Electro-harvest today, one of my favorite days of the year! Conditions very different than last fall, when the pond was three feet low. Now both the main pond and the little forage pond are full, ready for a hot summer.
LMB size & numbers improved, meaning fewer small bass but more bigguns. Largest netted was a spawned out 6.5 lb, 23.5 inch female. However, they saw several others which were even larger, including one hiding in a log jam that was double digit. Hard to shock them up when they settle on the bottom, but Ethan was really pleased with the overall progress. Sixty five harvested, something like twenty five or thirty were returned. A neighbor desperately wanted every fish for food, so they didn't go to waste. Just how many she will filet before giving up, though, is a question.
Florida genes have become increasingly dominant, good news for the size but bad news for fishing success. I talked with Ethan about maybe stocking some feed trained Northern LMB this fall to keep things balanced.
Stocked some CNBG and TP to help build forage base, and Ethan was kind enough to add about a dozen CNBG to the little forage pond. Only real bad news was a beaver slide, but at least it isn't otters.
