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I did the same thing. I may be to blame for him shutting it down when I mentioned that my in-laws lived close. "Shut up Dude, you're jinxing the deal!"

I still can't get the map to show up on this site.

Poop.

Holey moley Congrats Tooth Doctor.. What a place

Congrats Bruce. Enjoy it to the maximum as I know you can and will. Great place

Bruce,

Hope the deal goes through flawlessly!

I've hired armed guards to prevent the CSBG from escaping the new holding facility when you're ready. Many are requesting an early parole this fall and most will be released next spring.

Congrats Bruce! I can't even imagine how big the CSBG and HSB will grow in your new LAKE!

15 acres!!! That's huge. Now you can REALLY be dangerous!!

Fantastic, Bruce. I can't wait to see how big your mutant bluegill get with that much water to roam.

Here's a view from the building site.



And a view from the water's edge. I know some of you guys have stuff like this all over the place, but my area is relatively featureless.



Actually this only shows about the last two acreas at the very tip of a "C" shaped 15 acre lake.

How cool is that? How deep is the lake, looks very dark, must be deep.

Wow, that just screams small bass!!! Any idea what the fish community is like in the lake already, or is it virgin territory for you to bring to life?

It drops off immediately to 12-18 foot depths. There is virtually no littoral habitat, which is fine with me.

Believe it or not, I'm absolutely not interested in managing the BOW. It's fine the way it is, and if I involve myself in it, then if something goes wrong I'm to blame.

The currently philosophy seems to be working just fine, which is to maintain a complete C & R fishery for LMB (tigers, from what I'm told). This seems to be yielding the classic low Wr LMB population, with nice panfish potential.

CJBS is right on the money.

Current residents report some catches of larger individual LMB, which I'd assume are the cannibals.

I think I'll stick to managing the forty or so ponds on my list right now and let this one continue on it's merry path.

I would go further than nice and say it has incredible bluegill potential if it has no shallow areas. There's a little lake in AL like that by the name of Ketona...

Bruce what about your fish (the hand picked best of the best) and you Dad's pond ?

Ahh, a quarry/gravel pit. That usually means less productive water, which doesn't equal big or at least monstrous bluegills. Thus, we will see the Condello initiative up and rolling again. Will it be feeding, will it be fertlization, will it be other???? Can he really let this one take its course without active management? Meanwhile, what a gorgeous resource with that wonderful water quality. It will be a pleasure for you to sit on the porch in the evening and see that site, Dr. Bruce!

http://www.finefishing.com/1freshfish/aaspecies/panfish/bgillrec.htm

Lake Ketona is an old limestone quarry; it produced the current and former world-record bluegills, four pounds twelve ounces caught by T.S. Hudson in 1950 and four pounds ten ounces caught by Coke McKenzie in 1947. It has steep banks with little shallow water, along with a very high density of bass; biologists who studied the lake concluded that the steep banks that drop quickly into deep water were one of the major factors that led to the unusual growth of the bluegill due to limited spawning areas.

At the bottom of this page is an underwater photo of some bluegill in a rock quarry in OH that according to the photo's caption are in the three-pound class; using the diver's hand for comparison, at least a couple of them look to be 13" or better:

http://www.internationallegendsofdiving.com/PastEvents/2007wrap.htm

Here's a 2004 press release from the KY DNR which notes that the largest bluegill submitted to the state Trophy Fish program that year, 1lb. 15 oz., came from a rock quarry:

http://www.kdfwr.state.ky.us/022704.asp

Walt that was in AL. and is described as a phosphate pit and a limestone quarry. Phosphate = very fertile water in the south when limestone is present. Most of the Northern pits (Dave's reference) are not like that and they have low water fertility (rock , gravel and granite pits). There are only a small % of pits in the US that have limestone and phosphate together with good water (Fla has a bunch). IMO the difference is in the water fertility primarily and to a lesser extent the reduced competition for BG food (LMB crowded) not so much because of steep banks (little BG spawning area). In a LMB crowded pond the BG fry/sub adults are almost totally eaten whether BG spawning is high or very low. The biggest predator of BG fry are other larger BG by a wide margin. They in turn are eaten by the LMB.

Now if Bruce feeds and fertilizes he may have a pit that is close to those you mention as Dave suggests. That will be interesting because while he may have similar water conditions he may not have the growing season length but could have a life span advantage. Interesting to see how this unfolds.

Bruce, I just checked the property out on Google Earth. Some real nice farm land in the area as well. Maybe some of your new neighbors will give you permission to hunt? I am sure there is some excellent, deer, upland game bird and waterfowl hunting in the area!

The Ohio site mentioned:



The use of Portage Quarry as a business dated back to the late 1800s when the limestone was highly valued for its level of dolomite. It was reported that there was no purer dolomite in the world. Dolomite was used for building stones and an aggregate in concrete and asphalt for roads. Geologists report that this type of Niagara limestone indicated that it originated as an enclosed or isolated portion of the sea basin.



That plus fertile soil will yeild those BG you see.

What's the bet that Bruce will just have to do something to the lake?

10:1 odds he won't be able to be hands off...

Dock at least???

My initial sampling, done by angling, showed LMB relative weights in the 75-85 range, and bluegill Wr's in the 80-90 range.

LMB seemed clustered around 12-13 range with some fish in the 17 inch range. Mostly what I could gather was from multitudes of fish just swimming by. They seemed to be unintimidated by my presence. Low angling pressure will do that.

The bluegill were mostly in the 7-8.5 inch range. Some of the BG X GSF hybrids were close to 10 inches. One reliable report stated that there was a black crappie caught that was 14 inches just a couple of days earlier.

Sounds interesting... When do you close on the property?