Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Fishin' 2010

A couple more from this evening...

Great pictures! Love this thread! Ok, going to add my own. Today's catch whispering a secret to my son. Oink oink.

Get the bait Pawpaw and don't forget the net.

Love to see the kids fishing. Mine and the grand kids will be down this weekend so I'll send some pics in Monday.

Ciso Injoy the grandkids They are a blast here at my little pond. Now that it's warmmed up here in Magnolia, they are at the pond as much as thier daddy will let them.
Just to hear " Come on Paw paw let go fish" lol They catch a fish and run to the house with it to show mawmaw. We've been able to get them back to the pond before they die ( SO FAR)
Give a kid a fish, feed them for the day. Teach them to fish, feeds them for a life time.

Jeez Rick, the way you got that kid bundled up, you'd think it was 30 degrees out!

lol It might have been. LOL it ain't me it's there mawmaw.

Took a buddy fishing saturday. Had a pretty good day. No monsters. [img][/img] [img][/img] [img][/img] [img][/img]

Some good looking fish Doc. Rick, I know all about the MawMaw thing. Lucky my grandson is 11 now so he sticks with me everywhere I go so MawMaww doesn't mess with us too much but if I get one of the grand daughters, it's a totally different story.

Had a great morning on our pond – HSB galore in spite of high winds.



This photo is for fun and is manipulated to the MAX ...
How much do you think it weighs? ...

George, looks like you qualify to be a graduate dentist.

Now that is a good lookin pic george!

Docg, your pics need just a bit of work, I got out the magnifying glass and still couldnt see em too well.....hehe

TJ -- sorry to take so long to get back to you. Life is just kind of busy right now. It is really difficult to put fish and pond related issues 2nd or 3rd priority.

Lynda and I have been making a lot of different kinds breads for many years. We both come from families that did a lot of baking.

I'm currently at my work condo (Ye Olde Folks Home) for the week, where I'm never really without two kinds of bread concoctions in my refrigerator.

There certainly are many ways to make sour dough bread. But, one of the best and simplest sour dough bread explanations can be found at this site: Sourdough Bread. It is basically what I use, and this guy does a much better job of explaining than I could.

Because of neglect in feeding the starter, I do have to restart every 3 to 9 months. I also use commercial dry yeast to make sure it quickly starts, but the starter quickly takes on its own characteristics.

My other preparation uses great recipes we found several years ago through Mother Earth News from Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François. It really revolutionized what we do. Here are a couple of links to some of their work:

Atrisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

The 6-3-3-13 Rule.

Every day, the dough evolves to a different flavor. After about two weeks, it takes on a great sour dough flavor.

This couple has a fantastic book called "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day" that I highly recommend to anyone interested in making old style European breads.

One additional thing I do, that is different from most, is that I bake my bread in a cast iron Dutch Oven within a conventional kitchen oven. I put an empty Dutch oven in the kitchen oven, and I turn the temperature up to 400 degrees.

When the oven gets up to 400 degrees, I take the Dutch Oven out of the kitchen oven. The bottom of the Dutch Oven gets dusted with coarse corn meal to keep the dough from sticking to the bottom. Then I plop in a dough ball. Usually I put a couple of cuts in the top of the loaf to keep it from deeply splitting. It goes back in the oven, with the cover on the Dutch oven, for about 30 minutes. This basically steams the dough, keeping it soft and moist. I remove the cover from the Dutch oven, brush the top of the loaf with butter, and continue to bake (uncovered) for about another 10-15 minutes. This method provides extremely soft and moist bread with very crispy crust. I dump the loaf out, let it cool for about 10-20 minutes, and then enjoy.

It is bread that doesn't get a chance to dry out and get stale.

Enjoy,
Ken

Thanks Ken! Hope things settle down for you out there.

My guess without the knowledge that it was manipulated i would say seven pounds

Did I win?

This is how we fish in Magnolia. I know it hard but somebody gotta do it.
Omaha can you see my wild chair in the background

Never caught the mangy beast huh?

James, since you were the only one that responded you are a Winner...






19 inches long and 3.50#’s

The long arm technique works! 3.5 pound or 7 pounds, that's still a pretty fish and at that size, a great fight too!

She's hooked on fishing now. She wants to fish at pawpaws every evening. Driving her daddy crazy Life does have its paybacks

Awesome pics, Travis, and incredible fish! That nephew of yours is one ornery lookin' little dude! You can tell he's all boy!

Love the pictures, Rick! Great pictures all around from everybody! Been off the forum for a few days and am looking with anticipation at many hundreds of posts to catch up on!

I finally got to my pond yesterday.

Water temp was 55. Visibility was about 3-4'.

My bait store didn't have shiners or fatheads, so I was forced to use nightcrawlers.

I caught many bluegill, several YP, and a 5" smallie. I had a LMB on for a few seconds that was about 3-4 lbs.

Visually, I observed the following:

1) Two dead HSB. They were both very white in color. One was on the bottom in about 3-4' of water, and the other was wedged in a sunken tree branch in about 10" of total water depth. These might have just been due to old age.

2) Five large HSB waiting for me to put feed out, yet I had no feed.

3) Saw at least (5) of my grass carp. They are about 3' long.

4) Schools of crappie gathered in tight brush.

5) LMB, SMB, YP, Bluegill, and Bullheads, and turtles.

6) A large white sucker maybe 14-16" long.

AND.....wait for it.......

7) A 20" Northern Pike that I didn't put into the pond!

Did you see the pike or catch it? Could it have been a chain pickerel?