Last December I put 100 LMB fingerlings in this tiny 1/10th acre sediment pond.
Post showing fingerling LMB stocking of sediment pond The idea was to raise them up to 10-12", catch them, and transfer some number needed to my main pond where I have had trouble getting LMB recruitment and over crowding of BG.
I have taken a few LMB out and transferred but most have went AWOL. Do not know what happened to them. Maybe in the winter when we are gone large water transfers did some in. Maybe high water flow some went over the overflow and ended up in the main pond. We had a flock of cormorants devastate our old pond and I also saw them visit this pond so maybe they got a bunch. Maybe some cannibalism since so many in a small BOW. I do not really know what happened to about 90 of them.
Till the other day when I "found" a few more. I thought they were all gone. Had tried several times to catch more without luck. Did not see any cruising the pretty clear fall water.
So this young kid of about 10-12 years of age was fishing my main pond while his dad (a friend and neighbor as well as a plumber) worked on my daughters new house being built right next to our forage pond. This young kid is a fishing machine. He had already caught numerous BG, a couple 2# LMB, and one of about a half dozen SMB I had transferred to the main pond within the last couple weeks and was telling me all about it. So I sent him on a mission. Told him I had put some SMB in this sediment pond to grow them out a little and wanted to transfer any of them over 6" to my main pond. Also told him there "might" be a LMB in there as I had stocked some last year. Also transfer any LMB he might catch.
I see him about an hour later and he had caught 6 LMB about a foot long with one being bigger and one SMB and transferred them to my main pond.
Like I said, this young guy is a fishing machine. I guess there were still LMB in there I did not realize!
So today I go out with a couple bigger lures than I usually use and the two LMB shown below, out of my sediment pond that "did not have any left", were the result.
I am not a good angler. In fact I kind of suck. I have learned to catch medium size BG very well, but beyond that I am pretty much a novice. And I pretty well got showed up by a pipsqueak! Which I am very happy about. The kid had a great time and I got some more LMB in my main pond where they are needed. Maybe I will go out tomorrow and catch a couple more of the ones that allegedly were not there.
Kind of explains what happened to the couple dozen GSH I put in a couple weeks ago (transferred from my forage pond) and wondered what happened to them..........
I think about things like this when I hear someone on the forum that has just bought a place with a pond, fished it, and decided there are not fish in the pond because he could not catch any. There were not any LMB in this pond till we caught 8 out of it in the last couple days.
Not bad growth for being stocked December of last year and being crowded in such a small pond.
