Omaha

No problem; I know it may look hard to build but it's not hard at all. The center will be the hardest thing to drill out but you really don't have to make it like that. Start sketching it out and you'll come up with something easier I'm sure. The easiest thing to do is to do what five.bass.limit suggested but you run the risk of snags with actual trees. **edit** here's a photo of a rather simple design for that PVC tree. As someone else suggested, probably should find out if it's legal to use this. Looks like a 5 gallon paint bucket with cement in bottom. Insert PVC at angles while cement is still curing. Couple or three of these and it should simulate a stump field. Good luck either way. Man, I love the look of these. I googled build your own porcupine fish attractors and this came up and it's the alternative to buying a kit I was looking for.

^What he said. I've been a member for maybe a couple weeks now and the information is priceless at Pondbass.

So now I'm an "active" member of Pondboss and a subscriber as of today. I've done some extensive research so far and I'll detail out what I've found and the route I've so far decided to go and see if you have any further suggestions or comments. 1. Using bulldozer 1. Clear dead trees 2. Take out live trees i. Possibly leave very large trees to be partially submerged in water ii. Set aside newly uprooted live trees for future structure 3. Dig preliminary basin i. 3:1 slope ii. 8 feet deep iii. Perimeter 2. Using skidloader 1. Create uneven slopes, trenches, dropoffs, etc. throughout pond 2. Possibly create less slope (5:1?) for small swimming area 3. Possibly create one small deeper area (12 feet?) 4. Create small spillway on southeast corner 3. Establish Vegetation 1. Thick grass on banks i. annual rye ii. wheat 2. Water plants for shoreline and submerged i. pickerel weeds ii. water willow iii. muskgrass (chara) iv. blue flag iris v. sweet flag vi. sago pondweed vii. water milfoil viii. hornwort ix. curly pondweed 4. Structure 5. Fill 6. Stocking Fish 1. FHM (7#), GSH (5#) in spring 2. 270 BG, 70 RES in spring 3. 70 LMB that fall 4. 100 CC that fall or after 7. Floating Dock 8. Shed 9. Swimming Area 1. Pea Rock

It is suggested, depending on where you live, that you initially stock 500 bluegill per acre and something like 50 lbs. of fathead minnows per acre. You can stock about 100 channel cats this same year. Not necessary, but won't hurt. A year after stocking the bluegill you can stock your bass. A nice base of forage should be established as the bluegill will have spawned a few times during the summer already. 100 bass per acre is preferred. Suggested sizes of bluegill fingerlings are 1-2", fingerling bass are 2-3", and fingerling channel cats are 2-4". Another option would be stocking redear sunfish along with the bluegill. Go 2/3 bluegill and 1/3 redear sunfish per acre if you wanted to do this.

Yeah, I really like that too.

Nebraska's not on there. Thanks for the link. I'll pass it on.

The lakes he'll be fishing are Green Lake, Fox, Elkhart, Michigan, and Winnebago. The obvious fish he'll be going for is walleye and I picked up a crankbait yesterday, a yellow perch, since it appears that's what they have up there. Looks like Green Lake has a lot of white bass which I'm not familiar with, Elkhart has some musky and pike, and Lake Michigan has the salmon and trout. Does this sound right? I found the '08 Report that I'll put in the box for him along with the different lures. I'll check out the top 10 list and reference that as well.

That would be really cool to finally find the owner of the ring, bring it to him, and see the look on his face. How about proposing with this method? Nah, I don't think most guys would want to wait 20 years...

x2 Any analogies that equate animals with humans don't make sense. People are inherently more valuable than animals and giving animals equivalent rights--even in analogy--just isn't a sound argument if you ask me. x3 First of all, no you shouldn't complain if a fish eats you when you're in the water. You're in their habitat. Now, if they figured out how to get onto land, break into your house, and eat you there, you might have something to complain about. But really, all you could complain about is that you weren't properly prepared. We are the top of the food chain. We've figured out how to catch fish in their habitat. Either they outsmart us or bring a fight to our level, each of which would prevent us from eating them. I hope this helps you see where barbarians like us are coming from. ;D

Why? Isn't it just like hunting or fishing for something else you're going to eat like catfish? If someone has a taste for bass, why shouldn't they eat it if they catch it?

My brother is asking for fishing accessories for Christmas (and birthday which I missed :-[). He's a relatively inexperienced fisherman and lives in Wisconsin. What assortment of lures, weights, hooks, etc. would you suggest for him? And any "guides" to help him be successful up there. I'll spend anywhere from $50 - $100. I'll start off with the common baits, crankbaits, spinnerbaits, and plastic worms. What else should I throw in?

I haven't eaten the bass we have up here (Nebraska), but I had Peacock Bass in Florida a couple months ago and it was awesome. But Peacocks are actually cichlids, so I don't know if the taste would be similar or not.

So I was out at my dad's place yesterday and got to talking to a couple hunters (last day of deer season) and it turns out they've been catching 8-10 lb catfish out of his creek. Now, I grew up on this farm and know these woods really well and always assumed the creek was too small to support any real fish populations. I always saw very small shad or whatever, but nothing significant. We never swam or fished the creek so we didn't know really how deep it was either. I checked out the depth in some places and it was consistently 6 feet in some spots. Very surprised by this and it got me thinking. I could dig out a pond out there. Fed by the creek and gradually stocked with fish, that'd be an awesome experience. One preliminary question I need to figure out is whether to just dig out banks on the creek so it flows right through the pond, creating a nice current throughout, or segregating it, branching it off the creek and building a grate to keep fish stock in the pond instead of floating downstream. I'm pretty excited about getting this going and creating structures on the pond's floor looks really fun. Anybody know anyone who's done this?

I'll keep that in mind, Mark, thanks. No luck last night, but we only ended up with about an hour's worth of time and it ended up getting pretty chilly.

It's supposed to be almost 60 degrees tomorrow so I was thinking of taking the kid out after work tomorrow and seeing if we can't get us a catfish or two. In Omaha, is the consensus that Zorinsky's the best lake for cats or is there another lake I should try out? And if anyone's fished cats in Zorinsky, what part of the lake would you suggest? We haven't had much luck and the kid's getting a little tired of going out and not catching anything so I'd like to have at least a sliver of success before we pack it in for the winter.

Have you ever tried eating a peacock bass? They are delicious! x2 <drool>

You ever get into video games at all or are you even allowed those? I'm not into them myself, but my kid is and shopping for him I've seen some pretty impressing (looking anyway) fishing games you might consider. Thanks for serving your country BD. Stay safe.

Good looking fish, but what's with the salsa? ;D

Pretty bad coming from a Vols fan.

I was down in Fort Lauderdale fishing a small lake and had my first experiences with peacock bass. Needless to say, I hope it wasn't my last. They are a blast. I don't think I caught anything really big, but I just recently got into fishing and they top my list of thrills so far. One of them stole my bait five times. When I finally landed him and started cleaning him, all five shiners fell out of his belly. He was delicious. Anyway, I had to use a small bobber since I was getting snagged on this ledge that jutted out 20 feet or so and then just used good sized shiners. I had to work them pretty good. I could see them checking them out and one I toyed with for a good five minutes before he finally got agitated enough to bite. Reel too fast and they won't give chase, pull it towards them and they get ticked enough to bite. Then, of course, they take off and kick and scream and the real fun begins. ;D

Right on! ;D

Man, I'd love for a deal like that. 8-)

I'll try those things. Use a small bobber though right? I heard some bass see the bobber above, if it's too big, and get spooked and won't take the bait.

I do charity 5Ks every now and then, but haven't ran competitively in years. I run a couple miles daily and ran track and cross country in high school. I don't recall my personal best time in cross country but it was in the low 17s I believe. Running track in high school I was always drawn to the distance races, 800, 1600, and 3200, but realized late my senior year I should have concentrated on the 400. My PRs in track were 10:05 in the 3200, 4:46 in the mile, 2:01 in the 800, and 52.6 in the 400. I'll be sticking with the occasional charity run, but will go with biking soon instead of my daily runs. I turned 30 this summer and the wear and tear of years of running and growing up on a farm are taking their toll. I began training for a marathon a couple months ago and I'm cooling down indoors and the knees were creaking bad. Felt like bone on bone I don't know. My brother ran in college as well and can't run anymore. I don't want that to be me so I'll be switching to bike next summer. Young guys out there, stretch thoroughly and pay attention to every little twinge and pull. It adds up.