Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Property Projects & Construction What did you do at your pond today?

Can you tell us how this was determined? I agree that it is most likely correct based on my experience and on your previous reports.

I assumed the big gals began doing the Florida "Gator Chomp" with their pectoral fins as they recovered from the shocking.

In addition to Rod's Gator Chomp action, a dead giveaway if there ever was one, I rely upon Ethan's report from electro shocking. He observed behaviors of larger bass that were more characteristic of Floridas, such as holding deep rather than cruising around for food. Better yet, he examined the fish that were netted. I can't just look at a LMB and tell whether it is northern or florida, but apparently he can, at least most of the time. A few F1s, too, and I'm sure some Fx.

Will do Al.

Al, don't do it. I am 99.9% sure that they are just goldfish without the gold color.

What Black Salty's? I was talking about the trap.

Mark, I talked to Ethan yesterday. I was gonna poke him in the eye with a stick like Homer Simpson did Ned Flanders, but we were both busy. He was coming back from delivering fish, and I was picking up tilapia and grass carp. I got to Overton's about 5 minutes after they opened, and I was already 6th in line. Springtime is here, so Todd and his staff were hustling.

Good folks, I'm glad to see them doing strong business!

Picked up forage fish @ Tyler Fish Farm - easy to do business with, but a 5 hour trip. Hard to find forage and game fish in North Texas since Arms went out of business. Overton is a 6 1/2 hour trip and only open some afternoons with an appointment. The fish trucks at the feed stores are hit and miss with questionable product. Pond King does not have any stock. Maybe a new fish supplier will start up.

Sorry Al, I thought you were talking about the Black Salty's not Zep,

Refilled feeders. HSB, LMB and CNBG attacked pellets, especially the large handthrown ones. This is my favorite time of the year, as just about everything in the lake is active.

Geese have brought off a half dozen cute little goslings. My wife is delighted. I am not.

Apparently we had one survivor from the otter attacks.
This HSB was 26.5” 9 lb 2 oz

Magnificent beast! Congratulations!

Like someone said....it is a great time of year:

This weekend:

Geese had 4 goslings swimming with them last weekend & only one this weekend.
Don't love the geese, but 2nd year in row Geese present & almost zero water-turkey.


Pretty fish:




Al...here is the new otter trap:

What a pretty black crappie

Thanks Pat. These weekends are nice, before the heat arrives in 6-8 weeks.

It’s tough trying to garden with the weather being up and down. Zep is the pix of the bg a common bg female? I have some that look identical. But I have a lot of mutts also

Great pics, Pat. I hope my LMB do a similar number on the goslings at my place!

Does that otter trap really trap otter? Looks like they'd easily be able to tear free with their teeth & claws, but maybe I'm missing something.

When ordering some Optimal BG this week I ordered some Optimal Bass for the first time to try. I was figuring the LMB would like it more and it would be to big for the BG. I threw some out today and the LMB did like but I was surprised to see the BG eating so much of it. Next time I'll order the Handthrow.

You'll love the Handthrow, Bob. The larger LMB tend to target it, and it doesn't get eaten first by the BG (though a few giants try). Don't know if you have them, but HSB are particularly enthused & make quite splash crushing the offerings!

If you are a shameless angler like myself, a rubber band with hook attached to a Handthrown pellet can result in loads of excitement, but don't tell anybody I said this.

Thanks for the tip. I don't mind helping the BG out but figured I was already doing that and was wanting to help the LMB out a little more. I also figured it would be fun to watch. I don't have any HSB right now but would like to get some one of these days.

I was kinda thinking that but on the other hand I can see them getting tangled up in that thing pretty quickly too, and as long as it id under water they wouldn't be able to come up for air, that might just do the trick.

I have been brainstorming an apparatus that would let them in like a funnel but might not let them out, similar to that concept but maybe more like an over sized square fish trap. stay tuned.

Thanks for the pics Mark. Did he bait it, or just set it as it was?

SetterGuy, that's a very nice HSB. Congrats on a job well done.

Al in theory the trapped fish in it are the bait for the otter, but he said throw in a can of dog food with a few holes in it. He just had surgery and it's kind of a work in progress. I checked it before we left and it had a crappie and a blue gill in it. We'll see how the experiment works out.