Had some nice 70 degree days. So I decided to see how the fish fared over the winter and how their growth is doing. Those 5-6 inch bass I stocked last spring are growing fast and looking good. The Bluegill are not to shabby either. The bass will hit sexual maturity this year and will get a spawn off. I only put 500 bass in the lake, 50 in the little pond and 200 in the Big Pond. The goal was to let the panfish over populate and be thick to provide lots of food for the growing bass. And then let the low stock rate bass just spawn and reproduce and save thousands of dollars on stocking at the recommended rate. LOL that plan is working given how fast the bass are growing and well there are millions of bluegill, green sunfish, and some crappie and Red Ear I did not even need to stock the 3000 bluegill in the lake....... the birds and turtles stocked it pretty good back in 2022 after that first big rain filled the deep bowls. Same with the little pond and Big Pond. I really didn't want the crappie just yet but the Birds didn't give me a vote in the matter. They are spawning now and best I tell there are 75-100 on nest. So not a huge population. I thought about catching them off the nest to keep the population low, but figure they will just be more food for the bass and won't be competing with the bass for food for another 2-3 years. So just going to let them do their thang.
A pond is an amazing thing. You can watch life play out in real time as nature goes to work making new life. It always amazed me how fish will turn up in a big puddle even,
A whole lot of life happened between this And this LOL those Herons and Egrets Stocked one hell of a lot of Bluegill, Green Sunfish and Fat Head Minnow in to the lake and both ponds starting 2022 before they were much more than mud puddles. I didn't need to Stock the Bluegill but the ones I put in are top shelf genetics and will improve what the birds stocked over time.They also dropped in a few crappie and pumpkin seeds as well but not many. I put 500 Red Ear/AKA Shell Crackers in the lake just to keep the snail, crawdad and clam populations a bit in check. I will probably put 1000 channel catfish in 2025/2026 unless I put the right structure in the just won't spawn and take over. Might get a little spawning action with them in the sunken brush piles but marginal at worst. LOL TSC had the 3 fishing kayaks on clearance normally $1300 per at If I remember right down to $300 per just to get rid of them and the sun dolphin jon boats at $200 per So I bought them all LOL and even somehow managed to fit them in Dee's little truck and get them home. And well then I had to go and buy every trolling motor the closest walmart had and over to RK to buy 5 deepcyle marine batteries. Then sent pics of the one I got all rigged to the grand kids.....who now are super excited to get on the water with their fleet of destroyers. LOL Think I spent as much or more on the trolling motors, batteries and life jackets than I did on the boats LOL. Going to be a blast this summer watching them playing on the water. Deer population has just absolutely exploded. This particular one is right outside the cabin bedroom window and has kind of became tame and pet. No fear left in her for me......she comes right up for a treat and a ear scratch now days. She is standing there watching me watching her and like WTF Dude are you coming out to visit or what? But other than her there are just massive numbers of deer hanging out around the lake and ponds now. And Wild Turkeys She started following me around about 5 years ago and well we just kind of became friends. And now every morning just after sunrise there she is now staring in my bedroom window. Yeah she has became my little stalker Didn't need to attract anymore of these pricks but I did. Another pet that it is just a given that I am going to catch him every night. Catch and Kill count on these chicken killing pricks is up to 240 captured and executed just around the chicken yard over the the last year. Sooner or later I have to run out of coons!!! My life is good again Yeah I miss Dee and always will but I can't let that rule and dominate me. She is gone and in a better place doing new and better things and she ain't coming back. She has Moved on and so am I. And yes I introduced HER to the Monkey yesterday and she joined and has now been exposed and hopefully not too corrupted by THE TREE Don't know how much or how little she will participate..... that is all up to her But she is VERY Special to me and gets more so every day and has became the brightest and most beautiful star in my sky. A truly amazing woman. It is good to be happy again and loving life again in so many different ways! A part of that happiness is watching all of the life explode and expand her because of the lake and ponds. The transformation from the Spring of 2022 to present here has been totally amazing to watch and so much more than I had hoped for! And the Food is really good again
Congrats on getting back to somewhat a normal life,, life has a way of testing you for sure ,, Miss Dee will always be a part of your life , and the property,, she will never be out of your memory,, and that's all any of us can hope for ,, is that when we leave this crap pile ,, someone will remember us. Carry on Sir ,, you have built a dream there on your little spread . Enjoy .
Had to start feeding the fish in the pond this week. We had a string of warm sunny days, and I figured that they might be stirring...they were. Mine are mostly catfish with some blue gill, sunfish, bass and a couple of grass carp.
