Pond Boss Forums INTRO Bob Lusk's blog the last week has been eventful

Monday and Tuesday were dedicated to writing Pond Boss. Didn't make my self-induced deadline, but will be done by the end of the day Saturday. Got more good "meat" for the November/December issue. Editorial list includes; Feature story on Floating Islands, a story on aquaponics, Dr. Dave Willis' story about LMB and electrofishing, Eric West put one together about blocking nets, Otto tells a true tale about a leaky pond which wasn't leaky, Bruce Condello explains in detail about his genetic selection to grow giant bluegill, Cornwell gets technical about water quality parameters and what they mean, Theo Gallus explains his "Fish in a Barrel," a takeoff on Condello's overwintering fish tank device. Getting ready to take a look at Mike Mitchell's story, give another read through of Sherman Wyman's drought advice story. Still need to write Ask the Boss, the recipe (anyone have a great pond related recipe? If so, send it on, and tell a story with it. Do it tomorrow, and if it fits, I'll use it.) Still got to edit Dan V's wildlife article, and write Mini-Pond, Know Your Pond Life, News Shorts, and an update on the Conference. Toss in the editor's letter, the masthead and some filler stuff, and we'll have the next fabulous issue of our favorite magazine.
On Wednesday, Chad and I seined my two .10 acre hatchery ponds. They sit side by side, and are filled with well water. The south pond was stocked with 25 pairs of large coppernose bluegill last fall. We added approximately 2,000 1.5" coppernose babies from extra fish we didn't sell last spring. Wednesday, we seined and removed 5,000 2-3" bluegill, and released 7,000 due to way too much bushy pondweed and chara. We have had problems all summer with this pond. It had three bouts of planktonic algae, one resulting in a small fish kill. Chad quickly rectified that situation by flushing fresh well water through the pond. We treated bushy pondweed twice, successful once. It was difficult and time consuming to seine. We didn't want the fish to become hung in the mass of plants dragged up by the seine.
Then, we seined the north pond. Last fall, we stocked it with 10 pounds of fathead minnows, and added spawning structure. Then, in May, I decided to add 5 pounds of tilapia. (Last year, we had the same vegetation problems with this pond as we did with the south one.) By the second week all the algae was gone, the pond had a healthy bloom, and we saw no filamentous algae all summer. All we had to do was add water from time to time, to counter evaporation. When we seined, 2-3" tilapia jumped the seine, and we still caught more than 200 pounds of fish. Most were in the 2-3" size class, but we saw thousands of baby tilapia swim through the 3/8" mesh net. Of the 200ish pounds, maybe 50 pounds were larger than 4 inches, including the original 30 fish we stocked. No fathead minnows at all were observed during the seine haul.
Yesterday, headed to Arkansas to pick up fish for stocking some local lakes and ponds which received fresh water recently. Picked up some pure strain Florida bass in the bunch, and when I got home this afternoon, stocked 20 of them into the tilapia pond. The goal is for them to eat the tiniest tilapia. Chad and I made the decision today to try to overwinter our tilapia, for fun and education. If we make it, there will be some tilapia for sale next spring. Details on the overwintering as we decide how to do what.
That's it for now, more news tomorrow or the next day.

Nice rain this morning, no runoff.
Took a few minutes to specifically look for fathead minnows in the tilapia pond. Found some.
Still working on the magazine, may not be finished until tomorrow.