Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Fishin' 2012

I caught a nice size sunfish (I believe a bluegill) in my pond (no picture). It was very fat and had a swollen bright orange area on the front underside. Much more pronounced, brighter orange, and swollen compared to other fish that I have caught. Is this a sign of spawning? Would this be a male or female?

Males have their colors get more pronounced when spawning. Females stay pretty blah looking.

they're getting bigger...


also saw the first snake yesterday
don't know what kind he was....

"Was"? Sounds like he is a "dead" snake! Never seen one that long and slender!

Nice LM!

I agree with Spinnerbait - nice LMB, but even nicer dead snake! I killed one this evening after cutting it when I apparently ran over it with my lawn tractor. I grabbed it and chucked it into the pond while it was still wiggling hoping to see a LMB eat it, but no such luck. Oh, well. At least it's a good snake now!

a buddy tells me that it was a rat snake and that we shouldn't have killed him because he is a "good snake"....oh well

It is a rat snake. They are good snakes. However, the snake I shot on thursday was not a rat snake, but it is now a good snake. Sorry, no pictures, the impact of the bullet tossed both halves into the pond and after a little bit of wiggling, it sank.

This one is first fish of 2012 for me. Not measured or weighed, but was about 14 inches and 1.5 lbs. Caught out of my own pond on 3/25




Fished about 1.5 hours on Sunday, 4/8 and caught my new personal best LMB. 19.5 inches and 4.43 lbs on the digital scale. We're still a bit cool here at 52 that day. Caught out of a local lake.

Nice fish!

Great fish George!

Thanks Cason – CNBG lost his color before I could get camera ready.
Photo below is example of pure Florida CNBG genetic confirmation that I select –copper nose, crème tip tail fins and fewer, broader vertical stripes.

Really have some good ones this year in spite of record drought and heat wave last couple of summers – released several pushing 2lbs – hope to hit the magic number this year. Ours get broader and thicker when they hit 10-11 inches –
Can’t wait to see some of your monster HSB….

very nice cnbg george beautiful colors. Caught them with a pellet fly? Do you target them differently than the hybrids?

James, as you know, fish are not that predictable - they have to tell you what to do .... my current generation of HSB won't take pellets at all even tho grown out on fead pellets at the fish farm.
Gonna have to feed them spin flies or white clousers - tied up some glo minnow flies but didn't get to try them this week.

Water is turbid after all the rain.

As luck would have it George, we set a new pond record today. I wish my friends had better FPPT to show just how impressive this fish was. It could be my proudest moment as a pond owner.

This HSB broke the 10lb mark!

Here is a 7lb from today.

We have caught 8-9 lb HSB. I hope to get to 10 lbs this year. We need to make it this year as that crop of HSB are nearing their life expectancy.

Cason, you just made my day - CONGRATULATIONS!


Eric, I knew you could do it!
You guys are setting the bar very high for us wannabes!
CONGRATULATIONS!

Made another trip up to Gavins Point Dam yesterday, hoping to catch some fish just before those storms rolled in. The bite was "slow", so to speak, but we still caught fish and had a good time. We drove into the teeth of the storm on the way back.

Oh, one more thing if Bill or Travis, or someone else would like to lend their thoughts. At some point during the drive back home, the batteries died on my minnow bucket. Considering the conditions I was driving through, I didn't really care and didn't change them out. There was only one fish still breathing when I arrived home and it wasn't a FHM. Another angler added some minnows to my bucket as he was leaving the river so I'm now not sure if this fish came with the ones I bought or was one that he added. Anyway, am really curious what you think it is.



EDIT - He has since died and now his fins are flared up.

Thinking stickleback.

I believe you are right. They are common in FHM that you buy from the bait shop, at least around here.

The worst of the storms miss you?

We got a lot of rain and tornado warnings, but none of the real ugly stuff that hit south of us. I took I-29 back down yesterday and hit just loads of rain just south of Sioux City. My buddy went a different route, on the Nebraska side, and drove through water covered streets.

Eric I think the life expectancy is greater than you think. What do you think the age limit is? The biggest problem we have with ours at this point is the tackle required to catch them has gone up in size and many of the fish now have hooks in their mouths from broken line.

James here is the data.

https://srac.tamu.edu/index.cfm/event/getFactSheet/whichfactsheet/54/


The usual life span of
hybrid striped bass is 5 to 6 years--
more similar to white bass than to
striped bass (30 to 40 years).

Cason,
Your fish rock, BTW how old are your hybrid striped bass and have you restocked any of them recently?

Ewest, up north here I would disagree with the typical lifespan of 5-6 years. We will see though, I stocked year old fish in 2007 and still have most of the originals with no signs of them nearing death.

I have electrofished many area fishing club lakes who have hybrid stripers well over 10 years old. Those fish typically grow alot slower than my pellet fed fish, but they are still nice 4-6 lb fish.

Yes - Stickleback for sure

Sorry just saw the fish Josh, it's a 9 spine stickleback. Very common fish to get mixed in with bait FHM. Cool little aquarium fish. They would be fine as forage fish in a pond IMO as well.