Holy Cow! So sorry to take so long to post an update. The last six weeks have been a whirlwind of activity! I'll post some things tonight and then try to finish up in the morning, before Debbie awakes and is ready for coffee. Yes, I make her coffee. Don't tell anyone.
After the BassMaster's Classic, Debbie and I headed to the Texas Gulf Coast to the annual Texas Outdoor Writer's Association conference. We had a great time in those three days and Pond Boss came away with one first place, a second and a third. Not too bad....
Then, on March 4-6, I headed off to California to the Jordan Winery to electrofish their 14 acre lake. Met up with O.T. Quintero, a gentleman of a man, full of life and vigor. O.T. brought the big 18 foot Smith-Root electrofishing boat from Santa Cruz, California. He bought that boat in 2004 to use to collect and remove trash fish under contract with the state of California. My right hand man, Walter Bassano, has been communicating with O.T for months.
With John Jordan in the boat and property manager Tim Spence and his buddy Jay manning the nets, we spent several hours evaluating the status of their bass fishery.
Jordan Winery President John Jordan (center) is serious about managing their lakes. Property manager Tim Spence, (r) and their friend Jay, weighed and measured every fish we collected.
Afterward, I bought the boat from O.T.
That was an adventure. There were a few things which needed to be repaired, so O.T. pulled it back to his marina where the minor repairs were made. Then, my son, Ty, drove over from Phoenix, picked it up and pulled it to his home base. That was about 850 miles each way and he did it in two and a half days. As Ty trekked to Cali, Walter climbed in the manly Dodge and headed toward Phoenix. He met up with Ty and pulled it back to Texas. Lots of miles between Santa Cruz and Gordonville, Texas. But, they got it done. I'm pretty darn excited about this hi-tech piece of equipment.
Had to get home on Friday, March 6, because Debbie had us scheduled to attend a gala for our local school district. It was a blast...as far as a gala goes. We did have fun, hanging out with good friends.
Then, I hunkered down and focused on writing and editing May-June Pond Boss. It will be 80 pages this time...way more than I planned, but we have several new advertisers and I match each Nate Herman has a story...we have two reader stories and the best story yet on "relative weights" and how it applies to all of you. If you aren't a subscriber, now is the best time to get started. You can subscribe from the website or call the office at (800)687-6075.
During Spring Break week we spent time with kids and grandkids, but I headed off to Eagle's Nest Ranch for two days to catch up with their progress.
Then, Monday, March 23, I jetted off to Charlotte, where I got a rent car and drove about 50 miles north to meet up with Ryan Newman's ranch manager to consult about his ponds and lakes. If you are a NASCAR fan, you know who he is. If not, Ryan won the Daytona 500 in 2008.
From there, headed off to King Fisher Society to work on Richmond Mill Lake. The weather was dank, wet and windy, but we still spent some time on the lake, but much more time planning and working on a business model for quail hunting on the 2400 acre wildlife preserve. It's always interesting there in North Carolina.
Got home in time to celebrate my 54th birthday with grandson Ethan Backschies, who caught two catfish from our catfish pond. We cleaned, cooked and ate them that night. Great fun!
Son, Cameron (l) hams it up with his buddy Eric and my grandson Ethan. Cameron was home for two weeks leave from Iraq. He's in the Army, working security for supply convoys.
During March, I got my hands on some pretty cool pond toys. First, I got a Green Monster Fish Light. Looking at it right now as a matter of fact. It sits about six feet deep in the pond next to the house.
Ethan Lovelace inspects the Green Monster Fishing Light before he installs it into the pond.
Here's what it looks like under the cover of night
Also, we are now the proud owners of a TwinTroller, from Carolina Electric Boats. I'll tell you, that is the neatest pond boat I have ever seen. It costs about $2,500...and is a bargain at that price. I would strongly recommend you guys consider buying one. If you want one, drop me an email and I'll see about getting one for you. Look at the photo and you'll see. It's a two person boat, propelled by twin trolling motors mounted under the boat, with a metal cage protecting each motor. The person in front drives the boat with pedals. There's a left and right pedal and each one operates its respective motor. The boat will almost spin in a circle. What impressed me the most, though, is how stable it is. At 300+ pounds, I can stand on the side of it and it doesn't even come close to tipping over.
Debbie tools around in our new TwinTroller by Carolina Electric Boats. If you want one, let me know. It's the coolest pond boat I have ever seen, bar none.
We also have an Outdoor Water Solutions windmill aerator we're using to aerate three different small ponds at the top of our property. It's a neat product, too. OWS is working on some additional products for the windmill that will be exciting when they are ready to announce them.
Then, on April 1, I crawled out of bed at 5:00 a.m. and drove 2.5 hours to Weatherford, Texas for two hours of consulting at River Bluff Ranch. Then, I made it back home, hooked up the new boat and headed to Eagle's Nest and launched the new electrofishing boat on its maiden voyage. Ranch manager Jarrod Baum and I took it out about 6 p.m. and soon boated a bass that weighed 10 lb, 2 oz. Then, we got another one which weighed 7 lb, 4 oz. We had collected about 25 other, smaller bass and a variety of fish. Ranch owner Lee Roy Mitchell got there at 9 pm and we were back on the water by 9:30, under the lights. We electrofished until almost midnight and I was ready to hit the hay. We shocked up at least 1,000 fish and collected an array of fish to weigh and measure...which we did. We saw bass, black crappie (it's a 120 acre lake), redear sunfish, bluegill, gizzard shad, threadfin shad, redbreast sunfish and channel catfish up to ten pounds.
10 lb 2 oz bass
Redbreast sunfish
Gizzard shad...a big one.
We kept the crappie and put them in a circulating bait tank so Jarrod could fillet them for a fish fry the next night.
The next day, I headed over west of Tyler and electrofished two lakes for long time friend and client, Jodie Thompson. We did well there, too.
Look at the tail sticking out of this 7+ pound bass' mouth. It's a gizzard shad, about 10" worth.
Same fish, closer angle.
Here's a sample of the larger fish we collected at Jodie's place. That's Jodie on the left, Chad Fikes in the background and ranch manager Larry on the right.
A "black nose" black crappie, native to the Arkansas River, sold by a few hatcheries in Arkansas. Jodie has no idea how the fish got into his lake.
Spent the night at Eagle's Nest and then headed about three hours north, to meet up with Blake Anderson and Mike Otto...where I promptly got my truck stuck in the mud and Otto had a field day with his camera and the forum. Good boy, that Otto.
Then, Debbie and I attended a reception on Saturday for a youngster who is headed to the Navy.
We pulled out and headed east of Paris, Texas, where we launched the electrofishing boat on long time client Stan Graff's place. We had three electrofishing expeditions...starting at 6 pm and ending about 1:30 in the morning.
We shocked up a 40ish pound grass carp, along with a good number of nice bass and black crappie.
Back up at 7 and did it again, after we helped a poor soul pull out his sunken boat. Seems those boys didn't pay attention to a loose plug in the boat. Between seepage and big winds that day and night, the boat was pretty much sunk, but we got it out.
Pay attention to the plugs, ya'll.
Then, on Monday, Walter and I drove east of Little Rock, where we spent several hours electrofishing a 70 acre lake for a client from Arkansas. That was a long day, too...about 12 hours of driving, 350 miles each way and four hours on the lake.
I'm tired.
Then, caught a plane Tuesday, arrived Nashville, Tennessee, rented a car and drove two hours north to Kentucky Lake at the invitation of Glenn May, proprietor of
http://www.bassresource.com. I gave the keynote address at their dinner meeting Wednesday night. Got home yesterday and spent most of today writing reports for all those electrofishing surveys we crammed into a short period.
I'm pooped. Going to bed.
I shot this photo at 6 pm tonight. I think this is an osprey. It landed in a dead tree in the swimming pond next to LL,2.
