How about 'back to back' blogs? At least it is for me.
This has been a fun few days.
Last Saturday, I drove up to Sulphur Fish Hatchery to help my friend Wes Harden seine some fish for a sale. It was 33 degrees outside and the water was 41.
Many of you have never seen what it's like to seine, so here's a few photos to help explain the process.



The seine is pulled off a long spool and pulled around this two acre pond with a small tractor. Then, the tractor is stopped and Wes starts a small gas-powered motor that slowly turns the spool and pulls the seine. At the other end, another machine, a loader, pulls the seine the other direction around the pond.





As the seine comes around, Wes checks it to make sure it's flowing over the pond mud and is pulling correctly. Here, he's concerned because some of the floats are sinking out of sight. That's not a good sign...often means the seine is clogged.



As the 1/2" mesh net came around, Wes soon had a decision to make.



The net was clogged with algae...in 41 degree water. That's not normal. Most filamentous algae in this neck of the woods won't grow in water so cold.



He and his helpers decided to try to pull out some of it. It could have been messy. Algae and fish don't match. Algae can actually kill fish.



Wes decided to release the fish, kill the algae, and come get them later, after the algae is gone. It was a good decision. Could have been a serious problem had he continued. Here's an example of one of his feed-trained bass.



A big hybrid sunfish captured during seining.



Then, I headed to Phoenix on Monday afternoon. Met up with my son, Ty, a realtor in the area. We went out to dinner and had some fun. When I finish this blog, he and I plan to drive around and take a look at some of the city.

The mission of this trip was to help Purina Mills with a dealer Expo. The following photos show the set up.



Here's the booth. Dealers came by, we visited about pond management, feeding fish and such. I gave a pond management seminar here yesterday.



Darren Simon shows AquaMax 600



AquaMax Largemouth



AquaMax 200, for small fish.

Late yesterday, I met up with our buddy, Aaron Matos (aaronm) of Jobing.com. We headed to his house, examined a few fish and then went to dinner. He's a great guy, driven...passionate...and loves his fish. He continually thinks out of the box.



His scale weighed this fish at 1# 12 oz, but it sure looks bigger than that. I suggested he check his scale.



See why I think this male bluegill weighs more?



He's also got a few nice bass in his backyard oasis.

Headed home tomorrow for an eventful weekend.

More, later.

Fish on!


Teach a man to grow fish...
He can teach to catch fish...