Yesterday I talked with some of the folks who were pumping water into my forage pond. They love fishing and eating fish, so were very interested in what was going on.

Honestly, I didn't fully appreciate the amount of knowledge Pond Boss has passed along. They liked panfish, particularly crappie, and had recently stocked a pond with a mix of bluegill and crappie. No bass, as they wanted no competition for those white filets! This is likely gonna cause some problems with overpopulation, but that's not on their radar. Neither is water chemistry.

When they asked to fish at my place, they were shocked that I said to harvest BG smaller than 9 inches, rather than larger. Ditto with 14 inch LMB. A keeper was a big fish, not a smaller one, didn't I know that??? They agreed to abide by my rules, but found them bizarre.

The whole deal gave me new perspective on how much I've learned from PB. There was a time when I too would have kept the bigguns & thrown back the little guys, confident that the little uns would grow to replace the bigguns. LMB were either infinite in numbers -- take out as many as you like! -- or, later, strict catch & release was necessary. Harvesting the smaller bass while returning the large fish was just plain weird. Clear water was cleaner & better, of course. As for alkalinity, what the heck was that?

So, PB, Bob Lusk, and my fellow pondmeisters, keep up the good work. We are better stewards with more knowledge, and there's lots of folks out there who could benefit!