Well guys, I bit the bullet today. While my wife, Nattha, was at the grocery I dug up a few earth worms at the compost pile. When she got home, I pinched down the barb on a long shank "6 hook and took her to the pond to wet the first line ever in our little puddle. In 15 minutes she caught 3 fish; 2 CC, 14" and 16" and one BG 7”. I stocked the CC last June at 6 to 7 inch and the BG at 2 to 3 inch. What do you guys think, is that a decent growth for fish not pellet fed?
I managed to get a shot of the BG. Seemed in decent condition for such a hard winter.
Nice fish Bill.
Best I can recall, that is about the growth I got from the freshly my stocked fish. One thing I've noticed this year and late last year, as the new year class of reproduction fish get to about the size of the fish in your picture, it gets harder to catch the original stockers. Don't know if the original stockers just get smarter because some of them have been caught a few times, or if it is because there are so many more mouths going after the lure the probability of catching original fish goes down. Caught one of my original stocked BG the other day at just under 9", but the bulk of what I catch are the offspring at 5-7".
It does feel good those first few catches in a new pond.
