Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Getting ready for a new species!

Wish me luck. I'm going to sneak out tomorrow to a public access site between two lakes (moving water) and see if i can get any pumpkinseeds from the bank. I was told by an angler on a local fishing website that pumpkinseeds were thick in there last September. I'm hoping it attracts pumpkinseeds year around.

I finally got a fishing license on line tonight. I get to use the good car, not the one that gets a flat tire every 24 hrs. because the tires are so bald. With the economy the way it is things are tight!

Cecil, you shoulda put out a call on Big Bluegill, maybe a bunch would have come over to help.
Good Luck.

I just caught a bunch of nice pumpkinseeds on Thursday in the Potomac River, too bad your so far away... I'd have gladly added my fish to your gene pool.

Cecil if you hook me up with some trout I will gladly get you some tires

Anyways best of luck. Make sure you take more than just one type of bait/lure. Its all about diversification.

You're looking for a dealer of trout in your area is that it? If so I can help you on that. Nothing needed in return.

P.M. me your location and I can see what I can find out. I have lots of contacts all over the country.

You can get really good used tires for low prices at some tire shops where some particular and careful people regularly buy/change to new tires after existing ones are only half or a third worn.

Oh I know Bill. There is a good tire shop not too far away but when money is tight the house payment comes first.

BTW there is Eurasian Millfoil where I am going. I sure don't need to bring that back to the ponds!

Update,

Fishing from shore at a public ramp only produced bluegills on Sunday but I picked up plates and registered the boat today. I'm hitting a different lake 5 to 8 minutes down the road tomorrow evening called Sparta Lake. According to the following surveys it seems to have a good population of pumpkinseeds. Population percentage was consistent with two surveys that were 22 years apart. It's only 31 acres so I can fish it pretty hard and find them if they are there. (See Sparta Lake below). It also has an inlet and outlet connected to a local river drainage so that's a plus for pumpkinseeds. Air temps are shooting up into the low 80's now consistently so I'm hoping bedding will commence. I just hope someone hasn't already raped the beds as we have no limit on bluegill and pumpkinseeds in my state. Many anglers don't know when to stop.

Best of luck Cecil. If all else fails theres always the float tube haha jp.

I could use one in this lake and not worry about being run over. I'll have to check but it may be electric motors only which is what I will be using. However I don't have the needed tube etc. anyway.

I had to chuckle where I got my boat stickers today. The lady wanted to know what horsepower my electric motor was! I said they are not rated that way and I doubt it's even 1 horsepower. She put down 1 horsepower!

Thanks for the wish for good luck. I will keep everyone posted with pictures if they are interested. The dog will go for her first boat trip. It may be interesting.

BTW what are you using for bait?

I will be using redworms (wigglers) and will also take the flyrod. I'd take crickets too, but the bait store is too far away. Anymore bait stores in my area are far and few between and can't compete with Wallmart and the other big stores. Trouble is the selection of bait from the big stores is not good here.

Yeah its like that everywhere with big chain stores and the limited selection. If this doesn't work you might have to pay the neighborhood kids 5cents per cricket I made good money digging up worms when I was younger.

Cecil:

From what I've seen today, the PS are in much shallower water than the BG if they are bedding. The water temp. in Koontz (the last lake on your list) is 72.5*F in 1' of water as pf 3:00 p.m. today. The BG are just starting to fan out beds, and the females are in deeper water (6' or so) waiting. I have 2 PS that I caught today when I sampled the lake that are about 6"-7" long. If this weather holds up the fishing should be hot and heavy in a couple of days. I'll be getting the nylon live basket set up at the lake tomorrow.

No boat needed, in fact it's easier without one!

Yeah fishing from the bank is much easier and more fun than in a boat. However I can put a monster cooler in the bottom of the boat and transport cooler and boat back without getting the inside of the vehicle wet!

That's true! I have a small trailer (4' x 8') and can put two 120 qt coolers on it easily to transport mine. (I've been down the "wet vehicle" road before!)

I don't mind the wet vehicle thing as much as the wife does. I'll be using her SUV to pull the boat as I've got the klunker as I work at home. Once we had a van and I had fish cooler water slush around and get the carpet in the van wet. After a few days it smelled kind of bad.

Cecil:

I went out this a.m. and only caught a dozen BG (11 M, 1 F), 1 PS (M) and 1 RES (M) in 2 hrs. No BG on the beds, not even in the areas that they were congregating in yesterday afternoon. The carp were starting to spawn in the Milfoil, and chasing each other in the shallows, getting the water muddy. One more PS to the tank tho. I'll run to Lowes and make a frame for the holding pen and get that finished today. If the weather holds up they should be on the bedds by the end of the week. If they aren't, then fishing will be poor for a while. The signs are out that that area of the lake will have the weeds killed on the 27th. I'll take a pic of the sign and post it for comments, I'm wondering if they are treating the weed problem correctly.

I took off at 5:30 P.M. to the lake down the road that turns out to be only 2 miles away from my house! I kept 24 bluegills to eat and released at least half that many. They are are in less than 2 feet of water but it was hard to say if they are actually on the beds. The males are definitely ready (easily squirt milt with little pressure) but even though some of the females are packed with eggs upon close examination they are not ready yet.

Unfortunately I only came up with one fish that was at least partially a pumpkinseed which was the one pictured below. I'm pretty sure it's bluegill/pumpkinseed hybrid or something else crossed with a pumpkinseed as the mouth looks kind of large.



Thoughts?

I've decided to remove broodstock gills from the holding pond and plant them STAT into the pond I was going to use for pumpkinseeds production before I end up not producing anything this year! I will get pumpkinseed broodfish from a supplier in the fall instead. In reality if I'm serious about starting a selective breeding program with the pumpkinseeds, I need about 200 fish to start with, and with the rate I am going that will take some time from the wild -- if I can do it at all. In the mean time breeding season is upon us and will soon pass.

Cecil, isn't it gonna be hard to find pure PS's with all those BG's around, or do all the lakes around there have BG.

Cecil:

I'll dump the ones that I have then, no problem. Only Males so far anyway! Mine are straight PS, not hyb although the lake has a very healthy population of BG and RES.

Scott,

I really appreciate you thinking of me. Much appreciated! Why don't you eat though though? They are just as good to eat as bluegills.

Cecil:

They're 2"-3" smaller than the BG that I'm catching. I have pulled one or two out in the past few years that were 9" long or so. I was suprised at how thick they are at that size compared to same sized BG in that body of water.

On 2nd thought, I just might leave them where they are for a few days and give you a shout if I run into a bucket full of them. If not, then I can return them to the lake or the pond. I've never run across a hyb on that lake betweeen the 2 species.

Scott,

How many have you collected so far? Do they appear to be all males or mixed?

Cecil, I really wish I was closer to you. I can pull out a pile of PS in no time flat on the Potomac River.