Meadowlark,
I wouldn't judge you for that. Different strokes for different folks. After all what is the ultimate purpose anyway? Isn't it catching fish?
I know some guys that fish a local river for put and take trout. They go complete with the expensive fly rods, fancy flies, vests, etc. etc. They try to match the hatch yada yada yada.They act like such purists, but the trout knew nothing other than a concrete raceway before thy were dumped in! On top of that these guys pride themselves on catch and release although the river gets so warm in the summer most of them die! To me that makes a lot less sense than fishing your pond with hybrid bluegills. In fact, what you are doing makes sense. What they are doing is a waste of resources IMPO.
Had one of those guys and his wife out with his fancy tackle one day a few years ago when the trout pond was full of browns up to 12 lbs. I told them the browns would not be interested in their flies. They didn't listen. They flailed the water with their fancy flies for several hours taunted by an occasional monster brown clearing the water as if to laugh at them. Finally after a few hours I felt sorry for them and offered them some "pellet flies" and explained to them the browns really don't feed until about an hour before dark. They declined (didn't want to stoop to that level I guess) and left without a hit. Later some friends came over and had no problem using the pellet flies. They landed 9 browns in an hour up to 9 lbs. When I told one of these friends about the couple he laughed and said, "Heck we're just matching the hatch. We're giving them what they're used to. That's what fishing is all about along with catching isn't it?"
As you know I have another bent on my fishing. Since I sell my feed trained fish for top dollar every time I catch one I hear a Cha Ching!
I love that sound! :p I have to pinch myself knowing not only do I get the satisfaction of growing these fish to large sizes, and get to catch them on hook and line, I get paid for it! What's even better is part of the profit goes to planting more. And you can bet I have been judged harshly when I post pics of my big fish on a regular fishing site. I've been told that is no more difficult than fishing in a bathtub but if they only knew even these fish are not always cooperative. And of course they tell me feeding fish is not fair as anyone can do that. We as pondmeisters know it's more complicated than that. Do you think Bruce could grow the fish he does by simply feeding them? I think we know better.
