Then they learned by association. Sounds like another benefit of the trout!
Cecil, I think you could be right. At least for now, I've seen nothing but positive effects from the winter trout.
Tonight we had a short thunderstorm. Afterwards, the pond was extremely still, and the light was perfect to see well into the unusually clear water.
With about 15 inches of rain over the last six weeks, the pond had been over the emergency spillway from early April until about two days ago. It really seems have to flushed a lot of stuff out, including nutrients. The water is still pretty high, and up onto the lawn, which has turned into 12 inch weeds. Lots of polliwogs hiding in the grass.
Tonight when I fed, I saw numerous marauding schools of 5 to 6 LMB in the 5-7 inch category. For the first time, I also saw several bass up to about 10 inches that were taking pellets. Tonight the pellet eating bass were much more aggressive than they had been before. The marauding schools would slowly swim up to a batch of pellets, and then slam them really hard and fast. They'd swim a few feet away, and then repeat. The BG and CC were far more genteel.
LMB, BG, and CC spawning should start soon. The water went from the high 50s to the mid-70s in the last couple of days. I'm not seeing nests yet, but several really big bass are starting to guard certain areas. The female bluegill, and a couple of catfish I caught recently, look like balloons. They are definitely ready to lay eggs.
Tonight there was still one trout eating pellets, but his hours are numbered based on the water temperature.
We had a great holiday meal of beer-battered BG and crappie this afternoon.
Ken
Cecil -- sorry for hi-jacking the thread. How are the perch doing?
