First log entry of the year...The HSB fillets from last October were well recieved by my guests even with the red meat intact...However, I just fried the last of it up a few weeks ago and it was a bit fishy tasting. I guess it does not age well in the freezer with regards to the red meat flavor. I can assure you that fillet chunks were mixed and randomly bagged so it was not a case of "one bad fish". Lesson learned...eat it all soon after harvest.

Next, and more recently, I caught the first HBG out of the pond by accident. I was checking the Lily and APW hanging baskets and had caught this guy hanging out in one of the buckets...

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Nice and fat, but more importantly...no parasites. The HBG have always had the little yellow grubs attached to their fins and such. It's nice to see the complete absence of the buggars. Hopefully this is a sign of times to come.

I have added water lilies to the hanging baskets...Attraction, Colorado, Perrys’ Baby Red, and a Liou. The smallest of the 4 (Perry's and Liou) are struggling to get established and grow. The fact that these two were barely a morsel to begin with, the aoccational crawdad that finds the bucket, and the HBG that are apparently liking the solitude of the buckets...it's a wonder they are still hanging on.

Anyhow, I hope to do a little fishing in the pond this weekend, checking DO levels (get back in the habit), trapping some craws, and I may throw the net out and see how many tadpoles I can catch in one throw. They have been biblical this spring...leftovers form last year, I suspect. I am betting 50 to 100 in one throw! I guess I will throw them back unless someone needs some bullfrog tads...come and get'em. I am on the fence wether they are good or bad because there are sooooo many of them.

Have a good weekend!

Fish on!,
Noel