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SHOOTIN' FISH IN A BARREL
Update time...
Many of you know that we used some care when planning and stocking our new pond. Since that time, it has remained largely unattended and allowed to mature entirely on it's own with very, very little sampling and virtually no culling in any form. Why? Mostly because I just don't have the time. When we go to our LNP project, we are there to work.
This past weekend was a little different.
My niece and nephew were in with their Mom this past weekend from Idaho. The kids had one plan; fishing Uncle Brettski's pond. I have a couple of cheapie $15 combo rod/reels, some hooks and bobbers and sinkers. They were only able to visit for a few hours, so time was tight. A dozen nightcrawlers later and they had a freakin' blast.
I don't know what elements came into play, but Uncle Brettski was runnin' nonstop removing fish, hooking worms, re-tying new hooks, and measuring fish. It was unbelieveable...there was no rest. It wasn't unusual for the line to hit the water and 5 seconds later the bobber was submerged. I got to the point that I would nip off about 1" of nightcrawler and it would still drive 'em wild. Yeah, we were all gettin' a rush. The kids cuz they were pulling out fish like crazy and me cuz the product they were catching looked pretty damned good.
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There was alot of YP. Most were 11"; a few were 12".
A couple of RES were hooked, but they were small; maybe 5".
The coolest was a pretty good supply of SMB.
All of them were hammering a small piece of nightcrawler hanging 3' below a bobber on a #4 hook.










The Smallies were typically 10" - 12". It's nice to see recruitment as it matures. I don't have a scale, so measurements were all we got. I ain't no expert, but you guys have shown me enough pics to know when a fish is hurtin' for food. All these fish looked plump and healthy.
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Then my nephew got a hit that bent the rod so far that I thought his eyes would pop outta his head. It was very cool. When the fish broke the surface and jumped into the air, I thought he was gonna soil himself. I don't have a net either, so all I could do was stand at the shore and beach it. It quickly wiggled off the crushed barb and I had to try and grab it before it flopped down the bank and into the water. Yeah, I suppose Uncle Brettski's heart was pumpin' a bit more than normal. We took a couple of pics and tried to calm it down long enough to measure.



I think the dirt bath musta doubled his attitude, cuz when I got him to the water, he shot outta my hands like a missile.

(edit) I must also point out that all this action occurred at Theo's Cluster. When the pond was nothing more than a dirt hole and we were bustin' butt tryin' to lay in some sorts of habitat and structure, Theo told me to make sure and put something within casting distance of shore. Theo's Cluster was born, made of a truck tire pyramid surrounded by 3 PVC trees, all marked with a duck decoy about 25 feet from shore. The thing is a fish magnet