Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Fellowship of the Traveling Lure-Stories & photos

Well, I have a fairly simple plan in place. I'm going to under-serve all of my clients and just spend a lot of time fishing!

I say stick to that plan, and share the plan with your clients it will benefit you all

H'mmmm!

One thing you might consider is to buy some two way radios. When my mom and dad use to come up to the property we bought four of them. It's very handy to be able to just push a button and be able to talk to someone that is on the far side of the property.

Course now that I think about it I think they just bought them to keep track of my where abouts.

Er, uh, did I say ALL of my clients?

Not a bad thought, Jeff. We've actually got 2 or 3 sets of those around the house and that would be a great use for them! Plus it saves me yelling out to them and kind of messing up the tranquility of the neighborhood!

Well I sure intend to share that plan with my friend Catmandoo and am planning a personal delivery of the lures!


And by the way, Paul, are you going to sign up for the lures? We have plenty of open time and shipping would not likely be an issue. You could take 2 or 3 time slots as needed to ensure no delivery rush and that you'd have time to fish the lures. Please consider it, especially since you provided the Viking Spoon. Heck, you might actually be the only one to catch a serious fish on that thing!

Plus one.

The Spoon traveled over 5,400 miles when Paul mailed it to me. Pretty amazing when you think about it.

I'd like to see what he can catch on all the lures too!

Todd, a while back I caught a YP and a LMB on the lure in the blister pack, at the same time. Now, both of the fish were only about 3" long, but it WAS interesting!

I'm still strugling with borreliose(tick bite) so planing to do any thing is impossible, all my tasks are on a day to day level.
Geting propper threatment since april this year, but the horizont of being able to plan to do something, an actualy have abilieties to do it on a scedule, is still beyond grasp.
However there is a slow progres for the better,and I will sign up, if or when I feel it's something I can manage.
August or first half september would be the best time slott, I doubt I'm up an about by then dough.
Hopefully there will be other traveling lure toures ahead, maybe this vill be anual?

Would be fun if, it was kept some sort of milage track on the box along with the cathc track.

That's an interesting idea!!

So, no pics tonight because it was a totally impromptu and unexpected trip to the farm. We arrived at church and as we were pulling in, my wife said she thought she might have forgotten to lock the door to our building when she left there earlier today. Her plan was to run out tonight and check it, but I decided to just go do it myself. So, I'm feeling guilty about ducking out of church but I figured as long as everything was okay out at the farm, it would have been a worthwhile reason to miss.

I get there and see that the pond surface is absolutely as clear as I've seen it in weeks and smooth as glass. All the FA is beaten down from the rains of the past few days and the watermeal is all bunched up from the wind we had today, so fishing looks ideal. I figure I might as well grab a couple of the traveling lures and give them a few minutes in the water, right?

So first I toss in a handful of feed and the BG start going crazy on it. Then, I grab the Viking Spoon again figuring it's worth trying once again. That thing casts almost all the way across the pond, which is really cool, and so I launched it out there once, twice, with no takers. On the third cast, I get a bite and set the hook, moments later reeling a dink LMB at 5 oz. and 6 inches long. Nothing impressive, other than being, I think, the first fish actually caught on this beast of a lure! That dink proved to be the key, though, to breaking the ice as the next 10 minutes resulted in these LMB:

13 inches - 1 lb.
9 inches - 11 oz. x 2
8 inches - 9 oz.
7 inches - 5 oz.

I decided to give the Spoon a break and tossed the jointed rap out on my ultralight rig. The first cast led to another dink bass, like the very first one, then another 9 incher that I didn't bother weighing, though he did give me one very impressive jump, easily 18 inches out of the water trying to shake the lure. A few casts later, I get a hook up and see a flash underwater and realize it's a bluegill. After a vigorous fight, I pull in the fattest BG I've ever caught and immediately begin lamenting the lack of a camera or even a phone with a camera in it!

This is perhaps the most all-around impressive BG I've caught in this pond. It wasn't the longest by any means - 8 inches. But it was a solid 12 oz. and had amazing head development. This sucker not only had a huge helmet, it had a huge chinstrap as well! I looked like its head was surrounded by a ring of meat - absolutely impressive fish! The breast was a really bright orange, and it had a large number of black scale tips. I forget if that's indicative of a male or female. The ear tab looked to be slightly extended, maybe indicating a male. In any event, a truly awesome fish and one I hope is enjoying the feed so it can keep packing on weight.

In any event, it turned out to be a whirlwind 30 minute outing and an absolute blast. The rain had moved through - hopefully for good for the next couple of days - and it was just a beautiful, calm, cool evening. All in all, clearly what pond ownership is about!

I may get some time in tomorrow as well and will certainly report any doings if I get out. Then, Friday, I pack up the lures and drive east to meet our friend Catmandoo to personally deliver the lures and enjoy a few hours of fishing with him before leaving the lures in his care. What a cool event this whole thing has been!

Remember the cardinal rule: No pics = it never happened!

Good fishing! It looks like the pond is starting to turn around for you.

That reminds me - I gotta get that excel file up and posted!

Good work, Todd. That BG sounded Condelloian!!!!

Todd, you had way too much fun while skipping Church. Don't worry; we won't tell anyone.

Tell me about it! I don't normally miss many services, but things kind of fell in place for it to happen last night. Thanks for keeping my secret!

Double it up in size and I think you'd be on the mark! Honestly, I've never seen a BG look like that, even with couple of 10 inchers we've caught from this pond. This thing is having a serious fat head day!

Ouch! Of course, my wife was a little irritated with me that she couldn't reach me when she called to say church was over and I didn't answer. So, not only did I not even have my phone for its camera function, I couldn't take her call and that just made things even worse!

I've finally figured out where the big BG hang out, and they seem to stay in that area almost exclusively, which I find interesting as I would have thought they be more spread out. But it's the deepest area of the pond and it's where I've piled in some small root/stump combos from some scrub trees and it has turned into a major congregating place for BG. Still, this is the only area that we caught them before I placed that stuff, with the exception of one other area with a floating log.

All in all, very cool evening, though, and looking forward to a chance again today with the sun out in full force.

Would go rather have you in church thinking about your pond, or at your pond thinking about him?

Very cool Todd!

Wow, what a day! Here is a quick summary. More will be posted tomorrow.

Todd arrived about noon time with the Traveling Lures. He arrived at the same time as two exterminators who were supposed to get some critters out of The Catmandoo Main Mansion's master bedroom wall. They were ill prepared. They said it could be a flying squirrel, a bat, or something far more insidious. Todd suggested it could be a killer rat. They wanted to poison it. I said no -- it would smell too bad when it died. This was on the side of The Mansion where the peak is about 30 feet off the ground, and that is where the critter is living. They didn't bring a ladder. Besides, I think they were afraid.

I sent the exterminators packing. But, before they left, they got to talking about pond fishing. Quick thinking Todd tells them we are Pond Boss Ambassadors. He suggests I give them some Pond Boss brochures, which I did. I was wearing my Pond Boss cap. We started talking about the Traveling Lures, including the Broke Back Rapala. They left in a big hurry for their next appointment. They again looked afraid.

It was lunch time, so Todd and I headed into Winchester, VA to have lunch with my wife Lynda. She had to work today. At lunch, Todd and I plotted our afternoon strategy. We decided we'd sneak over to nearby farm with several ponds that have incredible fishing. Todd had heard a lot about this place. I figured I'd be OK, because I know a good WV lawyer if we were to get caught. We didn't get caught, but lots of fish got caught. Sometimes we had to wait over 20 seconds before a fish would attack a bait or lure.

I started with the Viking Lure. The first pond had lots of FA, and all it was catching was the FA. So, I switched to the Broke Back Rapala. This is what it brought in on about the second cast:



This was from about the 4th cast:



I caught several more bass on the Broke Back, then I switched to the little crawdad. Todd has some photos of other fish caught on the little crawdad, but I got this critter just before taking the little crawdad off the line. As you look at this, please realize that the little crawdad is about one inch long. Compare that to the desperate fish that attacked it.



Then, we nearly had a Doc Runkle moment. Thankfully, it didn't get stuck, and we didn't have to call Norman Oklahoma 911.



More later about the filet lessons, battering lessons, the feast, and fishing for the pampered bluegill in Catmandoo Pond.

What a fantastic day. Thanks Pond Boss and friends for making this possible. The only thing missing was that Todd did not get to see, or step on, any of the famous Copper-Headed Rattle Moccasins we have around here.

Ken

Just now home and situated in front of my laptop (TJ, I'm on my netbook and there is ZERO scrolling to mess with - great work!). All I can say is it was an awesome day with Catmandoo! What a blast we had. I'll post pics tomorrow, including a step by step documentary of our fried BG/LMB feast! Funny how quickly 3 hours of driving passes when you're full of fresh fish!

Why is it that I'm always getting called the crazy one around here?

You two are certifiable.

Sounds like a fun day!

You wanna talk certifiable? I ATE THE GUY'S COOKING!!!

Of course, when y'all see the photodocumentary we shot of the dinner he whipped up, it'll be clear that this was a meal nobody in their right mind (however you might choose to define that) would have turned down! Outstanding food and outstanding hosts!

I'll put the pics up later today. For now though, hmmmm, how about those leftovers for breakfast . . .

I'm getting nervous. Nobody's heard from Todd since breakfast!

P.S. I still have some fine Chianti in the wine cellar, and some great fava beans out in the garden.