Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Pond Boss Moderator's Retreat

Photo Story part 2:

Down a steep hill from the house and the swimming pond lie the three lower ponds. These include a put-and-take catfish pond:


the middle lower pond (whose contents escape me at the moment):


and the newest pond. This latter pond is filled with water from the swimming pond which seeps not through the dam, but rather through the rock of the hillside next to the pond. Bob told of installing this small pond as an improvement over a skeeter swamp in a recent issue of PBMag.


UNOFFICIAL PB MOD FISHING DERBY:

Okay, it was closer to a one man demonstration than a derby. Like Bob mentioned above, if you put a line in the water, you caught something. But the following photo sums up the experience well. The wisest fishermen have already retired their reels, the slowest fishermen are still trying to get their poles rigged, the worst fisherman is taking pictures, and Condello has just hooked his 35th BG. I must say I learned a couple of things from Bruce - 1) his piece of worm on a jighead technique and 2) never compete against Bruce in a fishing derby.

From left to right, here are West, Willis, Otto, Davidson, Sunil and Condello, with yours truly at the shutter.


Here are just a few of the medium-sized BG caught over the weekend (the large-sized BG went back into the water quickly, and there basically weren't any small BG caught):


Now, an observation on Bruce's alleged freakishly long arms. This is merely a myth; his arms are almost a normal length. What Bruce does is to actually make fish larger by holding them at arm's length. The following photo is a BG that measured 7" long when caught, but an honest 8 1/2" after Bruce held it out for the photo:


The truly amazing thing is that Bruce's stiff-arm transformation even works on animals other than fish. For example, after the following photo was taken, the LL2 attack dog, Romeo the Yorkie, was able to climb stairs for the first time:


All good things must come to an end, and it's the same with the Moderators' Retreat. On the way back to the airport Sunday, we stopped and got lunch at the "Birthplace of Pond Boss" - the Lewisville Whataburger (for those unfortunate enough to never have experienced the world's greatest fast food hamburger, this is pronounced "WOT-uh-burger"). In this restaurant in (IIRC) Nov 1991, Bob Lusk and Mark McDonald conducted the all-day brainstorming session that was the genesis of PBMag, and hence all that currently lies before you on your computer screen.