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It has been awhile but here is an update you might enjoy.....

I got a large weighted snag hook with the intent to snag one of the big GC that I want to remove. I went to the pond around feeder set time, I arrived 30 mins early and got bored. I tossed in a live bait to see if I could get lucky waiting. I soon had a nice snook on and it popped my 12 pond mono. I tried another live bait...BOOM, hooked up and a leaping display reveled a nice fat looking snook at the end of my line. I thought sweet......It then bulldogged me and the snook prevailed even with a lose drag, they are just so fast when they hit the gas it breaks things...... I again hooked up and quickly popped the 12 pond test with drag screaming....That makes three.......

Finally the 4th fish seems to be staying on as it rules me for awhile.... It actually dove down and got hung up in what turned out to be one of the Xmas trees I had put in awhile back.......Stuck it was.......I then emptied my pockets and went for a swim to free it. Once back on shore soaking wet I finished the fight and netted it,Called a nearby friend to take a photo as I figured It would be nice to have some proof...

bad part is three snook have hooks in them and the one I landed was hooked in its right eyeball.....at least Ill know if I land it again...Ill call it ole one eye....

I never did see the GC once the feeder went off 30 mins after I arrived and all this commotion took place...

clearly I need to up grade my pound test....




Last edited by BobbyRice; 06/09/16 07:46 PM.

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Nice fish Bobby


It's not about the fish. It's about the pond. Take care of the pond and the fish will be fine. PB subscriber since before it was in color.

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Amazing. Is there a RW chart for snook? Can you tell if they're growing?

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That is a wild fish story Bobby! Fun, fun, fun.

Nice fish.


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Bobby, I hate getting broke off, for several reasons. But sounds like u had a blast with those special fish u have. smile

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Based on what general fish knowledge I do have they seem to be in good weight. I have looked online and fishing forums to judge the body condition of juvenile medium sized snook caught in the estuaries and or beaches around the area and these seem to be in as good a condition as any I have seen.

I really should have taken a measurement of some sort, I am always I a hurry to get a quick picture and release them.


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Thanks for posting! I was wondering how it was coming along.

Seen the flounder lately?


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saw a few impressions in the sand awhile back. They go into a night time shallow water feeding pattern during the summer. I need to walk the banks with a spot light soon and check things out.


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Bobby, any news about your BNM or SFS ?


Do nature a favor, spay/neuter your pets and any weird friends or relatives.
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Its been awhile since any updates...

I hung around the feeder today and saw a good amount of smaller CNG and TP around the shallows. I saw three snook cruising back and forth eyeballing them. They sure do hang tight to the banks, makes me wonder how the predators get to them. Boy you can tell they are scared to venture too far out. I think I really need a more open water forage fish. I have been steadily adding GSH but cant get any numbers of them built up.

Also, After months/years of frustration I was able to get this thing out of the pond. One more to go....



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Soaked dead shrimp in the pond today after work to see if I can confirm any redfish exist in the pond.,

I caught this instead....
I had freshly re-lined my real with new braid, fluorocarbon leader and circle hook. Felt good to be confident my gear would hold during its 5 aerial assaults on it.

Oh, I also caught 2, 10" CNBG but I didn't photo them.








Last edited by BobbyRice; 08/31/16 07:55 AM.

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Bobby Rice, The Tarpon man!! I bet those reds are in there. Nice pond for sure.

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Bobby, what is the one you were glad to get out of the pond?


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Originally Posted By: Bob-O
Bobby, what is the one you were glad to get out of the pond?


Grass Carp


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That is cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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Bobby, That looks like alot of fun... The tarpon, not the GC. Do you find the tarpon growing since you stocked them?


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I didn't actually stock them, not 100% sure how they got in but since discovery I have managed around them and they seem to have grown. the discovery of them was a catalyst to look more into salt water EURYHALINE fish living in ponds.

They seem to be in good weight and condition for sure.

Last edited by BobbyRice; 09/01/16 08:12 AM.

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If you have been following this thread you know I have been experimenting with managing a pond that fish are typically saltwater species but have a wide range of salinity tolerance. Much like the salmon we are all familiar with. I have a freshwater holding pond set up so I can better see the results of the initial acclimation to fresh water.

I have ruled out blue fish and Speckled sea trout as one that would have success in a fresh water pond. They just don't hold up in the pure fresh water for long but seem to do fine with very little salinity. Actually the blue fish survived longer in fresh water than the Sea trout which is surprising.

The fish that seem to do the best are
Snook, tarpon Southern Flounder.

Mangrove snapper, redfish and Jack crevalle seem to be viable candidates too. Still waiting to see how they perform in a small freshwater pond over time.

I just wanted to give an update and say I have given up on the Sea trout and the Blue fish was a shot in the dark that came closer to working than I thought they would have. The Blue Fish survived about 6 hours in fresh water before it would succumb to zero salinity. The trout seem to fade right as the salinity approaches zero .


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Bobby, I'm still amazed at how well the project is going with the fish that you DO have in the pond! Keep us informed with updates, that is a unique pond for sure!!


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Bobby, I too look forward to your posts. Thanks.


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Ok my first negative report of the condition of any predator fish in the pond . If you recall a report I had earlier this last summer about hooking a bunch of snook and I hooked one in the eye ball. As I finished filming and looked at this fish more before I released it I noticed it's one eye was all messed up and I knew it was ole one eye . As soon as I saw the fish I could tell it was not in as healthy condition as I am used to seeing. The eye was all healed up , I think it is is not as effective at hunting with one eye..... snook are more of a stalker than an ambush predator so I think it's effecting it. Unless all the fish are skinny and the tilapia and blue gill are not making enough babies...

Im gonna try to arrange an electroshock boat in the pond next spring...

Here is the little video, ... was 80 today but the water was still a little chilly.
(Comparatively speaking)

Last edited by BobbyRice; 12/17/16 07:15 PM.

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Bobby I saw a post of yours in a BCP thread about wanting to feed your Tarpon. Not wanting to hijack that thread decided to address it here in your thread.

I'll tell you some of my limited knowledge gained by diving with them. I dive daily through the winter and see Tarpon very regularly. Not daily, but at least several times a week. The ones I see are nearly always in the 4 to 5 ft. length range.

I rarely see them go after a fish during the day. Most of my sightings they are lounging mid water a short ways out away from the reef. If approached carefully can get within ten or so feet but ocasionally closer. Not much helpful feeding information for daytime.

But night is a different story. It is rare to get through a night dive without one or more Tarpon showing up. They have learned to hunt by divers lights. They will come from behind cruising right past the diver, sometimes within inches of our heads but usually about arms length away and swim lazily right in our light path. We have learned to move our light away from their path to keep them moving in different directions because if we do not they will target a sleepy fish and nail it. It is really weird to watch. They look like sidewinder missles. They do not go in a straiht path to the fish but wander back and forth, side to side as if they are using some kind of sonar rather than sight. Or maybe it is just that their sight is not that keen in the low light and they are alternating which eye is seeing the fish. Sometimes as they get really close to the fish they will turn almost upside down for the last incremental manuver when they capture the fish.

I did a pre dawn dive about a month ago and two Tarpon showed up and stayed with me right up until there was just enough light from sunrise for me to partially see without the dive light. Then they were instantly gone.

Ok, for the part that might be helpful to your feeding them. Because of the way I have observed them feeding in subdued light, it is my belief that most of their feeding is done in twilight of dusk and dawn as well as on moonlight nights. I've seen them hanging around the dock on moonlight nights or if there is a lighted dock tarpon will be around it. I think they feed on non-nocturnal slugish fish as the fish are getting ready to go to sleep or getting ready to wake up. When light is good enoguh for the tarpon to slightly see but the target fish is sluggish. They don't make a racing run at the fish until the last foot or two. More like a slightly increased speed methodical homing in on them. Bobbing lazily back and forth as they home in on their target.

So you might want to try going out to your pond at night with a flashliht and give them some light to fish by or install a low wattage dock light. Solar yard light might work. I think this will give the tarpon a feeding advantage.

We avoid doing that while diving by not focusing a light on any single fish for long. If the tarpon heads toward a fish we move the liht away so they loose contact, only to circle around and try again.

My grandson was here to dive with me for a couple weeks and I watched him target a fish with his light on a night dive and let the tarpon get it. It is fun to do once just to watch it happen but I wagged my finger at him to not do it again. The Tarpon have already gained a bad habit of hunting by divers lights and we do not need to give them an unfair advantage at cleaning out the reefs fish population.


Last edited by snrub; 01/28/17 12:14 PM.

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Thanks , that is very interesting.

I can tell you I do notice a lot of night time feeding with several of the fish species I have discovered in the pond. I know that snook are nocturnal feeders , one night saw a snook nosed up into some grass stalking something and had its back completely out of the water.

During the spring and summer months I can walk around the banks in the morning see flounder impressions in water only inches deep from the night before. I have walked the banks at night with a flash light and seen them laying in the shallows waiting to ambush something.

I have heave read that Mangrove snapper and tarpon are also nocturnal feeders and often have the best luck seeing activity in very low light.

The one thing that does make them more active during the day light is when I am delayed resetting the feeder time once the days get long and the time changes. They tend to circle around looking for a meal. I will often see a tarpon "Roll" after something. They tend to strike with an upward sideways roll. It produces a nice silver flash when they do it, its really cool to watch. You don't see them then all of a sudden this big silver flash and you know something got nailed.


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Bobby, I'd be interested to see how fishing would be for you if you cast a jitterbug all over the pond and did a slow retrieve back at night. THAT might be interesting!


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Swam past a 5' tarpon a couple days ago in a mid/late afternoon dive. Was at about 60' depth. All of a sudden the fish turns up towards the surface and I watch it hastily go from about 60' to about 10'. Straight up. Never saw one do that.

Then after it broke off its accent and started to come back down to depth, noticed something floating on the surface maybe the size of a tennis ball. Don't know what it was cause could only see the shape from that depth.

The tarpon had spotted what it thought was potential food, made a bee line straight up, and broke off only when it could see it was not what it wanted. Pretty cool. I had no idea they would even pay attention to something on the surface from that depth, let alone go after it.

Last edited by snrub; 02/10/17 08:02 PM.

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