Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Should have known better than to leave the farm...

Tried posting on a few local fishing forums that appeared to lack the pond/fishery management angle. So, I thought I could provide some useful information make some new contacts locally. Initially guys were friendly enough, but soon made the following observations:

Rules governing dialogue/engagement pretty lax - guys routinely insult and challenge one another needlessly about minor differences of opinion.

100% focused on fishing and harvest - seemingly with little to no interest on the effort required to sustain or science involved in creating/managing the fisheries. I thought there would be a degree of interest learning about where the fish they catch come from, and how they can be managed to become trophies.

One of my biggest issues was the general consensus that trophy fish taken from smaller, managed fisheries - [ie: our ponds!] is like fishing in a barrel, and often referred the them as less worthy fish.

As you'd guess, whenever I challenged the forum's general sentiment regarding a topic with empirical data or science, I was largely ignored/dismissed. Here's a direct quote from one the brightest "over there":

"Keep that trophy in a can to yourself. I like working for the few master anglers I catch. You know what comes with that hard work? Pride!"

Typically I find ignorance laughable, but apparently this bothered me enough to post. Try to respect the opinions of others, but when it's based on zero experience or science, it's hard not to become frustrated.

Guess this just underscores how grateful I am for our Pond Boss forum...gotta be mindful of my audience in the future. It can be nutso out there!