Maybe you could tie small otters to the backs of the cormorants - to really help train your blue herons correctly!

Is that a gopher in his beak? If so I need to hire him to patrol my garden, those things have destroyed a lot of squash and tomatoes

Pat,

I think I recall that you have successfully feed-trained lots of fish in your ponds.

Surely your next project should be to feed-train blue herons to eat gophers out of your garden!

Rod
I never feed trained any fish but I’m open to feed train the ole GBH. The LMB feed trained themselves to eat my BCP….

I know you wanted those crappie.

Unfortunately, a healthy crappie drifting in front of a LMB is like waving a red cape in front of a bull. You are going to get a reaction!

P.S. I thought I remembered you as a fairly heavy fish food feeder from one of the Optimal threads? There are now so many Texas pond managers that I read on Pond Boss that I am starting to get them confused! (Oh well, won't be the last time I get confused. )

I use triton 4512 as feed. And I have had big LMB take them off my line (8”).. yesterday I was piddling in the flooded timber and had a 6” LMB on a crappie jig and guess what…6-7# LMB came up and gobbled it up and hauling A and hung the cork in a v branch breaking off.. water is clear so I got to watch, pretty cool

Pat, where do you get the triton feed? Online, feed store, Farm & Fleet? Purina stopped deliveries for weeks at my local Purina store, I'm feeling the need for lots of options.

James I get it from Overtons….. I’m only 20 minutes from him

Pat That would have been way cool to watch happen! now you know what to use for bait to catch them big ones.
I dont know if its already too hot in Texas to use some topwater poppers for the big bass or not, about perfect around here, but that has to be the most fun way to catch a big bass there is, love to see them leave a wake as they come to the surface to snatch it.

Ha ha ha that’s what I use! Pop-R is pretty deadly at times, the rest of the time I use big bite bait cane thumper with owner brand flashy swimmer… have caught 10# plus on both baits

Maybe I'll ask them to bring some the next time they do an electro survey. You've sure had great results!

Not so much on LMB. BG love it but I don’t over feed them. Only thing going for me is big LMB and lots(too many BG) and a handful of BCP.

This raises an interesting question: What is the impact on LMB from feeding BG and other panfish? You'd think it would be a plus, since forage fish numbers & size variety would be larger, plus maybe they are more vulnerable to LMB when they surface to feed on pellets.

But there are so many variables, hard to be sure. Would it be more a plus for LMB population, or average size, or what? At what point would overfeeding be a real threat to BG predators?

As to deterring GBH, I've been told if you add 2 GBH decoys about 50-75' apart, a third Live bird won't land? They say they are very territorial when Paired up. Anyone ever try this?

I don't know if that is true.

However, I have observed the "inverse" several times. I have seen two egrets working a shoreline and then had a GBH fly in and land 20-30 feet away.

No fight ensued, but the closest egret shortly thereafter opted to fly away. The second egret would then follow.

The two egrets combined certainly massed more than the GBH, but I have never observed any behavior that they even considered attempting to intimidate a GBH.

I would think that Snipe's idea for GBH decoys would be effective against a variety of fish stealers!

Rod
How many fish do you think a GBH can perp a day?

Is "How many do you have?" the correct answer?

I have only ever seen a GBH catch and swallow small fish and a frog. I have never seen them spear a fish. However, I have seen lots of pics on Pond Boss of "speared" fish.

I think I must be fishing in ponds with too many small fish!

Same here….. I have 0 bullfrogs and baby turtles are also on the menu as well as snakes. I don’t mind them snacking on all the bg they can catch which is hardly any

All our perch loss to GBH are from being speared. They will hit them and not be able to eat them. Then they are just left to die slowly. Our latest loss was are night during their spawn. Now that the fish feeder is out there they will come in at dusk when the feeder is set to go off.

We have watched these GBH for some time and a decoy works well. If they see there is a GBH already on the bank of the pond they won't land until they get comfortable with it or its much harder to get a meal else where.

I have personally watched them puke in the pond to chum the minnows. My thoughts when I seen that is if there is a live bass or northern pike in there they would maybe change the balance of our pond. We have scared them so bad that they puke on the shore and we have watched the minnows they have eaten flop around on the grass.

Crafty buggers they are. Cheers,

If I want to puke, all I need to do is watch the news.