Originally Posted By: GW

It seems like the thing that makes GSF "trash" is that they are the most hardy of sunfishes. So in summary we have a sunfish with a large mouth, that eats aggressively, tastes very good, fights well on light tackle, can exceed 2 lbs, and can survive events that would kill other sunfish. I don't see how the term "trash" can fit in with that list.


I think my eyes are welling up. GW you are a gentleman and a scholar.


 Originally Posted By: GW
I've never been able to reconcile the different opinions about GSF.



Me either. But I guess if my GSF never grew above 4 to 5 inches I might feel slightly different (or not). All I know is they have beautiful coloration and hit a lure with a terrible vengeance. Once hooked they become raving lunatics, which, for obvious reasons, I find admirable.

It will be interesting to see how the next few years play out. DIED is managing his pond for sunfish with GSF as the dominant predator. My guess is that give his GSF a year or two of tasty BG and RES fry and YOY to eat and he will have monster GSF in his pond. Heck they are over a pound already. I'll bet in a year or two he'll be catching GSF nearing 2 lbs.

My pond is being mismanaged for LMB. I'm not looking for trophy bass just a few in the 3 to 5 lb range. As most folks know both DIED and I added BG (a plenty) and adult RES this past January. How will my pond shake out? I'm tracking relative weights of my LMB which were on a rapid increase (haven't been able to check in a few months). Will I ultimately end up with a few lunker GSF as well? I certainly don't know. What I do know is that I am a very capable and productive Elodea grower though so I got that working for me.

As for Archer, I think you have had some of the greatest minds of Pond Boss weigh in on this discussion (also admittedly some of the most damaged minds but whose pointing fingers.... HEY stop pointing fingers at me!). I think the best advice is don't panic.

I think it was in one of Bob's books that I read that a Pond is never (or perhaps only momentarily) in a state of perfect balance it is constantly moving toward some state of unbalance that requires some management intervention (I'm paraphrasing - - I can't remember the correct terminology). Or perhaps I got the whole concept wrong which also is entirely possible. The point is you should never take advice from a demented CPA, shame on you.

JHAP
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"My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives."
...Hedley Lamarr (that's Hedley not Hedy)