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| Family Owned & Operated Since 2004 |
A Guide To Building A Better Paylake The first thing is that paylakes need to work together. We need to stand together to represent the future of paylakes across the world. A paylake is more than a small shallow farm pond with a few fish in it. A paylake should be at least a couple of acres and at least 15' deep in many places of the lake. You want customers to continue to come back, then there is a few things you need to do. Get rid of the drugs and alcohol. This only leads to trouble. Be honest about the stocking, size of fish and about the jackpots. Keep your lake clean. The bottom line is to take care of what we got and the fish we have. I have included a few important things below to make all paylakes better. I only hope this helps make all paylakes a better place to fish. Holding Fish Alot of pictures you see at paylakes, rivers and catfish tournaments are sportsman holding fish by the mouth. My question is, why do you do that? You take a chance in dropping the fish and killing them. All Flathead catfish and Blue catfish should always be left on the ground and you should always use a net to lift these fish. Do not allow fisherman to left or carry these fish at your paylakes or anywhere else. Leave fish on the ground while taking your pictures. We do not allow any fish to be carried or picked up. Anyone who does is asked to leave our lake and will be disqualified from all jackpots or tournament winnings. Bait In Lake Many fisherman and lake owners believe that keeping shad and other bait out of there lakes will make the fish bit better. This not true. A fish needs to eat without getting a hooked and caught. This will make sure that fish stays healthy and will be caught again. When a fish does not eat, they will not feed as often, they get sick and lose weight and they will lay down in the lake and die. We are not saying go out and feed your fish dog food like a lot of lakes do. Dog food is not the answer and either is fish food. Having live fish in your lake is. This makes the larger fish swim around and look for food. Ask yourself this, when you don't eat what happens to your body. You will sick and have no energy and just lay around. The more you eat, the more energy you have and fill like moving around and doing something. A fish is the same way. Make sure there is shad and other baitfish in the lake. When winter comes your fish will need them to survive, besides shad is the best because they are filter feeders and help keep your lake clean. Aeration Having a proper aeration system in your lake does several things to your lake. An aeration system increase water clarity, prevents algae growth, prevents fish kills and promotes healthy aquatic life. You should use both, a top aerator has a higher oxygen transfer rate. Use a bottom aeration or windmill aeration sytem to keep all of the harmful gases to the top of the lake. This will keep 100 % of your lake with oxygen for the fish. When paylakes stock more fish per acre of water than they should, a good aeration system will pay for it self over time. Stocking Fish To keep good stocked lake you should stock about 5,000 lbs of fish per acre. If you have a 4 acre lake you should keep at least 20,000 lbs of fish stocked in your lake. Most lake do not stock enough fish for there lakes. To keep fisherman coming back and trying to catch fish it needs to be well stocked. Alot of lakes lie about the size of fish and how many pounds of fish is stocked. This will catch up with you as a lake owner. The whole purpose of a paylake is to catch fish. I know sometimes that is harder than it sounds, but a well stocked lake well produce fish week after week and keep customers coming back. Snagging Fish This is not a sport. Anyone can do that. You should not allow any fisherman to snag fish in your paylake. We know of one lake that allows this to happen as long as it is in the head area and allows them to count as a jackpot fish. What sport is in that? You can kill fish by snagging them. All fish should be hooked inside the mouth. Jack Pots We have customers telling us all the time about how this lake or that lake screwed them over. We know that there is two sides to every story. We suggest keeping all rules, regulations and jack pot totals where customers can read these. Hopefully this will keep any confusion from happening. I know a year ago we had some good customers come to our lake and went ahead and started fishing before they bought a ticket. He caught a $1500.00 jackpot fish without a ticket and we would not pay him the money. I know that he always gets in the jackpots when he buys a ticket, but the bottom line is to be honest to everyone about the jackpots. Customers will appreciate the fact knowing that you are not cheating for anyone. Explain Your Self To Customers If you see another fisherman breaking the rules or doing something wrong, then explain and educate them instead of screaming at them. By explaining yourself to them they will understand, put them in your shoes and they will not get mad and leave and never come back again. You want them to understand and be happy and continue to come back to your lake to fish. Keeping Fish Out Of The Water Do not allow your fish to be kept out of water too long. Fish only have a few minutes before they start to dry out. When a fish is out of the water you are removing its slim coat which protects it. Fish live in water, just try to get them back in as soon as you can. Taking Care Of The Fish We Have By following a few simple rules like aeration, snagging fish, holding fish and getting the fish back in the water we can keep the fish we have in the lakes instead of having to replace them.
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