Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations My day with Bob Lusk

Last week I was on spring break so I contacted Bob about being able to spend the day with him and of course he said yes.

So Friday I met him at the Lusk Lodge 2. We first went to the Pond Boss headquarters and dropped off some stuff.

We then headed to Coalgate, OK to meet with Steve, Bob, and Nancy Cody. For those of you that have bought "Perfect Pond", you will know Steve because he built his lake by himself. Bob and the Cody's talked about there plan for the lakes. Among the three Cody’s, they have 220 ACRES OF WATER. Bob Cody just built a 50 acre lake and Nancy built a 25 acre lake.

They talked about forming a plan to best manage their lakes for big bass. Two weeks ago Bob Cody caught a 13.6 lb bass out of one of his lakes. The bass was a pure florida strain was 8 years old. They also talked about getting an electrofishing boat. Since the Cody's have so much water it would be almost impossible to harvest enough bass to effectively manage their lakes.

We then meet with Theop Ensley. If you have never meet Theop he is an amazing guy. Theop was one of the first to develop feed trained Largemouth Bass.

The bass are raised with Koi. Since bass cannot digest the carbohydrates, the Koi eat the waste produced by the bass. I fished in one of the ponds for 30 seconds and caught three bass that were so fat that they looked like they were going to explode.

He also developed a system to raise aquatic plants and tilapia in the same system. The system has a 24,000 tank where the tilapia are raised. The water is circulated into the tanks where the aquatic plants are raised. Theop said that he can raise two pounds of fish per gallon of water.

The last place we went to was the Sulphur Fish Farm owned by Wes Harden. Wes started running the hatchery at the age of 20 and has been working there for 19 years. He raises Channel Catfish, Coppernose bluegill, Largemouth Bass, and Grass Carp. We toured the property and talked about how the farm works.

I had to buy some fish for a friend so I picked up 100 catfish and 150 bluegill.

Here I am trying to do my best impersonation of Bruce.



The entire day we talked about the magazine, his 28 years in the business, and my pond. Bob learned that it is not always about the fish while he working on the Savannah Dhu project in New York. It all depends on the goals of the client. For some people the fish are just an afterthought and for others it could be the only thing that matters.

I would like to thank Bob for the opportunity to spend the day with him and for providing the forum and magazine. Before I found Pondboss I didn’t know what I wanted to do in the Fisheries field. Thanks to Bob I decided that Pond and Lake management is what to do

Chris is this your man?








You need longer arms to mimic Bruce.

Chris,

That is great to hear!


And you didn't shove that bluegill far enough into the camera like Bruce does.

Yep thats him.

Cecil, I was stretching as far as I could.

Awesome write-up, Chris!

I'm glad you enjoyed your day with Bob. If I could pick another profession, it would be either a wildlife biologist or a "Bob Lusk Jr."

You have a great mentor, and I'm sure you'll do us all proud!

P.S.- No one can exaggerate a fish's size like Dr. Frankenbruce.

Like this??

Nice YOY striper Bruce.

Thank you. I had to hide the yolk sac to make the picture better.

The "Battlefield Earth" camera angle adds to the surreal atmosphere.

Awesome day, Chris.

Nice write-up, Chris. We're all proud of ya and glad you're close enough to make sure Lusk isn't goofin' off.

Outstanding, Young Man! Well done.

Sounds like a great day. Now, back to the books.

Hey, what is a Kio?

It's a Korean automobile
Jeeesh....Texans.

Maybe KOI?

Chris,
That is basically one of the funniest pics and descriptions I have read in awhile! Next time hold the fish up higher closer to your head and have the camera guy zoom in as much as possible on the fish. The key is to have the fish, not matter how large it may be, take up as much of the picture as possible.

I'm sure Lusk told you that he had adopted the International Paper mode of operation of only hiring 4.0 college grads?

So what the Guv said...hit the books.

If you PM me scanned copies of your report card, I will only show it to a few people.

great story chris

i dont know who's luckier, you or bob?