So now that winter has come and gone it's time for an update.
The RES that were pellet trained last summer have not forgotten about Augie's Free Soup Kitchen.
They have for the most part moved away from the dock, and have taken up residence in the cedar tangle on the north side of the pond.
Most days they will come out for pellets pretty much doesn't matter what time. They show up the best towards evening when the sun has
moved behind the trees on the west side of the pond, but there's always a couple or three of them that will come out at high noon on a bluebird day.
I don't notice them marauding the minnows like they would last summer. In fact, they've become downright lazy. They just cruise real slow and
gobble pellets like PacMan. Then they stand on their heads and pick the pellets that got by them off of the bottom.
They definitely pulled off a spawn last summer. I'm catching a few inch and under sized ones in the torpedo trap. Those guys get tossed into a 2'x5'
1/2" mesh wire cage that I've tied to the dock. They're getting Optimal Starter #3 and mooshed bugs/worms/fish 2-3 times a day.
I've got half a dozen or so now that are too big to escape through the cage mesh. They have smaller friends that come and go. One day there might
be 20 when I lift the cage to check them, then just the six the next time I look, then ten or a dozen the next time.
