On Sunday afternoon Shawn Banks of Midwest Lake Management brought his electrofishing boat and we did a fish sampling.
We built the dam in February of 2006 and in May stocked the new lake with bluegill, a few red ear, catfish, and fatheads. In the fall we added LMB.
Shawn will send a report with details in the near future but the bottom line is that the fish population is healthy. Some of the highlights are:
1. we have multiple generations of bluegill, bass and surprisingly of catfish
2. the stocked bass are 16 and 17"
3. the fist bass spawn are 8-10'
4. the bass are above average weight for their length
We are not trying to raise trophy fish of any species. We most want to have a nice balance of nature. We would eventually like to have 3-5 pound bass and some nice bluegill. And we enjoy catching and eating the catfish - the stocked ones are in the 4-8 pound range.
Shawn recommended that we eat the 10-13" bass. We don't have that size yet but he expects the first spawn will reach that size this fall or next summer.
A team effort recording the results. Tom and Jack got the fish out of the tank, Shawn measured and weighed, and Scott recorded. And I was the expedition photographer.
After a hard afternoon we brought out a few beers and Shawn managed to relax a bit
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