Our pond just celebrated two years since stocking. We caught our first 16 oz bluegill in September, 2017.

We have continued to make improvements around the pond killing rushes and other noxious weeds. This has resulted in grasses spreading around the pond, replace the weeds. Regular mowing with bush hogg, ridding mover and weed eater now allows us to mow/weed eat 90% of the shoreline.

Our main water weed issues are pond weed and alligator weed. Currently I'm managing the pond weed simply buy reaching out with a long handled net with fine mesh and dragging it out on the bank when it becomes a problem. Using the net, I'm able to remove hundreds of small bluegill and some green sunfish that hide in the pond weed. The green sunfish re-entered the pond after stocking and we just have to manage them and some hybrids best we can. I spray the alligator weed and once it dies use a heavy rake to pull the alligator weed mats out of the pond. This year we will need to deal with some of the "slimy" mosses that are enjoying the rich run off from the neighbors cows.

Here's one of the green sunfish/coppernose bluegill hybrids that was spawned after we stocked. We remove all these and green sunfish and either fillet them or feed our resident coon that nightly visits our bird feeder.



I shut off our feeder during a bout of cold weather but plan to turn it back on after we get through with these heavy rains. Until then, I hand feed them some to keep them interested.

The older the pond becomes the more work is required to stay with the plan. This year we will need to do a better job of removing fish. Our small bass are still fat, indicating they are not successfully removing enough small bluegill. I will add more minnow traps to help out. I noticed while hand feeding earlier this week that a number of large bass are still eating pellets. I will take pleasure in remedying that. smile

While removing those alligator weed mats I exposed several American eels. They love to hide out in those weed mats.

I think this year will see some of the better gills move close to the 1.5 pound mark. We have made the decision to not remove any redear sunfish unless injured. They don't reproduce well in a small pond and earn their way by eating snails that serve as intermediate hosts for certain parasites that infect fish.

It has been awhile since I handled a 1.5 pound copper nose. Last I did came out of Hughes Old River off the Altamaha River in Georgia in the late 1980s.