Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Fishin' 2009

She was just under 7 lbs. I caught her a couple of times last year. Thats my brother holding her in the pic. He caught her in the baitcasting net when we where moving some shad to another pond. I haven't caught any of the big fish on rod and real this year. The shad had a unbeliavable spawn and its almost impossible to get them to bite anything. There were 12 different schools of shad up a couple of afternoons ago and the ponds only 2 acres.

SMB I caught this year (June) on Big Sand Lake near Park Rapids, MN on our annual family vacation. The lake was so clear this year, you could see them swimming under the boat in 20 feet of water. The MN DNR was out the day before we arrived and took a secchi disk reading... They stopped at 40 feet because they still could see the disk!

This lake has some nice largemouth also, but the smallmouth are able to outcompete them due to fantastic habitat. There are also tons of huge Rockbass, a few bluegill, some yellow perch, a few big muskie and a ton of walleye in this lake. What's funny, is that the owner of the resort we stay at up there says that about 12 years ago Big Sand was considered to be a top crappie lake in the area. In 4 years of fishing this lake, I've never caught a single one. It's amazing how lakes go through population phases like that.

A pretty and nice sized rebreast sunfish caught in the creek behind my family's hunting cabin.

What's that craw lure?

I took the day off and fishing my pond before the rains came.

I caught around (20) LMB ranging from 10" to about 18" with the majority of them being say 2-3 lbs. But nothing was really photo-worthy.

I did catch a snapping turtle on a live-shiner which was odd. I had just cast out near some submerged trees, and within about 5 seconds, the bobber went straight down. I set the hook and it was like pulling in a tire, and I was pretty sure I knew it was a turtle.

I hauled it to the side of the boat when it proceeded to start hissing at me. I was like "look dude, I'm going to try and get that hook out of your lip." He just hissed back.

I pulled out my long hemos and grabbed the hook and slid it out.

It's a sliding weight craw baby. One of my favorite lures of all time. Unfortunately, the company that makes it went out of bidness and they are crazy hard to find. When ever I see them on eBay I buy them. I like the smaller craw baby size which is 3", but they also come in 4" and 5" sizes as well. It is unusual how it is rigged. The rigging causes it to swim very naturally. The SMB, LMB, trout and RBS all love to hammer it in the creek and I use it many other locations with great success.

I've caught snappers fishing for catfish using cut bait, but never caught one on a live shiner. That shiner must have plopped right in front of its face and been in complete shock before he knew what hit him... No signs of HSB or WE in the pond? Still seeing large schools of shiners balled up in the open areas of your pond?

Our youngest grand daughter still thinks it is a fun to spend most weekends at our place. Fishing still thrills her. Yesterday the fish were going absolutely crazy. Tonight, the fish bellies must have still been full from all the dragon flies they ate yesterday. So, Alexis got a little restless while fishing this evening. She grabbed one of the old cameras and took a lot of pictures, including this self-portrait.



Then she wandered off to get more worms from the worm bin. That left me with both fishing rods. As soon as she was out of sight and hearing range, one rod bent over with this fat little guy who was just short of 12 inches.



Before I got the fat BG landed, the other rod bent over with a big fat bass that I' guessing was about 18-inches. The two fish battled and tangled the lines to the point where only a knife will get them back to usable. I pulled the bass to the pond edge by hand. It got off just as I was lifting it out of the water.

By the time my grand daughter got back to the pond, the bass was off the line, and I threw the BG back in. All I had was a massive tangle between the two rods. She looked at me and said, "See, I told you they weren't biting!"

Great story, Ken! Your granddaughter is precious...good to hear that she enjoys fishing.

Great pics, good story. Thanks for posting. That's a huge BG!!!

Adorable granddaughter and giant BG Ken!

SKULL ISLAND FISHING EXPEDITION

My daughter and I portaged the canoe to the new pond today. We tied up to the end of the uncompleted dock overlooking submerged
Skull Island, currently about 3' under water. It's one place I can't reach from shore, and I wanted to see how the fishing was there.

Fishing was fantastic! We caught 30 YP, 22 RES, and 6 SMB there in an hour and a half. I have GOT to get that dock finished!

Wow!!! That's awesome!!!

That is one primo BG. Do you feed that pond, catmandoo?

Walt - yes, we do feed. I also cull the BG fairly heavily. This year, all females get taken that are 9 inches or less. Most males that are 9 inches or less also get taken, unless they are real husky. We also keep an overabundance of small skinny bass in the pond.

Thanks to Pond Boss, I now catch one or more citation size BG almost everytime I go fishing. (WV BG citation size is 10 inches or 1 lb.). I would hope that in a few more years I can start to approach the state records -- I think it is 13.75 inches at about 2-1/4 pounds, and I think the other is about 12 inches, but at 2.75 lbs.

My first grayling taken on a three weight fly rod.

What a neat fish! Very nice... Caught in Florida right? HAHA

If there are Smallies in the heat of Az, why not Grayling in Fl?

Caught him just an hour north of London in a spring creek.

London Ontario?

James where did you come by the grayling? I'm guessing Pacific Northwest or Canada.

Gorgeous fish...kind of looks like a mix between a striper and a freshwater drum.

London U.K. The trout are not as big as some of the ones I have caught in Montana but these fish are naturally reproducing native brown trout and grayling from some of the waters where fly fishing began.

You clean up real nice, james!

Did you try to swap that guard his hat for your shirt?

Very cool brown trout... I've wanted to visit Iceland, I hear the salmanoid fishing there is spectacular, although I don't believe they have grayling. My dad has visited England several times and mentioned the fishing to be great. He said the thing he was blown away by were the number of pheasants running around everywhere in the country.

English Springer Spaniel = Pheasants.

Midwest = Pheasants

Although PA is trying darn hard to bring back wild birds.