Two years ago on Thanksgiving Day, I caught this old, but fat and healthy fish in the small pond behind our daughter's home in GA.

I caught her again today, in the same place, and the ravages of time have done a tune on this old gal. She was longer, and her head was bigger, but that brown spot on her fin was gone, along with that section of the fin. Her once round belly was hollow, and the muscles along the top of her back had atrophied.

She had a blackened sore on the top of her head, and had no energy to speak of. I removed the hook, and set her back in the water, wishing I hadn't caught her. I'd have preferred to remember her as she was in the photo. She was no beauty, aesthetically speaking, but she was a magnificent fish to catch in a three acre mudhole.

Hmmm...What did she weight then and what now? Seems time is hard on old fish. You think it was time, or is there not enough food anymore? Non the less, a good fish then and now, but I get your sadness!

Jeff

She was a little over eight pounds then. I doubt she weighed five pounds today.

It could have something to do with forage. Most of the fish I catch in the pond are less than a pound. They are active, but they are also thin. Last year they were chunky for the most part. In fact, I fished it after leaving Guntersville. They were bedding, and every light patch on the bottom was good for two fish. They were also chunky, though the females that had egged out not so much.

I see plenty of small bluegills, a couple of inches long around the shore, but I don't see the Heron that used to be at the pond every day, and have only seen one pair of kingfishers, when there used to be two or three.

Today, there was some small waterfowl on the pond. It wasn't a cormorant, or a duck. But it behaved like a cormorant. It would surface, take a breath, and dive, coming up twenty or thirty feet away fifteen to twenty seconds later. The sun was in my eyes, so it was hard to make it out. It looked like a small female mallard, but about half the size of a mallard.

It wasn't feeding on vegetation since there was none on some of the stretches it was working.

I'm hoping it's a temporary thing. The pond is good for four to six fish per hour, and once in a while a two pounder to keep things interesting. I don't hear frogs, but I can't say I've heard them in the past, particularly since I've fished it in November.

Time will tell.

Heck of a fish man. Sucks times been so hard on her. Circle of life I guess.

Try asking what Bob Lusk's opinion is I know he has posted before and answered some management questions for me.

Great fish. Sounds like that pond needs some help.

yea thats a nice fish its a shame what happened