Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Hello from Southern Illinois (New Poster, long time reader)

Hello all,
I have finally registered for this board, now that I have something to say.
Originally from the Chicago area, I came down to Carbondale for school (to party) and then moved out to the woods. I lived on ~100 acres and loved it.
Land had 2 ponds, but too much fishing pressure, no fish to speak of.
Next decent place I was on was 28 acres in Murphysboro, an old farm house with 2 really nice ponds. Back pond was ~4-5 acres and was only 5-6 years old and just coming of age nicely.
The front pond was much smaller ~2 acres don't know how old but had been killed of and restocked 12 years earlier.
Great fishing, best I've ever had in my life. I didn't go fishing I went catching. If I got skunked it was just because I got bored after 20 minutes and would go back out later in the day or the next morning to catch something.
Spent a lot of time at the front pond contemplating life last summer when we found out we were having a baby.
Unfortunately we had Landlord issues and had to move, we now live in Marion in town and it sucks.
A friend just bought 90 acres in Bush about 30 minutes from my house, land has a 20 acre pond that I get to help manage (I get to be caretaker, I just got my keys 2 days ago).
More about this pond later in another post.
Many more questions.

Matt Wehland

Welcome, Matt.

Looking forward to hearing more about your situation.

Welcome to PB Matt, glad to have you here.

Hey Matt...good story with a good ending. Or, maybe I should a good pause. Somethin' tells me that theres a "all mine" pond in ol' Matt's future. In the meantime, tho, it's just like boating. The intelligent boater has a good friend with a nice boat.
Good to have ya on board, m'friend.

Thanks for the welcome guys.
I will try and use this thread for more background on my pond experience, but for now a little story on how I knew my wife was a keeper.
Flash back to a little farmhouse in murphysboro on 28 acres with 2 ponds. Lets just say that things were little late, so I went to wally world for a test. Got home and handed it to Becky, a couple of minutes later I hear 'Holy #$?&%, uhh Matt I'm going to to take a shower and we are going to go to the hospital'.
This was not a planned pregnancy, kind of a shock more like it.
I told here fine, I was going down to the front pond to fish and to give me a 2 minute warning so I could get back up to the car.
This was Ok with her!!!
I don't think my response would have flown with too many other women. Every time we have problems I just think back to this and laugh.
I know I took a rod down with me, but I really don't think I fished that time.
I may have fished when we got back from the hospital, after finding out for sure that I was going to be a daddy.
I spent a lot of time fishing that summer, until I headed out of town for a few months of work and then our landlord went crazy (literally, comitted and then remanded to some one elses custody). Needless to say we had to leave there quick, which is why we ended up in town in marion (first house that would take a big dumb dog). We hate it here.
I finished moving boxes into the new house in first week of November, November 30, 2005 we got our 'keeper' Gracie Sophia.
I can't wait to take her fishing.
Oh yeah, Brettski, where in IL are you located, if you don't mind me asking. I seem to think you are more central IL.

Matt

Welcome Matt....my son will be attending Southern next year.

Hi Illinois Longhorn.
Your near Peoria right?
I'd guess your son will be coming down 51 or 127 then, if Rt 127 he will pass right by my old place in Murphysboro (Rt 127 and old Rt 13) that I'm about to write more about.

I just thought I'd talk a little about my favorite pond I've 'had' so far. It was at the farmhouse in Murphysboro, the smaller front pond. Both ponds were about the same distance from the house around 100 yards downhill, close enough to go fishing for even just 10 minutes before dark if you got home late. I guess it was my favorite because it was lonely. The back pond got fished by the landlord some, the front pond barely got fished at all. It had been ~12 years since it was killed and restocked (LMB, CC, BG, HBG) and hadn't been fished in years. Some of the little fishing pressure it got was catch and release even though the landlord told them to take the fish and put them in his outdoor 'beer' fridge and he'd clean them or to just toss all the BG on the bank.
So you can guess the condition of the pond. Tons of small BG and LMB. I never caught many CC there, maybe because I never fished for them in the front pond. I fished the back pond with set lines my catfish dinners. I did catch some from less than 1 pound up to several pounds, so there was CC recruitment in the front pond.
The first summer I was there I spent mostly BG fishing, before and/or after work. I'd get up in the morning and go down to the pond with my coffee and after work I'd go down to the pond with my beer until sunset. I kept everything I caught, although the real little ones were used for bait, not eating. Never really caught anything over 6"-7", so it took a lot for a good meal. There were times I'd catch 50-100 fish per day. The Landlord and his father BG fished the pond some this summer also. So on a good day we might take 150-200 BG out. If I hadn't like eating them so much I would have given up on cleaning them. The only saving grace was my 'beer fridge' sitting out on the back porch. I got enough grief for bowls full of fillets in the home fridge, 5 gallon buckets of fish wouldn't have flown (nor would I have wanted them in my 'food fridge'). the 'beer fridge' was set below 32 and would freeze the top of the water in a 5 gallon bucket. I could fit 3 buckets in the fridge (if I put my beer in the drawers), 1 1/2 days catch. So I didn't have to clean them as soon as I got them. I also kept frozen ice bottles in the freezer just for throwing in the buckets while fishing to keep my catch fresh. I kept track of my catch and cleaned the oldest first. Some days I would have to sit down for 2-3 hours and clean everything in the fridge. So I have to recomend a second fridge just for beer, fish, bait, deer and other things the SO just won't let you keep in the house.
My favorite night cleaning was setting up the 500w work light and cleaning table out by the fire so I could hang out with Becky. This was one of those 3 hours cleaning sessions, all 3 buckets. After becky went to sleep I finished up cleaning and decided to try a new recipe. I took salt, pepper, fresh garlic and green onions, a little bacon grease and a bunch of BG fillets, double wrapped them in Aluminum foil and then went back out to the fire. Pulled out a bed of coals, buried the foil packet in there and laid down to watch the fire (I was sleeping out by the fire that night). After a little while I took them out and had one of the best BG dinners ever. I wasn't even that hungry, but I ate every last bit, it was soo good. Made all the effort worth while.
While BG fishing I was noticing schools of LMB 8-20 fish either in the 6"-9" or 10"-12" range (different year classes). I'd catch a few of these LMB but I normally released them unless I really needed the fillets. Yes I was one of those 'catch and release' fisherman. I even felt bad when I'd keep them, even if I knew they wouldn't survive the release. I was about to learn though.

Matt

You've got me thinking with the beer fridge story, Matt.

Uh Oh,
Getting Theo thinking is scary.
That fridge was one of the best things I had at that place. I still have the fridge in my garage, but it hasn't seen fish or game since I moved, still holds beer though, just not as much.
I highly recomend one for so many reasons, but cold beer and fresh fish are the 2 best.
Funniest story with that fridge is in one bucket of fish, with ice on top of it, one of those little buggers was still alive. I went to clean them and had to break the skim coat of ice. One of them started swimming again after it warmed up a bit.
Real strange, put many, many hundreds of fish through that fridge, but this was the only one that was still swimming the next day.

Matt Wehland

Matt, what kind of fish was it?

Hi Sunil I was just thinking about you, I was out to the new lake and we were talking about Smallmouth.
Where in Carbondale was the hatchery you got your's from?
The only one I know of is Little Grassy Fish Hatchery.

The Ice Fish was a bluegill, I had thought I mentioned that in my post, guess not.
I guess that it cooled down just right? It was definately strange.

Matt Wehland

Matt, unfortunately, I don't know the name of the actual hatchery. It was my fish guy who dealt with them.

The last fish we got from them was supposedly their broodstock smallmouth as they were thinking of getting away from smallmouth.

There are a few private hatcheries west of Murphy about 1/2 hour. I would recommend Fountain Bluff. They are great folks. If you like snakes, there is a park called LaRue Pine Hills near there. In the spring and fall the snakes migrate from a swamp to hibernate in a bluff. I miss it there. Poked around a bit during school. My email is rburke@keystonehatcheries.com if you would like some of my southern hotspots.
Robert Burke