Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Thanksgiving followup

Update from JHAP:

Hopefully this post will go through. I haven’t been able to log on at all lately and therefore have all this pent up energy.

The Friday after Thanksgiving I went up to my property. I gotta tell ya it’s really, really, difficult living 500 miles away from your dream. We (wife Ricki and I) spent a week up there and had a great time. Got some chores done, fished some, and commiserated on how low the pond is. The water in the pond is cold (for California) probably in the 40’s – I don’t know the exact temperature because someone (or thing) stole my floating ducky thermometer – I hate it when that happens. Anyhoo, only caught 4 bass during the trip and no sunfish. The bass are hanging out deep. We have so much Elodea in the pond you can almost walk across it. Between that and the low water level (the pond is down about 7 feet, I am seeing structure that I didn’t even know existed in the pond) it is very difficult to fish. Boy do I have plans to fix this next year. The great news is though is that the Bass are looking good. Relative Weights are way up – it appears as though stocking the BG and RES has had a very positive impact.

The absolute highlight of our trip was spending a day with Dave (aka DIED) and his wife Jean. I am so grateful to have met them and without this website it probably would have never happened. The great thing is that not only do I have a great friend like Dave but our wives get along fantastically as well. Almost as soon as we got there Dave and I went fly fishing on his pond. He is teaching me to fly fish and is very patient. It was so very much fun. We caught over 20 sunfish in about an hour’s time. Catching sunfish on fly tackle is a very fun experience. Dave’s feeding and aeration techniques appear to be working great. I couldn’t believe (and was exceedingly jealous) of how aggressively the sunfish hit the fish chow – even in very cold water. Man he is gonna have some monster GSF come next summer.

But the visit to Dave’s wasn’t just about fishing. Dave and Jean hadn’t celebrated Thanksgiving yet so they delayed for a couple of days just for us and, yep, invited us to their Thanksgiving dinner. I gotta tell ya it was a feast. Wonderful turkey and Jean makes this stuffing with sausage that is off the charts delicious. Being great wine aficionados the selected a pre dinner, dinner, and post dinner wine selection that was great. The only down side of the entire meal was that Dave forced me to eat a Brussel Sprout. Jean cooks them with bacon and some other top secret ingredients that make them taste quite good for a Brussel Sprout. Anyhoo, to be invited to celebrate Thanksgiving with them was such an honor and treat, my wife and I feel blessed to know them.

While fishing with Dave as the sun was setting I just kinda blurted out “Ya know Dave life could be a lot worse” and he agreed and we just had one of those reflective moments – fishing, sipping a beer – standing pond side. And that my fellow pondmeisters is how I celebrated one of the greatest Thanksgivings I’ve had.

Thanks Dave and Jean – you two rock.

Oh and as a PS - I would have never eaten the Brussel Sprout (Jean was Ok with the fact that I'm not into them) but Dave brought out the big gun - guilt. He stated, just before serving dinner, "Hey Jeff didn't the Gams that you murdered come from my pond, isn't it a shame that they aren't around to celebrate Thanksgiving? Here have a Brussel Sprout."

I ask you, what choice did I have?

Sounds like a great Thanksgiving.

Don't feel bad about having to consume the 'Sprout. My wife's sister, her husband, and their son were visiting Nashville-great people, but they're vegans, so we "feasted" on the dreaded "CELEBRATION LOAF" from Whole Foods. No, I don't know whats in it, and no, you can't disguise the taste no matter how much alcohol you consume before dinner.

I have a cousin with the same problem. I've never understood it; 500 miles seems like an awfully long distance to be specified in a restraining order.


... thermometers in California don't go down that far ?


I had an epiphany very much like that the Tuesday morning after Thanksgiving, walking back in after taking my deer. I had fresh venison hanging in a tree behind me, the BG/LMB pond on the left, the YP/SMB pond (filling and in progress) on the right, and the sun came out of the clouds in front of me. Moments like those make you realize how much you have to be thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving, Jeff.

Hmmmmmm.....

JHAP = Golden crispy turkey

Yolkie = Celebration loaf

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Advantage JHAP

Actually, the would be "Game, Set, and Match" to JHAP

Great recap, JHAP. That stuffing with sausage is making me hungry right now.

JHAP do you think Died could have us all over next year? Died I really like brussel sprouts. JHAP you could pass me yours under the table. Ok I will go ahead and RSVP now. Time and place please.

Originally posted by heybud:



If JHAP doesn't come through for you you're welcome to my share of the "Celebration Loaf" next year!

No Tofurkey?

Yolk, Celebration Loaf!, Uh Uh I think I'm busy next Thanksgiving having a cleansing enema. I appreciate the offer though.

I special ordered it from Minnysoda.

Yolk - my wife was a vegetarian when we first met but fortunately not a vegan. It sort of broke down this way... If it hadn't flew, swam or walked I probably wouldn't eat eat (with some exceptions like potatoes - who can resist a spud?) - if it had flew, swam or walked my wife probably wouldn't eat it. But it all changed a few years ago ironically enough at Thanksgiving. My family were all sitting at the Thanksgiving table and my wife asked for some turkey - I almost fell out of my chair. And from that I led her back to the light. Before that for a while my wife would occasionally suggest that I should consider the vegetarian life style - I told her "look it took man thousands of years to get to the top of the food chain, I'm not going to go down in history as the man that screwed that up."

Here's something kinda funny though - my wife won't eat fish. Here I am putting all this time, effort and moola into a pond to raise fish and the wife won't eat them. Is that irony or what?

Heybud, if I get invited again next year I'll mail you my veggies - how does that sound?

JHAP, Fex X is fine. Yolk, no Fed X comes here from Nashville, so sorry I can't accept an Celebration Loaf.

That's OK, Celebration Loaf cannot be shipped by air, or pass thru any tunnels while in transit because it it classified as a "Hazardous Material".

Jeff - Not to make this a serious thread or anything like that - - one reason your LMB are doing so well may be the drawdown (unintended lower water level) sometimes call a "drought". It concentrates bait fish in less water making them easier targets for bigmouth. The effects of same may be somewhat offset by the thick weeds. However the drawdown plus the new fish you put in make for a LMB thanksgiving - but they ain't eating no mystery loaf !!

Ewest - I think that you have a good point about the draw down/dought. DIED and I were discussing this some. He of course has the same issue as I do (pond dropped about 7 vertical feet this year). DIED's pond doesn't have uncontrolled weed growth like I do though. The weeds in my pond are horrible. I have been discussing treatment with a chemical company in California. I made the very amateurish mistake of trying to manually eradicate Elodea. It had a great short term effect and horrible long term effect. So beginning next spring I'm gonna declare war on Elodea.