Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Fishing Report!

Just checking in to see how the fishing has been this summer?

Catmandoo, any miracle trout still left?
Cheyenne, have you broken the world record HSB yet?
George, any big boys survive to fight again?
Cecil, update on any state record perch?
Overton, take any casts into the HSB grow out pond recently?
Condello, you been out pestering any fish lately?
JHAP, have you been out catfishing out west yet?
Bings wife, have you tried fishing your pond yet?
Shawn and Greg dont fish traditionally anymore, but how about any pics via the electrical method.
Ray Scott, are you out there???? Any fishing report from the trail?
Sunil, have you tried any steelman style smallies yet?
Brettski, has the 75 year fishing drought ended yet?
JamesHolt, any pics from your trophy pond?
Beasley, Matos, Theo, Ewest, DD1, Bill, and anyone else out there catching any homegrown fish?

My water has turned really dark brown, but with about two feet of visibility -- like very strong tea. Even with my best polarized glasses, I can't see what is feeding.

A trout floated up the weekend after the convention. I'm thinking it may have been the last trout, but . . .

Several somethings with big white bellies are really hitting my feed hard in the evening. I think they are LMB, but I can't tell. They could even be CC.

Our spring and summer has been near perfect. My pond level just dropped to the top of my standpipe tonight -- the lowest it has been since about February. This usually happens by mid-June. The sunrise air temp has been in the high 40s or low 50s for the last week or so, with daytime temps in the 70s.

We are having a large fish fry gathering this weekend -- a time to cull medium size bluegill (7-9 inches), medium size bass (9-11 inches), and any CC over 18 inches.

If any trout show up, I'll report.

Thanks for starting the thread --

. . . and Nate, when I read this great story, I thought of you (or were you responsible for this??)

104-year-old Little Lady Reels In a Keeper

I have been fishing my new pond to see what is there to catch. I have had good luck with the fish and bad luck remembering the camera. Quite a few hungry 12" LMB, lots of 5" HBG, and last month caught 5 14+" crappie in 6 casts with a heavier beetle spin than I had been using before hanging it up in cover. I also seem to have a fine crop of leopard frogs willing to take the bait. Forgot to set the camera to macro so pic is fuzzy. My water level seems to fluctuate a lot, but the 5-1/2" of rain in the last week should have filled it back up. The fish stopped biting when the temps started topping 100.

Sounds like you're well on your way!
BTW, I believe your beetle spin catch there is a Bullfrog!

BG fishing has been a little slow, Nate, so I have been playing with my LMB more than usual for the Summertime. Caught a new pond record 4lbs 2oz bass a couple of weeks ago.

Also caught a Bullfrog in a minnow trap in my new pond last night - deceased, unfortunately.

Nate, I know what you are up to……just baiting us so you can spring some big fish pictures for us...
Cheyenne, don’t let him get by with this ruse...

Headed for the ponds for damage assessment in a couple of hours.
Hope not too bad… reports of fish feeding – need to find out what species survived in order to determine fall restocking….

August is by far my busiest month of the year with my actual job. Kids are going back to school soon, so every parent wants to get 'em in now. I'm not complaining because I'm blessed to have the excellent group of patients that come to my office. When things slow a little in September I'll take a day or two to fish for redears in the central part of the state. I'd also like to go fish for striped bass in Kansas a couple of times in late October. As usual I don't fish my ponds much. I've had a couple of guests who caught a couple of nice, smaller bluegills. I'm also getting my Morton building ready for indoor production this winter. I have a really good experiment in the planning stages, but I can't talk about it for a while. It'll be good.

I fish with electricity these days and just finished shocking some kaolin pits near macon, ga. These pits were around 40 years old and not sure if the were ever stocked and I know the pits have never been managed. After shocking the lakes it seems that the fish might have just showed up from people dumping fish in here and there. Out of both lakes (one about four and half acres the other about eight) we only sampled very few bluegill, one water moccasin, and no bass. I noticed the bluegill had very big eyes for there size so I decided to pull the otoliths out of a couple of them to age them. I aged two four inch bluegill and one was six years old and the other was five years old. All I can say is WOW. As you can see, kaolin pits have no natural fertility. I also aged a bass from a north Georgia lake (which I normally call mountain lakes) and aged a eleven and a half inch bass at six years old. So as you can see, fishing with electricity hasn’t been all that great.

I wish I could tell you that I have been fishing like crazy and that I have caught a humongous Channel Cat but since I have a stellar reputation here on pond boss for only posting factual information and accurate photographs I am forced to admit that I haven't even gone fishing since June.

It seems that during the month of July I used my time off to go visit some folks of questionable reputation and ornery disposition in the great state of Texas (and of course had the absolute time of my life).

That's the bad news. Now for the good news. We're leaving Sunday to go spend a ten days at our pond property. So hopefully after we return I'll be able to post great stories of fishing victories. Plus I'm going to go pester DIED so we should have some great times to report.

Oh and since we don't have an internet connection, from Sunday on I'll be gone from Pond Boss for about 10 days. Just thought I should warn you that the quality of the Pond Boss Forums will probably improve during that period.

No phone! No lights! No motor cars, not a single luxury,
Like Robinson Crusoe, as primitive as can be.
So join us here in ten days my friends, you're sure to get a smile
From two stranded castaways, here on JHAP's Isle!

But unfortunately for you I'm still here until Sunday. After that the value of real estate is sure to improve for a brief period of time.

This is just my second year living at my new pond. Initially it was overrun with large flatheads. Thanks almost exclusively to Pond Boss, my pond already has made tremendous strides in its transformation to a balanced BG, RES, LMB pond. I followed all the rules - added aeration, added "sputnik" structure, deligently removed the large cats, stocked BG and RES, added FHM, managed the FA and pond weeds. I'm amazed how quickly the desirable fish population has developed.

With the help of the Banjo Minnow, I've been catching 1 to 3 lb LMB regularly. (Someday they will be much larger!) Yesterday my Dad who is 79 and I fished for a couple of hours. He taught me my love of nature and I value every minute I can share fishing with him. Here is our catch. The BG were stocked at 3 to 4 inches the Spring of 2007. Most family lives about 45 minutes from me and they all enjoy fishing. This summer they rarely have been skunked. It is so rewarding to be making family members every time they visit.

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h99/dschroeder/Fish.jpg

Bravo Schroeder!

Great photo, nice fish and a DMD for Theo to boot!

I assume the DMD was just for size comparison and not to gig anybody...

DMD just happens to be my beverage of choice, that is other than Jack and Diet Coke!

Brother!

George,
You are right, I do have some monster fish pics!! Check out these Asian Carp. We killed out a 5 acre pond that was completely infested with these fish. They got in about 4 years ago when a creek flooded the property. The pond has been fixed and is being turned into a 47 acre lake.

Catmandoo,
Nice article! Plans are moving along for the Fishing Park!!
Here are some more older lady pics from last week, although not quite 104 years old and not quite 4 lbs like theo's fish.

I knew it.....!!!!!
Golden Bones - try 'em on the fly...
Love the pictures...

So I see in the photo that you caught a female redear along with those bluegill and green carp.

And you drink Diet Dew...And you like Jack Daniels....

Are you sure you're not me?

Great post!

I threw back the other RES. Just couldn't bear to kill those sweet things.

I thought you were off the Dew and high on life.

It's the thought that counts.

I caught this little fellow yesterday. He's only 7" long, but he was somewhere between 3-5" when stocked in March. I feed all the time, and have only fished twice. I feed off of the dock, but when I went fishing I moved away from the dock and cast to it. Five cast = five fish. They are healthy and spoiled rotten. I just took them their afternoon snack of GFC and 500+ BSF larvae. There is one predator (LMB) in the pond. That's one fish not one species! Put him in at 10", 2 months ago, and he now appears to be about 1.5 lbs. Will put in more (HSB) as soon as Greg comes to West GA (hint, hint). Some of these HBG literally come out of the water when they feed. I've been trying to get a good picture, but they only come completely out of the water about 1 out of 50 hits. That's all for now - carry on.

Nice fish. randy heads up I spoke with Keo today and we plan to get some hybrids from Ark in late september. I can get 4-6 inch that should be fine for your pond. We will discuss as it get closer.

Just stocked some HSB from keo today. Mr. fish brought them up with a whole bunch of feed trained bass.

I have never seen a fish hauling truck so nice, it was immaculate!