In fact, larger bass in heavily-fished waters may become almost completely nocturnal. Fly fishing after dark, however, can be a very difficult and frustrating experience. The only sure way to avoid educating bass, short of of not fishing at all, is to kill every fish you catch, but catch and eat allows very little fishing time, since the annual harvest should not exceed ten percent of the population. Even a very fertile pond can grow only a few pounds of bass to the surface acre, and no one wants to travel to his favorite bass pond to catch a single fish and go home. I hope that goal remains elusive, but aquaculturists are making progress.
Prevention is the best cure for educated bass.
Avoid constantly hammering your home pond with topwater flies, switching to other kinds of tackle and lures from time to time, and don't get greedy. A couple of hours a week is enough on a typical three-acre pond, and one doesn't need to release thirty bass to enjoy that two hours. Most of the problems we encounter in warmwater have already been solved on the trout stream and are readily adapted to our fisheries. John breaks the point off the hook and is content to merely experience the thrill of the rise. I am increasingly using this compromised angling style and find it nearly as enjoyable as actually landing the fish.