The TGG pond continues to improve in visibility going from zero in late June to now about 6 inches visibility. With cooler weather coming, I expect it to clear very nicely in the next couple of months. During this period of low visibility, I suspended artificial feeding and fish activity really slowed to a crawl...now its really picking up again. Here is Oct.'s report by the three factors being measured:
Growth: The average length is now 8.8 inches. For those not familar, this length is determined from 5 fish, with the high and low thrown out and the remainig three averaged. Hence, you will see a 9 inch fish in the pictures but the overall average is 8.8 inches. Likewise, weight is based on average of the same three fish and the weight ave. is 8 ounces.
Aggressiveness: I use a 10 cast system with identical flies and identical times fishing three ponds within sight of each other. I score 10 points for a catch and 5 points for a hit. The cumulative average for the 10 month experiment is as follows: TGG=33, CNBG=24, and native BG=23.
Sustainability: In past reports, I have noted the virtual complete absense of Fx offspring...that has now changed. There are clearly two classes of Fx now in the pond...a 4 inch class and a 2 inch class. I'm able to trap both classes now. I will try to keep some measure of the numbers of these Fx trapped as a function of time, but it will be less than presise.
Comment: I have started removing the HSB for stocking in a larger pond. I have to say that the HSB spinoff has been a most positive result of this experiment. Every one of them has grown from 3-4 inch stockers to at least 12 inches and at least one pound. I'm simply overjoyed to have such a great fish to move into a larger pond for finishing growth...a result totally unexpected.
Next update in Dec. will be the one year point for the experiment and I plan to go to quarterly updates after that time.
For pictures and complete tabular data see this link:
http://www.meadowlarkponds.com/TGG.htm
