to continue my pre-thanksgiving comments:
have been catching one lb plus BG all winter; December, January, February, and now March; also have caught HSB from 16 inches to 23 inches; when one selects sunny day late afternoon on the windward side the nymphs catch the bass and bluegill...surprisingly the fish will surface and eat floating fish food! using 300 sized Aquamax which partly sinks and 400 which mostly floats...on the warmer days [50F range] the HSB will actively surface feed in the cold water. Now all I have read says fish are very slow and not active; well my current experience [video taped] says otherwise; the water temperatures ranged down to the mid-30ts...this March the water temperature is in the mid40ts...at 24 inches below surface; the secchi depths varied from 30-32 inches to 15-18 inches [dependent in part due to rain turbulence; the shoreline will have active mosquito fish and or small minnows; the pond is full of shiners up to 10 inches [the HSB cannot eat the large brooder shiners and the pallets and Xmas trees help the little ones grow to 'big bites' for the BG and HSB...this year the near 5lbs HSB may push 25 inches...darn it but they now look more like footballs, fat and round.
they are a blast to catch on a 2wt ten foot nymph rod, but only in the cold water as they blast out nearly every inch of the fly line before you can turn them around.
the plan is to harvest the smaller BG and green sunnies [slot 7--8.9"] and push the best BG over 1.5lbs; currently a few have tipped the scale at 1.25lbs...
has anyone is Midwest ponds feed fish in the winter [very light feeding only as much as they want]...
BTW discovered a mink at the pond this winter and research suggests a reason my bull frog population dropped from 4 dozen plus to maybe 4 or five...and the blue heron must have taken 'his' share too. I need a big hungry snapping turtle to balance nature.
