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We still had no luck catching a WE in the 2 years they had been in the pond. I contacted our local conservation department and they were excited to come out and shock the pond to see what we could find. Nearly every body of water they handle is standard largemouth, crappie, bluegill, and catfish in this area. They came out in late October and we spent about an hour working around the pond. We were able to sample several YP, SMB, GSH, and RES but still had no luck finding a WE. I had hoped with the cooler water temperatures we would find one shallow enough to bring to the surface. At this point in the game, I was growing a little concerned about the status of my WE and whether or not they were still surviving in my BOY. I thought that maybe the otters had focussed on them that short period they were in the pond or that maybe other conditions were unfavorable for them and they had not surrvided. It certainly wasn't for lack of trying to catch them; we had used about every method that has been successful for us on other bodies of water with no luck. This includes nightcrawlers, FHM, GSH under a bobber, and artificial lures of about every kind. We did find that the SMB and YP sure love most of the above. No joke, we caught several 9-10" YP on 4+ inch GSH. I couldn't believe it. I have also attached a picture of a crawdad dangling from a chunk of nightcrawler that I tipped a plastic grub with. I have caught three crawdads just slow dragging lures on the bottom searching for a WE. Hard to believe we can literally catch mud bugs with a rod and reel and not WE. I would gladly take any advice on catching WE in small impoundments like mine!
Results of shocking produced several 13-15" SMB and 9-10" YP. I was happy with that growth considering these fish were only 2.7 years old at that time. It was so much fun to be a part of this whole process! Again, the science nerd in me was fascinated by the process and the critters involved.
I've also attached a few pictures from our ice fishing endeavors last winter. The last two years we have caught several GSH while ice fishing. They are BIG, but I wish they would just be a meal instead of trying to make a meal of our lures.
From the summer of 2021 throughout the winter, the pond water has been very cloudy. Visibility has been below a foot for a long time now and is something that I need to address and will look for some guidance on. It's one of the variables that I can see being frustrating to control that can have a pretty negative affect on the growth of my sight predators. I will address it in a later post once I'm all caught up to the current date.
