Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Ice Fishing - Finally!

No one grows YP like Cecil and Cody...I'm happy just playing in the shadows they cast. Gotta love a high standard to pursue - those guys are expert YP fishery managers.

There is nothing more gratifying than experiencing your family and friends popping trophy fish after a few weeks on public water. It makes the tens of thousands spent and multiple near death experiences all worthwhile.

It would be nice to go hit the ice again, or even start up fishing again on a somewhat regular basis, but all the fishing buddies are long removed, or have passed away. It's no fun fishing by yourself.

Like your signature says...

They are calling for high temps next week to only be in the teens here. So, if the snow stays away, we should make some ice on the ponds. I think that Lincoln will see the colder temps before us, maybe this weekend?

Not so. I can't speak for you or Cody but the single sex pond was pretty much idiot proof for me once I set it up and believe me I've done some idiot things. In fact I felt rushed to move some fish and believed an academic paper that said you can sex offseason YP by their urogenital openings. The reproduced perch in the pond says otherwise. And I was picky! Not worried though as the large perch should control the offspring.

Trust me if you think that perch pictured is "ready to burst" she'll be plumpest just before she drops her eggs.

My point was the wild caught perch seem to develop large egg mass earlier. My WAG is it's the natural feed vs. artificial they are eating under the ice when we are no longer feeding ours.

Yup!

My ponds are all frozen over now Scott, but not very thick.

Haven't got the aeration in the holding pond yet. I guess I'll be breaking ice again! LOL

Ran my business from the hard water office today - gotta take advantage of the Summer weather [45]! BG bite was fast and furious, some taken only a couple feet beneath the ice - very active fish. Black/Glow Chekai was on fire - few YP up to 12" for good measure. Hope some of you get ice soon.

That last fish is over a pound! As are the others! Looks like one of mine out of my one sex pond!

Congrats!

Very nice northern male bluegills. Good job. It will be very interesting to see how big they are next year and how much longer they live?

I have you, Cecil and Bruce to thank for your guidance. I'm hoping the 11-12" YP will make it near 13" next year, and if I can pull another couple seasons from the BG I'd be happy. Need to keep stocking promising male BG and female YP to account for morts. The YP are age 3 so they've got several seasons left I think, the BG, probably some are nearing the downward slide.

TJ, outstanding BG!!! Congrats buddy.

TJ, those are some really nice looking BG. how long have u had them or how long has it taken you to grow them to that size? Those look a little alien to me

Tracy

TJ - If you give those 12" yellow perch (YP) lot of good protein food some of them should grow 1.5" to 2" to reach the 14" category by winter of next year.

Bill I'm still researching on a replacement feed for aqua max. I want to find something that will benefit the yp and the bg in this fishery. I'm still not sure where to go on this. What feed would you use in my situation?

Thanks Tracy. Bg are from the main pond and have been collected over the past several seAsons, caged and fed and sex ID verified then stocked. Fish are all age 4 and older and I need a more reliable way to grow out and select the best fish. Hard to do as absentee land owner and an ras system would be beat but lack the room to do so at home.

Matt Rayl is exploring a high quality YP feed for the 2016 season. If I had your pond I would consider feeding a blended diet of both Optimal and a YP specific food (Zeigler also has a highly digestible YP specific food 45/12).

Thanks Bill!

Soaked up as much sunshine and warmth possible yesterday ahead of the return of Winter and fished the main pond. Not much action in the sunny afternoon, so I spent most of my time fine tuning the ice toys, but evening bite picked up. Just missed 18" on the Smallie, and the hybrid black crappies came in a tad shy of 15". Few plump YP were a late bonus. 1/8 oz. Firetiger slender spoon did the damage today. Still haven't found the WE or consistent YP in the main pond, but next week we'll be hitting it hard and will be featuring a real life Texan!

Nice pictures of dandy fish caught through the ice.

Great looking fish once again TJ!

I found it especially interesting that the FHM took such a large bait!

Do you listen to any music by "Bull Frog Volcano" while fishing?

X2!

I took me second to get that!

Now you're making me itch to sample one of the ponds before spring seining. I do have 22 ~ fourteen inch perch in a holding pond that I separated out of the main pond seining last spring. Most were just a hair under 14 inches then with a few just over. If they are 14 or over now they will be harvested just before they drop their eggs (at maximum weight) in March or April and put up for sale on a taxidermy website.