I've started my 2018 long term CNBG project, so I wanted to finish up 2017 first. As per usual, we had major rains in late spring, and the brood pond blew out again. Since fish moved both in and out, I decided to add 30# of FHM's, and 20 LSL LMB fingerlings. I seined the pond around the end of November and gave all the BG/CNBG to a cousin with 3 small ponds. The LMB were tagged and released into my big pond.
The LMB did not get the growth that I had the last time I stocked them, but these fish were there to just clean up fry and fingerlings of mostly unknown origin. When the pond was dedicated to the LMB, and stocked accordingly with FHM and gape friendly tilapia, the growth was very impressive. The LMB in late 2015 grew to over 2# in 180 days. Few of 2017's crop were over 14oz, but I expected that. At the end, they were scavenging at best.
When all the fish were pulled in late November, it was time to drain and treat the pond with hydrated lime and get ready for 2018. Unfortunately, I fired my seining partner, so I had the pleasure of doing the seining of this pond by myself, which was a first for me. Surprisingly, there were very fish that I missed. The seining part went no differently, but the trudging up and down the silty banks to slowly pull the net only 4’ per side was a PITA. I burnt a few calories that day. Oh, my seining partner didn’t divorce me after I fired her.
