Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Now come on people !

Cecil, sometime in the last year I read a thread in a general fishing forum about a kid (midteens IIRC) who caught the new state-record Green Sunfish, a 0.99 pounder. I'm pretty sure it was in a midwestern state, maybe here in Ohio.

Comments on this thread were running about 70% that the kid's record shouldn't be allowed, because he caught the GSF in a private farm pond. Guys were claiming that they could grow a GSF that big in an aquarium (my thought was "Go ahead and do it") and most big, public water fishermen felt that if they couldn't catch it because it was in private waters, it shouldn't be the basis for a public record (my thought was "Get your own pond!").

Now this strain of thought probably doesn't surprise you, given your big YP experience that lead you to start the private pond record website. I'm bringing it up to contrast it with my personal sentiments on trophy fish as a pond owner.

I don't really care about having a record. I don't hunt for trophy deer, neither do I fish for trophy fish. If I would happen to get a trophy from either activity, that'd be nice and I'd probably have it mounted, but I hunt and fish primarily for enjoyment and much more secondarily for food.

Furthermore, as a pond owner, I believe it is at least as hard to grow a record class fish in a private pond as it is to catch it in public water - maybe more so. And I think I would be prouder of having grown such a fish than for having caught it.

I think perhaps the reason the private pond record site doesn't have more entries is because many more people at this website feel the way I do than in the population at the website where a 0.99 pound private pond GSF was considered off-limits for a record. That difference may bode well, poorly, or no difference for us here, but I think it exists.

That being said, I think I have a good chance of qualifying for your site with a Golden Shiner or a Grass Carp.