My pond has different species stocked and I've noticed different strange but true things this year (if not strange at least true).

I never knew pumpkinseed sunfish would still be on spawning beds in summer. I've seen five bed in shallow water being guarded by ps.s. or in the process of mating. Always thought late spring was the time all sunfish spawned.

Three weeks ago I happened to throw a bread ball into shallow water near shore. A sunfish swam over and grabbed it. Did it again and more sunfish started to take notice and get closer. As of yesterday there are almost 20 sunfish - including one green sunfish - that wait for bread balls to be dropped or thrown. Sitting on my dock overlooking inches of water that drops to 4' I can see the fish school lined up to one another parallel and in lines like soldiers at parade rest once I show up. The school will even follow me along the shoreline.

The water is clear with a green/brown tint and easy to see fish darting 100 mph to beat other fish to the unnatural food object. Fish size range from 1" - 6" with the green sunfish the largest and most aggressive. Pumpkinseed and LM bass have investigated the activity but swim away not touching bread thrown to them.

But one thing I have to be careful of: when retrieving my small lures, these fish will attack any of them aggressively as they get close ot shore, trusting that they are just another consumable the human is offering them - like the Jap Beetles and slugs I started throwing in the water yesterday. At first they didn't know what to make of them but soon the bigger gills attacked them on the surface like bread that isn't balled up.

The other thing I was concerned about was the fluffy algae floating on and near the surface. I used to rake most of it but now it doesn't grow as fast and does provide some cover similar to the lily pads I put in years ago.