I've been posting about our GSF for a short while and I thought it was about time I'd introduce a little more about my recent foray into pond management.
My background is in Cyber security for heavy industries, so biology is simply a pastime for me. Like my dad, a CPA, I have a wide range of interests ranging from ham radio to shooting with a strong love of recreational pond fishing.
I've always had access to small ponds either through family or friends. For a while I was a member of a private club near Palestine, TX with a 100-acre lake and my family has been there for generations.
After getting married, my wife and I decided that living at the lake club wasn't "for us" and we wanted our own personal body of water to manage. So we started searching and "happened upon" our property of 20 acres which included a pond that was built 20-25 years ago.
The new property was rough. It's adjacent to a large state forest which was a huge plus for us. It was located on a highway, not a Farm-to-Market road. And, it had a nice, long driveway and home site that kept us far from the noise of the highway. Best of all, the house site and pond were situated about the best you could do on a 20 acre parcel and maintain the kind of privacy and access we wanted. The pond is nearly 2 surface acres.
So let me get down to brass tax. I have been developing some goals, and here they are:
1. Swimming hole for the kids
Keep banks free from invasive plants
Long term: Develop pier with swimming platform
2. Sunfish fun for amateur anglers
Management of Green Sunfish
Introduction of other Sunfish species
3. Catfish for the kitchen table
Introduction of Channel Catfish
Harvest of existing Blue Catfish
Daily feeding
4. Some Largemouth Bass for occasional sport fish fun
2010: Added approximately 20, 10” LMB
5. Watering hole for our two horses
I'm trying to get my wife to be an active participant to the pond management, but so far her interest lies strictly in fishing... So I can't complain.
When we bought the place, we fished the shoreline with all sorts of lures and baits. For nearly a year all we caught were 3" GSF. Then one January day, my wife caught a 5 pound Blue Catfish. So we know there were some cats in the pond, but at the rate we were catching them our suspicion is they are either very ellusive or are in few numbers.
Back in early March, I stocked the pond in these numbers:
100 Channel Catfish
5 pounds of fathead minnows (not sure why I did this)
200 native bluegill (haven't seen one;I suspect they were eaten)
Over the course of a few months, I have introduced 20 largemouth bass approximately 10-12" in length from another family pond. Since April we have been catching some fairly large GSF, 7-9" and some of my smaller channel catfish.
Right now we are doing strictly catch and release.
Rather than cram too much in this intro post, I'll go ahead and cut it off for now.. And send y'all straight into the pictures...Rather than upload here follow this link to my Google photo album:
My Pond Project 
