Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction Hoping to grow (and catch) monsters

I've always dreamed of living near a pond and now I'm building a house next to a 3/4-acre retention pond owned by the homeownership association. Here a view of the pond from Bing maps: http://binged.it/mbInta

I've already mapped the size of the pond using this Google Maps tool to determine the acreage.
http://www.daftlogic.com/projects-google-maps-area-calculator-tool.htm

I'm getting this wireless depthfinder to maps the bottom of the pond.
http://store.humminbird.com/products/341323/RF25 You can cast it.

I'm just about to start logging fish sizes as I catch them. I suspect the bass are slightly underweight from what I've caught so far but the bluegill are huge. I hope to start a supplemental feeding program. The pond doesn't have much structure for the fish, so that's something I'm looking into, too.

One question I have is how much of the food comes into the pond from the two large drainage pipes that empty into it. Seems like a lot of night crawlers and bugs must get washed in. Another similar size retention pond nearby has huge fish. I've caught a 10-pound channel cat and a five-pound bass there. (Both by catching s small bluegill and using it as bait.)

I'm looking forward to being part of this group and learning a lot! I'm already devouring the videos and forum.

I forgot to mention that I think Bob Lusk should do a reality show called "Pond Monsters," like Jeremy Wade's "River Monsters."

BB,

I'll respond to your other queries a little later. But, if you haven't aready gotten the RF25, I would not recommend it. I got one. I used it three times and the floating part died. About 10 weeks later I finally got a replacement after multiple phone calls. The replacement lasted for about 30 minutes before it died. I gave up on trying to get it replaced, and just wrote the whole thing off as mistake. Maybe others have had a better experience with it.

When it worked, it did what I wanted. But . . . Google the thing. Maybe they've gotten better. When I was having problems with mine, I found through web searches that a lot of other people were having similar problems.

Ken

Oh, and Welcome to Pond Boss.

Ken,

Have you found a better one? I haven't bought it yet but haven't seen many options.

Tim

Welcome BassBuster. You're gonna love it here. "Pond Monsters" would have priority status on my DVR!

BB, I think you are on the right track in keeping a log of fish caught. What I think will happen is the LMB might be stunted because of not enough food in the pond. The only choice you have (unless you have very deep pockets) is to take out the stunted LMB (say everything you catch less than 12"-14" long). That's the only way to get enough food for the other LMB to grow. As a rule of thumb, each and every LMB needs 10# of live food to put on 1# of weight. Now, if you can convince your LMB to eat pellets, the conversion rate is much better. I've seen 1 1/4# of pellets to 1# of weight added bantered about. But, usually if the LMB haven't been feed trained from hatching, they won't eat pellets.

If I feed the bluegill GFC will it help the LMB by providing more for them to eat?

Tim,
I sure wish I could say I had a good answer or a good alternative. When it worked, it was fantastic. It did exactly what I wanted it to do. I found sunken structure. I found out where the fish were hanging out. I was able to roughly map two ponds.

As I mentioned above, do a Google search, and read the reviews at places like Amazon, Cabelas, etc. Unfortunately, I did a quick search before posting this, and it looks like lot of people still unfortunately have had the same experience as me.

Maybe you can find somebody with a fishing boat, and who has one of the good portable fish finders. Launch the boat, or a canoe in the pond, and give it a try.

Ken

Most definately!

Ken,

How about this kind of boat? ;-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILkNnqwcPEw

Tim