We harvested the first CC from the pond Saturday (Second one caught) —2.5# and a bit thin, IMO. One of my grandsons and his friend came over and caught several BG and HBG.
Earlier this week, we had an awesome fishing trip at another pond. Ended up bringing back 12 gallon bags of CC fillets! We also pulled out over 200 Crappie, weighing 1.5 to 2#. The pond had been unmanaged for about 8 years. The new owners goal is to turn it into a trophy LMB pond.
We cooked the CC from my pond right after catching it—normally I soak them in saltwater overnight. The difference in flavor was surprising.
My CC had beautiful white, flaky meat all the way through. The CC from the other pond had some red on the sides where the skin was removed and a yellow fat, which I’ve heard comes from eating vegetation.
Feeding a good quality food makes a big difference in the quality of fish.
Earlier this week, we had an awesome fishing trip at another pond. We also pulled out over 200 Crappie, weighing 1.5 to 2#. The pond had been unmanaged for about 8 years. The new owners goal is to turn it into a trophy LMB pond.
Right now, that sounds like a trophy crappie pond!
Any chance he would like to manage it for large crappie for 1-3 more years? As you take out some of these large crappie, he might even reach a few 3-3.5# crappie.
At some point, it will probably get out of balance for large crappie, THEN would be a good time to convert it to a trophy LMB pond. (Perhaps by draining completely and starting from a blank slate? Perhaps not, if an existing crappie population would keep down the number of bass fry survival each year?)
Starting over would be the best the option for a trophy LMB pond.
More details
This is a 105 to 120 acre lake, I should have added those details. It was built in the 70's for flood prevention and is 18' deep at 105 AC.
I agree that correcting what it is will be next to impossible but the land owner is making very significant efforts.
We removed over 500 Crappie 1.5# Avg. 1500 CC 3# Avg. and over 400 common carp, 7# Avg. That's close to 5000#.
LMB over 10# have been caught recently. I think the largest one we pit tagged was 9# 10 OZ.
Don't think that starting over is an option.
Bob does some truly amazing things! For those of you who don't know. Bob hosts a Facebook Live show for 1 hour from 6:30 to 7:30 on most Tuesday nights to answer questions live. Tons of great information!!
The size of that watershed lake certainly suggests that with enough water, a pond can be "unmanaged" and produce a very healthy and balanced fishery compared to the 0.5 to 2 acre ponds that many people on Pond Boss micro-manage so well.
I hope you have lots of fun helping the owner push that lake into a trophy LMB fishery!
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