Esshup, I do have most of the perimeter of the pond with strong stands of overhanging long grasses...this will give them hope. Even when the pond is 10" below full pool, the grasses hang out into the pond by a foot or so into foot deep water. My banks are pretty steep right at the waterline.
I did see a couple adult FHM's in the craws trap this week. They are still their in small numbers. It's been since spring of 2017 since they were put in. It's a shame that tad poles don't taste good to the fish, at least for a main diet. I am trapping more poles than crawdads right now.
JP, you are definitely right about the change in direction. I am going with the flow, in a way. I do love the HSB even though they have been hard to catch. My few HBG tend to have a fair amount of yellow and black grubs and have stopped growing. They seemed to have topped out at just over a half pound from the last two summer's record. So, the flow is talking me to sustaining the HSB, increasing the kid catch rates, and adding some CC for easier catches and table fair. If large panfish were a strong goal...I'd start over as previously suggested by Snipe. I may even take Augie up on some hodge-podge bait fish if he has more than he needs.
