Here's a pic of the pond from yesterday. My dog is retrieving a dummy. It was about his 20th trip. Trying to wear him out. He's a bit on the hyper side. The pic shows I still need to come up about 2.5'. I'm up 2.5' this month. We are finally near normal rain for the year. Not sure about overall for the last 12 months. Before the recent rains, we hadn't had any rain (with runoff) since August.
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll280...7DA195CED7D.jpg
I caught, and kept eight YP yesterday. Made a delicious lunch! I caught a few SMB, then it went 100% HBG. I should have taken a pic or two of the YP. They all actually seemed smaller than last year. While my HBG seem to have doubled in size.
I'm feeding Optima. Maybe it's not helping the YP? It sure is helping the HBG.
Are these normal looking HBG?
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll280...802AD5E7D5E.jpg
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll280...CA119E6CDBB.jpg
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll280...CDBFA95B83B.jpg
Not all are this large, so maybe I've had some recruitment.
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll280...66DACC454C7.jpg

9 yr old pond, 1 ac, 15' deep.
RES, YP, GS, FHM (no longer), HBG (going away), SMB, and HSB (only one seen in 5 yrs) Restocked HSB (2020) Have seen one of these.
I think that's about all I should put in my little pond.
Otter attack in 2023