I am struck by your root beer colored water albeit clear. Is that typical for your area?
There are times when I am afraid that I may have over achieved. As of this weekend, most of the neighboring ponds are FA covered and green. Mine is as clean as can be, FA free, and as you say, "root beer colored."
Besides the miniature "wetland", I've dug two settling ponds where most of the water comes from, I've moved a road, and I've done a lot of other things that really clean the inflow into the pond. I have just as much water as before (... now, at the end of August, I'm only 2-inches down from full pool), but the water is seriously filtered and oxygenated before it gets to the pond. It has been incredibly clear this year since ice out. It now about 30 inches of visibility, but was beyond 4-feet in May.
I had fantastic BG and LMB recruitment this year -- so we'll see.
My average BG catch is over 9 inches right now, and we get a lot of 10 and 11 inchers, even several right near 12 inches. I see lots of 3-5 inchers, and big schools of 1-2 inchers. Great CC too. They were put in as 10-12 inchers last summer, and are now very fat 20-24 inchers. I took out a lot of 8-10 inch LMB early this spring. Still lots of small bass in the pond -- which is OK with me, for now.
My biggest concern is that I'm at the "old folks home" from Sunday nights through Wednesday night. I only get to feed from Friday morning through Sunday morning. We'll see.
By the way, this is what it looks like from my view at the old folks home.
This is looking north into Maryland. The river is the Potomac.
This is looking west. Those are the Blue Ridge foothills in the background. The Shendandoah Valley is just beyond.
