I went out Saturday morning to catch some bream for my pond and met up with a friend, Alan, who had brought some Boy Scouts to try to earn a fishing badge. One of the boys had never caught a fish before so I was happy to help them catch some bream.
Some of the fish were on beds in 1-2 feet of water so the kids could see the fish they were fishing for. They were really excited.
They ended up practically filling my cooler up with fish. I did catch one monster bass.
Steve asked to see some pics of my pond so here they are.
The 3 pound bass that I had originally put in the pond had always stayed hidden when he was by himself but after adding the bream, started venturing out and was cruising around with the bream. The bream didn’t seem concerned that there was a bass hovering nearby. It will be interesting to watch how they interact.
Sometimes it’s nice to catch a few bluegill for a change, looks like a great time was had by all.
Thanks for posting some photos of you pond John, it looks great!!
How deep is it ??
Do you get any natural food like frogs in there ??
I have so many questions….
Steve,
The pond is currently about 3 1/2 feet deep, although I can fill it up to about 6. There isn’t any natural forage for the fish, I was initially tossing in goldfish to feed the bass but as they were a dollar a piece, I opted to do the bluegill thing instead.
I’ve been looking for some frogs around the rice fields but so far haven’t had any luck. It’ll be awesome to watch the bass bust a frog out of the water! I found what I guestimated to be a 2 pound toad in my vegetable garden but didn’t think the bass would eat it. Shoulda tried it anyway. Next time…
I was at a lake about 4 weeks ago and right next to the water it looked as if the ground was alive and moving…..what it was, was thousands and thousands of baby frogs around 3/4 inch in size.
but try to catch your own craws if you have them in the waters as they cost $6 each in my local pet shop 
For my bass I have at home I usually feed him goldfish also, but just before I come to Nigeria, my wife orders 200 small fish and 200 freshwater shrimps (delivered the next day) and I put them all in his tank and these usually last him around 3~4 weeks and cost around $30 ~ $40. You should also put some craws in the pond too
John,
Do you have any problems with herons and cats ??
John,
You’re all set! You can fish for bass and bluegill right in your own yard…btw, that’s a nice little pond you have there. Are you planning on putting more water in there as it gets hotter out?
John, if you’re in the market for frogs or night crawlers come on out to
Green Acresmy house and I’ll hook you right up. As I was trimming the weeds around the garden last weekend I must have seen 20 frogs.Way to go on the bluegill! It’s nice to see that that lake still has IT! It’s actually the first lake I ever fished over here, brings back some good memories with Alan and the gang.
Rob,
Your on, dude. I’ll take as many frogs as you can rustle up. Like Steve was saying, I really would like to add some crawdads, but there isn’t any way that I’d pay more than a dollar for one.
I just may take a trip to a mountain stream and see if I can’t net a few. I know I can catch some fresh water shrimp – thats a great idea for the bream.
I was messin’ around last week, before I added the bream, and was tossing a Senko in the pond to see if I could coax the bass out of his spot under the big rock in the middle. I knew I should have cut the barb off the hook but I wasn’t thinking. A few casts to the right, nothing but the first cast to the left, and Wham! He came out from under the rock and inhaled the Senko. It was so fast that I instinctively set the hook. The line broke as he swam back under the rock. I was bummed out that he had the hook and worm in his jaw. The next day I waded in with a net but he was so far back under the rock that I couldn’t get the net in. I did notice that the worm was gone and am hoping that the hook will rust out soon.
When you put some frogs in the pond, don’t forget the camera….I’d love to see what happens
Again, your pond looks awesome
Have your thought about about putting some pads and plants in the pond, that will attract insects, which will attract other forage that the bass and bluegill can eat
Come on John…..UPDATE, UPDATE
How are the bream doing and has the bass got rid of the hook yet ??
Steve,
The bream are doing fine – I just don’t have a steady food source for them yet. I am going to put in some water lilies and maybe some cattails to give the fish a little more cover. As for the bass and the hook, he doesn’t come out from under the rock enough for me to see if the hook is gone. I’m having a blast just watching the bluegill, they swim around as a group with the biggest fish always last.
John, if you like I could get my wife to send me the link for the place we buy my bass “food” from and I’ll forward it onto you. Just let me know!!
John, I’ll see if I can catch some frogs this weekend. Also, have you ever thought about going down to the market and buying some minnows? Ron P. used to buy a couple of dozen or so for trout fishing and they only cost a few thousand Won. I’m talking about the ones the Koreans eat, the ones you find in the food markets….
Rob’s right, I forgot all about the market fish….I didn’t see any minnows, but I used to buy 1kg of loaches (used for making chu-a-tang) for a few dollars, and you get ALOT of fish for 1kg and bass love them!! I’m sure the bluegill (working as a pack) would eat them also.
Rob and Steve,
My wife is going to the market today to buy a bag of the mikaraji (?), the loaches. She told me about them and I remember the first time I went bass fishing in Korea, there was an American guy using them to catch bass.
I threw in a couple boxes of the red wigglers yesterday and the bream tore ‘em up. Can’t wait to see the bass chasing down the loaches.
It should be fun, because those loaches are super fast and slippery. My bass used to chase them down, get the loach in it’s mouth and then the loach would swim out of my bass’s gill cover