Dave- Not to worry, my son is never alone around the ponds.
The land does have cattle, the true reason FOR the ponds. Aside from that, it's just her grandmother (lost her grandad in January) out there now, along with a depleting herd of commercial cows.
Ideally I would like to keep pond 2 as a bass/HBG fishery, as I know depth plays a vital role.
I would like to also do the same for pond 3, not bc of depth, but because of how much structure has grown up while the pond was down. It would be a prime habitat for bass/perch/fhm, etc.
I would be fine with pond 1 being a HBG and CC pond, as there is a small pier on it that we could sit and fish from. Perfect setting for teaching my son the sport.
Pond 1 had an outrageous population of perch, but they never grew to be very big. Not CBG's, RES, or HBG by any means. Just normal small perch. I took the liberty of stocking some bass and cats, not knowing what dry spell we had in store. Some of the larger bass were transported by a friend of mine, as I knew they would do well with the currenty base of forage fish.
I fed pellets and the cats were doing great...had a couple in the 4lb range. Rest were a little over a pound when the pond finally dried.
I am fortunate enough to have some extended family with ranches, both of which have managed ponds, so I've learned a little on the side. But, I also know the feed bill for just one of his ponds, and I'm nowhere near the same league that he's in.
Idealy I would like to go ahead and get FHM stocked in all of them now, or is that a bad idea?
