a brief update for the el dorado sunfish pond. water quality is excellent this time of year, nice olive color with maybe 2 feet of visibility. we need rain though, have had none in march so far, and none in the extended forecast. have been at full pool for several months, but level is now below spillway.
starting about last friday, observed the first surface activity since late november/early december 07....and enjoyed the first little hand feeding coming out of winter. a small group of about 100 BG are taking pellets.
decided to try and sample sunday afternoon and caught some BG who appear fat and happy.. seems like the first class of active fish in the pond are 7-8-inches and mostly females? fished for about a half hour and caught about a dozen all in the same size range, no larger BG, no GSF, and no RES seen or caught, but they should still be in there...perhps need a bit longer stretch of warm weather to bring everyone out.
am aerating for a few hours in afternoon (12 to 5 pm) to cycle around some warmer water, keep water visibility and weeds down and prevent early thermocline development. if it stays warm, i'm going to shift aeration to nighttime, probably 12 to 8 am.
some pics to enjoy:
mrs. DIED hooks a BG on the fly
