I have a friend who wanted some Tp for the winter. He has a nice set up for raising Tp indoors. Fact is, he has a nice set up for raising most any fish indoors. So, we set out to cast net up some Tp out of my pond. It was cold that day and a strong cold front had passed through that day/night before. Will, I am guessing the change in weather sent the Tp either deep or sent them into heavy cover. Neither is good when using a casting net. After making a trip around the 3+ acre ponds shoreline and making a cast every few feet we came up empty as far as the Tp went but we managed to catch up some Tfs. And we decided to keep some of these and added them to the live well in the boat. After another trip around the pond we figured we had a couple of hundred TFS of all sizes. There were some nice sized brooders and some smaller ones. Some looked to be only a half inch or so in size and we figured I had a good spawn of shad recently and some were in the 3 to 4" range. So, we decided to take a break, he had made a lot of cast with the net. And decided to transfer the shad into the fish tank he had brought with him. So here is the funny part. We had been adding the shad into the top of the live well and the shad exited (swam out) the drain plug back into the pond. I felt like an idiot, and made several excuses for not putting the plug in. We wound up with around 25 to 30 tfs. Now remember, we were planning on catching and saving Tp and they were going to be to large to go through any drain plug. And when we changed our plan, I forgot to add the plug. What an idiot.
Will, we decided to make another trip around the pond and by this time it was becoming late afternoon. We finally caught some 5 Tp as the afternoon sun lowered in the sky. And we caught some more tfs but not near as many as we expected based on our first trip or two around the pond. I guess we had them scattered by then. It had become a long day and my casting buddy said he would be dreaming that night of casting, he had thrown it so many times. As it all turned out we laughed it all off and he got home with some fish but it was a day to remember. One more note is as I exited the boat I fell on my arse and busted my shin and my face. What an idiot and what a day. I thought I would share this story, and recommend to others to check the live well plug and watch your step we stepping out of the boat.
