First, let me give an update on the club pond.
Since this post, we have stocked in another 1000lbs of goldfish and 1000lbs of shiners. In addition, we stocked about 50 pure Florida strain adult bass in the late fall (4-8lbs)
We have culled out every bass caught under 2lbs (prob 100 fish by now – I am keeping a count but have not added it up in the notebook). Very few (less than 10) of those are “new” fish – most are the runts from the original stocking….so the spawn has been hit hard by the BG. We have also removed 4 fish for skin mounts for children (3 “first bass” that were 2-3lbers and one a little bigger). We still catch some smaller ones but I’d say we average 3 fish over 2lbs for every 1 under.
The feed trained bass have pretty much switched exclusively to live prey now….if we catch one that has pellets in his stomach it is usually a smaller “runt” from the original stocking.
The catch rates in the pond were VERY low in the spring. As the fish started bedding we got some big rains and the pond became very muddy for about a month. In addition, the large forage stocking we made in the fall (just before it turned cold) was mostly still in place and the bass just had so much to eat…they were hard to catch.
My 4 year old son caught a 6.25lber – this fish was the bigger one taken for a skin mount. That is the biggest fish to be caught yet...I saw her sitting on the bed before the water got muddy and after about 20 casts, she finally hit and had the drag on his Zebco singing.
As the water warmed and the bass hammered the goldfish into extinction (they are at least an endangered species now), the catch rates have picked up. The bass are now thinning down the CNBG. I am looking to work with Anderson to get on their truck route for forage so that we can stock less at a time to avoid hurting the catch rates so much. The pure Floridas are really on lock down and very hard to catch with artificial baits…they are obviously harder to catch by nature and they just have so much to eat.
The CNBG are doing well. The bass have hit the small ones hard and if not for the supplemental forage plans we would be approaching a gap in the food chain. The big males are loving the pellet and we have taken a few right at 15ozs (have not cracked the magic 1lb barrier yet – hopefully by fall).
The only problem I have right now is a filamentous algae outbreak. I am affiliated with another club with a much larger pond/lake (50 acres) on the SC coast and we have used tilapia for years with great success as forage and maintenance….but like a dummy I didn’t get any tilapia in this spring…so, I am living with that mistake…don’t plan to make it again.
That’s the highlights on the club pond.
