Privately owned ponds do not have any fishing regulations, you do not need a fishing license and the landowner can pretty much do what he wants.

Fish from one private pond are legal to catch and carry to another private pond. The key is privately own ponds here in Texas.

Eddie

In Oklahoma, fish in a private pond are the owner's to do with as he pleases pretty much as in Texas so far as the owner is concerned.

Here is the real deal: (You will note we don't extend privileges to all states)

The following persons are exempt from the resident or nonï½*resident fishing license:

Residents under 16, and nonresidents under 16 who are residents of AL, AK, AR, CA, CT, DE, GA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, Ml, NH, NY, NC, ND, OH, TX, or Wl.

Nonresidents under 14.

Resident owners or tenants, their spouses, parents, grandparents, children and their spouses, grandchildren and their spouses who fish in private ponds on land owned or leased by such owner or tenant. Persons residing in another state who own land in Oklahoma but do not live on that land are not exempt.

Nonresidents 64 and older who are residents of Texas.

Resident disabled veterans with 60 percent or more disability. Call State Dept. of Veterans Affairs, 1-888-655-2838 for additional information.

Any person who fishes with pole and line, trotline or throw line in streams, natural ponds and mine pits in or forming the boundï½*ary of the county in which he is a bona fide resident, when using any bait other than commercial or artificial bait, blood, stink bait, cut fish, and shrimp.

Oklahoma citizens in the U. S. Armed Forces servï½*ing outside Oklahoma on authorized leave and with writï½*ten evidence on their person.

Any person legally blind or physically impaired who is unable to properly use fishing apparatus and one accompanying companion while the blind or physically impaired person is fishing.

Any patient of a state institution in Oklahoma established for the care and treatment of mental illness or alcohol or drug dependency or any person developmentally disabled residing in any group home or other institution or persons developmentally disabled when accompanied by an attendant of such institution or legal guardian or when fishing on institutional property.

Residents having a proven disability rendering them nonambulatory and confined to wheelchairs as certified by a duly qualified physician.

Job Corps trainees of this state, having a proper identification card.

Persons under 18 who are in legal and physical custody of the State of Oklahoma or its agencies by court order.

Persons under 18 who are in the custody of a child care facility as defined by Title 10 O.S., Section 402.

Persons fishing during Oklahomaç—´ Free Fishing Days.

So, in theory, there are people who need a lisc to fish a private (no fee for use) pond. Pay to fish concessions do not require a lisc.

I am proud of our state for giving active duty military and disabled vets and other classes of folks FREE FISHING.

Pat

 

[EddieWalker]

Pat,

After reading that, I'm thouroughly confused!!! Our fishing regs are pretty confusing too, but mostly it's about fish types and where you fish for them. The licensing is straight forward. If it's public water, you need a lisence and must follow the regulations. If it's private water, you can do with it as you please.

It's one of those common sense things that I like so much about Texas.

Eddie

 

[patrick_g]

Pat,

After reading that, I'm thouroughly confused!!! Our fishing regs are pretty confusing too

If it's private water, you can do with it as you please.

It's one of those common sense things that I like so much about Texas.

Eddie

Well, at least notice that when you are older, as a Texan, you can fish in Oklahoma with no lisc!

There is virtually a separate book for paddle fish and their roe.

Hey, I found that Oklahoma got smart and changed their no trespass signage requirements that required owners to "POST" their property. We are more like the great state of Texas (AKA Baja Oklahoma) now. Long overdue.

Pat

 

[Bird]

Pat, the odd thing is that Texans 64 and older don't have to have a license in Oklahoma, but in Texas you have to be born before September 1, 1930, to be exempt from needing a license.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Pat, I wish NY would follow suit. We still need to post our property otherwise it is considered privately owned public hunting land. In NY you can hunt on any property that is not posted with a 12x12 sign stating you can not hunt there. The signs need to be maintained and signed each year and have to no more then so many feet apart (I can't remember the exact distance). If you don't follow all the rules and someone goes on your land all you can do is toss him off. Our laws are terrible but New York wants to get rid of the deer so I doubt they are going to change it anytime soon.

Actaully, right now they are trying to push a section of the new Farm bill that would pay farmers so many dollars (I don't know how much yet) per acre to not post their land and keep it as public hunting ground.

I get tired of clearing boundry lines and updating our posted signs every year. I have no idea how many miles of boundry we have but it adds up to a lot of work just so we can hunt our own property without having people sitting in our tree stand or harassing our deer in the pens.

 

[patrick_g]

Pat, the odd thing is that Texans 64 and older don't have to have a license in Oklahoma, but in Texas you have to be born before September 1, 1930, to be exempt from needing a license.

Sorry about that, Bird. Yo can come fish my ponds without a lisc.

Pat

 

[patrick_g]

Pat, I wish NY would follow suit. We still need to post our property otherwise it is considered privately owned public hunting land.

I was told the law was changed last year but it didn't get communicated to the public very well. It did go out to the game wardens and such. I just found out by complaining to the legislative information guy at a recent Cattleman's Association meeting abot the dumb law and found it was fixed last year.

I thought it was really dumb to have to surround yourself with signs as if folks were so stupid they wouldn't know it wasn't there land without a reminder.

I would be quite happy if the law gave permission to the land owner or his designated representatives to use lethal force to prevent trespassing on fenced land. If you have to cross a fence or go through a gate that you don't own then you should do so at your own peril. Not much chance of seeing a bill like that come to a vote.

Pat