Allen and I are going to bring George out to the farm and show him how Georgetopia has done. Remember, the spring was cold and wet off and on so we really never got a good start to the season. Right after that, it got hot and dry, very dry. It was so bad that even in June, my springs could not keep up with the losses. My LMB spawn was iffy at best. I have a lot of pictures and video of Bass on nests, but so far I have not seen much recruitment. I am afraid the weather just did not support a good spawn. On the other hand, I have seen some smaller catfish and a lot of smaller BG in the big pond. The catfish were delicious!! The BG that I do catch are fat and full of life. I was able to take video and pictures of their spawns and I have seen a lot of little BG swimming around.
So with all of that, how is Georgetopia doing? I will admit I spent a lot more time working on Georgetopia than the rest of the property this summer, but there was a method to my madness. I added the solar powered aerator because I needed to have a safety valve and it work very well. I was also able to add just the right amount of fertilizer to get a good bloom. Allen help me get rid of some turbidity with our alum experiment. But with the eight inch rain we had a couple weeks ago, a lot of that returned. It will be interesting to see if Georgetopia clears any now that it has had some time to settle. If not, I will add another learning point to the list.
Now it's October and I need to start to put Georgetopia into its winter mode. I will try my best to ease Georgetopia into that mode by removing most of the fish this week. This is going to be a two pronged attack. First off, George is going to try to teach me a little about fly fishing on Georgetopia, and when he get frustrated with my incompetence (I bet less than five minutes, Allen gives me ten), Allen and I will seine Georgetopia. We will select the best of the best to remain in Georgetopia for the winter and the rest, as Allen says, get to go swim in the public pool. George gets to be the photographer. I hope its a fun day, the forecast could not be better. Everything should be ready and it is time to get Georgetopia into its winter gears.
There is going to be a winter experiment/learning opportunity this year in Georgetopia. I have ordered 1000 feet of half inch black drip tubing. I plan to set it up around the rim of Georgetopia and run water through it during the day seeing if I can add enough heat to Georgetopia to raise its temp and expand the warm season at all. The goal is to never see less than 60 degrees in Georgetopia all winter. Of course I will use the solar system to power the project and I will use the same pumps I used for the sprinkler system the last two years. All in all, I am in this experiment for $87 in poly tubing. And if I see some progress, but not enough, I'll add another 1000 feet to see how that does!!
To think,Georgetopia started out as a tribute to George only after I was more than half the way through the beach clean up. I added it to try my hand at growing some CNBG to improve the genetics in our big pond because of where it had started, I never imagined that I would do so much with it and learn what I have in such a short time. It may not look like it, but I have a better understanding of what George was trying to tell me last year now that I have a thimble full of experience this year.
Pictures of the events of tomorrow to follow; Wish us well!!!
Brian
The one thing is the one thing A dry fly catches no fish Try not to be THAT 10%
