Has anyone ever had s good lake go bad as in the fishing is just horrible.  Get skunked every time, can’t find them etc? Don’t even see any baitfish.  This lake I have fished for 2 years now has always been great.  Topwater in the morning or afternoon is always good. Punching lily pads or Mats , spinnerbaits and jigs, worms. They all have worked except this year.  I haven’t got a fish at all and I tried everything that I own. Lipless cranks , spinners , jigs , frogs, senkos, all soft plastics in my bag , deep cranks , shallow cranks , pitching and flipping everything but no luck. What would cause this.. to go from great fishing to nothing , not even seeing baitfish or bluegill etc. 

Did it turn? 

Have any asian carp jumped into your boat? I hear thats a bad sign for your lake.

It happened to our favorite lake. One spring it got really flooded. That summer it was crazy thick with floating weeds and by the next year the fishing had gone from 10-15 bass a trip to just about zip.

Idk if it turned , it was like 85 and sunny everyday for weeks and now it’s cold and rainy and some wind but even when it was sunny and nice I didn’t get anything. No Carp I know , it’s cslled bear lake in Ny you can look it up online. Just hasn’t had any good fishing all year. It has been really high waters though and a lot more weeds than usual but bass like weeds so idk

Are you fishing the same ways you did before the weeds?

 

Weeds give bass lots of places to hide and spread out. A population of fish that may have been concentrated to smaller areas of cover can now utilize the entire lake and often what use to be empty mud flats will be thick weed beds that hold fish, so all that empty water is now fish habitat as well. They're still there, but they've adjusted to the new habitat. 

5 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Are you fishing the same ways you did before the weeds?

 

Weeds give bass lots of places to hide and spread out. A population of fish that may have been concentrated to smaller areas of cover can now utilize the entire lake and often what use to be empty mud flats will be thick weed beds that hold fish, so all that empty water is now fish habitat as well. They're still there, but they've adjusted to the new habitat. 

Basically, this.

One of the lakes I fish is an ever changing lake. Year to year, even season to season the water levels are drastic and the weeds come and go. Bogs move around too. 

It takes a lot to kill off the population of fish. They just move and adapt to the new landscape. 

Only lake I've ever deemed "gone bad" was Jersey Lake that was polluted so terribly bad I swear it glowed at night. DNR drained it ASAP and took 5 years to refill it and it still won't hold fish. Polluted for good. 

6 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Are you fishing the same ways you did before the weeds?

 

Weeds give bass lots of places to hide and spread out. A population of fish that may have been concentrated to smaller areas of cover can now utilize the entire lake and often what use to be empty mud flats will be thick weed beds that hold fish, so all that empty water is now fish habitat as well. They're still there, but they've adjusted to the new habitat. 

Yeah I fish the same but started fishing the weeded area more. The whole back part of the lake or Bay Area is covered. They used to just be submerged down all The way last year and this year they seem to have grown to the top. I try punching them but I’m new to that technique so I’ll keep trying  I guess. 

Actually this same thing is happening to my favorite spot. A decently large pond, used to produce quality fish consistently. Last four times out got skunked. All my usual techniques failed. No signs of life at all. Not sure what happened. Gave it a month, went back still nothing. Sad

The chain of lakes I just got home from in Wisconsin is exactly the opposite.  Used to have a healthy grass population and the fishing was easy and the fish plentiful.  Then they decided to spray the aquatic vegetation.  It's taken me 5 years to re-evaluate and find the fish again.  Every year it's different.  I always find them but it changes without the vegetation to hold them.  This year was record heat and the air temp was in the high 80's every day and the water temp was 83 degrees.  I had to go deep.....really deep.  I was dropshotting bluegills out of 17 feet of water.  Took me 3 days to put together a pattern and to be able to consistently catch smallmouth and largemouth.  Moral of the story, unless there was a big fish die off or the fish got physically removed from the lake, they are there you just have to find them.  

When that happens to the ponds around here it is usually due to an increase in fishing pressure.  I have a good pond near my house, but a few years ago it seemed like the entire town was there after the word got out that you could catch bass there.

On 7/29/2018 at 1:02 AM, Bluebasser86 said:

They're still there, but they've adjusted to the new habitat. 

 

Exactly!

 

The opposite happened on Toledo Bend, there were thousands of acres of grass flats, now there's none.

 

Everyone is freaking out saying, being ranked #1 two years on a row ruined the lake due fishing pressure.

 

No! The bass made the adjustments to having less grass, the angler hasn't! 

4 minutes ago, Catt said:

 

Exactly!

 

The opposite happened on Toledo Bend, there were thousands of acres of grass flats, now there's none.

 

Everyone is freaking out saying, being ranked #1 two years on a row ruined the lake due fishing pressure.

 

No! The bass made the adjustments to having less grass, the angler hasn't! 

Exactly Catt ..... you have to get out of your comfort zone.

I actually stopped fishing that lake this year. It sucks to bc it has big

pike and musky in there .. maybe next year 

I have a somewhat similar thing with my “regular” pond.  It’s maybe 2-3 acres and I would be shocked if it ever hit deeper then 8-10’.  This season the milfoil has gone crazy, maybe 3-4x the ususal density.  It’s been a challange as they don’t allow boats so it’s hard to get vertical enough to punch through it for most of the shoreline.  I have adapted by finding some novel ways to fish the weededges, in a few spots I make a short pitch to the edge, then if I dont get a hit, let out line while walking out to a point where I can make a retieve paralleling the edge.  It’s a pain but I have gotten a few nicer bass that way.  I have gotten very very few hits trying to fish on top of the weeds, it’s like the bass don’t know they can feed up there yet. 

Did ice fishermen get in there thick this winter?

I've seen good ponds/sections of the lake get destroyed because the sunnies were nearly wiped out.  It'll come back, but the food base was really jacked up for a couple years.