About The Lake Y Project
Join us on our mission to transform an average lake into a bass fishing paradise
We found a lake. It’s unimpressive. I guess we could call it average if you want to be nice about it. Sure, there are some bass in it. But, there are more gar, crappie and catfish. We are going to call it Lake Y, but it could well represent the majority of small lakes and ponds scattered throughout the country. Left unmanaged, small fisheries, say from 3 to 100 acres, can get out of balance a lot faster than you would imagine. Bass can become scarce from predation of other critters, or worse, overpopulate a lake and stunt. Non-desirable species (at least to hardcore bass anglers), like catfish, gar and carp, can create such a biomass in limited space that largemouth simply cannot thrive. Cover and structure can deteriorate, vegetation can choke out open water and water quality can become unbearable for fish in a matter of a few years. If you fish a small lake that may resemble one of these remarks, the Lake Y Project is for you.
Bassmaster has partnered with Lochow Ranch Pond and Lake Management, one of the nations foremost experts on improving small fisheries, to develop a series on how anglers can identify opportunities to improve small lakes, and steps to take to turn an average lake into a bass fishing paradise. A complete video series will be published on bassmaster.com. This is the first part of many to appear in Bassmaster as we take this journey together. In the end, we hope to inspire you to not settle for unimpressive or average fishing, because you can do something about it.
