Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Took the boys fishing!

About 60-65 dgrees on a quiet evening in Feb! Took the boys down to the pond and caught a few crappie. They were biting on plastic jigs about 2 feet under the bobber. This is Rowan's first up close and personal with a fish. He laughed and had a ball, here he is saying "Hi, Fish!" Maybe this summer we can get into some of the CC we stocked last spring.

Looks like lots of fun.

It looks like Rowan is sayin " Dad thats nothing, wait till you see the one I'm gonna catch ".

Like the Old Milwaukee beer commercials used to say, "It don't get no better than this". You need to put that picture in the "Why do you have a pond thread".

Great story & great picture!

unbelievably small mouth for such a large crappie!

keep taking pics of them boys fishing......I only started taking fishing pics less than 2 years ago and just wish I would have started 20 years ago!

That is a gorgeous crappie! Nice and healthy... Fish fry or C&R?

IMHO,that pic qualifies for a PB 2009 conferance tagline.For me THAT IS what ponds are all about.

Thanks for the comments! Here are some more picts from our other camera.

I hooked the fish and Cole reeled it in. (Yes, we have a slight Fireman obsession!)



Little Rowan was very impressed.



Of course, Erin is asking "You aren't getting me in the picture, are you?"

Great looking family there Shawn!

Awesome post. I liek the fireman attire. I got Wyatt (2.5 yrs old) in the boat probably on the same warm front and we caught 3 crappie. Ours wound in as he says it "his tummy". Cleaning of the fish was about as much fun as catching them for him.

It was catch and release for us only because it was a week night and also their dinner time. Let us do that on a weekend and we will definately have a fish fry.

Some of the best days of my entire life have been spent fishing, whether it was just me on a pond or the entire family. Just hoping to pass on the bassin' passion!

Shawn, you're doing it right.

That IS what it's all about. How do you get the crappie so healthy. Lots of varied minnow species? What else is in the pond.

Actually, I have done nothing. This pond isn't very big at all, only about half an acre, max. A friend a few years ago dumped in about 80 of these guys in and we have been taking them out as much as we can over the past 5 years. I also get some big BG out of this pond as well, but the little ones just don't last long with these big predators in there.

Are there a lot of stunted bass in there to keep the BCP and BG numbers down or do you just fish the heck out of them?

There are a fair amount of bass in there, even a 5+ lb'er or 2, as well as several smaller ones. We catch pretty good size BG in this pond, but I think between the GSF, the large BG, the bass, and the crappie, there just isn't all that much recruitment going on. The BG are likely 3rd or 4th Gen offspring of the hybrids, but I have no idea when the originals were stocked. The Big Pond, around 5 acres, went mostly dry a couple years ago and I've been working on restocking by transfering the big ones. Certainly haven't played this by the "Pondmeister" playbook, but so far it has worked without any major disasters.

Well, success is all that matters in the end. Some nice fish none the less!