Why Pond Management?

[paul.]

so many rewards come from pond management - the pride of accomplishment, the satisfaction of overcoming challenges, and the sheer fun of catching fish you've raised yourself. but for me, as well as many of y'all, the biggest reward is the abilty to pass something on to those you love.

here are a few pics from a little outing with my niece and nephew this spring. i was so tickled to see them enjoying themselves at the pond catching these nice bass. many folks would tell you that kids are not supposed to catch fish like this. it creates unrealistic expectations. it makes fishing seem too easy. it sets them up for disappointment. really? well, if i've got my way, these kids will always be able to catch fish like this. they won't ever be disappointed when they come to uncle paul's pond. they'll ask every time they see me when they can come back and catch some more fish.

sadly, this pond was ruined in the flood of the century shortly after these pictures were taken. the water got so high that the vast majority of the fish were washed out into a field through the overflow. there was so much water coming out of the pond that i found dead fish over 100 yards away from the pond once it stopped raining. it was kind of brutal to see all those dead lunkers out there in the field. i won't complain though. many folks lost much more in that flood than just a few fish. i have since rectified the problem so that i won't lose any more fish due to high water. i have been in the process of re-stocking. the setback has only made me more determined to succeed. i have scrapped many of my old techniques in an effort to improve. time will tell. but if i have my way, i'll be seeing plenty more pictures like this.

hope y'all are catching some too.

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[00 mod]

Great story and determination! Sorry to hear of your loss! We also had a destroyed pond due to the high waters that left many lunkers in fields! Must have been the same time, sometime in April when it happened. Just one month previous to the rains, we had pulled an 8lb 9oz (my pb) and an 8lb 1 oz( best friends pb) out of the same pond less than 200 yrds from each other, one week apart.

Jeff

[ICU812]

That's cool man - nice to see the kids with the lunkers like that. It's real unfortunate about the flood and all, sorry to hear that. Good luck restocking and building up another lunker population!

[Fishmaster10]

That's great that you're getting the young ones into fishing at such an early age. Hopefully your re-stocking process will go well, and there will be lunkers in there in no time

[BASSclary]

Those are some very healthy looking bass you got there.

[Sam]

Great story.

Thanks for sharing.

Good luck wiht the pond.

[ChiCityBasser]

Nice looking fish and glad to see the kids enjoying and really sorry to hear about the pond and again as many have said I hope the restocking is a huge success.