Condie

[Pharticus]

Had a few hours to fish last night, sans children, so I decided to satisfy my curiosity and launched into Condie. Armed with a couple of reaction baits and my polarized glasses, I was determined to get a feel for the lake's mortality rate after last fall's draw down.

The water was crystal clear. I could see bottom in water as deep as 6'. I trolled the entire perimeter of the lake, paying special attention to the warm, shallow bays - looking for wandering LMB.

I saw all of 2. [] Both appeared to be in the 15-16" range.

A third took my jerk bait. Also similar in size. Alas, I wasn't actually expecting to catch, so i was reeling in under the assumption that my bait quit wobbling b/c of more weeds... only to realize it was a fish with my bait, swimming towards the boat. Oops.

Other than that, a fellow fishing a senko off a point managed to catch a few dinks with big heads and scrawny bodies...

(Lest I get dled with my first skunk in a long while, I hitched up the boat and finished at Winder. Caught 13 in the last 45 minutes of light.)

While Condie might just be slow to turn on, I really felt I should have seen more activity in order to harbor some hope of Condie being worth the time this summer. Perhaps I'll try once more in a couple more weeks... but it sure didn't look promising.
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[Fishit]

That sucks, we stopped by while on a drive a couple weeks ago and the water was as clear as I have ever seen it just like you saw. I waded and tossed a few casts where I can almost always pick up a fish or two and...... not even a bite. Pretty crapped out about that whole deal.
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[CarlF]

Looks like it might be a few years longer but it's good to see a few survivors. We fished Winder last week and caught more bass than we could count. It would be nice to see some of the smaller fish transported in from surrounding reservoirs, but it seems easier said than done.
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[gstott]

There's talk of doing that. Treasureton is just down the road, and the bass there have been illegally introduced, and they want them out of there. They were going to do an assessment of Condie this spring and then decide what the plan is. They have transferred fish from Treasureton to other reservoirs in the past, so it is a possibility.
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[cpierce]

I think that that might be likely, but I have to wonder about what the feed situation is at Condie. You can't drop a whole lot of predators into a pond without the prey species to support them. So maybe they will start with smaller transfers.

I am guessing that if Treasureton gets really low this year, it might be poisoned out this fall, so it would be good to move or remove whatever can be ...

That also may depend on money and man hours. Volunteers anyone? I know that I would be happy to help if something can be organized.
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[Fishit]

I would definitely be interested in putting some sweat equity in to Condie if something is organized.
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[cpierce]

How many of our bass waters are going to go dry or hit minimum pool again this year?? I hate to say it, but the more I think about Condie, the more I am unsure whether it will be worth the work. Wish I was more optimistic, but with the pelicans working over the low pools......
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[GOOSEASSASSIN]

PELICAN!!!....Now theres an invasive spieces we need to get thrown in with the waterfowl season......[:p]
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[gstott]

I just got an email from Dave Teuscher today. He said they're going to assess the situation next week. However, like all of us, he's concerned that Condie will be drained to minimum pool this summer and we'll be right back where we were. I have to say, I've seen more waste and misuse of water already this year, you'd think people would be more careful knowing we're in a drought. Seriously, do people really need to water their lawn in the rain, or for three days straight? I think I need to move someplace wetter.
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[brownieguy]

Its depressing but I agree with CP, its tough to spend the time/money on moving fish from one lake to another when it is very very likely that by fall there won't be any water left from irrigation needs.
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[CoyoteSpinner]

Curious to see if the water levels, weed structure are enough for the gills and crappie to have a good recruitment. (are there perch there? or where there?)

My one trip there - I found lots for numbers, just not much for size of the panfish. If the bass are scrawny, I'd think a good spawn would help them along.

Do they still have the same slot/limit in place?

I can certainly see where transferring fish wouldn't be of much benefit if they're just gonna run it dry again.

As for the Pelicans - do they taste like chicken?

[gstott]

There were perch in there, my personal best at 14" came out of Condie. The last couple of years there were a ton of little perch from the high water year we had in 2011
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