@ sinyo
I do believe , that the fish are just spooked by the lots of crankbaits ploughing through the water , .........that pond is just too small !
I think , that not many of those fish there would have a great chance to gain negative experience with lures , sooner or later they'd get caught and taken out(never heard of catch-and-release in such commercial ponds) , ....the owner must stock new fish , and these possibly would not know any lures , so the learning effect for the fish should be minor , I guess ?
This is also because the pond is THAT small ,..... the fish can't hide away , thus get caught quite fast(by FEW anglers only , that don't spook them) , .......on a bigger pond things might look different in terms of a learning effect , as the fish might get not caught and taken out so fast ?
We have quite a few of commercial trout ponds over here in Germany , lure ,-and flyfishing is only allowed in a few bigger ones , most owners only allow bait like trout paste , maggots , larvas , worms , dough and stuff like that .
But the trout there are also not that easy to catch , sometimes you'll be blank , sometimes you catch them by the dozen ,..... also they can be choosy on a certain kind of bait , which may vary from day to day .
But this behaviour has to do a lot with outside influences like temperature , wind , time of day , etc . and not with the amount of anglers at the bank , .......in my opinion:? !
For the owner of that pond you've mentioned it seems to be of double advantage , if anglers turn up in larger groups , ......he makes more money and same time keeps more fish in the pond:lol:
!
good luck , diemai:yay:
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