Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Ideas for pond catch record keeping

My larger pond hopefully will be fishable this next summer. I've been mulling over an easy record-keeping system to keep tabs on what is being taken out by friends and family when I'm not around.

Has anyone tried using a photo record for just a rough record? Most everyone has a photo capable phone on them. I'm thinking of having a requirement of taking a photo of the catch laid out at the end of the fishing session. Along the lines of this generic picture from the internet.



I would then have them message me a pic, so I had an idea of how the pond is progressing and what is being removed. Easy enough to move the pic to an online storage file like Google photos for a permanent visual record.

I don't aerate or feed so I'm not so concerned about the exact weights and measures, more of the general health and welfare. In my business life, I'm used to estimates and generalities to make decisions.

To me, this wouldn't be very intrusive to the visiting anglers and would supply the info I'm after. Any thoughts?

My grandfather used to have a mailbox on a pole by his pond where he kept a log for people to write down what was taken. But if you are more interested in the health of the fish rather than just numbers of fish then a picture would probably work better.

This sounds great to me!

If you give them a ruler to drop into the photo (or tell them to put a dollar bill in there or a quarter or something) you'll get some idea of lengths.

Pics work great. Put a cheap ruler in the boat to place in the pic. Good thing about pics is they reflect (not perfectly) fish condition.

Not that I have tried to get pond visitors to supply kept fish records (I have not got to the point of needing help with population control, maybe next year), but, if they are friends, it should not be hard for them give the number of each kind of fish, measured lengths, and supply a photo of the harvest laid out all in a quick text message. I would suggest mounting a basic ruler made from plastic, steel, or at least treated lumber (with your phone number on it)...you know, something that would last several years with one inch marks on it attached to a fence post or something.

If you allowed me harvest from your pond, it would be the least I could do along with complying with any size regulations or slot limits. Heck, it might even be easier for me to photo each fish laid out on the ruler individually and flood you with pics...you might have to ban me form the pond for fear of taking them all out..lol.

Weighing the fish would be too much to hope for, but most fisher-people will weigh something of size and have to brag about it.

Along this same vein, what is the consensus of returning the remains from cleaning fish to the pond? I've had thoughts of building a cleaning station not too far from the pontoon dock we are working on this winter.

Given a good population of turtles, crawdads, catfish, and/or otherwise...throwing offal back into the pond does not bother me. I think your average pond could "digest" the amounts of gut that would be produced by proper culling (not culling all in one day, but stretched out over the course of the season). I don't typically do it at my pond to avoid drawing in raccoons and possums, but the pond is very close to my house and our watch dog goes nuts enough at night as it is. Also, I tend to cull at once rather than a bit at time.

Just my gut feel for the subject!

I like the idea of the mail box AND the dollar bill thing except...I would have a dollar bill put "in" the mailbox for every fish you catch!! Hah!!

Super idea. It would be an easy code to have a program where you could click on marks of the ruler to set the guage and then a simple click at both ends of the fish could calculate the length of the fish.