So, I always knew there were some left over fish in my pond but I couldn't ever figure out what. I tried fishing it, trapping them, feeding them, etc. I could never figure it out. So, I assumed it was empty enough and went ahead with my stocking plan. I stocked a few weeks ago. Yesterday I was walking around the bank and saw several large group of fry. It caught me off guard. Nothing I stocked should be big enough to spawn, especially not this quick. Then, yesterday afternoon while I was feeding the sun was hitting the water just right to finally be able to see fish coming to the surface. I saw several hand-sized bluegill feeding like crazy. So, my forage development is much further along than I anticipated. I also saw several of my newly stocked LMB chasing the smaller bluegill during feeding time. Everything appears to be progressing smoothly. My 6 and 4 year old kids aren't showing much interest yet, but my 2 year old boy flips out when he sees me get a scoop of feed from the feed sack. He loves feeding the fish.

Good for you and your kids. It's always nice to hear of a pleasant surprise, it's usually something like a leak, GBH or poachers. Your older kids(Ha, 6 and 4, with numbers like that, I could some serious damage) will appreciate things much more when they have one of the BG tuggin on their line.

Nothing surprises me any more. When my pond was renovated (enlarged), I was convinced there were no fish in it. When we cut the levee and pumped it down, the neighbors kid picked up an easy 100+ BG live and transferred them to their pond. There were also several LMB in the 2 lb range that did not make the transition. My pond was completely dry when it was enlarged (in August 14). But the day after it was completed, we had a huge rain system stall on top of us and my pond filled up overnight with the help of a nearby (dried up) creek. Since then, I have caught species that I did not stock...Green Sunfish and Dollar Sunfish to name a couple. If you have a creek nearby, your pond was not completely dry when renovated, or you just have a neighbor trying to "help" you out (bucket stocking), don't be surprised. So again, nothing surprises me.

It is amazing just how far small fish can go both upstream and downstream during large rain events and flooding, in extremely shallow water.