Something I forgot to mention is the big difference in color/markings among the BG I am catching. All are CNBG, but some look like this one and many look totally different with red/cream colored bellies and are much darker on the sides. I guess before this pond I never really noticed the differences, as they were all just BG to me at the time, but the color differences are pretty dramatic.
Get a dark colored plastic 5 gallon bucket (preferably black) and put one of your fish you catch in the bucket filled about 2/3 full of pond water. Wait 3-5 minutes and see how different the fish looks like from when you put it in. You can also try it in a white bucket that lets lots more light in. The fish will be a lot lighter and more washed out when coming out of the white bucket compared to the black one. From the black bucket the fish will be very dark colored and the vertical stripes very pronounced.
At least that has been my experience. The chromatophores in BG can change significantly in a relatively short time period.
In my sediment pond that gets high inflows of water during large rain events the water will become very turbid with sediment at times. If I catch a BG when the water is turbid they will be very washed out looking with few distinguishing colors or features. Right now the water is very clear and the fish will be colorful when I catch them.
JKS That is a good looking fish right there. Looks like you have got a good program going. Snrub That's pretty interesting about the fish coloration and how it can change.
Nothing like seeing your bobber bobbing. 1 acre pond with LMB BG GSF BH CC and whatever else I can find Not after trophies I just like catching and eating fish Buddy R Hill
I always carry around at least one and often two 5 gallon buckets in the back of my UTV when I am around the pond or feeding fish. I never really paid much attention to which bucket among many I have (we get various grease, oil, paint, disinfectants for use around the farm in 5 gallon plastic pails) I would grab.
Often when I catch fish that I want to clean or put in the holding pen on the dock or transfer to another pond I will just put them in a 5 gallon bucket filled half or 2/3 with pond water till I am ready to move them (being mindful of O2 as far as how big of fish, how long they are in the bucket and how many).
What I began to notice is that fish in a white or a light colored bucket would be very jumpy and any time I would approach the bucket (assuming they saw my shadow or figure) they would go nuts and splash lots of water. When I used a black or at least dark colored bucket the fish were much more docile. This lead me to using only black buckets for transferring fish that were important to me.
When I got to using a black bucket I would put the fish in. Then when I took the fish back out a few minutes later (perhaps to show my wife or transfer it to another pond) I noticed the fish had darkened up. So I started paying more attention to the change. My sediment pond, when very turbid from high water inflows, can have fish that are so washed out looking they are almost white/silver colorless. I can put those washed out looking fish in a black bucket and not get around them for a while and when I take them out the vertical stripes (in BG) or the horizontal markings (on LMB) will be very pronounced and the fish will be much more clorful.
All this was found out originally quite by accident by simply using various plastic 5 gallon buckets to temporarily hold fish.
So if you have a really big BG that's not that pretty but you want a better looking picture, put it in about 3-4 gallon of pond water in a black 5 gallon plastic bucket for several minutes before taking it out and snapping the picture.
.gif)
