Time for another update on my pond after some interesting developments.

First off, the pond is waaaayyy down, probably 3 ft. low, due to the drought we've been suffering since I'd say March. It's a very deep pond though, probably 14'-15' out in the middle, so I'm not too worried about that. One thing it did do is bottom out my floating dock, which I recently unhooked from the shore and set adrift. The ladder was sitting in mud and the barrels were starting to float off. The downside of that is that is where I had been feeding the fish, so I haven't been feeding at all in the past 6 weeks or so. Combined with the heat wave and a very pregnant wife (and now newborn son), I haven't spent much time out at the pond.

Over the course of the spring and summer I have been catching and eating catfish and bluegill. There are some definite keepers in both categories. I've weighed the catfish and they've ranged (the ones I've kept) from 1 pound 1 ounce up to 1 pound 6 ounces. Very noticable difference in those 5 ounces! I lost track of how many I've kept but it's at least 10. I've caught and kept several nice bluegill and scores of not big enough to eat sized bluegill and redear. Both the bluegill and redear have spawned repeatedly. The fatheads have continued to multiply like crazy.

Back in July I put in 50 1-3" LMB. I didn't put in 100 like Theo recommended for two reasons. One, I couldn't remember at the time if he said 50 or 100, and two, I didn't have enough cash on me to pay for 100 (I think they were $.70).

This past Sunday I got some worms and did some fishing for the first time in a while. I didn't catch anything and was packing it in when I tried one more cast off a point where I can usually catch a bluegill. Bam, as soon as the bobber hit the water it was gone. Much to my surprise, I pulled out a fat 8" bass! I was amazed that in 3 months those minnow sized bass grew that much. Since then I rigged up a white rooster tail and spent 2 evenings down there fishing and I can pull in that same sized bass over and over and over. And every one is without question the absolute FATest largemouth I've ever seen. They must be just gorging themselves on those fatheads. Every one looks like he just swallowed a golfball. It's just unbelievable.

I'm going to try feeding the fish here in the next couple days and see what comes up. When I was feeding earlier in the summer it was a swarm of fatheads. I'm very curious to know if there are even any of those little guys left. The receeding water has exposed most of the cover, so I don't think there's much left for the minnows to hide in. Those bass are sure getting fat on something. They aren't quite big enough that I would keep them to eat, but very, very close.

I'm thrilled, thanks for the great advice so far guys!