Nate Hermann said that most pondmeisters eventually come to realize that they'd actually rather watch the fish, especially at feeding times, than catch them.

That's been true in my own experience, but what about other PB Forum members?

I do enjoy watching the fish feed, but I look forward to entertaining friends, nieces and nephews with some catching of the fish, especially when the fish get some impressive size. Of course, I have only been pondmeistering a year or so.

I think making memories for them is more important to me than actually catching the fish myself. My grandparents always took me fishing as a kid and I really remember the times we laid into the fish real good...I plan on keeping up with, if not topping, those memories with the youngsters in my family. My granddaughter is not 1 year old yet, so I have got a lot of pondmeistering yet to do.

I also look forward to the first fish fry and I also love the fact that I can take a rod to the pond anytime I want and spent as much time or as little time fishing and/or catching without planning the trip, making a list, packing the truck, worrying about the weather, or putting things away after the return home. Now that I have catchable fish, albeit small, I have no reason to leave home so long as my wife continues to show her love with groceries! OH, I forgot, I still need to show up to work. I almost slipped into dreamland there for a moment.

I'm right there with you quarter. Having my pond right outside the front door has definitely made it convenient to just pick up a rod when I get to Jonesing too bad to catch a fish. That doesn't mean I'm gonna sell my boat any time soon tho!!

I've got my oldest grandson coming to visit the week of Thanksgiving and I'm really looking forward to introducing him to fishing. Neither of his parents are anglers, so hopefully he'll get hooked and drag them to the water so he can fish.

I like feeding time and I also like catching small fish and moving them to different ponds for management reasons. In the last week I have probably caught a couple hundred fish but very few of them over 6". Cleaning out some unwanted GSF, moving small SMB recruits to other ponds to grow out, etc.

I just like messing with the stuff.

An interesting thing happened today. I was putting some ag lime in small piles along the shore line for the wave action to eventually wash the lime into the pond. The lime washes out into the pond in a white cloud then the white on the shallow bottom makes the water appear very clear. I noticed very small 1" YOY BG and perhaps other fish really loved this newly created area. I'm sure these tiny fish are all along the shore line. But usually they blend in with the bottom color so they are not noticed. But with the white background of the lime the tiny fish really stood out and there were lots of them. Just kind of one of those weird things that happen when working around the pond that I enjoy.

We are going to have to catch a bunch of BG out this fall. Seems like they are becoming too much biomass. I like feeding them, but like catching and eating them too. Like having a "fish meat" garden.

This!

We are planning bluegill fish tacos on Saturday afternoon. I'm putting out my new clover leaf trap after work tonight.
Fishing with R&R on Saturday morning, plus any GSF that are in the trap.
I also really enjoy watching the fish feed.
I find it is even more enjoyable with an adult beverage.

Don't remember the last time I butchered one of my pets.

Multiple articles warn of this mindset and the end result that occurs.
I'm trying to find a happy medium with harvest vs biomass.

My pond is only .5 acres so bluegill can get crowded pretty quickly.
I'm about 1.5years in from the initial stocking so time will tell.

I agree that culling is sometimes needed. But have never had the need in my larger pond.

I do sometimes need to in my small pond. However, since stocking some cats, they seem to be handling the job pretty well.

BTW, that happy medium is reportedly good for about 15 minutes.

I'm waiting for electroshock survey to see if it is time to take fish out. Want to focus on skinny bass, I have a much more balanced CNBG population now than last year.

A classic pond mgt concept here for all to note.

Many years ago Prof Swingle proved that a method for assessing ponds was to watch the prey base to determine the status of the predators. For example if there are few 3 inch BG then the number of 10+- inch LMB is overcrowded. This is the base test principal for all electroshock and seine surveys.

So anthropic has identified what is seen in his pond - moving toward BG balance. I bet that the electro survey will show the LMB RW improving and the LMB structure more balanced. The trick then is to use the history of the steps taken and results and apply that going forward to get where he wants.

Nice work anthropic !!

Thanks, Eric. I didn't know that bit about lack of small BG correlating with stunted LMB, but it makes complete sense. Last fall, that was my BOW.

I've made so many mistakes that it's nice to get a few things right for a change! Four steps were liming, stocking 1.5 lb feed trained N LMB, fertilizing, and growth of chara & pondweed for small CNBG cover. (Okay, so I didn't have much to do with the last step, but at least I didn't do anything to screw it up.)

hard for me to take out fish now, as I love to watch their antics, especially when feeding. LMB sometimes will leap over each other in their eager pursuit of food! But that's almost certainly gonna be the next step, along with some habitat enhancement so my grandkids can catch fish away from the dock & feeder.

Mistakes! There has been a learning curve when speaking of me and my pond, that's for sure. Been feeding Bg soon to be four 4 yrs now. And after fishing for the bg around the feeders, the larger sized ones I see but almost never catch. Not sure if it is due to catch a release or because the smaller ones are quicker to the bait. I know I move slower than I once did, so maybe that's the case when attempting to catch the larger bg at the feeders. There are some bigger bg in there, I can see them most of the time. Now the HSB, until recently they almost never came to the feeders, I think it was due to the competition with the bg and there was a lot of Threadfins for the hsb to feed on. I added some new hsb this past spring and they do come to the feeders. Feeding them the Aquamax lmb feed and they will aggressively feed on that feed. And I added some Northern feed trained lmb this past spring. They are all in with the Aqua max lmb feed and feed right with the hsb when I hand feed. I have not ran a Wr/Rw analysis on the northern lmb since I added them 60+ days ago. I plan on doing that soon through catch and release. These are fin clipped fish and can be distinguished from the Floridia's that do not feed on the Aquamax lmb feed. I ran a Rw/Wr on two 17 and a 1/2" Floridia's in the last couple of days and they were both in the 100% range on the charts. I was pleased, and expected to see a little lower on the chart due to it being done in the hot summer month of mid August. That told me the Flordia's have the right sized forage they need with no overcrouding in the 3# sized lmb. I like the feeding but I also like the sampling using fishing tackle, for at least that sized lmb, not so sure when catching other sized floridia's. all three lmb caught were the same sized. I need more samples to look at and that is where the e fishing would give me more information.