GET READY - SET - GET READY TO GO !!!

Ordered my Stubby Steve's yesterday. I'm tired of throwing some pelltes, then fishing with worms and have the BG ignore the worm or even sunken pellets on a hook.

I went out this eve for a few minutes to test out my new outfit w/4# line. Caught a HSB (1#) and one
of the rainbows stocked in Nov. I used a roostertail. Had to quit after 10 minutes - too cold (about 35).

Too cold?? I would love to see 35 degrees. It is 7 degrees right now with a -8 wind chill (western burgs of Chicago). Suppose to get down to 3 tonight. It was -1 this morning when I headed out the door to goose hunt.

Actually fished the White river below Bull Shoals Dam on Monday and it was in the upper 30s. Fished 3 hours and caught over 20 rainbows.

"you're a better man than I am, Gunga Din"

What size were the rainbows lassig?

Took out a group ice fishing on New Years Day. Bass were stacked up in 6-8 foot of water over weed beds and bluegill were congregated in 13-15 foot of water off the side of the dam. After I got done filleting the fish I weighed the meat pile at 16 lbs, and we only kept half the fish we caught! I also caught the absolute biggest bluegill ever through the ice!! I'm thinking its going to crush the existing world record!!!

That might be the ice fishing BG record, Nate, but I landed a bigger one from open water last Spring.

Young Condello still has you guys beat by a mile.

Hey -- don't forget about me!

Oh my, Im head'n for the high ground

That looks like a HBG Cat - it has a big mouth !

Oh man...that one still cracks me up good.
Did Bruce ever find his other shoe?

severe underbite....right Bruce?

I dont have a 2010 fishing license yet so its a good thing I dont have to worry about submitting mine for the world record. I never realized so many forum members have caught such insanely huge bluegill. Aquamax or Silver Cup???

Oh come on guys, I've caught pollywogs bigger than those fish...



Oh and before you yell at me George, please keep in mind that I didn't start this thread disruption. (I have no desire to be beat like a rented mule).

Polystyrene, I think.

ROFLMAO

OH MY GOSH - WHAT HAVE I STARTED!!!!
Fishin' 2100???
Musta been a typo !

Bruce and Cat's seem to be pure bluegill, but I'm afraid Nate and Theo's look to be GG hybrids.
Not sure about the pollywog; would have to get a closer look....and I ain't goin' there!

I really think that pollywog is really a catfish, or a photochopped pollywog/catfish hybrid. I ain't seen no frogs that big!

I'm more concerned about the guy! Why doesn't he appear to be wearing anything below his shirt, except that giant polliwog?

I ain't going there, literally or figuratively!!!

Sunil has those same sandals

He does at least wear them with shorts.

Me either !!! Jeff where did you find that pic?

Looks like a giant wels catfish from England/Europe perhaps and thats all I am gonna say about it.....;^)
Salmonid

So...in other words, y'all ain't catchin' nothin' either.

Al -- you got that right. About the only thing we're catching in WV is COLD! The thermometer on my window reads 9 right now, and the foot of snow that is on the ground is turning to frozen ice crystals that are drifting everywhere just so they can get out of the nasty winds. The county west of us is supposed to get about 15 inches of snow by tomorrow afternoon. It will be interesting to hear from Todd who is two or three counties over, near Pinchgut Hollow -- they are supposed to be getting snow, high winds, and the arctic cold!



Think warm thoughts!

They where 11 to 14 inches. Real easy to catch, we where fishing in the state park from shore using 3 way rigs and gulp trout eggs. The leader to the number 6 hook was about 20" long and 4lb mono. The drop was about 6" long alos of 4" mono. We would add just enough split shots so the rig would drift slowly with the current. Remember to use barbless hooks as it is the brown trout spawning area and you cannot keep a brown trout right now

1st time on the ice. 4"-5" as of this morning.

My Partner


Double


This guy nearly spooled me. Not bad for 3LB line.

Ryan you have an awesome partner. What is the water temperature at the depth the fish are at?

I had a little partner like that long ago.

Me too, wait till she gets a little older and discovers boys.

James, I was fishing 9' in 10' of water. The deepest spot in my pond is 11'. My thermometer only has a 4' lead so I have no way of taking temps any deeper.



lassig, I'm not looking forward to that day.

Jeez you guys have a short memory.

1. That is not a photo shop. It is a photo of Jeremiah.

2. Of course I'm not naked in the photo. Jeez, how crazy would that be. I'm wearing a Brazilian cut neoprene cod piece, perfectly normal attire for one that is noodling for mutant polliwogs.

Sunil is right.

You guys are a bunch of freaks.

And a huge smile!

We had a pretty cold weekend, but I think the lowest we saw was 12. Got a couple more inches of snow, but nothing very exciting overall. Compared to you and some of the others here, I feel a little bit like a sissy if I go outside wearing more than a hooded sweatshirt since it's not really that cold yet! Now as for Pinchgut Hollow, I haven't been out there to check, so conditions may be much worse!

its not from my pond, but a BOW near me......not that this thread needs to GET BACK ON TRACK OR ANYTHING

happy new year guys.....

No trout here - unless they are specks in saltwater. RT may be a next winter adventure.

that was a ripe holdover female full of eggs. we use the term holdover to mean a fish planted in a previous season and surviving in the lake long enough to develop pink or orange meat (i.e. naturalizing).

this is the result:


eric, i wonder if you could have holdover success in old Miss...

only one way to find out for sure. I was told by everybody that it couldnt be done in my neck of the woods!

Pulling a trick on Todd Overton - he doesn't know I'm posting this photo.
He just returned from a well deserved vacation trip to Colorado.

Went ice fishing in Yukon, Canada recently. 3 little lake trouts were caight. Ice was close to 2 feet thick.

Fished some ice and caught a lot of little BG and LMB. And hit an open water spillway and had a lot of luck getting some good sized BG, decent crappie, and the dinkiest LMB I've ever seen. Crazy to be able to fish open water in January.

I didn't know that golden shiners would grow this big in a pond. Is this cause for concern?

Must be about 85 lbs worth.

That's a big golden shiner!

I think Bruce has selectively bred that specific variety and has gotten them to right around 200#.

I.....must...........not..............look....

James,

You don't get much lovin' from the wife when you come home in that shirt do you?

Look at the smile on his face! Nice fish James!!!

That was my fourth hookup before I was able to land one. I changed my hook to a #5 mustad ultrapoint and the game was on. The hook I had before would come out each time they would jump and shake their heads. I brought my catfish rod rigged with 30# test and it was all that thirty dollar rod could do to hang on to it. I bet he jumped ten times. I used some of the tuna we had caught earlier for bait even though my mother in law couldn't understand why I would use good fish to catch a fish that was only catch and release. I think I will go try this again this afternoon somebody told me where there were some over a hundred pounds wonder if my rod can handle that!

You didn't have to hug the thing!

Well at least I didn't kiss it! My shirt still smells fishy after washing it in tide.

I think you did kiss it.

Great story, James! Let us know if your rod holds out for the next one.

Hooked three this morning with them all getting off before running out of bait and discovering the tip of my hook was bent.

James now I see why your bass are so big. Big bass means big foarge, nice golden shiner right there.

Today I took new Pond Boss Subscriber Travis Pfeiffer and his family and friends from Worden, IL out ice fishing on their newly acquired pond.

Absolutely no previous ice fishing experience and these guys had over 100 fish on the ice by lunch time! Speaking of lunch time, can anyone guess what was on the menu?






I will be taking several guided ice fishing trips coming up over the next couple weeks, but this one was just alot of fun!

Had a great time. I love that pic of my son with the bass. I'm gonna start having him wear gloves everytime we fish. It's the first time he's wanted to hold the fish or gather them up for Nate.

Good idea, Travis. Wonder if we could find some cheap canvas gloves that are small enough for kids, and then have the grandkids wear them for summer fish handling.

That looks like a blast you guys.

Nate what a great event! You need a hand warmer if you are going to clean fish when it’s that cold. BTW did you provide Travis a population assessment from the catch?

how can you catch that many fish? Nate you and the rest of your crew are awesome fishermen

James,
I only caught 3 of them fish. Travis and Co, all first time ice fisherman, caught the rest.

The plan is to harvest 500 6-7" bluegill and 50 10-12 inch LMB in 2010.

I still need to learn your angle of taking your pond clients fishing. 2000 clients in database and not once fished with them. Those pics make me want to go ice fishin'.

Greg,
Put it on your website and send out a flyer stating that you take out guided fishing trips: HB Guided Fishing Page

Then update your fishing blog or website or pondboss with pics everytime you take someone out fishing. Lately I have been taking more people fishing on their own lakes than I do on mine.

And it's a tax deductible.


oops, I forgot the disclaimer...

The information provided above is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered as, nor relied upon as tax advice. Check with your tax preparer or next door neighbor to see if you meet the criteria for any deduction discussed above. Don't you just love the creative names used for tax acts. "The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009." The "Worker, Homeownership and Business Assistance Act of 2009." Heck if the government was forced to name tax acts what they really were the names would be more like "The Yep, We're Putting It To You Again Act of 2009" or the "Lets See Just How Complicated We Can Make Your Tax Return Act of 2007." The opinions expressed by JHAP are not necessarily those of Pond Boss's management, moderators, advertisers, members at large, members at small, or even medium sized members. Always follow tax advice that you read in Highlights Magazine, they almost never get it wrong and the puzzles are fun to boot.

I can sense the accounting business heating up in advance of April 15.

I get all my tax info from Pond Boss. This year the govenmint owes me $123,456.87! I think I am going to E-File.

n8ly, if the gov't owes you money, as a business owner, you might not be doing something correctly.

Natester, I wouldn't have believed you if the number was $123,456.78, but since it is $123,456.87 it sounds plausible.

OTOH, Sunil does have a valid point.

doing everything correctly, just have new accounting practices since fishing trips are tax deductible. Now to get this thread back on track before George has to step in:

Monster Ice Fishing Bluegill from yesterday (notice I waited to start the thread about monster fish until I had the pics ready to post...unlike some others who started a fishing thread recently and then waited all day to post the pic)

This fishing trip was from my lake this time, and clients were pretty pumped up:












All bluegill 10" and over were released per the management plan in place for this lake. They caught and released more than a dozen over 1 lb!


They also caught a few nice trout as well. All rainbows 4 lbs and over were released as well.

Those are some fish Nate! Wow. Nice job.

Now, that's how to get customers. Take them to YOUR water and show em what they can be catching with your management.
Good job. Great looking BG. Jigs, live bait, jigs tipped?

tiny 1/32 ounce micro jigs tipped with waxworms for the gills.
buckshot rattle jigs tipped with minnow heads, powerbait, and also split shot and minnow for the trout.

What really gets the clients is letting them handfeed smallmouth bass off the dock!

I've fished the last 3 times with one rod that had a fathead 'n split shot on it, 3 nibbles, but no takers. No takers on waxworms either, but spikes and mousee's have worked.

The last golden that came from the pond had 3.8 oz. of roe in her.

Nate, I see your Osprey left at lest a couple Golden Trout for you.

Alright, what's the deal with this BG's horn?

On Saturday I took a whole bunch of people ice fishing for a group outing at one of my clients ponds. 17 teenage kids and a whole bunch of adults and not one of them had ever been ice fishing before! (yep, I do have enough gear for em all).

Justin was away at taxidermy school so I did the whole event solo, worked my tail off, but had a great time. I was able to keep everyone entertained and attentive long enough for everyone to catch at least a few fish!



Let me just say that this was no easy task, but was alot of fun!

Looks like a nice day out too Nate. Very nice.

Arizona has cool sport fish!! This is the bruiser I cought.

Is that a Koi Blair?

Nate, is that the pond we stocked the Feed Trained Bass in?

blair, if thats a pic of you, that is EXACTLY how I pictured ya. nice fish!

rainman, that is a different pond.

Nate
do you ever sleep?

docg I have thought the same.

why sleep when there is ice to fish on? I just said this in another thread, but i checked this morning in STL, and there was still 5" ice out there....I'm making some ramshackle tip-ups tonight our of pvc and heading out to my favorite spot in Edwardsville, IL on saturday afternoon.

Ought to be a blast, the fish here are definitely NOT ice-trained yet. In a pond just of the mississippi in the middle of our last big freeze i got a good 7 lb bass on one of these garage-style tip-ups and a nightcrawler.

I play basketball up at the school with a bunch of old farmers at 5:45 am on tuesdays and thursdays. In the evenings I get the kids to bed at 8:30 pm and then back to work on something for a few hours. Pond Boss website I turn to when I need a break or to regroup on some thoughts. I fall asleep the very minute I turn my brain off.

skinnybass, in order to post that you caught a 7 lb bass through the ice, you need to post the pic. Would love to see it!

Yes That is me in the picture n8ly. I have a couple pics on the forum but none in about a year. I bet you forgot that you have seen a picture.

took some more folks fishing this week:








nope Greg, I didnt weigh or measure any of these fish either.

haha, too funny. I probably have already seen a pic and therefore that explains why the lightbulb in my head went off.....

O.K. How long is it going to take to clean those fish? Some of those BG looked really nice. Were those goldens stocked this Fall? What'd you get the LMB on?

Nate it was 4:15am I would be lucky to have any light bulbs going off. These golden trout you guys stock look amazing!!!

Too much happening to waste time sleeping! Plus it was 5:15 my time. We stocked most of the goldens in October, they are indeed awesome looking fish! I love them!

I catch LMB in 5-7 foot of water over weedbeds using buckshot rattle jigs tipped with minnow heads, regular jigheads with minnows, and frostee jigging spoons tipped with waxworms. Also they will occasionally hit tiny bluegill jigs as well. Largemouth are way more finnicky than bluegills and very inconsistent. You may catch 3 in a row and then not get another largemouth all day.

Nate agree on sleep overrated big time. Your makign me hungry for both dinenr and data collection at the sametime.

any idea how i can get a pic off my phone? and excuse the liberal measurements...my friend chris told me I should be more honest...it was 22", 6lbs 9oz.

Sorry about not knowing the rules on posting the size of fish...next time I'll just call it a honkin' bass if i don't have a pic ready.

Or a goldfish.

& I've never successfully gotten an LMB on a jig rod in the ice. Always kinda wanted to. All of mine are on roaches with tip-ups.

That's my favorite part of ice fishing anyway, the tip-ups. Nothing beats sliding around on a sheet of ice trying to run from one flag to another.

Depending on your service you should be able to send it to your email. Or if that won't work, you can text it to someone who can post it for you. If you want to text it to me I can do it for you. Just shoot me a PM for my #.

For skinnybass...wish it was mine. Wow. NOT a skinny bass.

Yeah...that's not in my parent's lake...lol....dad could only be so lucky.

Here are some crappie we caught today. Nice to see everyone fishing already.





And if you want to know, but don't feel like counting that's 110 crappie and 8cc

Nice haul.

That one cat is nice looking as well... Lot's of tasty fish fries will come out of that catch!

Is one a bullhead? It looks kinda yellow in the last pic. Nice mess of white crappies!

I hope you don't not have to clean all of them by yourself.

Caught with minnows ?

where you been hiding all winter???
how about a HSB update!!

Cason, yeah, where you been?

No FPPT?

esshup,
I thought the same thing when I saw it come out of the water, but it turned out to be a CC.

Ewest,
Thankfully some friends of mine that are retired love Crappie, and love to cook them. They help me harvest, and I let them keep them. It's really been paying great dividends. When I first joined PB in 2007 our Crappie were stunted at 7"-8". Now we're catching some in the 2lb range.

n8ly and Sunil,
With all the rain we had last summer, fall, and winter I've just been trying to keep my head above water. It was a rough year for farming. Our HSB seem to have peaked at about 5lbs. However, we didn't get to feed LMB pellets much at all last year. We never had to run the well into the pond (the HSB congregate at the cool well water and that is were we feed them). We catch the occasional fish above that size, but with the exception of last years stockers our average size is 4-5lbs. Sorry about no FPPT Sunil. Can I make it up to you this weekend?
BTW it's good to talk with everyone again.

Yes, of course!

I have no pic, but I thought i would add this in, fished the Mississippi yesterday (are rivers allowed on pondboss?) and pulled a 2lb sauger on a texas rigged purple swimtail (aka big plastic grub).

Where i fish on the Miss is the mouth of "piasa creek," it's a big muddy mess. I've seen some people pull out big flatheads there, but this is the first sauger i saw over a pound. Put up a hell of a fight on light tackle.

Usually I just pull in white crappie. this one was a welcome change.

Not without pictures they're not...

I usually don't bring my cam down to the Muddy, it's really wet there even on the firm land (and i usually just tread across the lumber that's mostly still floating, washed up on the shore). Too much of a risk of dropping something (like a phone....). so my adventures on the Muddy are off-limits unless i risk the digi. Dang.

Got get yourself a waterproof camera...

Unlike most, sensible people, i prefer to avoid the simple solutions to anything. Instead, I'll take measurements and make detailed wood engravings by memory. Any idea on how to upload one of those to pb?

in all seriousness, the amount that i have spent on fishing gear lately doesn't allow me to justify a new camera to the wife. Did i just hear a whip crack? Yes. I think i did.

I'll start bringing the cam, and just keep it close on-hand and only bring it out if necessary (like if i get another good looking sauger, or i land one of those flatty's on light tackle...however unlikely that is). You guys don't want a pic of every Muddy fish I catch anyway.

Zip lock bags work for me, or a waterproof case from a company like Pelican will also keep things dry a bit more reliably...

Are the greatest thing ever. That was my plan.

Can you give some more detailed information on how you caught the crappie? How deep of water were they in and did they have eggs? Were they in cover or open water?

My couple of crappie were not near as impressive as the above haul, but maybe you guys could give me a few tips on getting a better catch if i elaborate the details.

The entire area I fish is filled with cover, except the deepest spots that i can't cast to, where the boat launches are, i wouldn't be able to tell you. Mainly 12 ft of water, with a quick draw up to 3ft depth about 10ft out from shore, then slowly raising up to me. a fast current comes out of the creek, but slows in the mississippi. I don't hit any fast current parts of the Miss. Depending on the lure i am using and the time of day, i either cast straight out perpendicular to the miss, or diagonally into piasa creek and let the current put a little more action on the lure.

Tons of cover. There are thousands of old dead trees that have washed up on shore, and tons of them submerged (damn snags, never use an expensive lure there) or hung up on each other. Can't wait till summer when i can throw a topwater in there, should be awesome.

There's even an old fridge that's submerged there, when the river draws down you can see it popping out of the water.

Not many good sized crappie, all are pretty small. Once and a while you get a good one, but honestly, it's not all that exciting. The sauger are the real draw. (Which i assume means there would also be walleye around, but i never see them). No i haven't seen any eggs, although i honestly wouldn't know what to look for. h20 temp was pretty frigid, i'd say just over 30 degrees to tell by touch (yeah, still big sheets of ice floating down the Miss too...not optimal fishing conditions).

This is just south of where the illinois dumps into the miss, so the lumber littering the river is abundant, and you have less than 5, 6 inches of water clarity through the silt at the creek mouth, a little more when you're in the river proper, or upstream in the creek from the mouth. I guess i never really have tried much besides different plastics, but i would assume otherwise there are tons of fish in the area.

Any thoughts?
-SB

We were catching them on jigs in about 2' of water. Keep in mind that my pond is only 4' deep during our winter draw down. I didn't do any of the cleaning so I'll have to check on the eggs.

Well, I got skunked again yesterday at my pond but, finally saw some fish breaking the surface and I actually scared one - didn't see it but it broke a big ol' swirl in the water when my bait hit the water near it.

So, it's encouraging to see that we actually do have fish still in our pond - I was beginning to wonder if they had all escaped during some recent flooding.

The past few days have seen sunny days with highs in the mid-50's. Right this minute, it's snowing. Go figure.

Al this has been a long winter here in Texas. My water temps this weekend were in the low forties but the ten day forecast has some seventy degree temps in it. We havn't seen seventy in months and our average by now is in the middle sixties. Yesterday we had a high of about forty five.

This winter we have averaged 8 degrees colder than last winter.

Well if it makes you guys feel any better it has been very nice here in Saskatchewan. Above freezing almost every day since the middle of feb. They are forcasting a high of 42F for sunday. It could be -40.

It must be a result of that warm glow from all of people at the Olympics !!! --

First fishing trip of the year – beautiful day started out 30.0 degrees and warmed to 55 at noon. Near surface water temp 47 degrees – slow fishing this morning but bet they turned on this afternoon. Will be on the ponds every nice day for next couple of weeks or so.

My fishing partner out-fished me today. One 4+# HSB landed – one long distant release – one mojo HSB broke off – ZERO HSB for me ...

Few CNBG to ten inches and pale - cold deep water.
One 2 year old LMB

That's one huge bluegill/CNBG!

It's good to see you and the lady are getting out. George, what type of forage is in the pond, and what's your feeding regiment? (in regards to the HSB growth.)

Scott, only forage is CNBG and AQMX 500/600 at about 5 lbs/day currently.
Will increase when water warms.

Hey George, did you invent that sayin, "Everythings bigger in Texas"

where is your hand in that pic!!!!!

Im glad someone has started catching fish. I still haven't been catching anything. It was snowing here in Georgia again yesterday.

I could barely get this bass through the hole last night!


She is eating something under the ice!!!

that was one giant bluegill

George and Nate - very nice fish. Excellent condition coming out of winter.

George you know by now that if Mrs. G is picking the colors she will out fish you every time.

Next week I will be getting a good look at your grandbaby OTS CNBG.

Great picture!

It's just not right. You guys up north have all the fun.
Well...except for George. Good job, ya'll.

All of the lakes around here have 16" - 20" of ice on them right now.

The big thaw has just begun.

George and Nate those are some great looking fish.

Great fish, y'all! Thanks for the photos!

Well, it had to happen sooner or later...after all these times...I finally caught a bass today!

It was only about 12" long but it was a porker - that belly was nice to see 'cause it tells me that my fish still have something to eat.

Water temp was around 50 degrees and this weekend is supposed to have beautiful weather. I'm breaking out of my "skunk-funk"!

Yes, the weather here in the east is supposed to be great. High pushing 60 by Sunday here in northern VA. I bet GA will be seeing the 70's!

Thanks Cason, my expectations are high for you and Nate this year ....

bluegill held w/ a boga.....only you george.....nice nice fishes

Justin and I set up a 6000 gallon fishing pond at the Elmwood All Outdoors Show and the kids had an absolute blast fishing in it! We had over 300 kids catch fish in 7 hours yesterday and we let them take the bass and trout home for dinner if they wanted to. About 75 kids did!!! Here are some pics:



This one went right inside the show straight to the taxidermist!


These girls had the thrill of their lives:





These kids ate good last night:






Many newspapers and newstations were out filming and snapping pics and literally thousands of grandparents and parents were fascinated with all the big fish in the tank too! It was one of the best days ever.

where did you get such big fish?

Nate, you are currently "THE MAN" on the forum!!

Awesome Nate! Definitely looks like you created a few anglers for life that day.

That's really cool Nate. You definitely made some smiles that day.

As luck would have it, I was able to make this happen just for you Sunil.



Here are a couple of more.

Great job Natester!

Wow Cheyenne19 those are some healthy looking fish!

Cheyenne, Yowza, yowza, yowza!

You've got something crazy going on there!

n8ly, you are truly pushing the envelope. Outstanding!

Great pics everyone, my fish count for the year is a whopping 0!, and nate thats great, I wish I would have got to fish that tank!

My hat is still off to Nate. That's great what you've got going there. Our ag pilot brought his young daughter fishing today, and I enjoyed seeing her catch fish much more than I enjoyed that big cat. Way to go Nate.

Great job guys - nothing like watching people catch fish.

Cheyenne I like her sweat shirt.

Nate, you and Justin are the greatest - hearts of gold!
I am proud to call you my friend and there are a lot of other folks that feel the same way.

Cason,you the man .... !

Great day on the pond yesterday – 51 degree near surface muddy water but the fish were hungry.
A couple of pond Grand Slams with a 4.5 LMB and a couple of 4+lbs HSB.
Great having two of our sons fishing and one even fish hungry.
Hate to kill my babies but only took out 2 - 3 lb HSB and less than 8 inch CNBG.

Life is good ...

YOU are the man George! You are the MAN too Mrs. George!! I am glad to see you guys back fishing again. Looks like you ate well tonight too.

James, I got those big blue's from a local hot water discharge. I know some people who know some people.

Nate the effort man I know that took lots to pull that off. Way to go. C19 that is some good spring catches. George keep it up. I will take this afternoon to go fishing due to all these fish posts.

Lol. I figured you would Eric.I gave her a pretty hard time after the Egg Bowl.



George, great looking hybrids you've got there. It's great to see how well they're doing.

Cason,
Let me know when you fire up the water this summer. There has to be a couple big ole HSB hiding out waiting to be congregated! BTW, that catfish looks like a beast!

Does anyone mind if I use some of these picture(s) in a presentation I am giving on Wednesday about "farm pond" aquaculture.

I angled a trout out of the pond for tonights' dinner. They are averaging 1 1/2# now. They packed on roughly 1/2# since October.

Been catching small LMB in 2 different ponds pretty regularly for the last 4 days - they are holding shallow since we've been having a warm spell.

I've been mostly fishing UL so, I'm having a blast catching these little 10" - 14" bank runners!

My buddy was snagging a few BG on his flyrod in my pond yesterday.

Spring is getting here!

I cant contain myself, I will spend as much of my spring break as I can fishing my ponds. The joy of stocking up on new lures even though I have pleany! and a new rod/reel to boot! AHH then a few good days fishing!

Sure thing Nate. We normally start up around mid to late may.

Springtime is UL fishing time! I still can't get the big ones to bite but having my 8 1/2" UL rod bent double and the drag screaming while some little 12" bass makes a run is about as much fun as a guy can have!

It is ridiculous, isn't it? But so much fun. Hit up the bargain bins @ basspro this week, got like 40 bucks in crankbaits to match the 50 i spent over winter, and the 150 i spent last year and never got to use, too busy buying a house. I couldn't even tell you what i got, except that at one point i went nuts picking out jointed shallow-runners. Why? I dunno.

The sad thing is, i don't even have a good spot to fish at yet since i moved. Found a good crappie/bg pond, and sometimes i can get a good white crappie bite in the river, but nothing for the largemouths yet. and i have all this new stuff to play with, lol....can't wait to get up to dad's pond and pull hundreds of skinny bass out. and maybe a giant pike.

I did fish the illinois river at pere marquette state park this weekend, got skunked except for snagging an asian carp, pretty sure i would have killed it anyway by dragging it in, but just to be sure left it on the shore for the gulls and eagles. wicked fish to catch on light tackle, they like to run.

2 baldies watched me fish the entire time, guess that will run out soon as the wintering season is ending. and i saw canadian geese in some mass migration. Wow....so many geese, never seen so many at once, just hundreds of thousands of those v's layered overtop of one another. Guess that's one of the benefits of living next to the mississippi. It was really cool, even with no white crappie biting.

Just received this photo from son Jeff - looks like our HSB ate well during our colder than usual winter.

I love it George!!!

I would say so --- what a pig.

DIED and DWIED went over to my place yesterday and here is a portion of an email that he sent me yesterday describing the fishing:

I rigged DWIED up with a floating broken back rapala, I gave my brother a chartreuse rooster tail, and I rigged up one of Condello’s jigs with a Berkley gulp minnow. Figured water was too cold down by the dam so we walked up to the upper end where it was warmer and might contain some active fish. On my second cast working the jig along the bottom I thought I hooked a large weed bed, then I felt a headshake, so I thought I had a decent bass on, but it didn’t fight like a bass at all. I was kind of stumped….turns out one of your large bullheads was hungry for a minnow. He put up a nice fight, though I didn’t want to completely tire him out, so half horsed him in, kept him in the water, unhooked him, and away he went. He was one of the largest bullheads I’ve ever seen, around 14 to 16 –inches and a couple pounds, maybe 2 to 3. His head was half again as big as my fist. it did not resemble yer old ancient bullheads, but a younger one that has established himself and grown to good size, beautiful condition and coppery skin colors, very strong and spunky.

My brother was not catching anything. DWIED stayed on the upper southwest shore, while my brother and I moved around the upper end of pond to the other side. As soon as I got over there DWIED was yelling over at me “how will I get this fish off the hook?”….LOL….so back around the pond I go to help her, she had no clue what she had, she thought it was another catfish. As I came around the corner and got up to her, I looked down and she had a FAT healthy bass on the rapala all covered with pond weeds….i think it was a fat female w/ eggs, I gingerly lipped her, got her unhooked, studied her body for a minute, then back in the drink she went full of attitude ready to fight another day. She was short but STOUT and STRONG. I didn’t have my tape or boga, but estimated her at around 15-16-inches and close to 3 pounds. So in the 30-45 minutes of trying, we caught two fish, a bullhead and a nice bass.

Pretty cool huh? The "old ancient bullheads" that DIED is referring to are several (at least three) large bullheads that are often seen in the shallow end of the pond. I'm stoked to hear about the LMB as well. Seems like the predators are eating well. I'm kinda bummed to hear about the weeds.

DIED and I have been playing telephone tag so I haven't got the full scoop from him yet. Hopefully we can catch up on Monday.

Sorry no photos but at least it is a 2010 pond fishing story.

And thank you once again DIED and DWIED! JWHAP and I are truly blessed to be able to enjoy your friendship.

Ive been trying to get my Bass heavy pond back into balance for the last couple of years. In 2008 I removed 200 12" bass from my 6 acre pond. In 2009 I romoved 120 or so. They were real tough to catch last year. I would fish all day and only catch 10 or so on a good day. They were still under weight so I planned on removing around 150 more of them this year if I could catch that many.

So yesterday I decided to try the pond for the first time this year. From 8 am to 12 I caught 12 Bass. 3 of them were fat and healthy weighing about 2.5-3 Lbs. The rest were only about 8-12" and really skinny so I took them out. Then Yesterday afternoon I go back to the pond about 4 Pm with a ultra light pole and a rostertail. Well usually I go fishing, Yesterday I went catching. From 4:00-5:30 I caught 37 bass that were all around 10"-12". I caught 15 standing in one spot. Ive never had a day when I caught them like that in that pond. So needless to say I think I will be removing atleast 150 maybe even 200 since I removed a third or that In one day. Im Gonna go back this afternoon and see how many more I can get out. I Bet they won't bite the same color again, thats just how weird my bass are.

Sounds like a great time on the water, even if the fish weren't hogs.

yeah, sorry bout no camera jhap. the weeds really arent all that bad, i think you'll be pleased. i dragged that jig alot of places around the pond and never hung it up, it'd come back occassionally with a bull rush, or some FA, or a little coontail, but overall yer pond is nice and clear right now. just the right amount of vegetation, when things warm up some more we'll see what it does, and maybe the bass bite will turn on too.

Excellent DIED, I'm glad to hear the weeds aren't out of control!

Went back this afternoon and caught 15 more. The temp had dropped overnight so they weren't quiet as aggresive.

Alright....all the old men say i should do this so i'm gonna....

It's 65+ degrees here today, and since we have an hour more of daylight i'm going to the melvin price locks & dam to see what i can wrestle out of the backwaters...never been to the locks, but like i said...every old mississippi fisherman i know says it is the money....

I'll check back in tonight with photos.....hopefully

Or i will hang my head in shame....

(edit.....any advice on fishing a big, muddy mess of turbulent water would be much appreciated....this is way out of my comfort-zone of ponds & lakes w/ clear water....)

132 Crappie and 23 Catfish

Cheyenne, I think proper FPPT for such a photo would be to roll around in the pile with the fish. That would also give a relative size reference.

That was a busy day on the water...and in the kitchen.

hanging head in shame........
Ended up in the emergency room instead of bragging about my huge catch.
fishing = FAIL

Whoa, what happened man? You alright?

we went to the mississippi, i snagged a carp, it was all good, decided to move to the pond by my house

and when getting out of the 'ol station wagon, my dumb-insert expletive here- friend jon whipped the rod out of the back of the wagon with my head right next to it (don't know why he didn't set the hook into the eyelet, or why it would have come loose if he had..), and snagged my ear. biggest catch of the day? 230 lb irishman.

Yeah, now i see why i should have changed those hooks to barbless....it didn't go all the way through, just hooked in the meat, so they had to cut the trebble hook and push it through the other side. You know what's not fun? having a pair of pliers shoved into a gaping hole in your ear to "fish" out (haha...zing) a piece of a hook and push it through the other side.

Apparently there are some nasty things in the Muddy, cuz when the doctor found out where the lure had been he gave me a whole slew of shots and a giant bottle of horse pills, with the line..
"you have to take these pills because your ear is too close to your head, which is not something we can amputate."

let the ridiculing begin.......

Soooo, you got your ear pierced? Hippie.



Glad you're alright.

lol...the wife is already designing earings for my birthday present- i'm guessing i'm gonna get a bunch of ear piercing jokes @ the party. Lol.

Mike

I heard amputation of the head can lead to complications that reduce the quality of life down the road...not sure - but be careful before considering that option!

Glad you are okay man...at least you didn't do it to yourself. Keep taking those antibiotics.

you know what bugs me worse? all the old men @ the lock & dams were just tearing white crappie out of the water. I used the same lures as them, the same techniques (as best as i could mimic), fished around the same depths, fished by stumps, everything i could think of and not even a nibble. Just a dumb asian carp snagged in the eye (that's the second time...why do i always snag them in the eye?)

It looks like a blast to pull out those crappie....however i don't think i would eat what comes out of the Muddy like they do.

Go ask one of the salty dogs if he can provide a little streamside lesson. Bet he would be tickled to do so, and you could get in on the crappie bite.

tried that....he just drops it down 6-10 feet next to one of the submerged piles of lumber that float down the river and stick in front of the locks & dam, jiggles it a little, then doesn't even reel in, just lifts the line up and grabs the fish...throws it in a cooler to replace the Stag beer he just pulled out.. rinse & repeat.

I refuse to drink Stag, more of a budweiser man myself. That might be the issue.

IMO, Stag > Bud.

Glad to hear that the hook didn't hit any place that was critical. You've got an excuse to ignore your honey now. "On, I'm sorry, I didn't hear you, I had my bad ear towards you."

It could be the fishing line, or even how the knot is tied to the jig, making it hang differently in the water. The color was the same?

Even using the same colored trailer, I've had fish turn their nose up at a different colored jig head.

same head, same trailer. White head with red eye, i don't know the actual weights but it's what i consider a "medium" (and yes, that's the technical term). Same line, (at least on this rod....) even hit the same stump he was at after he left.

And a fairly stiff rubber grub, white & green with a tail split into halves, like what comes in the package with a beetlespin.

maybe i'm just terrible at this. Likely scenario.

You are entitled to your opinion. You are also entitled to be wrong.

joking aside...actually a born and raised miller man myself...but here in STL, everybody drinks bud, so the miller just sits on the shelves and gets old...so the bud always tastes better (the freshness factor).

skinnybass, you sure you weren't fishing with my brother?

He has a history of not checking his back cast thus resulting in a Rapala earring for his wife (when spin casting) and a mildly detached retina via clouser minnow (when fly fishing).

I'm more of a microbrew guy myself, but of the macros, Stag's alright, especially during the summer, though that's generally the time of year I like my Easy Street Wheat.

That's good stuff. Along with raised on miller, i also have a hankering for the 'ol chicago goose island too. The winter brew is just outstanding...a lil thick for a st louis summer, though.

does anyone else catch the irony that a conversation about crankbaits in the ear so closely coincides with one about heavy drinking?

Happy St Pats, everybody! WOO HOOO!

Goose Island does have some stuff. I enjoy New Belgium and Rogue as well and we have some very nice local breweries here that serve up some delicious brews.

Man, I'm thirsty...

EDIT - You ever check out beeradvocate.com? Good coverage of pretty much everything out there.

there's a mens lacrosse league out there, the omaha rhinos, they all hang around some brewery, i don't remember what it is called. Their counterparts here in stl enjoy the schlafly's (not my bag, personally), and the "tin cup" or something like that.

They hang out at a brewery here in Omaha? Not a brewery, but if they're big on microbrews maybe the bars surrounding Beertopia, a store here that has a wide range of great beers and very knowledgeable staff.

Schlaflys has a variety of beers, so there's one out there that you'll like, you just haven't had it yet.

Never heard of Tin Cup.

A new brewery here in town is called Lucky Bucket. Nothing special, but for someone not generally accustomed to the taste of microbrews, it's a great "transitional" brew.

An Irishamn is NEVER drunk as long as he can hold on to one blade of grass(or fishing rod) and not fall off the face of the earth.

Jeff is killin' me with fish pictures every nite - said he released a six pound HSB last night - too big to fit his camera screen!!!
No documentation - just another fish story...
I'll get even tho - fishin' Friday!!!

OK, if we're thru with George hijacking this thread with fish stories........who needs beeradvocates.com.......I am the beermeister.oh, sh.. ......burgermeister.

George, I remember when you used to scorch Meadowlark with "no documentation, just another fish story". Dang, I sure hope my polaroid dont mess up during the "Fellowship of the travelling lures" documentary.

Yeah, he didn't like me, but son Jeff does - even when I give him a hard time ...

Well, nothing to report like the envious pictures from George. George -- you sure do grow some beautiful fish.

Today was opening season on Catmandoo Pond. Nothing spectacular, but we will have fish for dinner.



Two 12-inch trout
One 10-inch trout
One 10-inch LMB
Two 6-inch BG

All were invited in for dinner. Lynda is just about to pull some fresh baked sour dough bread out of the oven.

Not the latest opening, but not the earliest. No fish kills noted, except for one small bluegill that was floating near shore and was half-eaten. The 10-inch trout had serious mouth-print abrasions on both sides, like a big catfish or bass had hold of it for a while.

We spent the day at our farm today and had an absolute blast. Cooked out, hiked, did a little brush trimming on some very rough trails, played with the kids, and FISHED! Second day this week we've gotten to do this and just can't believe how blessed we were to find this land. Just took a few pictures, but some good ones.

The first one is my 4 year old, AJ, with the first fish he has ever caught totally by himself. He learned to cast a full sized spincaster today and was just reeling in on his last cast when an 8-9 inch LMB hit his artificial grub! He was ecstatic, understandably, and so were we! He was hamming it up a bit in this pic - probably none of you have had a little boy do that before!

[img][/img]

Here's one of him and his sisters, who both combined to catch 4 LMB and 5 BG today, all fairly small. We didn't shoot pics of them today as I only had my camera phone and wasn't ready for good quality pics, but these were pretty special opportunities, so the phone had to do.

[img][/img]

This final pic is of what is by far the biggest fish we've caught since buying the farm last August. I was fishing a Yozuri Pop-R and right at a pause in my retrieve, this fish hit it. After two nice jumps entirely out of the water and a roughly 60 second fight, she was on the shore!

[img][/img]

What was cool is that I was fishing an ultralight Ugly Stick and had set my drag fairly loose since most of our fish are not terribly big. This one really worked that setup nicely and made it a lot of fun, especially because it was a pretty long cast and she hit just a few seconds into my retrieve.

I am calling it a she because of the size and the fact that her belly was really quite soft, unlike the generally firm belly on the handful of big fish I've caught other places. It was really quite "mushy" and I suspected that maybe it was a gravid female who appeared to have a nice batch of eggs in her. I may be totally wrong, but either way, this was a really nice surprise to catch.

My biggest regret is that my 7 year old daughter, Jess, the little blond haired one in the pic above, walked off and I found her inside our building crying. She had the previous record fish out of the pond that we have referred to as "King Bass" since last fall. King Bass was probably a 14 inch, pound to pound and a quarter fish that she caught and landed all by herself. It honestly broke my heart when we were talking and she said that she was sad because this one was bigger (probably 15 inches or so and I'm guessing 1.5 - 2 pounds, but I didn't have anything to measure with). We had a good talk and I explained that she'll catch this one one day and probably even a bigger one. She is so into fishing and I love to see this sort of competitiveness in her. She works hard at doing everything just right, and is even the only one of my kids who will kiss every fish she catches for good luck! Anyway, that was only downer of what was otherwise a great day of family fun and, being 7, she's rebounded pretty well already!

Sorry for the length of this post, but I know you all value family time as much as I do and will understand and tolerate a dad's ramblings!

Todd, that's what it's all about.

Great post Todd. I caught a few trout from a local lake today. My little fishing buddy is getting over a cold so he couldn't make it, but it's supposed to be really nice weather tomorrow so I'm hoping he's feeling better and can catch some of these feisty slimers of his own.

They ARE slimey, and they twist around more than any other fish that I catch - even catfish. If they'd just lay still for a bit I could unhook them easier. Nice pic!

Nice catch Catmandoo! Would you mind relating your homemade sour dough recipe on the forum? My family is crazy about it, whenever I travel to San Francisco I buy a dozen loaves and ship them home ahead of me...guess I could keep doing that online, but would love to experiment with making our own out on the Green Egg. Thanks in advance!

Greg and shockboat fishing 2010.
A 20 mth old HSB






A 20 mth old LMB - Wr (RW) - 129

Stocked these crappie into my grandma's 6 acre pond in 2005.

My cousin Logan has been catching em like crazy after school.

Glad to see everyone finally getting out fishing! Please keep on filling up this, my favorite thread. I really enjoy seeing all the pics and especially reading the stories!!

Man o man Todd, what a gas. I bet that is fun. Your family is blessed not only with the pond and land, but with having each other!
I wish we had gotten our pond property when our 2 sons were growing up. Yours is a fortunate family. I want to see your daughter catch a 10 lb'er before you.

Rick, nothing would make me happier! I need to get her back out there this week and let her get a line in the water all by herself. The memories we've made just since August with this place are priceless and it's awesome to think of how many more are waiting for us to make them! Thanks for the note!

Awesome, Nate! I agree with you 100% - this is one of the best threads, especially with happy kids in the pics, as has been mentioned by many here. Nothing like a kid with a fish and a smile!

Been without internet for almost a week but, our fish are starting to bite. Nothing great to report and no pics.

Actually, I've been working on my pond so much that it's starting to cut into my fishing. Over the last week, I've put in about 20 hours working on the pond and about 1 hour of fishing.

I'll catch back up...
Great catches and photos, guys!

Today was a very good day on Glazener Pond ...

Nice fish george!

Ricki took one look at your fish George and blurted out...

What the hell is he feeding those things???

I told her Coppernosed Bluegill.

Lots and lots of Coppernosed Bluegill.

You are thee man George!!

I would say so !!!!!

if non-pond fish count, here's a pretty nice one i got friday. been catchin' these regularly for 2 months at the river. have probably put a year's worth of wear and tear on my bass reels in that time. i am hopelessly addicted. the pond bass are probably starting to feel neglected...............

Stripers embarrass LMB in the fight department... That's a beautiful fish! I am excited for the stripers to start running here in the Potomac.

That's a beaut!

My best fishing memories involve pulling juveniles out of the backwaters of the Chesapeake on light tackle, nothing quite like it.

I've heard of the freshwater river run stripers, but had no idea they did as well as they do in the Bay.

Hey guys, the rest of the story …
Yesterday’s fishin’ adventure busted TP&W private waters HSB fly rod record by 2.5 lbs!!!
Weighed just hair less than 6.75 lbs!!
Beat the Rod and Reel private waters record by 1.5 lbs.

Not into records – except my own – but may submit if the gal hits 8 lbs in a few weeks … I released her fat and happy after sedating with a few drops of clove oil in O2 live well to survive the photos.

HSB were very active on sinking pellet flies in 52.1 near surface water temp.
Fished with a #1 drop shot hook to avoid small CNBG and most caught were in the 9-10 inch range.

The feed trained LMB was a year old 13 inch and 1.5lbs…

Exciting to hook but not land from little pond a 1 year old ~12-14 inch pure Florida LMB on a Stubby pellet fly no less.








The LMB was a year old 13 inch and 1.5lbs…
(Condello photo enhancement technique)



Caught 3 skinny HSB out of little pond that I thought I had removed and transferred to main pond. Largest was 3.50lbs but shuld have been a5 pounder – no feeder on little pond for the past year.



LIFE IS GOOD !!!!!

Yep, life is good and pellet feeding pays off big time.

George, I sure hope I make it back to your area soon! Those are some sweet fish you grow!!!

congrats on your new personal (and state best) George!

I filmed a trout flyfishing show on monday with some professional flyfisherman. Video wont be out for awhile, but here are some pics:

Super windy today, but had to get out fishing anyways. 130-140% relative weights coming out of a brutal winter:

N8ly - WOW! Those are some footballs!

N8ly the rainbows look very cool when they are spawning.

Some very nice looking healthy trout. That had to be a fun day.

ken!

You've been gone for a while.

How are you? What have you been doing?

ridiculous wind a couple hours south of you too, N8ly. Started my day at Balwin lake, a power plant lake in southern illinois...got nothin.

Went to wife's dad's farm afterwards, 3ac recreational pond, also serves as an overflow for the commercial ponds nearby when they get too high....man...what an awesome day. right before a big rain came in, i couldn't keep the bass & crappie off my lures. Here are a few pics...There (of course) is one that got away. Huge catfish, i landed his head, and when i bent down to lip him, he tossed his head back n forth, snapped my crappie rod clean in half and broke the line, i'd put it at over 10lbs...but i'd rather be conservative so i'm not just bragging. SOrry, no pic...he got away with a new mini jointed crankbait as a lipring.




I have a few more pics, but pretty much you see how it went...couple of average bass, a few lunkers.

It was a good thing. now, just need to invest in a new crappie rod...but it was worth it.

sorry about the pic quality, cell phones.....meh.

George has it going on!!! That's the largest documented HSB to have been stocked from us thus far that I am aware of.

way to go George!

My fishing crew

This is our second HSB over 8lbs

Cheyenne, this was our first over 8:

adorable, Rick; and quite the fisher person.

That little girl puts me to shame! I wish I could fish like that!

Beautiful fish there Nate. I think 8 might push the limit on size for us, but I would guess being farther north than us that you should really grow some studs.

I dont think 8 is going to be the limit for you down there. Growth may slow down, but that fish in the pic still had some growing potential left.

I took my nephew fishing this afternoon down here in NC. Lots of untouched golf course ponds to fish. The one behind my future in-law's house is full of feisty bass. In a couple or hours of fishing I landed 18 bass between around 12" and this bass:




I'll have to measure the rod to see how long he was, I'm guessing he was in the 5-6 pound range. Not bad for 4 pound test.

I started letting my 3 year old nephew real a few of the bass I hook in as well...



I had a very nice bass bust my 4 pound test, I'm guessing it was in excess of 8 pounds. Not bad for a completely unmanaged pond.

Nice fish ...
I love pictures - especially little kid fishing ...
Thanks Travis.

A couple more from this evening...

Great pictures! Love this thread! Ok, going to add my own. Today's catch whispering a secret to my son. Oink oink.

Get the bait Pawpaw and don't forget the net.

Love to see the kids fishing. Mine and the grand kids will be down this weekend so I'll send some pics in Monday.

Ciso Injoy the grandkids They are a blast here at my little pond. Now that it's warmmed up here in Magnolia, they are at the pond as much as thier daddy will let them.
Just to hear " Come on Paw paw let go fish" lol They catch a fish and run to the house with it to show mawmaw. We've been able to get them back to the pond before they die ( SO FAR)
Give a kid a fish, feed them for the day. Teach them to fish, feeds them for a life time.

Jeez Rick, the way you got that kid bundled up, you'd think it was 30 degrees out!

lol It might have been. LOL it ain't me it's there mawmaw.

Took a buddy fishing saturday. Had a pretty good day. No monsters. [img][/img] [img][/img] [img][/img] [img][/img]

Some good looking fish Doc. Rick, I know all about the MawMaw thing. Lucky my grandson is 11 now so he sticks with me everywhere I go so MawMaww doesn't mess with us too much but if I get one of the grand daughters, it's a totally different story.

Had a great morning on our pond – HSB galore in spite of high winds.



This photo is for fun and is manipulated to the MAX ...
How much do you think it weighs? ...

George, looks like you qualify to be a graduate dentist.

Now that is a good lookin pic george!

Docg, your pics need just a bit of work, I got out the magnifying glass and still couldnt see em too well.....hehe

TJ -- sorry to take so long to get back to you. Life is just kind of busy right now. It is really difficult to put fish and pond related issues 2nd or 3rd priority.

Lynda and I have been making a lot of different kinds breads for many years. We both come from families that did a lot of baking.

I'm currently at my work condo (Ye Olde Folks Home) for the week, where I'm never really without two kinds of bread concoctions in my refrigerator.

There certainly are many ways to make sour dough bread. But, one of the best and simplest sour dough bread explanations can be found at this site: Sourdough Bread. It is basically what I use, and this guy does a much better job of explaining than I could.

Because of neglect in feeding the starter, I do have to restart every 3 to 9 months. I also use commercial dry yeast to make sure it quickly starts, but the starter quickly takes on its own characteristics.

My other preparation uses great recipes we found several years ago through Mother Earth News from Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François. It really revolutionized what we do. Here are a couple of links to some of their work:

Atrisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

The 6-3-3-13 Rule.

Every day, the dough evolves to a different flavor. After about two weeks, it takes on a great sour dough flavor.

This couple has a fantastic book called "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day" that I highly recommend to anyone interested in making old style European breads.

One additional thing I do, that is different from most, is that I bake my bread in a cast iron Dutch Oven within a conventional kitchen oven. I put an empty Dutch oven in the kitchen oven, and I turn the temperature up to 400 degrees.

When the oven gets up to 400 degrees, I take the Dutch Oven out of the kitchen oven. The bottom of the Dutch Oven gets dusted with coarse corn meal to keep the dough from sticking to the bottom. Then I plop in a dough ball. Usually I put a couple of cuts in the top of the loaf to keep it from deeply splitting. It goes back in the oven, with the cover on the Dutch oven, for about 30 minutes. This basically steams the dough, keeping it soft and moist. I remove the cover from the Dutch oven, brush the top of the loaf with butter, and continue to bake (uncovered) for about another 10-15 minutes. This method provides extremely soft and moist bread with very crispy crust. I dump the loaf out, let it cool for about 10-20 minutes, and then enjoy.

It is bread that doesn't get a chance to dry out and get stale.

Enjoy,
Ken

Thanks Ken! Hope things settle down for you out there.

My guess without the knowledge that it was manipulated i would say seven pounds

Did I win?

This is how we fish in Magnolia. I know it hard but somebody gotta do it.
Omaha can you see my wild chair in the background

Never caught the mangy beast huh?

James, since you were the only one that responded you are a Winner...






19 inches long and 3.50#’s

The long arm technique works! 3.5 pound or 7 pounds, that's still a pretty fish and at that size, a great fight too!

She's hooked on fishing now. She wants to fish at pawpaws every evening. Driving her daddy crazy Life does have its paybacks

Awesome pics, Travis, and incredible fish! That nephew of yours is one ornery lookin' little dude! You can tell he's all boy!

Love the pictures, Rick! Great pictures all around from everybody! Been off the forum for a few days and am looking with anticipation at many hundreds of posts to catch up on!

I finally got to my pond yesterday.

Water temp was 55. Visibility was about 3-4'.

My bait store didn't have shiners or fatheads, so I was forced to use nightcrawlers.

I caught many bluegill, several YP, and a 5" smallie. I had a LMB on for a few seconds that was about 3-4 lbs.

Visually, I observed the following:

1) Two dead HSB. They were both very white in color. One was on the bottom in about 3-4' of water, and the other was wedged in a sunken tree branch in about 10" of total water depth. These might have just been due to old age.

2) Five large HSB waiting for me to put feed out, yet I had no feed.

3) Saw at least (5) of my grass carp. They are about 3' long.

4) Schools of crappie gathered in tight brush.

5) LMB, SMB, YP, Bluegill, and Bullheads, and turtles.

6) A large white sucker maybe 14-16" long.

AND.....wait for it.......

7) A 20" Northern Pike that I didn't put into the pond!

Did you see the pike or catch it? Could it have been a chain pickerel?

I saw it. At the time I saw it, I didn't have any rods rigged up.

It could have been a CP, but I think it was a northern.

My pond is connected to a good sized stream, so really, and fish could come in to my pond. But it's not like there's good fishing in the stream.

This morning after work I decided to see how the hickory shad run was progressing on the Occoquan River which is a tributary to the Potomac River. I have to drive over it on my way home so it's a convenient stop...

I hooked 9 hickory shad and landed 5, with 1 breaking off and 3 throwing the hook while taking their wild tarpon like leaps. The shad ranged in the 11"-16" range with a couple being roe laden females. Boy do these fish fight and jump! Just like miniature tarpon!

A nice roe laden female


A side view of a nice hickory shad


I was fishing a tandem rig, with the dart in front and a spoon in back. This was the only shad of the 5 I landed that hit the dart.

This would be a yellow bass, considered incredibly invasive in our area. I'm curious what the general perception is of this fish. We caught 4 of them in a short afternoon yesterday from a local lake.

I'm poor at best at taking macro pictures, and this one is the best that I could do before running off to the post office. A taxidermist in Ligonier is going to do some fishing, and I suggested that he get a magnifying glass to tie one of these on the line......

FWIW, I have no idea what the hook sizes are, but very small comes to mind!



I really want to see a picture posted with these being used, and/or the fish caught.

George I hate that I didn't get to guess in time. Based on hand size in the pic I was saying 3-4lbs as I read down.

Here is a 7.5lb LMB that I just caught.



Sorry for the cell phone pic.

great fish cheyenne, what do you think the wr of that fish is? and is it pellet fed?

Scott, the smallest hook size I know of is #28. I am betting those midges in the picture are probably a #26 or #28. I fish that size midge early in the spring, around this time of year as that is often the only hatch coming off. It can be really tough to hook and land a trout on a hook that small as it easily tears out. But if you put on a #24 or bigger, the trout just ignore it. It's amazing how smart brown trout get after being caught a few times. Trying to follow a fly that size on the water is a challenge, even for good eyes! I use 2 pound Maxima Ultra Green tippet when fishing flies that small.

I thought a #14 hook was small, then I put these flies next to one tied on a #14. These look about 1/2 that size. I didn't know if 2# test was small enough so I sent some 1# test along with the flies. I don't thnk I could follow one floating down the river!

first bass of 2010 from my pond. hopefully, he is big enough to explode this growing season. only 9 months old

I could only speculate that it is above 110. We've electro fished some in the 130's. I didn't measure it as I should have. Few if any of my pellet trained lmb are still pellet trained, and those that were seemed to top out around 3-4lbs.

That picture just makes my stomach churn and my brain angry. I'm missing another shad season! Oh well.

I can't think of any other fishing that is so much fun. For anybody who hasn't had the pleasure of fishing for these critters, it is just crazy fun. They come up the tidal rivers of the Chesapeake Bay by the thousands in April, give or take a few weeks. Most people, like Travis, fish with two tiny lures on the line. If you happen to hook two at a time, I can only liken it to trying to give two feral cats a bath in a small tub.

First, let me tell y'all that I love this thread! Thanks for the great pics and stories - especially the kids fishing!

I didn't get a picture but, I caught a LMB in my pond today that made me feel like we're having some success - it was about 3lbs (I'm guessing) but I'm also gonna guess that the WR was well over 100. That LMB was a football and I don't think it was really full of eggs - a wee bit too early for that. And, where I caught it would not be a likely spawning area.

Our forage project seems to be working!

Further evidence, my friend was out there with me in another boat fishing with a flyrod and was catching a ton of BG under 4" - I think the golden shiners we added have saved our BG population! That was the other goal.

OK, I'll try to do better with picture taking. It's hard when I'm in the boat by myself and wanting to get my fish back in the water as quickly as possible.

An

I did some shad fishing on the Delaware near New Hope, PA. about 15 years back. It was good fun. Supposedly, the shad run helped save George Washington's army from starvation or something like that?

Went to the pond this afternoon and caught a few nice bluegill. The bass is one that Greg shocked up a couple of weeks ago. All of them are really fat either getting ready to go on bed of from all the aquamax they have been eating. I caught about 20 and they were all as fat or fatter than these.

I've heard the same story Sunil... Back then they were so thick you could walk across their backs in most tidal rivers. Many Native American tribes built their villages at tidal river fall lines and subsisted off of the shad runs along with other anadramous fish. I wish I could get a video of fighting one. I will try to get someone to video when I fight one so people can see just how hard these fish fight and the leaping jumps they make!

When I was there, it was during the annual Shad Fest. Supposedly, the locals had a good way to cook them. Maybe catmandoo was there?

Those shad were pretty much like small tarpons, in look and fight.

Two fat prego cats. these are two of the many catfish that were removed this weekend

Catfish fritters?

I am eating the small ones for dinner tonight

Had a few friends over yesterday. We got to enjoy some HSB

Pretty fish... Any weights on them?

Cason, need some more details about your friends visit. Thats some pretty good company to be hanging out with!

Isn't the gent in the first picture a prominent fish squeezer?

Dr. Jeff....Spl....help a brother out!

Slipke

Word. Isn't that him?

Holly Cow!
Must be nice to be catching fish already. We're in Wisconsin with a forecast for posibilty of snow tonight. Low of 29 degrees.

Dan:

How's Friday night & Saturday looking? I'll be in Minocqua Frinday night and Fifield/Park Falls on Sat.

Sorry n8ly, I didn't see that you had already ID'd the perps, so to speak!

yep, that is Slipke. I am curious what went down and whats going down?

Essup
Some Sunny Weather Friday High 57 & Saturday in the 60's
Check out my Website for weather etc.
http://www.allmarshfield.com/
Be sure to check out the Wolf River Underwater Walleye Cam durring the day

Thanks

The fishing ears will soon be on sale here on the internet. These ears as displayed will give the fisherman both hand free to hold newly caught fish. Be the first on the lake with your “BRITTANY FISHING EARS” These ears will almost have the fish jumping in your boat. Get your today.

They were in town to do a little electrofishing in my area. So they stopped by that evening to a little food and fishing. We looked at a lot more fish the next morning via boat.

I actually told them that I was taking these pics just for you Nate. I have several more, but I figured you'd swear it was the same fish in each photo.

On average they were 4-5lb. Though a couple broke that mark in both directions.

Omaha,

We call them "white bass" in Michigan. they run in the Detroit river during May. It is the most fun I have fishing all year. The walleye fishermen hate them, because they take over the river. My daughter and I had a contest to see who could have the most casts in a two hour period without a fish. She won with TWO casts (I have one)!

All of the fish are around 14 inches, and are a blast on ultralights. The meat is a little "fishy", but I soak them in milk and they taste just fine.

There is a white bass Morone chrysops and a yellow bass Morone mississippiensis.

They are part of the temperate bass family, the Percichthyidae family. Collectively known as sea bass. This family has its roots in the ocean and through geologic changes, the white and yellow bass were land locked. The closely related striped bass Morone saxatilis which is still an ocean fish except where it has been stocked into landlocked reservoirs. Of course there is our beloved HSB hybrid(Iowa DNR goofed up describing the cross, ooops). There is also the white perch Morone americana which is actually a temperate bass and is closely related to the other 3 species. Striped bass can actually be successfully crossed with yellow bass and white perch. However, the white bass X striped bass cross has become the most popular. White perch have now found their way into many Midwestern BOW's and from what I understand have greatly affected walleye populations through predation on their eggs and fry.

There are also several other purely saltwater sea bass from the same family...

Yeah, what Travis said. Yellow and White are different fish. Yellow bass are small. The one in the picture I took is typical, with very few getting much larger than that. On our local fisheries forum, a guy started a thread about white X yellow cross, suggesting that hybridization might cut back on the yellow population. After some research, I think it's been shown that while hybridization occurs naturally in the wild between the 2 species, the yellow bass will eventually completely deplete the white bass population and take over.

Here's a yellow X white bass.

I bet your shallow Arkansas lake was a blast to electrofish. so whats the game plan for fish management this season?

Ask Jeff. That is why cheyenne19 has him helping. Why else do you think we get all those big fish pics !! How is the story coming ?

Caught this bass today and decided to keep it due to its poor shape. I found this bluegill in its stomach and then let it go in the pond where it swam away to get eaten another day.

Now that is recycling! I love it

That is one calorie deprived largemouth.

My thoughts also.

My goodness!!!

The first sign of a fish in james' pond that didn't get enough to eat!!!

Call the Dallas Star!

ROFLOL

The water visibility is so low, and the conductivity is so high that it's actually harder than most. We've already harvested over 1000 crappie and you can't tell it. So if any thing it is catch more crappie!



It's coming along well. We talked in length about it while they were here. Mainly about the direction of the story, and what we wanted the outcome to be. The biggest limited factor will be length restrictions.

I thought I would find a lure or a disease in its stomach but instead found a living bluegill. I found no visible signs of disease other than its poor condition so maybe it was just starving. I just dont know because I had just caught two fat bass in the same area but I am stepping up the feed train.

From the picture, the bass looked like it had some sort of spinal deformation... Perhaps a birth defect or an injury?

Good observation, Cecil. Probably limited attack speed. It went to the best place, the frying pan.

OOps. Not Cecil, sorry CopperNose.

james what is Wr? I agree with Cj looks more defromed than skinny. It has "shoulders".

Don't know I ended up throwing him in the turtle trap. I had plenty of small channel catfish for fish cakes anyway. Just made them for the first time and everyone liked them. My kids even had seconds.

cheyenne,
I bet your friends can handle another 1000 harvested crappie, especially since they still are fairly large for having so many. Keep us informed as the year progresses. Your lake looks like an absolute blast to fish and a meat factory to boot!

After this weekend Nate we're somewhere around 1300 Crappie this year. They are getting harder to catch as well as it warms up. I think I'm going to ease off on the crappie harvest, and see what they look like next January. I'm hoping for some large fish since we made a good deal of room for them.

Today I went with with my fiancee and my best friend. I had a blast catching hickory and American shad. This was the biggest shad of the day... A dandy American Shad.

Is your fiance and your best friend one person or two?

That's one big, greasy shad.

I installed an aeration system for a professional bass fisherman's brand new backyard pond about 10 days ago. He was only about 15 miles from Bing's place so I packed up the whole family, headed south and stayed with Fred and Connie for 2 days. We did just a bit of fishing, alot of eating, and had a great time.

Went night fishing off the dock by the green monster and bojo buglights friday night. Usually I just sit out and watch the fish eating each other and all the little tiny food morsels, but we saw some big bluegills swimming around and decided to try and catch a few.

That must have been a wonderful two days with Fred and Connie.

Great Stuff Natster.

Hey Bing I'd like to see more photos of your dock. It looks like you have some cool gadgets on your dock that I'd like to look at.

Bob Lusk has a similar light in one of his ponds and it's very cool to sit and watch the fish swim around at night.

Sounds like a great time was had by all!

Well, I consider my fiancee to also be my best friend, but I was also fishing with my best friend Larry. He brought his boat out as well with his family and they were anchored up next to us...




Surprisingly, the hickory and American shad are not stinky and slimy like gizzard shad are. They fight better than any freshwater fish I have ever caught for it's size though.

Perhaps, but let's just call it "greasy" anyway, 'cause it looks all greasy.

looks great nate! I want one of the lights so bad, but have no electricity near pond. and I bet that trout gave a real fight on that kid pole!

My sister and nephew came to town this past weekend for a visit. I took him up to the farm on Saturday afternoon for some fishing and he caught his first bass and crappie:


Needless to say, he was fired-up! Fishing has been crazy the past few weeks. We've culled 68 LMB <12" in just three afternoons of fishing. Only bad news is no sign of shad after the extremely cold winter -- but I've already got my order placed...

That a fine first bass and crappie!

Good looking fish being caught by all. Dang, I wanna go fishin' bad.

Maybe end of next wk. Gotta get primed for the travelling lure deal. My turn in May. Ewest. dont let all your monsters ruin the lures.

Great stuff Fishman Dan, that will be a memory that you and your nephew will cherish in years to come.

Yep Look at that boys smile just as big as the fish. Good job Dan. He'll be come to see you alot more this summer.

I notice most all my fish in my pond have little are no colors.
Is it due to them bing young. Is it due to my pond being fairly clean? Old man from Texas would like to know.

A lot of times, you'll see fish that are very light in color coming from muddy water. Sometimes fish can lighten up when being caught.

If you throw one into a white five gallon bucket (with water), and let is sit for a few minutes, it may color up.

You got yourself a husky, young female. When you find the beds, you will catch some colorful males.

My fish become pale with a lack of sunlight just like I do. Muddy water generally means light colored fish.

This girls out fishing her Pawpaw

Took my youngest out to the farm last night to do a little fishing. She caught her first crappie on her very first cast with her new rod and reel -- good karma! Started raining after about 20 minutes, so we waited it out in the cabin. Finally stopped about 6:00pm. so we headed out again. She outfished me 14 to 13 and caught this nice LMB (her biggest to date) on the last cast of the night:

That is awesome!!!

can;t get no better then that. good job

Is that cute tackle box hers or yours?

Another fisherperson for life. Gotta love it.

Hers, but she lets me borrow it from time-to-time...

21 inch smallmouth bass caught on a number 3 gold mepps with brown hair last week. One of the biggest smallies I have ever caught.

Pretty coloration!

What did it weigh?

I estimated its weight around 4 1/2 lbs.

Nice fish!

very nice fish! Where did you say you caught it?

From my lake. SMB sandwiches tasted oh so good for lunch today.

You just made the list, n8ly. You didn't need to eat him, you heathen!

It was a girl, and all those eggs made great chum for future trout fishing......

Yeah, well,....you still made the list!

Some catches Friday with fellow PondBossers. Thanks guys!

Weren't you told to get that finger out of the picture???

Nice pics from a phone that was going dead!

Ya know, I should have remembered that my camera was in the car!

I think you'll remember yesterday for a long time! You did VERY well.

No Hybrid pic??

What time did you roll out of bed this a.m.?

I will definitely be remembering that day for a long time. The hybrid is the 3rd pic down. Looks a little more bluegill in that pic doesn't he?

I got home a little after 4:30am and woke up a little before noon. Drove home with the stereo blaring and windows rolled down.

I finally got up at 8 and after cleaning up (and slowly waking up) I actually got on the road @ 9:45. The first 3 hours were tough, even after a couple hours of sleep! The late night the night before didn't help much either.

Glad that you made it home safely.

You too man. Hopefully the next time you make it down I'll have something to show you at my place.

Great smallie Nate - just catching up on stuff I missed while MIA .... "ya gotta learn to "hide your hands" and make your fish look larger per archived photo instructions tho .... !!!

With hands the size of mine, there is no hiding them regardless of how big the fish is.
Everyone always asks me why my nostrils are so big, and I just lift up my hands and show them the size of my fingers........

Thanks for the mental image.

Sometimes, when you can't get to your pond as much as you'd like, it's good to have friends go to your pond.

Here is PB Member wivell's comments about Sunday, May 9, 2010, at my pond:

"Sunil,

We managed to cull some bullheads yesterday.
I think the boys counted them - 32 or thereabouts.
Braden caught 2 stripers. One was about 21 inches with huge girth -
probably 15" girth.
Austin caught the Channel Cat - nearly 20 inches.
He has a broken wrist at the moment and decided he didn't want catfish
slime on his cast, hence my mugshot with the channel cat.

It was cold - 43 degrees. Had a small fire going in the "truck rim"
fire pit to keep the boys warm.
The pond was as full as I have ever seen it, water a bit cloudy.
No bass biting at all.
Caught about 10 perch and lots of bluegill as well. Some of the blue
gill appeared to have a bit of pumpkinseed in them.

Scott"

Nice fish Sunil. What is your culling policy (with the fish not the visitors)?

Right now, it's "All Bullheads must die." I don't see that ever changing.

Soon to follow will be a "Remove any LMB below 14 inches."

Nice hybrids! Do you have feeders for the hybrids? Jeff asked what you culling policy was for the fish and I want to know what it is for the visitors?

I got a phone call from my nephew this evening asking if he and a buddy could fish the pond. Here’s the results, all caught on Stubby Steve’s.

This is the largest RBT caught so far, they had a blast. They learned 2 things tonight. 1) sharp hooks hook and hold fish better than dull ones and 2) if you’re using dull hooks, any slack given to the fish will result in them coming off (like when they jump 3’ into the air coming at you like a missle shot from a submarine ). This RBT is 17.5" long and weighed 2.98#


Two other RBT's were landed and removed for a meal for them;
one 17" 2.52# and one 16.5" 2.21# Those trout were stocked in last October and weighed right around 1# each. It seems that the AquaMax 600 is agreeing with them!

I couldn't let them have all the fun so I tossed in a Stubby Steve's pellet on a #8 hook with 2# test and let it sink. I thought I had a trout but look what showed up:

14.5#, 2.26# WR 1.46? I think it was one of the pound fish that I stocked from Jones last Spring that were supposed to be pellet trained. Look at the body size compared to the mouth size. I tagged it with a numbered tag and back in it went. I also saw the other LMB that I tagged last year as a skinny (2.76#), but long (18") LMB from the local lake. It was looking a lot fatter than it did when it went in, but it ignored the pellet.

I had on what looked like another LMB, but it came unbuttoned close to shore. We also caught 3 Male BG and one Female.

We saw some larger trout swimming around. I can't believe how fast they grow! The WR's are picking up!!!

Good job Scott!!!!
Hard work and clean living pays off, right????

Thanks George. I don't know about the second part......

Those rainbows sure do fight!

They had a blast even tho they didn't land 75% of the fish that they hooked. They couldn't believe how high they'd jump!

I went and dabbled around in the pond a bit this evening, after a bit of rain. The pond finally is coming up, and there was enough rain to finally bring up the neighbor's pond and overflow into mine. It's still 22 1/4" below full pool.

I tossed out a 2" white twister tail on a #10 unweighted hook on 2# test around the pond edge, hoping to take out some LMB that are small. I caught the LMB that I caught, tagged and transferred last year. It is still thin, but it's now 19" long (gained 1") and it now weighs 3.51# (gained .9#). I took 2 12" LMB out for dinner, one weighed 1.04" and the other .94#. I took out 10 LMB, all 4"-6" as well. I was catching some pretty good sized BG, between 8" and 10", (all Males) when I caught a fish that I thought I had eliminated from the pond:


It was really fat, and weighed 1.16#:


The previous owner stocked them and I did my best to fish them all out. I haven't caught one since 2008 before the pond was renovated. I'm hoping that this is the last one (again).

I bet it tasted good! Pretty fish... What was making the belly so fat? Any sign the crappies reproduced in your pond, or are you just catching the remnants of the original stockers?

Female loaded with eggs. I'm hoping to take that as a sign that no males are present since the LMB were making nests 2 weeks ago. The cold fronts are driving them on and off the beds.

Since this is the first one caught in 2 years, hopefully this means that they aren't reproducing. The last one was about 9" long.

Interesting... Sounds like you maybe winning the crappie war.

I can only keep my fingers crossed.

Nice fish, esshup. Bass, crappie and rainbows. Man, you guys have it good.

Good looking stripers, Sunil. Have you got any mudcat you can spare?

Yes, burger. Yes.

Went fishing with 3 friends at West Point Lake (near the GA/AL line) today and we caught about 25 Stripers.
Modesty prevents me from telling you who caught the largest, but someone took a picture
of the handsome devil. No that is not Catmando! Weighed 14 lbs.

Way to go, Randy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

nice fish

Nice Striper!! What did you catch them on?

Wow! You had a great striper day!

I fished Lanier for stripers last Saturday and we blanked on the line-sides. We caught a few spotted bass later in the day but nothing big. I caught the biggest fish - about 1 1/2 pounds.

I've fished West Point a few times and caught some decent LMB but I've never tried stripers there.

Congrats!

On another note, I fished my pond around noon yesterday and the LMB were surprisingly active. I only landed 1 fish - about a 15-incher - caught on a fluke where there was some feeding activity near the surface. I had a vicious strike in shallow water up by the inlet creek mouth but my stinking flouro leader snapped immediately. I'm swearing off flouro line for a few years - I've had too many fish break off (and I was using Sunline - not cheapo stuff).

Thanks guys. We caught them on 4" BG & RES. They like the lighter colored (females)
better. The lake had a tremendous amount of rain recently, and was muddy with logs,
and other stuff floating all over the lake. It's clearing up now. They had a shad
kill over the winter, so there are no schools anywhere. There are some monsters in
there - I think the record is around 63#.

Good stuff, Randy. No shad, that explains the BG bait. Maybe there's hope that my hsb are working on the BG some.

Fished for my SMB for about a hour or so but didn't catch one. They seemed active because I saw multiple strikes on the surface all around the pond. Probably attacking the FHM and GSH. Feed the FHM and GSH right before dark and they were active. I am going to try again tomorrow and if that doesn't work I may set up a trap the next time I am down here.

We went fishing at one of my smaller ponds Saturday morning and caught approximately eight LMB 8-10" in size. Took all of 30 minutes to catch them. After catching them we relocated them to another pond. Sorry, no photos.

Now for the reel fun! We are now aggressively targeting the GSF population in the backyard pond. My wife caught 20 or so under 4" but she also caught some closer to 9." This was the smallest of the three "good size" GSF she caught this afternoon. Using a lightweight spincasting rig with an old jar of "Gulp" artificial bait someone had given me for Christmas three years ago.

Somewhere, JHAP is softly crying right now, barely managing to reign in his emotion at the amazing beauty of this fish.











Not that anyone else is doing that, but, you know, just sayin'!

Nice photos of those things.

That's a nice fish. They're fighters. I bet she enjoyed catching them.

HEY! Where did you get that picture?

Just kiddn'. Great looking fish Randy! As usual, the Pond Boss site keeps me filled with envy.

My grandson went out fishing with some friends on the Chesapeake Bay a couple of weeks ago. He got one that was about 34 inches. Nobody wanted it. My son brought it to me. We knew what to do with it. To me, there is just absolutely no better eating fish of any kind. There isn't even a bad way to fix them, unless maybe you burn them beyond recognition.

Good eatn',
Catmandoo Ken

I hate to tell you this, but it probably isn't the last one. I think I went for two years without catching a crappie out of the pond after I thought I fished them out.

This is our sixth season with this pond. So far, the crappie have been well behaved. I have fantastic bluegill and catfish. Most crappie are between 11 and 14 inches when we catch them. (Most bass are 10-11 inches -- but that is OK.)

Maybe you should try feeding them.

Ken

Ken:

They're getting a constant diet of AquaMax 600, but the trout seem to be bullying everybody else out of the way. It's not until the trout are stuffed that I see BG show up at the feed trough.

I caught this one at the complete opposite end of the pond. She was hanging out with some nice Male BG's.

Just a note about 2010 pond fishing . . .

There was a pickup truck parked by my pond last night when I got home. Three people were fishing -- a couple in their 50s, and a girl in her 20s. My blood pressure rose immediately when I saw this. Then I realized they were really good friends of ours, who we'd invited over to help get the last of the winter trout out of the pond. Even with the invitation, they confirmed with a call to Lynda before coming over. Last night was nearly non-stop action with bluegill, bass and the last of the trout. Feeding time topped it off for them, as it was a true feeding frenzy of bluegill, crappie, trout, catfish, and my big old orange koi.

Today, a good friend and his 22 year-old son, accompanied me to three ponds I manage nearby. These are people who fish and hunt a lot. The weather was drizzle and light rain the whole time we were out, but my friends had smiles that just wouldn't quit. Things were just crazy in the ponds. Many hundreds, probably thousands, of bluegill were spawning in each of the ponds. Bass seemed to be constantly patrolling the bluegill spawning beds. Anything that hit the water -- night crawler, rubber worm, fly, popper, big lure, small lure -- it caused instant action on the end of the line. My young 22 year old friend caught the biggest bluegill (about 10 inches, and fat) and the biggest bass (about 18 inches, and real fat) he'd ever seen in real life. We filleted and skinned about fifty 7-inch bluegill on the tailgate of my truck. They took them home for dinner.

Seeing such enjoyment for friends is priceless.

That put a big grin on my face!

Man Ken! That story started out like it was going to get ugly.

A huge plus one Ken.

Fishing a pond you own is fun. Fishing a pond you own with friends and family is priceless.

Jeff Glazener's Pond Grand Slam ..

Spinner bait CNBG

-- --


Tell us the story ?

I have officially retired from "pondmeistering" and have passed the torch to my landlord son Jeff.
Now if I can just convince him to weigh and measure my "babies" ...

How big is a Strike King "Mini King" spinner bait?
I'm guessing three inches and at least a 1/0 hook?
How big CNBG to swallow a hook this size?

In the future I will be a "guest" fisherman with deep (?) pockets.

I got to go to my pond this past Tuesday and Thursday with a client. Here's a HSB he caught yesterday:



No weight or length measurements as he fought the HSB for several minutes and I wanted to get it back in the water.

Wow, nice fish Sunil!

I was in a small fishing derby with my brother,dad and uncle on tuesday. It was all people from my brothers work and their friends could enter for 20 bucks. Well I got lucky and pulled this walleye out half an hour into the derby. It weighs 10lb 6oz and 77cm long. 2nd place was 6lb7oz and 3rd was 5lb7oz. I won 500 bucks and had a blast. [img:left]http://[/img] [img:left]http://[/img]
There were 25 fish cought total and I cought 6. They had to be over 50cm(20inches) so 5walleye made the keeper limit size and I cought 2 of them. It will pay for the mount

Congratulations Blair!

Man, that is a big time wall hanger. Good job, Blair!

Incredible walleye Blair!

Very cool Blair, you ought to send that photo and the info to "In-Fisherman" magazine or similar publications.

How did you catch that, Blair?

Yes - I am sure there is a story for us to read.

My youngest daughter caught this nice crappie out at our pond this past weekend. What made it special is that she caught it on a lure she had picked out all by herself at Bass Pro Shop (she convinced her grandma to take her to BPS the last time she went over to her house). Middle daughter is not happy about being outfished by little sister:

That is one funny photo! That could be a caption contest photo. Are you game for a caption contest?

A buddy came over to fish the pond today, and I decided that he needed to take some RBT home. There are still around 60 RBT/Golden Morphs in the pond and if they don't make it that would be a lot of fish to just let die. So, I'll whittle down the numbers a bit. All were caught on Stubby Steves.

He took 6 RBT home, this was the largest one:


20" long, 4.25#! Someone was eating well since late October!!

I also caught another one of the pellet trained LMB on Stubby Steves. I was fishing with no float, just a #10 Owner Mosquito hook tied on 2# Maxima. The LMB was 14 3/4", 2.24#. It now proudly wears tag #004. I ran to the house to get the tagger after I caught it, and the camera. I quickly tagged it, weighed it and as it was swimming away my buddy asked "Why did you bring the camera?" Oops. At least it came in handy for the trout.

I have had the aerator running when air temps are below 70°. The water level in the pond started dropping, so I turned on the well a couple of days ago. Yesterday I noticed quite a few of the trout hanging out in the well pump outflow. I need to get a thermometer that will take temps deeper than 8', but my suspicions are that the aeration is making the deeper water warmer. So, I'm going to suspend aeration for a few days and see if the trout still congregate around the well inflow.

Some other critters that were about 8' from the waters edge on the grass:

esshup, you are def doing a lot right with your pond. congrats.

Fisherdan, that is one nice slab. You have one very proud and one very invious daughter.

That's a very nice speckled perch! Congrats to her!

BTW: it's been pouring rain here for a week and the water has been quite muddy but I managed a couple of LMB about 15" or so on a neon yellow Senko.

I haven't even been taking a camera fishing because when I do, I get skunked.

3-4 feet of water in the river white rubber jig and minnow. I used a bobber and just let it float down the river. It was so easy a preschooler could have cought it. It was simple but the best way(that I know of) to fish 3-4 feet of water that is flowing 1 mph. It was a very long day waiting around till weigh in I don't know how a pro tournament fiherman could handle it. lot of beer helped me.

I caught this big girl at a friends pond today on a weightless T-Rig Zoom Original Trick Worm (Green Watermelon). I fought her for a good ten minutes. The combination of 6lb mono and a 6' light/medium action spinning outfit made it one hell of a battle, not to mention the fields of pondweed.






I'm not sure exactly what my friend is doing to grow these hogs, but I think I will recruit him to the PB family and we can pick his brain.

It's an old gravel pit. The forage base includes BG and GSH for sure, but there doesn't appear to be a feeding program.

I'm guessing this fish is between 5.5-6.5 lbs, which is a MONSTER for Northeast Ohio.

How big do you guys think it is? I am fairly new to Bassin' and have never had a scale with me so I have no way of sizing them up other then using the calculators on the internet.


For reference in the second picture the visible portion of my right shoe is 2.5" long.

Nice looking trout Esshup!

Yep BB, get him over here. We'd love to hear his story. That is a nice sized LMB. I'm not good as estimating weight but some folks here are.

That is a hog, Blackbass!

Here's a new record from my pond caught today. Also caught one that I know would have topped 2 pounds but no scale or camera handy at the time. Once I got the scale the best we could catch was this one.

HBG - 11 inches long, 1 pound 11.75 ounces

1/4 ounce short of a state record here in MN.



Also the biggest crappie from my pond caught last Friday, 15 inches but no scale to weight it.

Yowza! Both fish are something to be proud of!!

Way to go BZ! Congrats!!!

Nice fish, bz!

Awesome BZ!

WOW!!!

Very impressive!

I know. I used all caps and three exclamation points. I could have up sized it and added color but that would have been overkill.

Or were you referring to the fish. Sometimes it's hard to get a read on you Bruce.

That HBG is a MONSTER!!!

I certainly cant compete with bz's ginormous HBG, but maybe in 2 or so yrs. Grandkids came down from Nashville Memorial day weekend. I didnt get to the store for nightcrawlers, so it was an exclusive Stubby Steve's offering. Funny thing, I stocked 300 each CN and straight BG 2 years ago this spring. Earlier this spring I caught mainly CN. This time, the straight BG were bedding under the feed pattern. That is all they caught. I had heard that CN bed a little earlier and grow quicker.

Truly impressive haul, burger! Love the kids in the pics, too!

Awesome photos! I love seeing the look on a kid's face when they have a fish! The one towards the bottom with your granddaughter is priceless!

Good job Burger - love the photos.
Treasure the moment with the grandkids - our one and only favorite grand daughter will be married in September

The last 2 pics are the best!

Great photo montage of the mini-burgers, burger!

Haha, great pics Burger! Tell me, did the little one in the last pics just lose it because it was squirming around or did she toss it up in the air? Cute kids man.

Ok those are some nice fish. So I have to know how large is your pond and do you feed the fish. If they are fed how much and how often?

How many fish have been stocked in the pond and what all types are there as well.

Thanks

Great pictures, Burger. Cute kids & nice fish - you're doing well...

3/4 acre
300 each coppernose and straight BG in Apr. '08
75 F1 lmb in Aug '08
75 hsb in Sept '08
probably about 30-40 of each left after early mortality, catching, breaking off.
Feed variable # of times 2 to 4 depending on temp. 42 or 46% Cargill/Burris feed.
Purina Aquamax is similar. Just got a Texas Hunter feeder this year. Now much more consistent feeding. Absentee and lost a lot of growth potential due to inferior feeders. Do yourself a favor and spend the money up front as you will end up ponying up at some point anyway.

Sorry I missed your question, Omaha. She was holding it; it was flopping; she kept saying 'pishie', then it flopped out of her hand.

Nice fish Burger !!! Grandbabies make it perfect.

Those are very nice fish Burger and the kids catching them makes it even better. Isn't it fun to watch them have fun? I see you have the same 9+ inch weighting tray that I have with my Wally World digital scale. Works good.

Great photos Burger! You are blessed my man...with beautiful fish and grandchildren!

Went electrofishing on the White River east of Little Rock this past week and got a few interesting fish. In a few weeks we will be sampling a tailwater so I should get some good trout pictures.

18" sauger



About a 6 or 7 pound Bowfin.



This is a longnose gar that was jet black.

Chris, good pics. Any idea why that gar was that color?

Genetics I guess. All the other fish we caught had normal coloration.

Wow, never seen a Bowfin before. Aren't they ancient, evolutionary wise? They are able to breathe air during drought conditions with some kind of primitive lung?

Yeah, TJ, they can. Their swim bladder is lines with capilaries that can extract 02 from the air it gulps down there.

Gar and Bowfin are among the only freshwater fish left that swam with dinosaurs. Im sure there are others, but a quick peruze of Wikipedia didn't let me know any more.

The Lungfish, though, is the one you really wanna cite in a darwin argument. he brings even more to the table than the flying spaghetti monster. While both are miracles of evolution, the lungfish isn't quite so silly.

-SB

Went fishing with my family on Lake Texoma over the weekend. Caught a nice batch of Stripers.

Somebody's going to be having nightmares tonight!!!

"Somebody's going to be having nightmares tonight!!!"

...and a smelly foot (if they're wearing socks).

YB, have you asked that young lady out, who's piloting the boat in the second picture?

I'm with Sunil. She can drive a boat too!! Stick a fork in me, game over.

This is from our pond - we'll start harvesting for the table this fall. Original stocking June 2008

Just when I thought it was safe to visit the forum before bedtime...

Nice work FH! Love to see the flyrod in action. How much growth have you seen since 2008? He's a beauty - looks so clean somehow...if that makes sense?

I'd seen great growth until recently - some of the original stocking are looking thin ( I don't feed) - looks like its time to thin them out. the largest being 8" or so. I've been thrilled to see 2-3" BG, YP and even SMB this summer. Its all going on - need to make sure I keep the BG in check from here on out.

This is the 1st year our pond doesn't feel like a "new pond"

FH

Electrofished the Upper White River this past week. Started about 80 miles downstream of the Bull Shoals Dam and ended up about 5 miles downstream of the dam.It was interesting to see trout and bass caught in the same 100 yard stretch.


Arkansas Lobster



Chestnut Lamprey. They were attached to several of the trout that we shocked up.



26" Striper



18.5" Smallmouth that we caught a mile downstream of where the Buffalo River flows into the White River.



Walleye and Yellow Perch we caught about 5 miles downstream of the Bull Shoals Dam.



A 24" Brown which was the biggest trout that we caught.

Chris,
I have fished in those exact spots many a times! Pretty cool!! Do you guys wait to shock for any specific water flow? for those who don't know, the water level can go up and down what seems like more than 10 feet daily depending on how much water they release from the dam.

No, we sample whatever is at the site. We start at a certain point and make 6 10 minute runs and alternate sides every ten minutes while working our way downstreram.

That big Brown was caught in a fast, deep rapid. We caught a bunch of browns in that spot. I have no idea how you would fish it because the water was flowing so fast.

During no flow or low water I still fish the holes with nightcrawlers or powerbait.

When they first start running water or during medium flow I will cast artificial trout worms, mepps spinners, and flutter spoons.

During heavy flow I will cast heavy spoons or drift cut shad for big browns.

During super heavy flow I will drift with the current with a big egg sinker and nightcrawler bouncing on the bottom right behind the boat. I actually catch the most fish during the heaviest flows of water, that really turns them on big time!

We had some kids and adults over this evening to catch a few more fish for a neighborhood fish fry tomorrow.

Just a few fun photos . . .

Love seeing the kids having a blast!!!

I also really like the last picture using the Condello technique with the added "strain" flair!!!

ROFLMAO

Glad to see my favorite thread didn't die in my absence - great pictures!!
Fall is here - more fish pictures guys - Ill try to do my part the next few weeks ...

Special Fishing Trip - first pond fishin’ since April!
Air temp 53 degrees - near surface water 73.8 degrees - beautiful morning - light and variable winds - clear sky - bright moon - blue bird day and lockjaw fish ….. but caught a few fish anyway ….
I know … “without documentation, just another fish story” ….. but this is my story and I’m stickin’ to it!

Couple of two pound LMB - one fat feed trained bass caught on a pellet fly - one skinny caught on a big bass bug from the edge of water primrose tryin’ for forage …..

Two fat and sassy HSB and a couple dozen of CNBG - mostly 5-6 inch that we transferred to little pond - largest about 8 inches but the feeders had gone off an hour before so poor appetites.

The good news is that it was a landmark day for both Mrs. G and Me!

Congrats George. I sincerely hope that there are many more to come.

George,
I went fishing over the weekend. My dad and I were invited up to southern Wisconsin to fish with professional angler and InFisherman regular Steve Ryan. He put us on some real nice fish.







Story and more pics from the trip are on My Fishing Blog

How many did you catch and how many for Mrs G ?

Pretty awesome, n8ly.

How bid is that LMB?

And, I'd like to get that image of the pike's (it is a pike, right?) eye in the water!

I only count my fish and always lose count on my fishin' parner's fish ....

Really/Really Nice Fish!!!!
Most exciting part of my trip was nearly fall into the pond!
CONGRATS!!!

That is a really nice bass especially for up north.

When is your next fishing trip George?

Sunil, if you click on the picture on my fishing blog it will open up into a new window in its original size and you can copy it from there.

As soon as I can!!!!
Wobbly legs almost put me in the pond!
Water level down almost 3 ft and slick banks - N.E. Texas missed the big rains.
Bushed this morning ...

Goerge, the more that you're out there the less wobbly they will become.

Thanks Scott!

You be careful George! Don't try to take the old saying "get your feet wet" literally!

Do you mean like Cecil does it, Rex?

A Fall trout from the local creek and a LMG that spilled into the creek from the lake as well.





One of my 2008 stocked SMB - he was CHUNKY.

All good looking fish F-H!

Nice fish! That LMB flat out inhaled the rapala.

Yesterday
Class of 2008 Overton CNBG males beginning to mature.Beautiful classic CNBG color lost before could get a photo.
9¾ inches and one pound on the boga.
They hit this stage and start getting broad!

Lost my 12 inch CNBG flopped back in the pond – get him next week – dream on!!!

Nice CNBG ! He turned dark on you quickly.

Awesome fish, George! What did you catch it on?