Okay, gang, here is the thread where we will post our record breaking fish pics and regale the others with our tales of angling mastery! In other words, this is where you need to post pics of your small ugly fish that you accidentally foul hooked while reeling in the lure you chose to use!

Remember that the first fish you catch, regardless of lure choice, is the main focus of the pic and story. You are welcome to also post pics and stories of other fish you catch with the lures while you have them, but we really want to see that first fish that we all nail when it's our turn!

Let's have some fun and let's get more folks signed up!

Well it's about 2 PM EST and I'm just killing time until I venture down to the pond with these great looking lures.
In honor of George, I'm going to start with that beauty that he included - hope I catch a HSB. The weather is great
and the seas are choppie...

Oh, the anticipation is killing me.

It's 8PM back there, what the heck is he doing?????

I was hoping to log on and find some great fish story!!!

I hope he's catching!!

The seas were rough and angry my friends, kind of like the lady that loses her marble rye to some young thug.
I went to the dock and choose George's home-made beauty as the first offering. I got a hit or two on the first
couple of casts and then on the third a rainbow nailed it. The drag was singing like Gordon Godfried and this guy
put up a great fight. When I wrestled him onto the dock he measured a nice 18" - biggest RB I've ever caught!
I was so pleased that I had him for dinner.

I mentioned the "sissy swivel thingie", well look what happen right after I got my RB on the dock.
The swivel opened and the RB was loose on the dock with the lure in his mouth - my whole life flashed before my eyes!!

After me and RB confirmed dinner plans, I tried Paul's lure. I got a couple of hits but didn't catch anything.
It has fantastic action and should be great for bass. I caught trout about the same size as the one above on
Bruce's jig, and with the silver spoon (also a 10" bass).
All in all a lot of fun. Wish the pictures were better, but I was by myself and trying to be careful.
I'll send the box to Eric in MS tomorrow
Good luck to all.
Randy

Way to go Randy!!!

Fantastic story. What a great start!

I just finished having a dinner of one of my trout.

I would wager that yours will be far tastier and fulfilling than mine.

Thanks for the photos and posting.

Ken

What a start!!!!!

Very nice start! This will be a fun ride!

That's a pretty bow! Crazy how much they bleed from a simply mouth hooking...

You all need to keep a running list of the species caught and the sizes for each lure.

Great job setting the bar with both good fish and good story!

Nice work Randy...I take back all the taunting I was doing behind your back that we were going to start things off with a resounding thud. Beautiful Bow - you HAVE set the bar high! Pressure is on...

You mean you FED them before fishin? I call foul. You've gotta go back tomorrow and try the Norwegian spoon again to see if a striper hits it. I'm in line after Eric. Cant get to the pond before at least 8-10 days.

That is one nice trout! Bet it was good. How'd you cook it?
I thought that was a yankee fish.

Great story Randy.

Can you at least get a photo of you holding the lure box before you mail it?

I'd like to get photos of folks holding the fish they catch whenever possible.

Nice so a good sized Rainbow Trout is the first catch, good job Randy!

Wow - I hate to follow Randy. No trout here to catch.

That's just 'cause Randy beat the crap out of the fish as it was trying to get away with the lure! We just got a little glimpse of why he's considered the real pond boss at his place!

Hey guys, let me add a little to my post. Even though Burger accused me of "chumming", I had not feed the fish in 6 hours.
They eat all the time and the one that I caught was full of undigested pellets and a rock - what's up with that?? See picture below.
I think that I misidentified some of the lures, so let me try to straighten that out: Jeff, please correct me if I am wrong...

*Crome spoon with red dots, caught 17-18" trout. This is a great lure. It's heavy, with good action. Very nice looking and probably expensive.
*George's jig. Caught the trout pictured with this one. It is an awesome lure, and will probably catch someone a huge HSB.
*Broken-back "Rapala-like". This is the one that I didn't catch anything with - got some hits but couldn't hook 'em. It has great action and you Bass guys will do well with this.
*Bruce's pink jig. Caught another 18" trout with this. Are you suppose to put something else on that hook? I didn't, and caught the trout on the first "flip".
*I didn't use the roostertail, because that's what I use 82.5% of the time, and I promised my fish something "new and exciting".
*The rock in the trout's stomach.
*And the "swivel thingie" - use with caution!!!

Todd, not only that, but I verbally abused him to tears!!!

awesome report, real nice trout randy, congrats.

the swivel thingy was mostly provided for use with the jointed rap. i have never had one fail even on some very large fish, but if anybody is skeptical about them, just tie the lures direct and dont use it..

cool you caught a fish w/ bruce's jig. you typically put stuff on a jig head, but you have proven it'l even catch fish naked. if fish dont hit it naked, you can put anything on it including soft plastics, worms, power bait, gulp minnows or grubs, use yer imagination.


surprised you didnt get a trout to commit on the jointed rap. if you get hit, try letting the rod load up before setting the hook. i've caught smb, lmb, and all sizes of trout from dinks to 6 pounds on that style lure. the last time it was used DWIED got a 3+ pound lmb out of jhaps pond.

good luck to whoever gets them next!

Eric, the box is on it's way.
"expected delivery date Friday"
Confirm # 0310 0480 0003 3497 2826
Good luck...

YAHOO, great story and feedback Randy.

You actually found a rock in your trout's stomach?

What did you do with the rock? (This has got my wheels turning).

I'm glad you asked. I sent it along to Eric to use as a paperweight.

not uncommon to find rocks in trout bellies cause its not uncommon for trout to forage in rocky or sandy areas for snails and larvae. i agree though- it seems strange to visualize trout as a "bottom feeder", but they can be.

Was the quarter in the trout's stomach also?

"Was the quarter in the trout's stomach also?" - Sunil
I wish! Another source of income would be sweet....

Hatchery trout love eating rocks... Why? Maybe because they are used to eating brown pellets and brown rocks look similar. I have never caught a wild born trout with a rock in its stomach. Then again, I have only kept a handful of wild trout for the table...

Word!

Photobucket is blocked where I work, so I can't see most of the photos that are posted.

When I read one of Randy's posts at lunch time I was having difficulty visualizing the "broke-back Rapala."

Pictures sure clear things up.

Hmmmm, this rock could end up being a prized possession.

I think it's Jimmy Hoffa's gall-stone.

Never know, could be the jewel in the trinket box.

I think others should also include anomalies with their experience with the TL Show. I think it would be a plus.

Great start Randy!

I think Andy needs to be on the rotation. Probably tie things up a bit longer, but not much.

I'd love to have Andy in the rotation and I'm sure that we could accommodate the shipping time.

I think that with a lot of the pond owners that live on the property, a day will be enough. We should be able to bank enough time to accomidate shipping the lures across the big pond. The big question is how do they get labeled so they aren't held up in customs for a long while (on both ends)?

I looked on the USPS website and it doesn't LOOK like it would be bad at all. All the forms are there to download. My slot will only allow me to fish the magic lures 1 weekend so we'd pick up a week there but I'm not sure how we would do the banking thing with the extra time. Any ideas? Andy should be in the loop

I agree that Andy should be involved. After all, the Viking Rules are very important.

I'd be glad to cover the costs for shipping to him. I'd paypal it to the sender. Might just have to factor in an extra 1-2 weeks for the process.

Let's find out when is his ice out, if any.

I'll be happy to chip in on the cost. I think it's only about $15 but no matter, I'll be happy to help.

As you well should have! Nicely done! Just don't let PETA get hold of this thread or you'll be sunk!

I will also add some pond trinket.

Here is report 2 for the traveling lure show. Only had limited time (moving 6 tons of lime from where lime truck got stuck and dumped its load to get out) to fish. Twenty mins in each of 2 lakes. Only used one lure Rapala minnow before my weekend was up. Who is next Todd ?

Lake 1

Caught several LMB like this one. 2 Lbs and 16 inches.






Lake 2

The CNBG were constantly biting the lure. Caught about 5 this size. 2 LMB like this one.

Eric, those bass look good. The lure you caught those on was the one that I couldn't catch anything on.

The one you could or could not catch anything on, rmedgar?

I glad we're off to a good start. My main pond has only had fish in it for 6 months now so I'm not sure how good I'll do but so far, the results are excellent!!

Good job, Eric! Hey, you better feed those bluegill. Their eyes are bigger than their mouth. Keep the lures for another day or 2 if you want. I cant get over there til at least Wed., maybe later. I dont want them to sit in the mailbox. Nobody there now. If you send them to Houston, I may be gone by the time they arrive.

fixed.

Great job Erick!

Next up is Burger.

Randy, mabro, it wasn't screaming!

eric your bass look really good what is the wr on those?

nice eric, too bad ya didnt have more time to embellish yer adventure w/ the lures.

also nice to see the jointed rap get some for you, i really love that lure.

James those LMB were about 100 RW.

DIED my understanding was to only keep the lures for 1 weekend.

Hey, Eric and everyone else, sorry for being absent from the site for at least a week. This has been a crazy one. Ken/Catmandoo just told me that the site had been changed this week so I wanted to jump on and take a quick look. Of course, this is the first thread I'm checking! Great fish, Eric!

Remember that we each have the lures for a 10 day time slot which allows one complete weekend for everyone. While you do need to get the lures shipped by probably day 8 or 9 so they get to the next person in time, there is absolutely no limit to how much you use them or how many fish you catch while it's your time slot, so please don't feel pressured to send the lures on immediately after your first fish, gang! Have some fun with them as that's the real point of this event!

Eric, looks like you figured out that Burger is next, so whenever you're ready, ship away! I've got a ton of catching up to do, so looks like this rainy weekend forecast was made for me and the laptop! Gotta run - catch y'all later!

Sent to Burger yesterday.

Boy, wish I got in on this...I just fished the Everglades with a buddy and we caught 112 bass from 5AM to 1:30 pm....I would have loved to add photos of that on here. Maybe next time.

Get in on it now, Cary. Check out the calendar on the next sticky thread down and shoot me a direct email (it's in that thread) with the dates you want. We have plenty of space left, so don't be bashful!

Todd,

Just sent you a PM...

Best fishes!

Hey, Cary, just replied to you. Sorry I didn't get to you sooner, but the kids and I just spent the past 4 - 5 hours at the farm while my wife went grocery shopping. We definitely got the better deal - ATV, tractor, hiking, a little fishing . . . yeah, we won out on that one. Plus the fridge was full when we got home!

Where is the mailing list? Will be finished today for shipment Tues. Have used the spoon and rooster tail so far. Will try a single hook lure today.

Will try and catch a fish wearing a pink cowboy hat.

Can I play?

Burger:

What I did was see who was before me on the list (calender) and sent them my mailing address.

Bruce, take a look at the calender and see if an open time slot fits your schedule, or try and buddy up with someone in your area that's already on the list.

Here's the calendar
http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthread...true#Post212635

I could buddy-up with Teejaeh.

I think I'm getting the tackle sometime in June?

Burger - any pics ? I know you have some fat fish.

Wow we are running way ahead of schedule.

DIED and I are next on the list however the lures will just sit until I'm up at the property during the originally scheduled dates (5/16/10 - 5/25/10).

We might be able to squeeze in an additional person but Todd is keeping track of this so I'll leave it up to him.

Burger depending upon Todd's input, I'd like you to send the lures directly to DIED, you can PM him for his address.

I'd love to have you involved in this Bruce. Get on the calendar separately or double up with someone.

There are still lots of openings plus we are running ahead of schedule!

Hey, Burger, DIED & JHAP get the box next, so you'll need to coordinate with one of them. I'm sending a PM to all of you right now.

Thanks for prompting me on this!

Absolutely, Bruce! Send me an email from my message on the Traveling Lure Calendar thread with the week you'd like to jump in on the rotation and I'll set you up! We'd love to have you in on this event!

Well, you guys are way ahead of me on this! Sounds like the mailing is being coordinated, so y'all can ignore my PM. You've also steered Bruce in the right direction. You guys are making this easy for me!

jhap, if yer not gonna be here til 5/16, i think squeezing in another person is a good idea.

todd, check the calendar and see what might work.

any pics burger?

If it can work and someone wants the slot, great. If no one steps up, though, we'll just have a little hiatus.

Pics coming if I can find a cable for the camera. It's a little embarrassing. I have supposedly a brim pond, and all I catch is those green spotted things with the big mouth. Fishing shallows with rooster, I got 2 pretty good momma wannabe BG; after the 1st one, I hooked a little dink, 4 or 5 inches, then the rod does a deep bend and drag singing. 5 or 6 seconds and it was all over. She got supper and I got a deformed rooster tail. Didnt notice at first. The retrieve just didnt seem right. Looked close and the shaft was bent. Straightened it and caught another carbon copy of the 1st female BG. Nothing to write home about, 12-13 oz. and partially full of eggs. The 1st fish I caught was a sorta skinny green carp on the Norwegian spoon. about 16 in. and I think 1# 6 oz. Just what I want to get out, female BG and skinny bass.

Hated to, but fished near the feeder today. Turned off the feeder Saturday. Looking for some male BG. Dang bass again, only fat, pellet gobblers on Bruce's cute lil pink jighead tipped with a watermelon flake twister and largest bass tipped with a 4 inch rubber worm. All caught just before picking it up from off the pier. Even hooked up,directly this time, with another green carp on the rooster tail.

1st fish caught on the spoon. This lure has great side to side action. I fished where I didnt expect to catch much, off the dam. I knew most fish were hanging around the feeder. This guy just never caught on. Now is only a memory.

one of 2 female BG caught on rooster tail. Besides the one that got inhaled by the bass.

1st of 3 bass caught off pier in rapid succession. this one on Bruce's jig with twister.

the largest caught. Bruce jig and small rubber worm. 3#. That's not the piece of worm lieing there. It was a red 4" rubber one. I just noticed the tail beaten up. Pretty stocky for a male.

this one caught on a rooster tail, 2# 10 oz.

These lmb stocked 2 yrs. ago this August.

Those are some good looking fish! What jumps out at me is the difference in condition of the LMB caught near the feeder vs. away from the feeder. That BG is a pig!!

How big is the pond?

Those fish look good. Any chance the LMB off the dam had spawned out ?

Great looking fish,BM. That BG is a fattie!
Did you have any luck with George's jig?

Wow - nice work Burger. You guys are certainly setting the bar high. I may have to resort to Randy's tactic of seining then inserting the lure into the fishes mouth for the photo.

Way to go Burger.

Is that the first fish caught on the "Viking Spoon?"

burger, beautiful quality fish.....that female BG is a little piggy, and the green carp look fat and happy.....thanks for sharing the pics!

i take it you didnt try the jointed rap yet?

i cant wait to try the viking spoon.

The pond is about 3/4 acre. The 1st fish caught was on the spoon, and yes, Eric, spawned out, but still body a little small for the length. DIED, I tried the rap a little while this AM. but strong North wind. Everything was deep I presume. That rap has more action than Woody Allen in a powder blue leisure suit.
My fish have never seen anything like that. We dont feed our bass with young trout like they do in Cali. Will try again this evening in shallows. Haven't tried George's. Hate to mess it up. Sure wanna see where the hsb are, though.

It is a pleasure to get to use them for a while. I hate that Eric and Randy gave them up so soon. Maybe they can get them again. If anyone wants them, I have a new mailing box and ready to ship.

Bruce? Cary? anyone. Really a nice assortment of lures. I will add a little surprise to the box. Nothing fancy, just to go after the small stuff that I have.

I agree that we've gotten way ahead of schedule, which isn't necessarily a good thing. The idea is to have everyone enjoy the lures as much as they want/can during their time frame. As a result of quickly moving them through the schedule, we actually have roughly a couple of weeks available right now, so definitely if anyone wants to jump in here, there's plenty of time for one insertion between Burger and the DIED/JHAP time slot on the schedule.

If anyone wants in, let me know. Otherwise, Burger gets 'em for a good long time!

I had no choice after the chumming, shock boat, draining the lake and dynamite didn't work!!

yes it sure does, they are great lures, work them slow or fast, or let'em sit then give a twitch.....bass cant stand them!

DIED, I got one on the broke back; same scenario as before. Nothing stirring around the edges due to Norther, I guess. Had to go to the pier. Casted to deep water and retrieved several times. Was giving up and about to lift it out of the water and another 3 lber nailed it. Identical to the one caught on Bruce's pinkie. No photo, but did get this one more female. What is amazing; full moon in late Apr. deep south and not a sign of eggs. Cleanest fish I have ever filleted. Not a sign of blood or goop. Just pellets encased in, well, fat I guess.





a little plug for Stubby Steve's

Enough of me. I'm getting stage fright. Neeext!

The Fellowship lures were sent toward Cali. yesterday to DIED and JHAP for some greenie action. Looking forward to some photos of the beautiful area. Caught something on all but George's roadrunner. Couldn't run it slow and deep due to some held over FA. Here's some photos of my mud hole. Not much to look at, but at 2 yrs. after stocking, now keeping us in frest fish. Mainly for grandkid intertainment. Some are coming from Nashville on Memorial day weekend. Absentee, so never get to do all that is intended. Hope to get here permanently in the next couple of years.

Great job Burger!

i got the box with the nice extras inside. it awaits jhaps arrival i think we're shooting for the weekend of 5/22.

i also had a nice chat w/ stacy today and ordered a bag of stubby steves so we'll have some replacement ammunition.

That's Cheating! How Low will you go!

Here I am following this, excited for the whole process, keeping my fingers shut, and then, WHAM!

I threw in a couple of 1/32 oz. jigheads and 5 or 6 SS pellets for folks like me that have mainly BG ponds. Most of the lures are for larger fish. I was gonna throw in a coupla catalpa worms to cut up and tip them with, but wasn't sure how long they would hold up in the mail.

Well in a ironic twist of fate I'm going to miss the lures while they are up north. DIED is going to fish them and send them on their way. I'm going to re-sign up for later in the year.

What the heck????????

Do I need to send DIED my mailing addy?

sympathy pains.........i wrenched my back whacking thistle yesterday jhap.....but not so bad as to keep me from fishing the lures this weekend. gonna miss ya bro....... (for those that dont know, jhap's back is fried at the moment)

esshup, yeah, please send me a pm. i'm shooting to mail them out monday.

As DIED said I've managed to mess up my back and had to postpone my trip. It appears as though an excess jumping to conclusions and pushing my luck was more strain that my back could take.

Sorry to hear that, JHAP. But, OTOH, we get to see 2 sessions filled with greenies.

Get well soon.

bumping this thread.

DWIED and I fished the lures today.

got lots of pics

got esshup's info, will ship out lures tomorrow a.m.

anybody wanna guess what we caught?

GSF?? DWIED didn't catch DIED, did she?

She caught him years ago!

And I suspect you're right on about the GSF!

We like photos so we can guess.

my 1st guess? guess.

GSF , BG and RES.

Burger where did your photos go?

DIED, can't wait to see the photos!

I thought that somehow someone could get the co-ordinates of my pond from photobucket. No, I'm not paranoid, but, you can never be too careful.

traveling fellowship lures have been slimed

DWIED and I had fun doing this despite the absence of our good friends JHAP and JWHAP…we missed you guys, I’m thinking this report would have been very different. What you get here is a brief recap followed by pics, which tell the story better than I can. We used all but two of the lures, george’s roadrunner and bruce’s wiper magic jig……..which we’d have definitely used at JHAPs pond. All lures used - except one - caught fish. That Viking spoon is awesome, I gotta get me one of those for trout fishin, but it was a bit heavy for my puddle and the dinks within….no one would commit to it.

We’ve had a late, cold, and fairly wet spring so the pond is still near full pool, the water quality is excellent, and the wildflowers are still going. this time last year the pond was down a good 3 feet or more and the landscape a dead golden brown. Our traveling lure fellowship helped me to briefly survey the pond and whats goin on…....my first quality time on the pond this year. all the fish appear happy and fat, but man do I have a lot of little fish. We soon quit counting after about 10 fish…my guess is we looked at 50+ fish over a couple hours. My biggest greenies, BG, and RES (if there are any left) played the trophy card……..hard to get……none caught……but since we didn’t start until the crack of noon, and fished through arguably the worst part of the day, I am not too surprised. At one point tho I caught 6 fish in 6 casts, which led to 10 fish in 15 casts before I quit counting that…..so couldn’t complain about the action. I usually fish my pond w/ a sissy stick and baited fly, but it was a hoot dragging that jointed rap away from the weed line and getting slammed by BG and GSF. In the end, survey shows the pond is still a fishin hole but needs some human intervention.

as i did a preview of this post, its clear i got too many pics. the first ten show, the rest are links. i'll post this anyways, then break out and show the linked pics in a few more posts. if the mods want to delete those feel free, i dont want to hog all of the site's bandwidth.

Sit back, scroll through, enjoy the amateur photography with some scenery and lil (but purdy) fish pics.





















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since randy added the southern rock, burger added the two nice small jigs and stubby steves, I was obligated, so in went a packet of replacement stubby steves (thank you stacy) and a nice little quartz crystal dug out of a quartz vein now buried beneath 8 ft of pond water. ….significance?......none really, I just like finding quartz crystals and there wont be any more from where this came from………..enjoy the el dorado trinket and cheers.

Good luck esshup, looking forward to hearing about yer adventure.

Do you have ANY bass in that pond, DIED????

mortimer put ONE in a couple years ago. its either dead or a really big elusive pig.

as beautiful as that pond looks now, it drys up so much every summer it could never sustain much of a bass population. i'll be culling this yer and possibly adding a handful of female lmb and see where that goes.

The wildflowers are looking beautiful, DIED. Glad the little jigs came in handy. Even with it getting really low, a few bass will def. thrive. All that will happen is with less water, the lil dinks will get eaten and allow those older greenies get even larger. What percentage of water do you think you lose? Do you have any pics of the lowest times?

thanks burger. they really liked the chartreuse one.

for a couple years anyways i was successfully using the summer drawdown to help my big greenies get bigger, but now there are too many. the pond is ~0.9 acre when full, loses 6 to 8 vertical feet every year and probably goes down to around .5 to .6 acre so i lose at least 50% probably closer to 75%. it used to dry up all the way til i "fixed" it. this is a tough place to keep water.

Great pics DIED !!! Lots of GSF , some BG and some others (?). Like the new boat and the flowers. Can you seine part of the pond ? That would be a hoot to see the results.

DIED, that place looks beautiful with the flowers! I wish that I could grow California Poppies here, but I don't think they like the winters.

Methinks we'll be needing a bigger box pretty soon!

This stop for the travelling lures will be a twofer. FCM67693 and I will tag team them.

eric, yeah it could be seined, but it wouldnt be easy (steep topography). maybe real late in the season when the water is at its lowest. jhap and i have talked about it. definitely something to consider if the timing works out this year.

i havent seen a redear in three years. and i havent seen any evidence of hybridazation. i think all those fish were true offspring of original GSF and BG stock. i think there are still some mommy and daddy fish, but like most large "for the species" fish, they aint easy to catch any more.

the boat did good (thanks pondfrog) a little battered and bruised but seaworthy.

and thanks esshup, it is nice here this time of year.

there is still quite a bit room in that box as long as what is added is small.

Just awesome photos DIED, never seen your place all flowery before, just beautiful. Maybe we can get together and finish leak repairs on Jeanie. I'll give you the rest of the Barney Purple paint. Maybe help you cull the extra thousands of stunted GSF. I have a couple of customers up your way I am visiting at least monthly. Maybe glass of fine wine, port and a cigar and I'll be in Frog heaven. I have a pretty good leak test for Jeanie so just let me know.

latex repair patch?

nothing worse than a leaky jeanie...

thanks PF. it'l be dead golden brown soon and for rest of summer as you well know.

you know jeanie actually did great, took on very little water w/ both of us in the boat over about 3 hours.....not much more than a beer can or so.

and yes, i could use yer help to rid some numbers. the surviving BG are doing good...just want to concentrate on culling all small GSF. jhap wants and needs some, the ranch pond below me could use some, and you are welcome to some to, we'll talk about a good time for you to come back up w/ transport equipment ready to fill.

What's the biggest and smallest fish that have been caught on the lures so far? FCM67693 and I fished my pond today and might have both ends of the record.....

Not sure as no one has posted weights or lengths, I think. Enough with the suspense, already! Just give us the straight scoop!

The lures arrived from Ca in fine shape a few days ago. Since FCM67693 and I are going to tag-team the ponds, I thought it would only be fair to wait until he could come over and fish my pond together. He swung by about an hour before dark with his daughter and son. I thought we'd have a tough time fishing the pond with the really warm water temps. Surface temps is 83°. There are virtually no fish taking any fish food. I was right, the fishing was slow.

We opened the magic box and selected our weapons. I thought that the spoon from Sweden hadn't been christened yet, so that's what I started with.

It was a good choice. It'll cast a country mile without even trying, and because of the weight, it seemed to get down to the cooler water where the trout were hanging out. It has really good action, and you can tell immediately if a piece of FA is on the hook, killing the nice side-to-side wobble. I probably missed 5 or 6 strikes, before I hung one for good. It put up a pretty good fight, even clearing the water a time or 2. It's the new pond record for a RBT.


18" long, 3.20#

I kept at it, and could feel trout taking swipes at the lure, but only one more was hungry enough to inhale it, and boy, did it suck it down! I ended up going thru the gill flap to undo the hook. That trout was slightly smaller than the first one.

Here's FCM67693 first fish, a small male LMB.


The males are guarding schools of LMB fry, I'm guessing the females are fattening up in deeper water. The BG and RES are on the beds, but a few are still cruising around in deeper water. Here's his daughter with her first fish.


Here's the smallest fish of the day, caught on the rooster tail in the pic:




The kids had fun, but the sun set all too quickly, so we had to hurry and take a quick run to the lake house. I had wet a line earlier and had a few 7" or so Male BG, a Female BG about 6" and a 6"-7" Female RES in a holding pen that were going with FCM67693 to their new home at his pond.

Tomorrow we'll meet at his pond and see what the lures can do there.

Great report Scott!

What a blast! The hospitality was even better than the fishing. The kids had a great time. Looks like trout are going to be in the works for next year. Those things must be eating machines to get that big that fast.

Looking forward to giving the lures a go at my place tonight.

I really hope I can redeem myself. I don't want the distinction of having caught the smallest fish

Great job on the recap Scott. See you tonight.

Yeah, but what's done is done! Even if you catch a larger one tonight, the smaller one will always be there, hanging around your neck. Unless someone catches one smaller, that is!

If you take a look at my post, I never said WHO caught the smallest one! The cat's outta the bag now!!

i think i can take the heat off both of you......



great story esshup and NICE BOW!!

good luck on the next go-round.....

A correction is needed the lure is from NORWAY not! from Sweden.
This is like saying something made in the USA is from Mexico.

and i love that lure paul.......hope you dont mind me calling it the VIKING SPOON

No I don't mind, it's a good nick.
I just had to correct the origin, specialy since Sweden got the credit.
We Scandinavian love each other, but when it comes to competision, its more important to beat each other, than winning.

It's a friendly but werry importante war, that we(scandinavians) are raised to participate in.

great, i use the term w/ the utmost respect.

i also understand yer situation. its much the same as northern CA VS. southern CA......although i wouldnt say us northern californians particularly love southern californians (no offense mikey boy)

Paul, my apologies!!! I thought I read Sweden stamped in the lure. That's what I get for trying to remember and not double checking my facts.

We had a blast fishing this evening, and I think I came out even better because I got dinner out of the deal as well!

We caught fish on all the lures except the Viking Spoon, although I had a LMB on it all the way to the bank, I didn't get to touch it before it was released back into the pond. Mike will furnish the update tomorrow.

OK. Sorry it is already afternoon, but we had baseball this morning.

So here is the detailed report of round 2 of our Traveling Lure outing. Scott came by for an evening of fishing and ralaxing. What a perfect day it was.

A buddy of my son's came over for some fishing and archery practice. He struck first. This was Max's very first cast with the jointed minnow. LMB about 12 1/2 inches.




This was his second cast with the Rooster Tail.



Another LMB caught witht the jointed minnow.



Scott and I got in on the action too.







Scott, you got the HSB on the jointed minnow. Right?

We also caught some more LMB and HSB. Scott showed me some of the flies Georg tied. NICE GEORGE! Some hungry LMB were fooled by those works of art.

We got so worn out from catching fish that we took a break to grill some dogs and brats. It was a great evening.

One more pic. Scott, here is the rooster pheasant that has been visiting the pond for a drink that I was telling you about. Caught him sneeking in when we got back home from the ball park. Kinda hard to see him, but he is dead center of the picture.



This has really been fun. I can't wait to see the lures travel the remainder of the summer.

Mike

Fantastic! Dang this is just too much fun.

Yep, the HSB came on the jointed Rapala. I really had a blast. It's more fun watching the kids catch fish than catching them myself. Get some structure in your pond and it'll be done. That will be a nice fishery in a few years!!

These cooler nights helped the trout. They were hitting the pellets pretty good at the 11:00 feeding today, and more BG/RES are on the beds in the pond.

That's a nice rooster. It looks like he's checking out the orange "sabre".

I just saw some Sago popping up in my pond. About half of what there was last year, and a LOT less than what's in your pond. My pond water dropped about 2" since you were there. The pump is running now, but the water level is really dropping in the woods too. I don't think I'll be able to pump surface water into the pond past this weekend, it'll be back to the well.

Found the beds Scott. On the east side by the cattails. Big male BG and big RES. I am happy to see the RES. I really like having them in there. If I can sneak over there I'll try to get a couple pics of them.

I know you like pics so here are a few more.

LMB guarding the nest. You caught this one yesterday Scott.



RES on the beds. Third picture down you can see one flaring its gills to defend its nest.









BG on the bed in the middle with a RES to the right.



Here a a few shots of the pond. I always wonder what the wide shot looks like when you guys post, and realized that there really weren't any in the pics we shot yesterday. So here you go. The beds are over in front of those cattails.

Great pictures and stories, Keep 'em coming...

for some reason not all the photos are showing up for me, but I see some outstanding pond management results.

+1 burger on the pond mgmt results.....thats a great looking place fcm. love the RES bedding pics.

p.s. all pics seem to show ok for me.

So the lures arrived today! And even better, Scott didn't have time to put a snake in the box for me! Woohoo!

After what turned out to be a longer day than I had planned on it being, we loaded up and headed to the farm around 5:30 with plans to hang out for awhile. While Tammy took our girls for a 4 wheeler ride, AJ and I went to the pond and got geared up for a little fishing adventure before we started mowing. Camera, tape measure, scale, and Stubby Steve's on my Shakespeare UL spinning rig with 6 pound test on it. I tossed in a handful of the new feed I've been using and this was the result:



Like someone mentioned the other day here on the forum, it never gets old watching fish feed like this. As we all walked up to our building to get stuff out, we could see literally dozens of BG swimming over to the feeding spot from all different directions - very cool!

Anyway, I tossed in a SS lure for several minutes, but got no love at all. I may need to go with a smaller hook as the pellet was sinking immediately, though I would have thought the fish would hit it even then. So, time for a change in tactics.

I tied on the Viking Spoon and went for different prey, but the weeds are prevalent enough right now and the spoon is heavy enough that I just couldn't keep it out of them and ended up snagging weeds on almost every cast. I gotta say, though, that the action on that thing is awesome as I could see it on a couple of occasions that I managed to get a weed-free retrieve! So, plan C, grab the brokeback Rappala (I know that's the not the name, but I just can't remember what the heck it's called and I'm not taking the time right now to look it up!) and tied it on. As soon as it hit the water, I nailed a dink LMB that went 9 inches and .5 oz, but as I was tossing him back, my son said, "Daddy! You forgot to put it on Pond Boss!" I realized the camera had been overlooked! Not to worry, though, as just two casts later, I caught that fish's identical twin! Same exact dimensions, and this time AJ reminded me as I was unhooking it that I needed to put it on Pond Boss! So, in honor of his helping me remember, here is fish #2 (who could pass exactly for fish #1):



I tossed him back and perhaps 5 or 6 casts later, had a very different feeling strike and fight on my hands. After a few moments, I reeled in this bad boy:



I'm not sure if it's a male or female, but he/she measured in at 8 inches and 9 oz. We have caught a lot of BG this size, with our biggest going 10 inches. Didn't get a weight on that one, though.

So, Day 1 with the lures was a fun time with modest success. However, we have some time to go with them and will probably take another stab tomorrow with the whole family getting in on the action.

The biggest nerve wracking excitement of the day, though, came when the Viking Spoon hung up in the middle of the pond! Fortunately, that's one of the shallowest areas as we have a VERY small island near the center, so the kids and I piled into the canoe and headed out to retrieve it, which we did without incident! Just for gratuitous dad sakes, here are a couple of pics with our three kids in the canoe and with just our oldest daughter piloting it by herself:





So much for the Day 1 report. We'll have more to come!

awesome todd.....that jointed rap is really fun to fish.

i wont be checking in here for at least a week, glad i got to see yer report for my final lurk on pondboss for a bit.

good luck on the next go_round.....

*sigh*
I haven't been fishing in near 7 years and all this stuff makes me want to go dig my old 14' john boat out of the weeds and get new gear. Old tacklebox got so UV degraded it just fell apart one day and the whole thing went into the bin.

Todd, buying the pond may have been the best thing you could do for those kids.

Great stuff Todd! I love the sound of the birds in the video. Both fish above look healthy, that's always a good sign. The three kids in the canoe that is what pond meistering is all about. The smile on your daughters face in the last photo reminds us that ponds are about more than just managing them and fishing in them - they are about building memories. Years from now both you and your children will look back on these times with fun filled memories. Great stuff. I'm looking forward to more photos and stories!

-- --

Great report. Looking forward to the next part. + what DD1 said.

Todd, lookin' good. Go get 'em on day 2.

That's it! The jointed rap - nice and that thing also has a really cool looking action to it. I'm going to have to buy one of those.

Looks like we're being weathered out today, but fortunately this coming week is fairly thin for me on the schedule, so there should be plenty of time to go and hit rounds 2, 3, 4 and maybe even 5!

Travel safely, DIED, and we'll look forward to hearing from you on your return!

Well, Wolf, we have plenty of spots open on the Traveling Lures calendar, so take a look at that thread (it's right below this one one level back up from this thread), pick a date, notify me directly, and I'll get you in the rotation! No need to wistfully sit on the sidelines, my friend! Join the fun and be a part of Pond Boss history, and universe changing significance and whatnot!

Dave, my wife and I have said that so many times since last August it's not even funny! Our family as a whole has reaped such benefits from it that we can't begin to measure them. God seriously blessed us with bringing us to a point where we found it and were in position to buy. We thank Him every time we go out there. I absolutely agree about the kids - it has opened up a whole new world to them, learning about the outdoors, learning about the fun of spending your days running in the woods, climbing trees, hiking, exploring and finding nature's amazing treasures, visiting neighbors (something we don't dare do here in town, sadly), and just being independent. And we don't have a worry about them. They all got whistles for Christmas and they carry one with them so if they get into trouble we'll know and can come to them. But they've all really begun learning the layout of the property, especially in the woods, and they just go and cruise around on their own all day. Truly awesome!

You're right on, Jeff. They build memories ever time we go, but it's things like Lindsey learning to paddle a canoe all by herself - something the other two will pick up in their own time - that is definitely one of those lifelong memories centered around the farm and the ponds.

Yeah, I know what you mean about the birds in the video - I didn't really pay attention or notice them while I was shooting it, but when I watched it last night I had the same feeling. It was very cool all around.

Thanks, Eric. It was just another amazing day at the farm (Gotta come up with a catchy name for it instead of just calling it the farm). I'm looking forward to the next round as well, as soon as the weather works out. I may sneak out today and give it a shot anyway even with the rain coming on and off. Plus, we spotted a pretty big snapping turtle yesterday - first time we've seen one there and with the kids enjoying swimming in the pond, I'm now on an eradication mission. Me, the turtle, some patient waiting, and an AR-15 ought to make for a decent couple of hours today or tomorrow!

Thanks, Randy. Looking forward to seeing what the next effort produces!

Todd --

I just poked my head out from my work computer and saw your post and photos. Fantastic. I'm glad you remembered the camera this time.

And, its a good thing you went out last night. It has been raining hard here since early this morning, and it looks like an almost straight line of heavy showers from here back to your side of the mountain.

Now, how are you going to find time to get any work done in the next couple of weeks?

Ken

Well, I have a fairly simple plan in place. I'm going to under-serve all of my clients and just spend a lot of time fishing!

I say stick to that plan, and share the plan with your clients it will benefit you all

H'mmmm!

One thing you might consider is to buy some two way radios. When my mom and dad use to come up to the property we bought four of them. It's very handy to be able to just push a button and be able to talk to someone that is on the far side of the property.

Course now that I think about it I think they just bought them to keep track of my where abouts.

Er, uh, did I say ALL of my clients?

Not a bad thought, Jeff. We've actually got 2 or 3 sets of those around the house and that would be a great use for them! Plus it saves me yelling out to them and kind of messing up the tranquility of the neighborhood!

Well I sure intend to share that plan with my friend Catmandoo and am planning a personal delivery of the lures!


And by the way, Paul, are you going to sign up for the lures? We have plenty of open time and shipping would not likely be an issue. You could take 2 or 3 time slots as needed to ensure no delivery rush and that you'd have time to fish the lures. Please consider it, especially since you provided the Viking Spoon. Heck, you might actually be the only one to catch a serious fish on that thing!

Plus one.

The Spoon traveled over 5,400 miles when Paul mailed it to me. Pretty amazing when you think about it.

I'd like to see what he can catch on all the lures too!

Todd, a while back I caught a YP and a LMB on the lure in the blister pack, at the same time. Now, both of the fish were only about 3" long, but it WAS interesting!

I'm still strugling with borreliose(tick bite) so planing to do any thing is impossible, all my tasks are on a day to day level.
Geting propper threatment since april this year, but the horizont of being able to plan to do something, an actualy have abilieties to do it on a scedule, is still beyond grasp.
However there is a slow progres for the better,and I will sign up, if or when I feel it's something I can manage.
August or first half september would be the best time slott, I doubt I'm up an about by then dough.
Hopefully there will be other traveling lure toures ahead, maybe this vill be anual?

Would be fun if, it was kept some sort of milage track on the box along with the cathc track.

That's an interesting idea!!

So, no pics tonight because it was a totally impromptu and unexpected trip to the farm. We arrived at church and as we were pulling in, my wife said she thought she might have forgotten to lock the door to our building when she left there earlier today. Her plan was to run out tonight and check it, but I decided to just go do it myself. So, I'm feeling guilty about ducking out of church but I figured as long as everything was okay out at the farm, it would have been a worthwhile reason to miss.

I get there and see that the pond surface is absolutely as clear as I've seen it in weeks and smooth as glass. All the FA is beaten down from the rains of the past few days and the watermeal is all bunched up from the wind we had today, so fishing looks ideal. I figure I might as well grab a couple of the traveling lures and give them a few minutes in the water, right?

So first I toss in a handful of feed and the BG start going crazy on it. Then, I grab the Viking Spoon again figuring it's worth trying once again. That thing casts almost all the way across the pond, which is really cool, and so I launched it out there once, twice, with no takers. On the third cast, I get a bite and set the hook, moments later reeling a dink LMB at 5 oz. and 6 inches long. Nothing impressive, other than being, I think, the first fish actually caught on this beast of a lure! That dink proved to be the key, though, to breaking the ice as the next 10 minutes resulted in these LMB:

13 inches - 1 lb.
9 inches - 11 oz. x 2
8 inches - 9 oz.
7 inches - 5 oz.

I decided to give the Spoon a break and tossed the jointed rap out on my ultralight rig. The first cast led to another dink bass, like the very first one, then another 9 incher that I didn't bother weighing, though he did give me one very impressive jump, easily 18 inches out of the water trying to shake the lure. A few casts later, I get a hook up and see a flash underwater and realize it's a bluegill. After a vigorous fight, I pull in the fattest BG I've ever caught and immediately begin lamenting the lack of a camera or even a phone with a camera in it!

This is perhaps the most all-around impressive BG I've caught in this pond. It wasn't the longest by any means - 8 inches. But it was a solid 12 oz. and had amazing head development. This sucker not only had a huge helmet, it had a huge chinstrap as well! I looked like its head was surrounded by a ring of meat - absolutely impressive fish! The breast was a really bright orange, and it had a large number of black scale tips. I forget if that's indicative of a male or female. The ear tab looked to be slightly extended, maybe indicating a male. In any event, a truly awesome fish and one I hope is enjoying the feed so it can keep packing on weight.

In any event, it turned out to be a whirlwind 30 minute outing and an absolute blast. The rain had moved through - hopefully for good for the next couple of days - and it was just a beautiful, calm, cool evening. All in all, clearly what pond ownership is about!

I may get some time in tomorrow as well and will certainly report any doings if I get out. Then, Friday, I pack up the lures and drive east to meet our friend Catmandoo to personally deliver the lures and enjoy a few hours of fishing with him before leaving the lures in his care. What a cool event this whole thing has been!

Remember the cardinal rule: No pics = it never happened!

Good fishing! It looks like the pond is starting to turn around for you.

That reminds me - I gotta get that excel file up and posted!

Good work, Todd. That BG sounded Condelloian!!!!

Todd, you had way too much fun while skipping Church. Don't worry; we won't tell anyone.

Tell me about it! I don't normally miss many services, but things kind of fell in place for it to happen last night. Thanks for keeping my secret!

Double it up in size and I think you'd be on the mark! Honestly, I've never seen a BG look like that, even with couple of 10 inchers we've caught from this pond. This thing is having a serious fat head day!

Ouch! Of course, my wife was a little irritated with me that she couldn't reach me when she called to say church was over and I didn't answer. So, not only did I not even have my phone for its camera function, I couldn't take her call and that just made things even worse!

I've finally figured out where the big BG hang out, and they seem to stay in that area almost exclusively, which I find interesting as I would have thought they be more spread out. But it's the deepest area of the pond and it's where I've piled in some small root/stump combos from some scrub trees and it has turned into a major congregating place for BG. Still, this is the only area that we caught them before I placed that stuff, with the exception of one other area with a floating log.

All in all, very cool evening, though, and looking forward to a chance again today with the sun out in full force.

Would go rather have you in church thinking about your pond, or at your pond thinking about him?

Very cool Todd!

Wow, what a day! Here is a quick summary. More will be posted tomorrow.

Todd arrived about noon time with the Traveling Lures. He arrived at the same time as two exterminators who were supposed to get some critters out of The Catmandoo Main Mansion's master bedroom wall. They were ill prepared. They said it could be a flying squirrel, a bat, or something far more insidious. Todd suggested it could be a killer rat. They wanted to poison it. I said no -- it would smell too bad when it died. This was on the side of The Mansion where the peak is about 30 feet off the ground, and that is where the critter is living. They didn't bring a ladder. Besides, I think they were afraid.

I sent the exterminators packing. But, before they left, they got to talking about pond fishing. Quick thinking Todd tells them we are Pond Boss Ambassadors. He suggests I give them some Pond Boss brochures, which I did. I was wearing my Pond Boss cap. We started talking about the Traveling Lures, including the Broke Back Rapala. They left in a big hurry for their next appointment. They again looked afraid.

It was lunch time, so Todd and I headed into Winchester, VA to have lunch with my wife Lynda. She had to work today. At lunch, Todd and I plotted our afternoon strategy. We decided we'd sneak over to nearby farm with several ponds that have incredible fishing. Todd had heard a lot about this place. I figured I'd be OK, because I know a good WV lawyer if we were to get caught. We didn't get caught, but lots of fish got caught. Sometimes we had to wait over 20 seconds before a fish would attack a bait or lure.

I started with the Viking Lure. The first pond had lots of FA, and all it was catching was the FA. So, I switched to the Broke Back Rapala. This is what it brought in on about the second cast:



This was from about the 4th cast:



I caught several more bass on the Broke Back, then I switched to the little crawdad. Todd has some photos of other fish caught on the little crawdad, but I got this critter just before taking the little crawdad off the line. As you look at this, please realize that the little crawdad is about one inch long. Compare that to the desperate fish that attacked it.



Then, we nearly had a Doc Runkle moment. Thankfully, it didn't get stuck, and we didn't have to call Norman Oklahoma 911.



More later about the filet lessons, battering lessons, the feast, and fishing for the pampered bluegill in Catmandoo Pond.

What a fantastic day. Thanks Pond Boss and friends for making this possible. The only thing missing was that Todd did not get to see, or step on, any of the famous Copper-Headed Rattle Moccasins we have around here.

Ken

Just now home and situated in front of my laptop (TJ, I'm on my netbook and there is ZERO scrolling to mess with - great work!). All I can say is it was an awesome day with Catmandoo! What a blast we had. I'll post pics tomorrow, including a step by step documentary of our fried BG/LMB feast! Funny how quickly 3 hours of driving passes when you're full of fresh fish!

Why is it that I'm always getting called the crazy one around here?

You two are certifiable.

Sounds like a fun day!

You wanna talk certifiable? I ATE THE GUY'S COOKING!!!

Of course, when y'all see the photodocumentary we shot of the dinner he whipped up, it'll be clear that this was a meal nobody in their right mind (however you might choose to define that) would have turned down! Outstanding food and outstanding hosts!

I'll put the pics up later today. For now though, hmmmm, how about those leftovers for breakfast . . .

I'm getting nervous. Nobody's heard from Todd since breakfast!

P.S. I still have some fine Chianti in the wine cellar, and some great fava beans out in the garden.

Fear not, my friend! The pics are in the (slow) process of uploading to Photobucket, then I've got to do some writing before sharing with the gang! And breakfast was good!

catmandoo, do you plant the favas in the Spring or in the fall and let them overwinter in the ground?

Oh Man! Am I glad to hear that. I was afraid you might have perished from my cooking.

Now that I know you are still alive, take your time with the photos. They will make good conversation next winter when the blizzards start.

So, here is the story of some sane table fare prepared by our friend, Catmandoo. Let me just say, Ken and his wife are wonderful hosts and we had an absolutely great day hanging out yesterday. Ken is managing a property right now with several ponds on it, so we visited there and caught a mess of BG and a few LMB for a fish fry last night.

After filleting all of those we had caught, Ken set them to soak in brine for a little while, so we ventured down to his pond to see what real BG look like. Here is Ken with a nice example of his management efforts:



Ken has done an amazing job of growing big BG - these two were very average for his population and were an absolutely blast to catch! The one Ken caught was deep hooked and wasn't going to make it, so it went into the mix with the other fillets. Here it is just before going under the knife:



And here is our pan full of fillets:



Then the process of prepping began! First, the host of our show prepped some flour and a secret ingredient to dust the fillets prior to mixing up the batter. I'd tell you what the batter was made of, but I've been sworn to silence so it'll have to remain a closely guarded secret:



Then it was final prep of the beautifully seasoned cast iron pan with some canola oil, and then the whole shebang was moved outside to the grill. Once grillside, with the oil heating, we put the fillets into a dusting container to coat them with the flour mix.



I was even entrusted with this responsibility at one point as part of my apprenticeship (notice the professional shaking action I am employing in this shot!):



Next came the battering, then the management of the cooking process (And you all thought that pond management stopped with the fish still in the water!):





My apprenticeship was eventually found to be complete, and I was bestowed with an appropriate emblem of my graduation - a genuine Pond Boss apron - to go along with my new skill of tending the fillets.



In the end, we sat down to what my grandfather would have called a "mess of fish" to eat and we feasted like kings on our hard won spoils! (Well, really they weren't so hard won, but it sounds good in the context of the story! And, hey, I did have to brush a couple of ticks off of my legs, so there was some adversity out there yesterday!) Here, my mentor and I proudly display the fruits of our days' labor:



All in all, it was a great day and one that exemplified what Pond Boss has come to be about for me, and probably for most of us. It was a fantastic time for friends with some common interests brought together by this forum. This is the sort of thing that reminds us that we truly are a family here.

Cheers to Catmandoo!

Todd & Ken, now that's what I'm talkin' about!!
Great pix and stories. Those fillets look mighty tasty....

Our expedition was the most enjoyable and relaxing day I can remember in a long long time.

I think that maybe an international pond management magazine based in Texas might be interested in Todd's photo-journalistic skills.

I couldn't agree more. Great story, photos. Makes me hungry. MMMMmmmmmm.

And with the slabs that you are known to grow, Bruce, it wouldn't take much to satisfy that hunger following Ken's recipe!

Great pics, great story!

Ken, where'd you get the "dusting" container? We could use something like that when we have the monthly fish fry at the neighbors.

<------drooling.

Dudes...too cool...the only thing missing is a pic of my standing beside you guys!

I wish more of us could get together with fellow PB members and chronicle their escapades like this. Brings a new element to the forum. I'll try to document my next few outings with Condello and Omaha and any other NE PB members that want to circle around. Great work guys.

Catmandoo, Burgermeister and DIED, pm's sent.

Great write up and photos Todd!

I agree, TJ! It's little get togethers like this one, and like what you, esshup, omaha, and Bruce did last month, that make this group really special and it's something that ought to be really encouraged. And write ups are the best way to share the fun, at least to a small extent, and get others fired up to get involved with getting to know one another. The convention is great, I'm sure, but these things are the stuff that keeps us going in between.

Thanks, Jeff! Ken and I had a blast together and that made it easy to memorialize with the gang here.

That one was a gift that I believe came from either Shield's store in Lincoln, NE or the Bass Pro Shop in Oklahoma City. But, I've seen them in the outdoor cooking sections in Cabelas, Gander Mountain, and Bass Pro Shop.

Good cookin'
Ken

Thanks, I'll so some on-line browsing and shopping.

For me, it is well past my bedtime. I'll post pictures tomorrow night.

I tried the lead-head jig with spinner and the yellow boa wrapped around its butt. Nothing was hitting it. I threaded a full night crawler onto the hook. Viola! I hooked a 7-footer. It took a while to land! I've got photos.

Since using the jig wasn't very exciting, I put on a foam strike indicator and I threaded a Stubby Steve through a #4 bait hook. All I could catch were pesky little overweight 10-11 inch bluegill. More photos taken.

(Lastly, I know there is a much bigger momma bluegill in there -- I caught her yesterday. She was the biggest bluegill I've ever seen outside of a Cabelas or Bass Pro Shop aquarium. My grandson was with me. We simultaneously caught fish that bent our rods. He pulled in a beautiful 19-20 inch fat bass. A few seconds later I pulled in a female bluegill that I couldn't get my hand around. When it hit, I thought I had a big catfish, as she just stayed down at the bottom. I'm guessing she was over 13 inches, and she was well over an inch thick at the shoulders. The rest of the family had gone up to start preparing dinner. My son left his camera on the dock. I grabbed it. The batteries were dead! We threw the bass and bluegill back in the pond. A few minutes later, the family came back down and my DIL said "still not catching anything??" My grandson's attitude, and mine was -- oh well, nobody will ever believe us anyway, but there is always a next time. )

Awesome, Ken! Man, I'd have loved to see that BG! Congrats on having that lunker in your pond! Your management efforts are admirable and the quality of your BG from top to bottom, from what I've seen, is fantastic!

13"?!?!?!

What an awesome double for GPA and GSON. Perfect...this story made my day.

Now, that's a heck of a story. You guys did it up right. Quite an impressive pan of BG fillets. They just cant be topped in the fryer.

All right. It's tomorrow night, so here are some photos.



Here is the bedraggled looking jig hooked to the 7-footer -- yes, it was a 7-foot Christmas tree from a couple of years ago. I had to get the grappling hook to make sure I didn't loose the fancy jig. Now, I'm just not sure what species to list this under for ESSHUP's list.







This little fella just didn't want his picture taken.


This little girl was a little more cooperative.


And, then there was this little critter.


Unfortunately, I now won't get to go fishing until the weekend. Bummer!

Ken

Ken, the excel file has been updated.

Scotch pine or Frasier fir?

I dunno. I was waiting on Ken for an I.D. so I could update the file and fill in the species blank - I think I have the genus covered.

I wish my fish were this little.

After another very relaxing work week (I can finish out my 100 hours at home tomorrow), I got home tonight after sundown, but about 20 minutes before complete darkness.

Life is really great when I can stumble in, and my wonderful wife of nearly 35 years, suggests I go down to the pond and try another of the Traveling Lures before it gets really dark, and before I have to send them to the next lucky person.

So I did . . .

I tied the Traveling Rooster Tail on my ultralight rod:



On the very first cast, this starved little 14-inch bass grabbed the lure just as I was pulling it out of the water:



Next cast, and this tiny little 7-inch bluegill grabbed the lure:



I was worried that things were going down hill quickly when I caught this 7-inch monster:



Thankfully, this critter helped me regain my confidence a few casts later:


He was only 10-inches, but he let me know who was boss.

It was almost totally black outside, and I made one last cast. This little fella let me know that Bluegill must be treated as Royalty at Catmandoo Pond:



Good Fishn'
Ken

FINE PRINT: Everybody went home happy this evening. No fish or humans were harmed in the preparation of this documentary.

Awesome, Ken! What a great way to wrap up the day and welcome yourself home!

I've gotta get some rooster tails. I had aa blast with it.
Cat, that top male was really flaunting his lavender, huh? Very husky fish. The bottom one is a good one, too. Big diff. in coloration of 2 males.

Burger,

I'm thinking that the 10-incher (middle dude) was on a spawning bed, and the others were done for a few days. All went back into the pond after they got their mug shots taken.

I must say that the rooster tail was one of the most fun lures I've used in my pond. My fish are very wary of artificial lures. I was surprised at how well it worked. I won't use it tomorrow or the next day, but I plan to try it again on Sunday.

Now, I just have to find something appropriate to put in the traveling lure box before I send it out on Monday.

Ken

Awesome Ken...nicely done! The bottom two BG are males, but wow what a difference in coloration. Any clues on why?

Ken,what have you done to my RoadRunner????
Shame on you - at least now you can put on a plastic curly tail grub or even an earthworm for heavens sake!!!!

George, I used a blow drier on it to fluff it up a bit before I sent the lures on their merry way.

George -- not to worry. You build some sturdy little ladies. Like ESSHUP, I primped her before putting her back in the box.



Ken

I am just glad Cat that you did not lose that RR bird. Nice work and great fish (the BG).

Alright, I'm done.

I took the Viking lure out for a spin. On the very first cast, this 15-16 inch critter got hooked on it -- in the back of the gill plate. The red stuff you see on the measuring stick, in front of the lure, is my blood after I got stuck trying to get the hook out of his gill plate.



Then about halfway around the pond, I got his little 11-inch dude:



As you can see, my bass are quite undernourished, especially in comparison to my BG and CC.

I'll get the official "stats" to ESSHUP soon.

It's been a great run and a lot of fun. I've got to look at the schedule. I'll get the box in the mail on Monday or Tuesday to the next lucky Pond Boss.

Thanks all,
Ken

Nice Ken! I'll post the stats when they arrive.

Great stuff Ken!

I love those sonic rooster tails!

Ok it finally cooled down to a chilling 95 deg today/ Dowm from 102 yesterday so I went and tried my luck with the lures. Caught 2 about 5" long and hung one about 2 lbs on the jointed rapala but he jumped and threw the hook out. Ill try again tommorow then its of to Cisco on monday.

jsand13, "caught 2 about 5" long". Caught 2 what? Spill the beans man! The first fish caught on one of the orig. 5 traveling lures count. Did you use the jointed Rapala for all the fish?

Sorry about that. The 2 that were five inches long were bass from this years hatch. I caught them on a little Rebel Crawfish. The larger bass was on the jointed rapala. I took some pics of the small bass but im gonna try to catch something today worth posting a pic of.

That's O.K. The Rebel Wee Craw wasn't one of the orig. lures, so for the first fish caught, it doesn't count.

Sorry guys - life's been a roller coaster. Here's my unimpressive submission.

Received the lures on time and in great shape from Ken on June 25th - thanks Ken. Each lure was nicely wrapped in a paper towel to absorb any water and prevent rusting. Great idea.

Although my ponds are only a 12 minute drive from my home, issue after issue prevented me from heading out until July 5th - when the traveling lures should have actually been in the mail to the next recipient. Pretty sad.

The only time afforded on my last day to fish was mid afternoon and it was a scorcher. Over the next hour I was able to land 12 fish.

First lure was the Rebel Wee Craw - it accounted for 3 SMB 6-7"




I didn't want to pinch the barbs on the lure, but the trebles were inflicting more damage than I wanted on my babies - so I avoided the Rooster Tail and Spoon and opted for my money rig - jighead and twister grub and caught another 9 fish before it was time to head home.










Trying to stay cool....




Sorry I wasted the opportunity, boys. I'm hopeful this Autumn might provide a better window for me if I can get back in the mix.

Scott - for your records, here's the tally:

Wee Craw - 3 SMB 6-7"
Jighead [and 2" white twister] - 9 SMB 6-10"

Heck at least you were able to fish with the lures. I was 500 miles away from the lures during my calendar spot.

Great write up and sign back up, I'm going to get back on the calendar as soon as I can figure out where in the heck I'm going to be in the next few months (no comments from the peanut gallery please).

Thanks TJ. You gotta sign back up for the lures and give them a fair chance!

How'd the hemostats taste?

healthy looking nice fish there tj. sorry you didnt get more "quality" time w/ them.

just as a point of reference, you didnt use any of the original 5 lures. i personally dont have a problem if any pondbosser wants to crimp the barbs on the original lures w/ the possible exception of George's roadrunner. does anybody else care? if full barbs are going to keep people from using them, then i say crimp the barbs so folks can use the original lures.

I'd say crimp away!!

Great looking smallies TJ. Especially like the look of that last one there. Well done.

Nice Smallies. Seeing some size structure there. No YP?

Gosh, sorry I didn't use any original lures - I didn't want to crimp barbs just to suit my needs...didn't seem very utilitarian of me! My fishing habits have become Condello-ized with the barb crimping - so jighead seemed the best option.

Eric - bright day, very warm. My YP were deep - I could have gotten some with a crawler and jighead, but livebait seemed to stray too far from the original intent. They are doing well, however, at last sampling. August managed a 12" in February. I'm hoping my top end females will be 13+ this winter. Amazing they were stocked at 3-4" fish in Sept 08. Great genetics I guess.

One final note - I definitely have a pellet feeding contingent of SMB. They are noticeably longer, thicker, and fatter - at least 30%. If anyone needs SMB - Rex not only provided healthy, inexpensive fish, but they were also apparently pellet trained. Rex - excellent work - zero morts - hundreds of taildances - happy TJ and family!

Hey TJ,

Great that you got a few. Plus, it adds more great history to the tour.

Ken

Good work TJ. Your BOW looks great. What is the size?

Crimp on!!!!

Main pond is 3.5 acres and has been full pool all year due to our precipitation being far above normal. Water quality has been great - no signs of muskrats - fish feeding well and SMB and HSB are both growing exceptionally fast. I wish I could spend more time there.

I crimp every lure or hook I use in our pond.

Please feel free to crimp the hooks - I will when they arrive at my pond if they haven't been crimped already.

Thank goodness. I don't think your PVC could stand another round of muskrat hunting.

Nate I sent the lures out this morning. They should be there thursday. Cisco said he would get back on the calender later.

Its 2:28 on Friday afternoon and I am sitting in an empty office- just me and the tilapia, alligator gar, and longear sunfish. Everyone else is out and about I am here dedicated to the core working like a madman possessed. Anyhow thoughts of the lake and everyone out there already swimming for the weekend keep creeping in and out of my mind.

I go back and forth- should I stay or should I go? Being self-employed you have the liberty to work whenever you want, but somehow that ploy seems to back fire 98% of the time and instead of a comfy 9 to 5 with no worries you end up with an insane 5-9 type of schedule..... Anyhow, being already on the edge of just packing it in and letting go of everything for a couple days, I get this package in the mail. I have to shoot clay pigeons with some clients sat morning and then go show some properties on Saturday evening and cook a meal for 40 people on sunday, but that stuff doesnt really count as work. Anyhow back to that mysterious package....

This mysterious package arrives in the mail and when I open it up there was absopositivalootely no chance in the world I would be able to get anything productive done from that moment forward...... A funny note from JHAP on the back of the lid and a box full of lures and I am out of here. So long lake reports, voicemails, emails, taxes, and bills, Natester is heading for the lake.

His mind left the building several hours ago, but now his physical body has officially left the building!

His Green Ford F250 is barelling through all kinds of orange cones, hmm, these orange cones could make good fish structures I guess, its a shame they are being wasted here in the middle of this heavily travelled highway? headed for the Lake!

I dont know who keeps writing on this post, because Nate is gone.

Kind of freaky huh?

Is there still time to sign up for the lures?

Check the calender for an empty slot and PM Todd.

n8ly, only the first fish caught on one of the origional 5 lures counts, all the rest are for fun!

Good luck Nate! With all your fish, you should have a blast.

Sometimes I'm kind of slow. I never gave it any thought that Nate would be getting the traveling lures. Now that it has happened, we should be in for some great pictures and adventures. That boy has more fun fishing than should be allowed by law!

Jsand13, where are your photos?

Natester, have fun with the lures!

I just happened to pick the hottest week of the year to have the lures. It was 98 the day I took these pics and that was the coolest day I had. I only managed to catch 2 bass. They were both from this years hatch. They were only about 6" long. Heres a pic of the first one I caught. It was on the Rebel Crawfish.

I went to one of my smaller ponds first because its usually one of the easiest to catch fish in.

I finally gave up on that pond after a couple of hours and headed to my big pond.

This was the only fish that I managed to catch on one of the original lures.

If I had of gotten the lures in the spring I may have had better luck. I have already done most of my culling of bass in the largest ponds so catching bass in it right now is kinda tough. I took about 150 of the 12" bass out in the spring so the ones that are left are a little hook shy.

Good luck Nate! looking foward to some great pics.

As esshup said, just check the calendar for a time slot you'd like. There are plenty of open spaces available. Then just shoot me an email per the directions under that thread and I'll get you on the schedule.

jsand13, did you happen to get a weight/length on that BG?

No I didn't. He wasn't that impressive. Maybe 7" or 8" and .5 lbs.

jsand13, it's not about the size of the catch it's about the fun you had while catching it! Both fish look healthy.

How do I find the Calendar?

Check this thread - it's just two threads below this one on the main topic page.

Traveling Lures Calendar

.....So I made it out to the lake about 5 pm and had to spend some time swimming with the kids, and then eating dinner, and then putting the kids to bed. I finally was able to tie on one of the lures about 9:30 pm. My fishing partner for the evening was my wife Brook. We just sat on the dock and caught lots of fish and took lots of photos:

Here are our first fishes:



Here are our second fishes:



In case any one wonders, yes I have been working out this summer. Lots of healthy eating, swimming, and even some weight lifting excercises.....hehe

Then the next day one of my buddies who is a forum reader, but not computer savvy enough to be a poster caught some dandy fish.

He said to tell George thanks!




Grandma said thanks for the scandinavian or austrian or wherever this lure came from....


So I got to spend 15 minutes friday night and they got to spend 45 minutes Saturday afternoon with the lures. I won't have another chance to use them so will ship them on to wherever they need to go. We all had a great time with the traveling lures! Thanks fellas for the opportunity.

Dang Nate, those are some nice fish!

For the record (or excel spread sheet) how big (length and wt) was the first HSB that you caught?

What was the biggest and smallest fish that you caught on the lures?

That HBG makes that WeeCraw look tiny!

Nice looking fish. That HBG was really nice.

Very cool Natester! What a cool experience to have both George and Grandma catch some fish with the lures along with you and Brook. Excellent to have friends and family involved!

Grandma said thanks for the scandinavian or austrian or wherever this lure came from....
Tell grandma I love that she enjoyed it, and that the lure is 150years old from Norway (part off Scandinavia) like Peru is part off south America(distance vs USA), aprox like Austria in distance from Norway.
Glad she enjoyed it, it is the # 1 trout(river/lake/pond) lure in Europe.

Nice pics and lovely family setting give my regardes to grandma and the rest

I was waiting for a response from the other end of the planet........took you long enough.

Fantastic Nate. I knew you'd find a way to exercise those lures to the fullest extent.

Have you ever thought about all the free help you could get if you allowed Pond Boss members to spend a week of their vacation assisting you in your daily life?

Thanks Nate. A lot of HSB. That minnow has caught some serious fish on its journey.

Updates???

Just putting the finishing touches on our rather unproductive story. One more attempt on the pond this afternoon, and then sending them off to James. The cold front that hit when I got back from vacation was wonderful, but bad for the fishing. Time to go and hit it. pictures and story this evening.

All right,

Here is our adventure.

The lures arrived when we were on vacation. We got back, excitedly opened the package and headed to the ponds. I have three different ponds that we fish: my new pond with one-year-old LMB, BG and YP; my neighbor's pond with some nice sized LMB and BG; and our neighborhood pond with a mix of everything, including NP.

I hit my pond and worked it for an hour and drew a goose egg! Many of my small BG hit, but did not or could not suck the hooks in.

That night, the cold front came through. I recruited my two daughters and we headed to the neighborhood ponds with much anticipation. Darby, my youngest, chose a lure that matched her shirt.



I chose the spoon.



my oldest (pictured later) chose the little crayfish Rebel.

We hit the pond, which is loaded with BG, LMB and Crappie and, after an hour, had nothing. The fish were on lock down. I did lose two small bass on the Spoon. We were getting ready to go when my youngest complained that her minnow was stuck in the FA. My first concern was that we were going to loose a lure (egad!). I went to help her and noticed that the Algae pile was moving. Fish on!!

We quickly landed the beast, and took a picture.



The Blue minnow had come through!

AT this point, I did not have a very good story, and it was getting time to send the package to James.

Kerrigan said she wanted to try one more time, so the next morning we head to my next door neighbor's pond. I was determined to catch something with the spoon, and Kerrigan switched to the in-line spinner.

We hit the pond and I caught a bass on the third cast.



Kerrigan decided she wanted to try the spoon, and caught one on the next cast.



I switched to the jointed Rapala and Kerrigan stuck to the spoon. We spent the next hour catching about 10 bass and 5 BG.



It was time to ship, so we wrapped up our fishing adventure and put the box in the mail. We did not catch anything on the in-line spinner, the Road Runner or the crayfish. I didn't try the jig head. I was very pleasantly surprised how well the spoon did (plus I could throw it a country mile on my light tackle).

I can't wait for the next story.

I sure wouldn't put this in the unproductive category. I've been sport/food fishing for nearly sixty years. Like the rest of life, some days are better than others. Optimism must reign supreme. Friends make life wonderful.

In today's world, I would hope that learning and fun trump the curmudgeon's world of unhappiness and despair.

I strongly believe that the "Traveling Lures" resulted in an immense amount of camaraderie and friendship. It certainly did for my bride and me. We had interactions with some wonderful people because of it.

We need more projects like this that can bring people of disparate backgrounds together for a common purpose -- even if it isn't about fishing.

Ken

what cat said.

Looks pretty productive to me. Smiles all around. Nice job folks.

Yes and just think how many ponds and fish that jointed Rap minnow has seen. What a trip its had !!

True, true. The time with my daughters trying to catch a fish that first night are precious memories that that far outweigh the lack of fish. As my oldest always says, "that is why they call it fishing, not catching!"

I truly meant unproductive from a photo's standpoint.

nice story coachb, appreciate yer humility, very productive story and +2 to catmandoo.

eric, that brown trout jointed rap has significance (for me) much beyond the traveling lures. it was not that lure exactly, but an identical one that was responsible for the greatest evening of fishing in my entire life, and the evening that my late brother and i reconnected as friends. i collected several more of these brown trout lures after that trip, one donated to this wonderful story. the original one i laid to rest w/ my brother.

First off great story and photos Coach, I love it.









Wow guys thank you all for this input. To be honest I thought we had come to a point where people didn't particularily care about the Traveling Lures anymore and had become somewhat dishearted about the entire event.

This thread went quiet a while without any updates and I thought that perhaps the event had been a mistake. JWHAP and I spent quite a bit of time researching the presentation box and deciding what lures would go in it and thankfully Todd jumped in and has done all of the calendar work and schedule coordination.

It's good to hear that people have enjoyed the event as much as I have in reading about it. I had already planned an event for next year but had decided to scrap it because I didn't think people were particularily interested - - perhaps now I will begin the planning stages of next year's event. Thanks for the feedback, I truly appreciate it.

JHAP - I appreciate both yours and Todd's work to keep this rolling and would like to request this event continue. I wish we had other events to get us together just like this.

In fact, I'd like to register for another slot if there is one for September. Things are slowing down for me and should provide more ample time to give this project the attention it deserves.

I don't know what the next event could be, but it would be great if we could figure out if there was a way that it could be like the Olympic torch relay. I don't know if we could get 11 vestal virgins to start it off, but . . .

Maybe it starts at the next conference. People from four or five parts of the country start off with something or some idea, whatever it might be. The final outcome is completed at the following conference. It could be just for fun, or it could even be to raise money for something worthwhile, like a scholarship.

It could be something as simple as progressive dinners. I figure I'm within a two hour drive of at least six fairly active forum members, scattered in four states. If we just started in Illinois or Indiana and headed due east to the Atlantic, we've got Brettski, Nate, ESSHUP, Cecil, Cody, Theo, Sunil, Todd, me, Victor, CJBS -- and all of us are surrounded by other active members.

And, I'm sure I'm not the only crazy one who travels a lot. As of next Tuesday, I get transferred to a new boss in Sacramento, CA, even though my operation will remain in Northern VA. I could easily stop by and see DIED on one of my many anticipated trips. I get to a lot of other places too.

So, just a thought . . .

I like Ken's idea of get togethers - in NE we have Omaha, Bruce Condello, Shorty, and Bullhead that are active forum members. I think we have some KS and IA guys who also could make the trek this way or vice versa.

Didn't PB used to have informal "mini conferences" in different parts of the country? I would be in favor of one of those - maybe get Bob to travel to these - perhaps one per quarter?

I'd like to contribute if you get the lures again TJ!

Speaking of traveling, I was at the tire store the other day and since 9-22-09 I've racked up slightly more than 30K on the car.

There are a few PB members around here.....

Is that all?

One of my all-time favorite movies was "Never Cry Wolf." My favorite line from the movie was "Good Idea." I think it fits very well here and now, even if we aren't eating mice in the name of research.

Yep. Remember this isn't a business vehicle.

TJ, go ahead and sign up again. I don't see any problems with folks having multiple time slots. Remember this isn't a contest it's all about having fun. As soon as I know my October schedule I'm going to sign up (I haven't seen the lures since I first mailed them out back in April).

The next event that I had planned had nothing to do with get togethers. I'm certainly not opposed to them, in fact I'd love it, but unfortunately we don't have many pond meisters on Pond Boss that are in California. In fact lately the only two active forum members in California are DIED and myself. We have our own get togethers every time we can (ususally ever time I'm up north).

Also I'm not going to be able to attend the next conference so I wasn't going to kick off anything there.

Perhaps the best idea would be for me to discuss my idea with someone (Ken? TJ?) that will be attending the next conference and have them run with the idea (or any other idea that they see fit).

Also Ken make sure you let us know when you are going to Sacramento, my place is only 45 minutes from DIED's and to the best of my knowledge we are about 1.5 hours from Sacramento. Are you ever down in San Diego anymore, we couldn't get together the one time you were here but most of the time our schedule is free.

You know me, I love projects that involve the community. I have 9 hrs of windshield time tomorrow as I'm driving to LL2 for a few days. Please call me on my cell I'd love to catch up.

402.730.4897

TJ, do you get emails on your phone?

I ask because, if so, we'll start a PM thread with a hundred or so folks, and that way, we'll be reaching out and touching you everytime someone makes a post.

Grimes loves it.

I hope you get a lot accomplished this week TJ!

Yes I do get emails on my phone. However, I can't access PB Forum on my blackberry - it's too small a screen and is a total pain. So, email is best over the next few days.

I love it, CoachB! Great story and great photos! Like the others have mentioned, it looks like the lures were a total success for you and your girls and that's perhaps the biggest thing this whole event has meant to me - it's about family, our personal families and the family that we call Pond Boss! Like you, I really loved the Viking Spoon - that sucker would just about empty the line off my reel flying as far as it did when I'd cast! And it ended up being the most productive lure for me - I think on the day it started working, I caught like5 or 6 LMB on it.

I've been away from the forum for awhile as I've got through a pretty busy period with work, but it's great to come back and see all of the posts under this thread! Like Jeff said, I was worried that interest was dying out, but it's great to see my impression was wrong.

As for getting signed up again, I'd love to keep helping coordinate and keeping the schedule updated, so if anyone wants to jump in the rotation, for the first time or again, just let me know and I'll get you in and get the lures headed your way when it's time! Heck, I might even take another shot at them!

hmmm...this thread is 28 pages on my setup....how can anyone think interest is lacking? I just wish I had a place to fish the lures where I know I would enjoy them. I'd sign up then. In the meantime I'm truly enjoying reading about all the fun!

Rex,

I don't know if you are back to work yet, but even if you aren't, I believe every Pond Boss pond owner you know would let you fish their ponds. How about a Traveling Rainman & PB Lures -- no Muskrats Allowed Revival Tour? And then a picture of Rex and Pond Owner for every stop. You could easily wind your way from Eastern VA/MD across the upper and middle of the country to Eldorado County, southward, through AZ, TX, LA, MS, and back home -- with a few other stops in between!

I'll be the first one to offer you and a guest a two night - three day stay at the Catmandoo Resort, Pond, Asylum, Home for Wayward Critters, and Road Kill Kitchen! I'll even throw in a famous Catmandoo fish fry if you catch the fish with the PB lures.

Ken

P.S. Even if you don't catch anything with the lures, I'll throw in the fish fry.

If this should happen, maybe you and I could gang up with the lures because our schedules are so crazy right now. If we did it at your ponds, maybe we could even entice Sunil to sneak across the border to Almost Heaven -- I believe both of his home and pond are closer to your ponds than Lynda and I are to your ponds. And just in case Sunil has too much fun, who better to represent him than you?

It all sounds like a great time to me. And, what about Rex?

Plus, now that Todd knows all the secrets of a Catmandoo fish fry, we could do a double-good fish fry!

What have we got to lose?

Ken

If I get some notice, I can come to one of your places, or you can all come to my place. Let me know.

I'll send you guys a PM tomorrow after I talk to Lynda.

Ken,

That would be a blast! To date I have only gotten to fish/visit at a few stops at the ends of runs. I've fished with the fish-catching-magician himself, Condello and stayed at the Conderosa a few times, Experianced and fished one of the most diverse and productive lakes in the world, Lake Norris owned by the Herman family (what an incredible family), broken bread, ate my first YP and been doctored up by Dr. Perca aka Bill Cody (what a super nice guy!!!) and last November I got to catch my first HSB at Sunil's gorgeous slice of heaven (of course we all know what a Freak caring guy Sunil is!)

As for work, I'm back in the game baby! n8ly wants to fill the truck with fishies in a couple weeks. I've got a couple local pond stocking orders too...not a lot, but work! Condello needs some RES and I am due for my bi-annual visit.

Maybe I can put together a big trout run for the fall and wind my way in your direction....Who knows I might even be able to head to NC and get a load of trout to take to Greg Grimes on the way home...well only 600 miles out of the way...hehehe

Well, I just scheduled James Holt into time slots 20 and 21 since he didn't get to do much fishing at all this first go-round. I am definitely going to get back on the schedule, so, Ken, let's make something fun like what you suggested happen. Whether it's here or at Sunil's place, I'm in!

Before I schedule in another date, do you have any time that is better than another time? I know that's generally a pretty stupid question because you pretty much have no time, but let me know. Sunil, same for you if you'd like to join the get-together. Of course, I think anyone else who would want to come would be most welcome, too, so keep an eye on the dates we end up with!

Todd -- yes our schedule is crazier than normal (naw, it is just plan crazy -- there ain't no normal!).

We'll give you a call, we'll send you an email after we re-evaluate our so-called schedule -- or just give us a call at your convenience. We expect to be comatose and at home most of the day on Labor Day.

Ken

Ken, I grabbed a slot on the calendar in a few weeks, I think, so maybe take a look and compare against your calendar. Since it's a little way out, you can probably just let your new boss know that you're going to be tied up some that week and that you'll need to be freed up from any work burdens so you can participate in an international piscatorial undertaking. In fact, you'll need to let her know that you're seeking Foundation funds from the company's charitable arm to ensure that the financial obligations of this undertaking are sufficient met. Let her know we'll be very happy to erect a banner in recognition of the company's sponsorship. (In case you're wondering, I've heard somewhere that Sunil may like beer. Lots of it. Enough that we may need a global company to foot the bill! )

Here are my results of my week with the lures.

I started off with pretty bad luck as my second cast with the Viking spoon resulted in a snag. I wasn't going to lose the thing even if I had to go in after it, but luckily, after about 20 might minutes of working it I was able to retrieve the spoon. A couple casts later resulted in this monster:

This was a 6" 1.5oz LMB.

I took a few more casts with the spoon, but didn't have any luck. I decided to switch over to the jointed rapala. Well, the 20 minutes I spent trying to unsnag the spoon must have taken it's toll on my line, because the first cast with the rapala broke the line and sent the rapala flying about 50 out. Thank goodness it floats, and made for an easy retrieve. I respooled my line, and caught this 6" 2oz GSF:


I caught another small LMB with the rapala and that was it for the first day.

I gave things another shot today, and decided to give George's lure a try. The first fish caught was this 13" 1lb 2oz SMB:



I fished the lure for another 20 minutes with no strikes, and then to my surprise, I caught my first walleye ever out of my pond. And, a nice one at that:



This guy was 19.5" and 2lbs 3oz! It's hard to believe he was stocked 2 years ago and was just 5" long.

Well, atleast things finished up better than they started. The lures will now be on their way over to the PondBoss Christmas tree.

Great stuff, Chris! That is indeed a fine looking walleye! Did he go back, or is he destined to be a dinner guest?

That's really nice growth in just a couple of years, and that smallie is a really pretty looking fish, too!

Congrats on the results - nice way to spend your birthday!

Great looking fish Chris, the walleye especially. Must have been fun fighting the smallie and walleye after landing the little ones the day prior. Congrats and a happy birthday as well.

Good job, and Happy Birthday

Thanks guys, the walleye put up a very good fight. I thought he was a smallie, but he would not come to the surface during the fight, so I was unsure of the species since I thought my walleyes didn't make it.

And, Todd, I ended up throwing him back. I'm curious to see how their growth continues in the pond situation.

that jointed rap is a sunfish killer! cracks me up to see the size fish that try to hit that.

Great report. I'm awaiting photos of fish caught from Pond Frog and I'll post his story here as well.

Outstanding growth on that walleye.

This is Pond Frog's report. I edited it a little hopefully to PF's liking. Any words that I inserted appear in blue. Part 1:


Hello JHAP;

Well two parts here, one, my forwarding of box in a timely manner and my contributions to the box.

Hello Pond Boss Fellowship, this is Pond Frog, being forwarded by my buddy JHAP. I had received the esteemed box and had not seen so much tissue since Otter got the Junior High School girl upstairs in Animal House. That has all been removed. Everything that was in there previously has been repackaged in some leftover ziploc bags. Not drug bags but bags from jewelry.com. Then, I added lots of new stuff with no more stuffing taking up the bulk of the room.

New lure additions:



Here are my contributions. Starting from left hand corner. Special GSF lunker hooks for those monster stunted GSF we always hear so much about. 3 size #26 hooks. For emergency use only, like when those world record GSF are hitting. In all my 45+ years of fishing, these are the smallest hooks I have ever seen.

Next, Magic rainbow trout bait. Kind of like Jack's magic beans but I did not have to trade a cow for this, it was during a trout contest. It does work.

A Pond Frog. I rehook these weedless. One of the better ones I have fished off the lily pads.

To the left are 5 shad darts I made. Nice big gold hooks. Double dipped both body paint and heads. Right by them are mini shad darts for panfish, a silver and a gold.

To the right are woolly buggers. A black body and a tan body. These work on a lot of fish, but nail trout if you are near a hatch.

To the far right are 12 different plastics for the little darts. Mostly split tail, every color I had. Under them are curly tail grubs for the bigger darts.

There is a green slip on bobber, and a nice double blade blue and silver spinner with brass beads, this is good for crappy and bluegill, bass and trout. The jigs are awesome for crappie.

The next few guys that get the box feel free to take a dart, just leave one at the very end.

Here is the box with all of the new Frog adds, fit nice. I'll write up my fish tales and send photos along in part two. The box should arrive before the allotted slot.


Repacked traveling lure case:



This is Pond Frog's report, Part 2:

Fishing with three rods, I had serious problems matching a lure with the equipment I had. Two were set up for live bait for 10lb plus catfish with live bait. My St. Croix was only option but spooled with garbage 8lb spiderline from spiderwire. Stuff is just brutally weak, brand new and breaks more than any other mono I have ever used. I wanted to get one season out of it before it gets unspooled and cast to the circular file. So after snapping off three fish I decided I could not even risk the precious lures with this junk.

Here is the biggest fish of the day. Just over 6 lbs, ate a small lmb, about a 6 incher. This is a single species pond. Then I moved to another pond where I had a boat and always lots of action.



Here is one of my little fatties. This was on beat up rapala. Next to rod handle and over box for some size reference. Much open water here to hope no lure loss.



This was on the darts I made and put in with a plastic curly tail grub. Largest fish I ever caught on this UL set up. St Croix 1 pc 2-4 lb UL Legend Elite 5' 9" ES59ULF and a Quantum Energy E10PTiB reel. Thing hit and ripped, then took me straight down to the weed bottom and got stuck. Zero chance of horsing it out with lame spiderline so I had to wait for it to swim out on it's own. About 8 minutes later it finally did. I kept line taught entire time and almost doubled over, max pressure I thought. Drag also tight as line could handle. Ran again hard when it came out but into a deep hole with no weeds. Finally tired it out and landed. I think I had broke off two larger before this one, so will probably get a larger one next year on this outfit with better 6lb line. This is my max fish per ul odyssey. Included many darts and grubs with forwarded box.



Dusk, pretty much all lmb in this pond I manage good girth, max varied forage. Taken from skinny stunted population to overfed fat crop in about 5 seasons. Now working on average catch size and weight increase. And this was very late in season when they normally thin out. Stopped counting at 25 C and R and daylight ran out, skeeters came in. I hope to take JHAP and DIED to this pond one at a time next Spring when you can catch 50-60 little chunkers in a day.



Lost no lures, added quite a few more and forwarded box in a timely manner. I may do this better next time [next lure tour], just needed better set up for contents or at least better line. Great concept though. Honored to participate.

The Pond Frog.

YES PLEASE!!!!!!

I've never caught a 6lb bass in my life!!!

Those are some monster LMB! Good write up. I'll update the fish list tonight.

That box is getting packed full!

"That box is getting packed full"!

I hope my rock is still in there!

Yeah it's still there . Not quite sure how Bob is gonna hang that one on the Christmas tree for the photo shoot, though

This may be one of the most cool things ever done with the Pond Boss family. I just sat and read through the entire thread. You people are crazy...and amazing.
I've "kinda" followed this event via this thread, but now I get to participate.
I've been excited, knowing the traveling lures were headed this way. Actually, I made a special trip to the post office in Sadler, 9 miles from home, Wednesday, to see if the box was there.
But, alas, it was not to be for Wednesday. Then, yesterday, I was home, here at LL,2, writing the last few things for Nov-Dec PB and my bookkeeper, Diane, rang my number. She needed some receipts, so I stopped what I was doing and ran them to her. Not ten minutes after I got home, Tonya called. Tonya checks the mail, updates the PB database and does much of the tedious, clerical stuff. She knew I would be excited. "There's a box here, the return address is from Chris and I knew you were looking for a special shipment."
I stopped what I was doing and headed into town, for the third time yesterday.
IT HAD ARRIVED! THE TRAVELING LURE BOX!
Wow!
Well...it was almost dark and I had a committment to fulfill and then this morning, I had a meeting and some outdoor work, then had to head to east Texas to look over a ranch for a client. After a quick 350 mile turnaround, I got home about 30 minutes before dark.
My bride, the Queen, was gone for the evening, so I grabbed two rods, tied on a bait and headed to one of the ponds here.
Here's what happened...please forgive the pictures. I'm holding the camera in my left hand, trying to get a good picture. They looked pretty good after I shot them, but you don't really know until they're downloaded.
I'll be back out there tomorrow, using all the other baits to see what can be caught.



I tied this on my 12 pound test baitcaster, tossed it out twice and caught this fish...a little thinner than I like, but a bass, nonetheless.



Then, I tied on this Rap...I love this bait...even though it's only the second one up to bat.



And, on the first cast, this bluegill, about 1.25 pounds, accepted the offer. It swallowed the front hook, all three barbs.



Tomorrow, I'll be home all day...and will get a shot at using most of the other baits...in several ponds here at LL,2.

Okay, here's my deal. I think we need to have a meeting here sometime this winter. We have lots of reasons, but I think it would be cool to have as many of you guys here as we can stand. Let's figure it out.

I will post more photos tomorrow, as the day happens.

Thanks for letting me play.

Great stuff Bob! Can't wait to see round 2!

We prefer the term sanity challenged.

Great job so far Mr. Lusk! We look forward to more photos and stories!

me too bob! its a special lure and, amazingly, a BG (and GSF )catching machine!!

Here we go...stick bait was to tempting for this little 11" bass. I caught six fish in ten minutes this morning. All small....it was a weird bite early.



I decided to sample the F1 tiger bass pond...these fat fish look pretty dang good. The Fellowship crawfish crankbait.



Debbie wanted to play this evening. First cast, a bass, smaller than the stickbait. She doesn't even realize how funny this fish is. Nice pose from the queen of LL,2.



So, we changed ponds. Made a difference. She did better...jig this time...



Earthworm on the little 1/16 oz jig...the paint is now gone from it...



Bluegill on the 1/32 oz. jig, under a bobber with a hunk of nightcrawler.

We'll hit it again tomorrow with the rest of the baits.

The Queen had a five pound bass on the jig, fought a good fight and it pulled loose just as I was ready to grab it. Not sure if it was me or the wine we shared before the fish hit.

This his HUGE fun!

Awesome reports, Bob! We're glad you guys are using the lures and having fun with them! This is truly a great event and I'm thrilled that so many folks have been part of it!

Well....I have to stay honest. First fish on the gold jig, with a chartruese body.





In line spinner...



Little tilapia on the silver jig with a hunk of nightcrawler.

Then, as bad as I hate to admit it...that cool green Mirabou fly tied onto the Roadrunner...I think it's the one George tied. I hooked into a bass about five pounds, on two pound test...drag set properly, fish fought a great battle, just as I was landing it, my lousy knot came untied and the fish blasted into the depths. So, as ironic as it might seem, George's lure is impaled in the left cheek of a nice bass, until it shakes it into the depths of our pond.

That was the morning session...I had some quiet time before church.

Then, late this afternoon, here's what happened.

Debbie practiced with a 5 wt fly rod, but none of the fish accepted her offers. So, I pulled out the spinning combo, the one with the two pound test...(with a better knot on the next jig)...and about two inches of nightcrawler on it, under a bobber.

Here's what she caught...with granddaughter Jentry by her side.





Jentry is learning how to fish...



Then, we headed off to the catfish pond to try to haul in a monster whiskerfish. Not one bite...from a catfish. But, we caught lots of bluegill. But, on Debbie's first cast with a different jig, she snagged this hybrid sunfish. Nice fish.

Well...that sums up our adventure with the traveling lures. I didn't catch a fish on the silver spotted spoon or the beautiful hand-tied flies.

But, we caught fish on every other bait over the last three days. Thanks for letting us play.

Oh, I thought it would be cool to add a few lures. Here's what I've added for the next trip...to the left coast.



The top bait...a Lazer Eye jig...For those of us at the last PB conference, Stacy King spoke to the group on the pond bank about fishing techniques. He endorses this bait.

Below that, in honor of our dear friend, Bruce Condello, a banjo minnow with a shade of pink in it.

The bottom bait...a little in-line spinner I buy at Walmart...6 for $6. It's my favorite bait at King Fisher. As a matter of fact, this bait, in this box, I've caught two bluegill slightly over two pounds, about ten that weighed between 1.25 and 1.75, a four pound bass and two redbreast sunfish. It's a fun bait on 4 pound test.

Thanks for the great time. We've enjoyed it immensely.

Fish on!

Bob, nice fish! You mean that this one isn't in the box anymore?



Oops!

Bob. I can't believe you tied a RoadRunner lure on two pound test line .... that's a BIG FISH lure .... !!
I've never used two lb test line on anything in my entire life, not even fly line tippets .... I need to come vist and give lessons on catchin - not fishin'

Tell the Queen not to give up with the fly rod ... with pellet flies she'll beat you like a rented mule...

ps: Tyin' up a replacement RR as we speak ...

Great stuff Bob, I'm so glad you were able to participate!

Bob, postal holiday today so will FedEx to your office.
Try again with no less than 6lb test on your Big Bass pond - I sometimes go to 12lb if nasty structure.
Fish it S-L-O-W ...
Cheers ...

I think we can conclude that Queen Debbie photographs much better than Luskie.

George - that RR looked so tempting I just smacked my face against the monitor! You have skills, my friend. Top notch!

Yep, that was the bait...yep, I used it on 2 lb test. George, I would gladly accept that lesson on catching. Actually, I had seen some big bluegill congregating beyond the dock and was changing lures like Terrell Owens changes NFL teams. I had caught back to back to back bluegills on one bait, switched, caught another, saw those big ones, tied on the Roadrunner and pitched it past the bluegill. Bass hit it and the fight was on. I had him close to the shore five times and the drag would sing as she headed toward Davy Jones Lusk Locker in the depths. Finally, got it mostly tired, pulled it toward shore and it blasted off one last time...at the end of the line, flailing in the wind, a twisted little curve. Bad knot, two pound test...Lusk needs George.

Not only does Lusk need George....the Queen would dearly LOVE to beat me like a rented mule.

George, what are you doing Oct 23?
I'll call you...we may have an opportunity. Would you consider being our rented mule?

Well....the traveling lures should have been on the left coast for about 3 or 4 days by now...JHAP ought to be checking in before long. I have a cool group of photos of those lures, will post them when I get a minute.

forgive me for my silence.....yes bob, the lures showed up just fine several days ago, they are patiently resting on a counter top, waiting for jhap's arrival.

Bob, forgive me for missing this post - the forum has gotten too lengthy for me to read in detail but that's not a good excuse!

Today is October 23rd no less and we just returned from Freestone County for our annual family reunion.
We meet at our little country church every year where my grandpa hauled the timbers more than 100 years ago.
Highlight was with my grand daughter and new husband visiting the historic cemetary where many of my family are buried along side of ancestor grand parents that were early colonists of Mexico state of Tejas and later citizens of the Republic of Texas.

Then by utility vehicle all over our family ranch where the old Dallas Houston wagon road ran.

Quite a memoable day for the oldest surviving member of the clan!

Excuse my rambling - can I have a rain check?

love yer rambling george, lets hear more

the re-tie is beautiful.

i sent the lures to james yesterday, should be there any day. dont forget 6lb minimum test line on the roadrunner james....looking forward to yer report there....

Fished this past Thursday for 2 hours at Frank's(Frpeeps) pond which is only a mile down the road from my families property. I rigged up three rods. The first was my 10 wt. fly rod with George's fly. The next was an ultralite rod with the inline spinner. The last was a baitcast rod with the spoon.

Caught a BG on my first cast with George's fly. The fish flopped off the hook so I had to take a quick picture. I bet I caught at least a dozen BG on that lure.



On my second cast I caught this HSB which was my first ever. I am amazed at the fight that these fish have. Also caught a small LMB but I didn't get a picture because I gill hooked it and decided to release it quickly.



Another good BG on George's fly.



BG caught with the inline spinner.





Didn't catch any fish using the spoon but did hook this little frog.



Last fish of the day caught on the ultralite rig. It put up a heck of a fight.

Bravo Youngblood! Great job.

PS: Looks like Frank has grown some great fish!

Good job Chris!
Great fish in Franks pond - I believe that these fish are kinfolks with my and Eric's CNBG and HSB!

Great looking fish, indeed, Chris!

As an aside, anyone interested in participating in the traveling lures event, please jump over to the Traveling Lures Calendar thread and see my most recent post about the updated calendar. Now is the time to start reserving your time slots. Please read the first post in that thread before asking anything as it should answer most of your questions. For that matter, just read that whole thread and then fire away with any questions that might remain!

Looks like a Mrs.G's $Gill fly to me - didn't know it was a part pf the Traveling Lure Show - it't not fair - the other lures don't have a chance!!

Your flies have been deadly during this event, George! Thanks for contributing!

I like those fish YB. The color in that CNBG is amazing.

You guys want one of George's Mrs. G's $ Gills I have the last few that George graciously tied (with Mrs. G's help)for the PB auction. George also got Temple Fork Outfitters to donate some very nice gear (including a nice fly rod/reel combo and an ultra light rod). All of that will be auctioned for SDSU fisheries endowment.

Thanks George !!!!! and TFO as well. You guys send George a PM thanking him and TFO.

How could a non-attendee get in on the auction I wonder? I've always wanted to try a fly rod but never have. Sorry, maybe this should be in a different thread somewhere. Maybe I can George to give me some lessons.

Well boys and girls, I had the lures this weekend but didn't catch a fish. The conditions were bad, 30/35 MPH wind, the dog stunk from the skunk, and I had to do some work on the new house pad before the builder shows up. I did get a pretty good hit on the jointed rapala but nothing on the George roadrunner or the other 3 or 4 lures I tried.
The lures ready for action

Me fishing the cattails with Cassie the stink dog

I did have fun them, It got me off the tractor for an hour also. Maybe I'll try again later in the year.
JHAP, they are on the way. I hope you and DIED have better luck.

Sorry to hear that both you and the dog got skunked Cisco but you can sign up again and take another shot at the lures. I know you've got a lot on your plate lately.

Me getting skunked is OK, I'm used to that, the dog on the other hand, I hope she learned her lesson, it was pretty bad!

Ok where is the list so I can sign up to get these?

Just go to the Traveling Lures Calendar thread, pick your date, and email me directly - not on the thread - with your date preference, name, and mailing address. It's that simple.

Whatever happened to them? Who ended up with the presentation box and the lures?

Here's the orig. 5:

Yeah, and where's JHAP been?

He traded them on ebay for 3 Twinkies...

I retrieved them from our property in Northern California last week so I now have them in my possession. I would like to send them to any willing individual to get them into circulation or have them be auctioned (as was the original intention) or whatever.

Last week was the first time we had visited our property in over a year and a half. Unfortunately it was not a visit for pleasure. Our place has been burglarized again. Many, many things were stolen. If I feel so inclined I'll create a thread about it. Right now the entire event just makes me sick.

Hiding in the shadows. Lurking.

They are worth much more than 3 Twinkies. 7 at the very least. I mean have you seen the price of Twinkies lately???

Oh crap...JHAP is lurking? Kinda wish I hadn't posted what I just did, then.

Hi JHAP, great to hear from you. You can log off now and not review any other posts. Have a great day and see you in another 3 months.

JHAP, that's terrible news. Did any of the cameras do any good? If you write up a thread about it, I'll read it!

Glad to hear from you JHAP !

Sorry about the loss. Any leads ?

Sorry Jeff I missed that part sandwiched in the middle of your post. That's horrible news...I hope your cameras were able to pick something up. Makes me sick, too...wish I could help you, bro. Call me anytime to vent - sending PM.

Sorry to hear that, JHAP!

Jhap sorry to hear about that!
Not sure what kind of cameras you are running but they make some that will send pictures to your email. You need to have cell service but you can set up a cell booster with it apparently

Jeff, really sorry about the problems. If you wish to start a thread about it, we'd all be interested. Don't be gone so long!

I've looked into that, unfortunately we don't have power on the property.

Here is the thread...
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

You don't need power. The cam is battery operated just like any other game cam. You just need cell phone service.

Well, that's a freakin' relief! I hadn't been on the forum in forever, came across a thread about GSF being illegal in Florida....and no outrage from JHAP.

I figured you must be dead.

This was, by FAR, the best belly laugh I've had off this forum in a while!

Happy day - a visit from JHAP and Yolk! We've actually debated sending search parties for both of you guys...suffice it to say you've been missed terribly.

Yolk - how are your SMB? Please stick around and provide an update!

I'd be interested in hearing about them - the ones I've found run around a grand each (ouch). I left you a message on your recorder. Call me, email me, tweet me, text me, carrier pigeon me, whatever (just kidding, I don't actually tweet or text and my carrier pigeon ran off with a lonesome dove).

I wrote Florida off long ago and the rumors of my death had been slightly exaggerated.

If you're going to send out a party how about sending a Toga party. I've always wanted to go to a Toga party.

JHAP in a toga...puh-lease wear something, anything, underneath.

Well of course I would wear and undergarment.

I have a Roman-themed Brazilian Cut Neoprene Cod Piece reserved for just such an occasion.

Man, I can't believe you walked into that one. You're slipping my friend.

Would that be husky or slim fit?

Both...

Strictly a Trainer!

Not sure about the Brazilian thingy, but the sheet for the toga would definitely have to be a King.

...and a petite cod piece, perhaps?

So this is what roasted GSF smell like...

Yup. The odor of a roasted GSF is like that of a Roman-themed Brazilian Cut Neoprene Cod Piece burned with an arcwelder.

The live ones smell even worse.

Welcome back, Yolk!

California King!

It is definitely good to have you back Yolk.

I think more humorous banter is what is needed around here (and pretty much everywhere these days).

There's nothing humorous about a CA king sized toga sheet and a petite cod piece - it's a serious problem that can only be addressed through Pond Boss Forum group therapy.

Jeez I have so many responses bouncing around my cranium. Unfortunately none that have passed my internal censorship program.

Pffft....you're always dancing on the razor's edge - that's how the mods earn their paychecks, anyhow. Post away!

Not sure what you mean by humor. We take the immolation of our green sunfish very seriously here in Tennessee.

I love the smell of roasting green sunfish in the morning......it smells like......victory.

LOL - exactly!

Roast away my friend. It is merely an exercise in futility. For every GSF that you sacrifice we have tens of thousands ready and willing to take their place.

Stop, close your eyes and listen very carefully. Over the whir of your computer fan can your hear anything? Of course not, because most folks can't here the sound of fish swimming. But they are Yolk, hordes of GSF are swimming your way. Every stream, river, and water way contains them. An army (or perhaps more appropriately a Navy) of GSF swimming towards you with malice in their hearts. There is no escape, there is no where to hide. You may win minor battles and skirmishes but the war, my friend, is over. You have already lost, you are just unwilling to face the truth. Your GSF roasts only act as a beacon, a directional bonfire, drawing us closer to you. Burn down entire forests in your futile quest and we will cross the barren, charcoal ridden landscape to arrive in your pond.

Don't sleep tonight Yolk....we are on our way.

Oh and TJ, better check under your bed for Sock Puppets... every single night.

LMFAO!!!!

JHAP, this is all fun and games, but somebody always winds up getting an eye put out.

So here's my question:
I am planning to Rotenone a 1/3 acre pond on my property. Should I seine the pond for GSF before I do this? If so, do I need to relocate them to a more luxurious pond? I sleep very little as it is, and the thought of them scratching at my door at night has me worried.

Any help would be appreciated.

I just removed the frame from my bed, and have the boxspring directly on the floor, just like in college. Good luck, sock puppets!

That what eye patches are for.

Yes, seine the pond and carefully remove the GSF. As soon as I obtain the GPS coordinates of Yolk's pond I will email them to you. You can store excess GSF in his pond, I'm relatively certain he wouldn't mind.




Oh and by the way, our field agents captured this exclusive spy photo of Yolk defending against GSF...

Also check...

behind the drapes,
in the closet,
in the basement,
in the fireplace chimney,
in the junk drawer in the kitchen,
in your sock drawer,
in you kid's sock drawers,
in the tall grass next to your mail box,
under the seats in your car...

You can sleep easily at night. I did the same thing to a 1 ac pond this Fall without nary a peep from the GSF ghosts. There were 1,000's fo them too. It felt good seeing them floating sideways! Nary a peep from JHAP either.

Although the phrase has become passe, I feel the only acceptable response in this situation is....

OH SNAP!!!

Thanks, Sunil!

*tips hat with neck of iced Peroni in salute*

I had forgotten how exhausting is can be to cross JHAP when he goes into GSDM*. Now I know how an innocent goose feels when both barrels of 10g #2 shot are coming his way at the same time.

I will concede this round, JHAP, but remember that you have emerged victorious not from the worthiness of your cause but rather its volume and media highlights.

*Green Sunfish Defense Mode

Jeez you really know how to hurt a guy.

You tee one up for a long drive.

You lob me a softball.

You had me a golden opportunity on a silver platter.

And there is nothing I can say that won't be stricken for being too political...


.... but you know I'm thinking it.

I'm not sure there's anything politically incorrect about

"Yolk is a weanie"

but I appreciate your restraint nonetheless.

Oh geez...concession speeches?? RESTRAINT??? I need to rethink my not baiting Jhap or Yolk next time!!! I was just happy to see two of me good friends bantering again!! Lesson learned!

My first time on the forum in about five months and what do I find? My Brazilian Cut Neoprene Codpiece counter has to be reset to zero again! Dangit! I was doing so well without that image in my head!

That being said, sorry to hear about your theft and vandalism, Jeff. That really sucks. I'm looking forward to reading the thread on it and hope you are able to do something about it.

Hope all are doing well and I'm looking forward to trying to get back in here a little more frequently.

You have been working to hard.

Tell me about it! Business has been booming. I need to hire an associate.

Same here. Lets go into business together!!

I'd love to! Let's figure out a way to make it happen and then you and I can work on raising big ole' bluegills! Plenty of states permit joint professionals to share office space - lawyers and accountants, doctors and physical therapists. Just not sure how our respective state boards of ethics would look at a dentist and a lawyer, though!

That would be prohibited because the regulatory board could not tell who was getting drilled. ---

Todd, it's great to hear from you!

Yep the theft sucked that is for sure.

But we are not defeated, deflated perhaps but not defeated.

We are researching various security alternatives and, god willing, will be at our property much more in 2013.

I'm glad to see you posting again!

"B&T's House of Pain"
"we drill 'em, grill 'em and double bill 'em"

I just embarrassed myself in front of the patients by laughing so loud.

Fortunately I am at home so I was free to laugh as loud as I wanted! Loved that post!

Randy, I think your tag line is a winner for us, although we don't want to publicize the double billing bit! JHAP, can you give us a tax opinion on double billing? How can we avoid the tax liability?

It's great to be back in the swing of things.

As far as security measures, have you considered installing live panthers? If they don't do the trick, you can always brew up some of your very own Sex Panther Cologne - it's made with real bits of panther so you know it has to be good!

Good one!

Who is Todd tho! Don't quite remember that far back

Panthers are over rated. There's ways to defeat that security system too.......

JKB, Todd's one of the good guys - lives up in WV with Ken (well, not actually "with" Ken, but you know what I mean). He's an attorney, who has been too busy to talk to us lately.

I'll bet it has something to do with the color of his tractor

Hey, there is nothing wrong with a combination of red and mud, buddy!

Good to be back, my friend. I wish my tractor was the only reason I've been away so stinking long, but I have been blessed with an amazingly busy year at work and it isn't showing any signs of slowing down. The downside is that I haven't been on the tractor but a few hours total in the past several months. Just pathetic, I tell ya!

Ken and I thank you for that clarification!

Good point, but that's why multiples may be a consideration!

Biggest Brown just under 12 lbs.



Biggest brook was a little over six pounds here:



Rainbow 9 lbs. 9 oz.



Biggest Yellow Perch. 2.81 lbs. (2 lbs. 13 oz.) 16 1/4 inches.



Biggest bluegill was 1 lb. 7 1/2 oz. Can't find a picture of it but this is a good representation of the bluegills in the pond.

Where are the traveling lures ?

I believe JHAP has them.

So where is JHAP?!!

Man, I'm gone for a few months and come back to like 50,000 missed posts! Almost pays to mark all read and start watching a little more closely!

JHAP is where Todd3138 has been.

I would like to get my hands on them too.

Dang, this must be a big place cuz I ain't seen hide nor hair of that boy!

You won't if you look for both hide and hair.

I think it's like "Hyde - nor - Hair" --- Gone!

I think, JHAP lost control of his BCNCP...

Nice going, JKB. You just had to mention the BCNP, didn't you? JHAP is now going to come back with a flourish and we are likely to be exposed to his BNCP pics again. Argh!!!