Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations What makes it all worthwhile...

Won't let me post pics of my grandkids catching first fish!

How do you post images to the Forum? NOT the photo gallery, the Forum.

Tried following exact directions for photo gallery. Images downloaded, or so it said, but never showed.

I'm getting really frustrated. Ridiculous that this stuff doesn't work.

Ask your grandkids to help. I am not kidding. My kids help me.

Frank,

Email them to me and I'll post them for you. Email address is under my profile.

Thanks, Chris. I did so, hopefully you will get them.

Jack now has the official pond record bass of 7 inches (not bad from 3 inches stocked 3 months ago). Maisy has the pond record BG of 6 inches.

Obviously not big yet, but this is what the whole thing is about.

Here you go.

Nice yup some of my boys biggest smiles are when there holding up fish.

Well done Ant...

RC

Nice pictures of happy anglers. The LMB looks rather shinny. Make sure they have more food or fewer bass if you want them to keep growing into 4-6 pounders+.

Great photos, great memories!

And a proud Grandpa I'm sure .

Thanks for sharing!!!

Yeah, I had 800 LMB stocked in late June after stocking over 12,000 BG, RES, and CNBG last November. Thought it was too much, I'd have preferred 400 to 500, but the fish guy insisted that a lot of the little LMB would get eaten.

I should have gone with my instincts. Guess I'll have to do something I really hate to do: Harvest some of the stocked LMB before they spawn. A shame, as they have great genetics.

Part of the problem is that my pond is low in fertility due to acidic conditions despite ag liming 4 tons per acre. (Even that was double what was recommended!) Also not much cover, despite some felled trees, as no pond weeds are growing at all. I do feed the BG to try to make up for it to some extent.

And I remember only 105 lb of FHM put in along with the BG, clearly not enough to feed the small bass when they were stocked 7 months later. Again, I was told no more FHM were needed when the LMB were stocked, which I now think was a serious mistake.

Doesn't please me that I paid for a bunch of excess LMB that I'll now have to work catching and pay a shock boat guy to help me get rid of.

Moral of the story: If your pond guy, stocker guy, or whoever wants to do something that you really question, TALK ABOUT IT FIRST. If you aren't convinced, stand your ground. It's YOUR pond, after all.

Don't just accept their word because "They are the experts." They don't know your situation as well as you do, and for sure don't have the time to do so.

I want to be clear that this is not a complaint about the ethics or competence of anybody. After all, the folks who stocked my LMB would have made more money if they had stocked more FHM as well. I'm sure they did their very best. Just wish I'd stuck to my guns as I knew more about my BOW than anybody else. Ultimately, any blame falls squarely on me.

PS If someone would like some of my excess LSL bass, please let me know here or by PM. They really are great fish, I just have too many for my infertile BOW.

Thanks to all who mentioned my grandkids. Despite my rant about stocking, I'm delighted they enjoy fishing somewhere they can actually catch fish!

And a special thanks to Chris for posting the pics that I could not!

Those are some really big smiles!

Frank, it looks to me your plans for the grandkids to catch fish has worked out great. Look like some good looking kids having fun to me And as far as that one skinny bass, I have to ask u if all the lmb are skinny? I have learned it is not so easy to get to your goals in just a year or so. My pond is fairly close to you and I have to opposite problem that you might have. My lmb survival of the fingerling stocking was really low, not sure why. The lmb count was low long before any cormorants, or Bald Eagles showed up. I went with a heavy stocking of cnbg and res and fhm's, maybe some of them feed on the lmb fingerlings, who knows? My cnbg count might be so high I may not get a spawn this coming spring, if that happens I might want to get some or your LSL lmb to help me get to my goals. Right now, I have a few lmb in the pond that seem to be in great shape but the count seems to be so low we have not caught one since last June.

Tracy

WORDS OF WISDOM from anthropic. ""Moral of the story: If your pond guy, stocker guy, or whoever wants to do something that you really question, TALK ABOUT IT FIRST. If you aren't convinced, stand your ground. It's YOUR pond, after all.

Don't just accept their word because "They are the experts." They don't know your situation as well as you do, and for sure don't have the time to do so.""

I am looking for a good place in the Archives of Common Pond Q&A to put this good advice and testimony.

I would add that if you don't understand the plan suggested or don't agree with it then you can not manage it very well. Do it your way with a full understanding of all the issues , hows and whys.

Cody Note; It is a very good idea to get advice from several experts. Pond Boss forum is a very good place to get good 2nd and 3rd opinions. Then armed with knowledge make the decision based on sound experienced advice.

Tracy I have the same problem you do. My BG have went gangbusters but the LMB recruitment has been very low.

Seems like even with the best laid plans, unforseen circumstances can slip in and cause things to work out differently than planned. I was planning on a bass heavy population for a pan fish pond and after three years since stocking ended up with a forage heavy situation.

Will be interesting how it all works out.

snrub, I have leaned its not so easy to grow trophy lmb even with great genetics. Eric West did a good write up on stocking some older and larger lmb into lakes and ponds in the last Pond Boss Mag and the study he shared did not make me feel better about stocking larger lmb in my pond. Dam'ed if u do and dam'ed if u don't situation is what I took from his article. Ha! I do have some really nice CNBG

Tracy

Facts are facts - hard to argue with them in the study. Keep in mind every situation is different and can have unforeseen results. That is why a solid understanding of the principals of pond management is the key.

Yeah, our BOW are close yet the situation is quite different. And who knows, maybe I'll have a small LMB spawn this coming spring and be very glad for every one of those 800 stocked.

Right now, though, seems like I may have too many. One small 4 inch one was caught, along with the 7 inch skinny guy.

Really do need more liming, more pond plants, maybe artificial cover.

If you want some extra bass, let me know.