If I was to label jignpig's methodology it would be "Pond Micromanagement for Lunker Female Largemouth Bass on a Limited Budget." He maximized his time, efforts and funds to achieve his goals through experimentation. A lot of it outside the normal thought process. Again, his results speak for themselves. But would it work in every pond? Of course not. Each pond has it's own personality, it's own ecosystem.
Although my goals are much different from jig and pig, I had similar experience. Only difference is 99% of my customers are barely if not at all interested in lunkers. They want a kid friendly fishing environment with lots of action. Lunkers just suck up too many resources to provide that. But working with HOA's, in fact almost anyone now in this economy, you have budget constraints.
One of the wildest what are you doing plans or experiments I ever tried was introducing a native disaster, creeping water primrose. You think people grown when they hear gsf, they just go not that stuff, when they hear that. Why? It's everywhere. It's invasive, it spreads like wildfire. However, it does fit my number one rule, if I don't like it, or it doesn't work I can get it out. And it happened by accident. I had another customer who wanted it removed from one shore. No chemicals, all manual. You can't really cut it, it spreads by cuttings. So I am manually pulling it by the root. And as I am doing this huge amounts of forage is falling out. I had never seen anything like it. And this was stuff that had not swam away when I started pulling it. When I looked into it, everything was there. Small fish, fry, baby crawdads, tadpoles and just loaded with smaller organisms.
So I manage another we can't spend much pond that has a dead shoreline on an embankment. You can look fifteen feet out and see nothing but clear water. No fish, no plants, no frogs, nothing. I had fished along this shore and had not even got a hit. So why not take this discard material and give it a try, I can get it out if it does not work or goes to another part of the pond.
It took about three years to get it established, on a pond that has an annual 8-9 foot drawdown. Nothing else will work there. I put it in one little area on the dead embankment. I called it the Frog zone. Pretty soon I have it pretty think there. Frogs, baby lmb, bg and gambusia are thick in it. Dragonflies hover over it constantly. And the biggest surprise of all, it had unknown benefits. Erosion control for the embankment. Weedblock. And that shoreline went from no fish to the best fishing on the entire pond. LMB just lived off of it waiting for easy meals to swim out. Even better, the entire ponds LMB average weight per fish went up. I created an entire forage area from nothing, for almost nothing.
After a few years I let it spread along that shoreline. Now that entire embankment is a giant forage ecosystem. Even a growout area for fry. If I get an occaisonal pop up somwhere else, I cull it. With ease. After 5 years it is done. Autopilot I just maintain or control it. This pond which was largely unfishable and so out of balance from other issues is now a gem.
Would it work in every pond? Of course not. Is it a potentially invasive species scorned by many? Yes. Is is an alien species? No, It's local, everywhere. Just like tulies, cattails and algae. I removed it entirely from one shoreline. It was gone for years. But the pond I put it in it just filled a large hole. A gap on the pond and in the pond's ecosystem. It even enhanced my plankton bloom. And cut down on algae.
Sometimes you just have to go for it. Giuve it a shot. But you also have to think, on a risk assessment level, what is the worst that could happen? Can I get this stuff out? Can I back out if it goes wrong? Since my fish population is fairly stacked I now experiment with natural forage cover and aquatic vegetation for the pond's fish feeding and fishing. I am pretty far outside the box here because I don't even think a box exists. The big focus is on planting, selective harvest, feeding, forage cover, forage and fertilization. Aquatic vegetation is close to an afterthought. It's there. But let me tell you, it's impact is huge. In my experience is can make a pond beautiful, the best fishing you can ask for, or crash it with a complete kill off. To me, I like to think of the pond as one complex ecosystem. I try to see the entire picture, and not miss the forest through the trees.
