Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations What a night fishing!!!!!

God, I love my pond.

Caught about 8-10 CNBG with my flyrod....all 9-11" in length and pushing bragging rights on their weight. As I was bringing in a 5-6"er, a BIG LMB hit it about a foot from shore and snapped the line. Scared the +$#%@* out of me.
Then, on my last cast after rerigging, I had a Tilapia hit my fly.....took about 10 minutes to land it. What a fighter....

Not to worry Meadowlark, it was only 2lb-9oz. We will have him for dinner later in the week.

God, I love my pond.

P.S. Bruce, good article in PB and thanks for the info.

Nice stuff BarO. would love to see a pic of yer CNBG.

LOL....similar thing happened to me down at the ranchpond earlier this summer, was bringing in a fiesty 12" LMB on ultralight tackle (4 lb test or so). i got him to w/in about 5 feet of shore and a lunker lurched from the depths and wolfed down the 12-incher. i almost wet my pants. i played him about 5 minutes before he got the best of me beneath some submerged ponderosa pine structure.....all broke off

my wife caught a 5-7 lb range LMB on the same rod and reel earlier in the day in an area lacking bottom structure, I helped her land it.

In early October, I was talking to one of the ranchhands.....he and a buddy caught a 10 and 11 lb LMB down there....could have been what i almost had :rolleyes:

D.I.E.D.,

Don't have that big of LMB lunkers yet! I have caught a 4+LBer and had a 5+ floater this summer when I had a DO crash. This is about the third time I had a LMB attack a BG I was reeling in....the other times they spit them back out after about 10-20 seconds fighting some good rod/line tension.

I am proud of my CNBG and will try to get a couple of pix tomorrow.....if they are biting.
Cold front heading our way....it may get down in the 50's tonight. Brrrrrrrr.

"I helped her land it."

Yeah, OK D.I.E.D. If it helps you sleep at night, OK.

"I helped her land it."
It's a guy thing.

Braggart! I'll me making snowballs. :p :p

i guess i had that one comin.....

it was worth mentioning (and i dont mind tellin the story ) cause I was a couple hundred feet away and my wife was yelling (i think mostly at me), she was plain scared at this thing tugging the end of the line, really wished i had a home movie of it. she got the fish all hung up in the weed bed along shore, so i told to her to just keep firm tension, let him take drag if he can, and hold on til i can come save the day. super dave ran at full speed then....boom, right off into the waist deep water i go dragging FA and pond weed along with me until i can reach the line and gently follow it down to the fish who was buried in pond salad. must have been a 10-15 pound package of fish and weeds i drug back to shore and we cleaned him off, admired the heck out of him for a minute (my son was blown away he could fit his fist right down his throat) and then released him.......a great memory right there....definitely a guy thing

BarO, ain�t life grand�..?

Gills are the icing on the cake.
Be sure and take some pictures for our PB collection.

Refresh my memory about your pond � still low water?
Are you feeding, and if so how much how often pounds/acre?
What fly are you chunkin?

What is the source of your stockers?
Arkansas genetics or Florida?

D.I.E.D,

I landed a similar fish the other night but under different circumstances. Here is my story.

Russ: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Wife: Russ, wake up, wake up, you were dreaming again. Why are you so sweaty and what's the fishing rod doing in bed??

Its the only way I can catch big fish

BarO,

Did you miss the memo? Tilapia don't hit flies. One of the pond myths.

Nice post, very nice, especially the part about loving the ponds. They provide so much enjoyment and enrichment of our lives.

p.s. you are doing a great job of raising big Tilapia and big CNBG...doesn't get much better than that!

George,
I have a 3/4 acre pond that received aeration 24/7 til last month. I supplemented the water with deep well water....so it didn't get low with the drought. It is 13' at the deepest with about 1/2 at about 5' and deeper. The CNBG were from Tyler fish farms and about 5 years old. Have put Tilapia in the pond the last 2 years and will continue to do so. I still have a ton of forage for the LMB this winter.....I had an early September BG spawn this year.

I have been feeding about 6-8 cups of floating food in the evenings by hand every day. More for the CNBG now that the carp have quit feeding. The Tilapia still come up for a bite now and then.

I have been using a 3/4" hot pink nymph fly and a #8 short shank hook.

The pix of my CNBG may have to wait....the northern from Nebraska just came in and it dropped to a shivering 44 degrees. I'm staying inside today.

BarO, I envy your water well to insure against the severe drought we are undergoing, however pleasantly surprised at the good condition of our fish. We don�t have an adequate aquifer in our area.

If you stocked CNBG from Tyler Fish Farms, they are Florida genetics.

We originally stocked CNBG from same source, but made a bad pre-PB mistake and stocked a few adult LMB.
Bob Lusk recommended supplemental stocking of 7 large adult CNBG for each LMB.

The only CNBG available that were large enough were Arkansas genetics, so we have a Fla/Ark mix, which have resulted in some mojo CNBG. Some of our PB forum experts see a predominate Arkansas strain.

We stocked 15 large adult female Florida strain CNBG from Overton Fisheries in early October and hope we got a spawn. Maybe a genetic boost of FCNBG will make the 12-inch mark � breaking the 11-inch barrier ain�t bad tho, as you well know...
The CNBG and HSB are still feeding like crazy, but this cold front may slow them down.

Have you considered HSB?
They are a blast on the fly�..

Thanks for your fly-fishing info � I cheat and use a pellet fly � all�s fair in love, war, and fishing.

Congrats on your pond!
Life is good

N.E. Texas

:D LOL

was recently watching a fishin show from Lake Oneida (sp?) in NY......big ones aint that far away Russ

honestly though, fish like i described above are FEW and FAR between for me....when the dreams come true, i just cant wait to brag about it on PB ........but ya know, i get equal kick out of catching anything....i have a pool in the creek below my house that contains a bunch of little GSF (max maybe 4-inch)....its a blast to hike down in and sneak up on the bank, flip out a little mosquito on a fly rod, and get a tug o war goin down in the ravine with a scrappy little pool dweller....its all good.

George, I plan on looking into HSB in my pond. Are there any downsides to HSB? I to do a search here for more info.

P.S. During my DO crash in mid August, I found a floater CNBG that was a hair shy of 13". Wished I could have had it hit my fly!

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