Thanks for stopping back Huntmaster!!
How are the fish populations? Bait fish present? Self sustaining or are you feeding pellets? I'm very curious if you know how your YP are doing? They seem to be the strongest and most adaptable species in my pond. Kids catch them and are not alway so gentle with them and never had one die from handling. I'd love to know if yours are reproducing and if the kids are still catching them!
This post is about 9 years old now? I'm sure we wouldn't even recognize your kids in the pictures anymore!
In your signature line you reference SMB and you made nice spawning structure for them, did they reproduce?
finally, you listed you have pike in your pond? Did you source and stock yourself or they found their way in? Are they still there?
So much to learn from your experiences with this mix of fish in SE Michigan.
I've posted some of this along the way in other threads, just figured I'd put a pic with the original build thread even if some pics have disappeared thru the years.
How are the fish populations? No formal survey, but seem to have strong healthy populations of LMB, YP and a growing population of BG.
Bait fish present? Most of the original shiners are gone now, but that gap was filled with GSF and the LMB seem to be fat and happy at the moment.
Self sustaining or are you feeding pellets? I have been feeding a couple hundred pounds of pellets a year from the beginning.
I'm very curious if you know how your YP are doing? They seem to still be doing well. We catch 12-14" perch on a regular basis with out giving it much effort.
This post is about 9 years old now? I'm sure we wouldn't even recognize your kids in the pictures anymore! That is a fact!!
In your signature line you reference SMB and you made nice spawning structure for them, did they reproduce? They did not, but I also had LMB contaminate my pond right from the out set, so they likely outcompeted the SMB. I haven't caught a SMB in a hot minute, so not sure if they are completely gone at this point of not.
finally, you listed you have pike in your pond? Did you source and stock yourself or they found their way in? Are they still there? They likely hitched a ride in when I used the ditch water to expedite filling the pond. Had one make it to a healthy 36", but it ended belly up last summer. Think it might've died from a swallowed hook that the boy hooked it with. He has caught another 25" pike a couple of times. Caught it last night actually.
