My wife and I lease 100 acres from one of my uncles that borders our place. Just about 11 months ago we stocked a pond on the place with Channel and Blue Catfish. The fingerlings were only 4-6 inches long at the time we released them. Through drought and flood we fed them almost daily. At one time we thought the pond was going to dry up and just before we were going to have to seine all the fingerlings and take them somewhere else, it rained. There were times in the last few months that the tank ran around the dam from all the rain and we lost a few fish to the raccoons and water birds. Cormorants, Herons, Banded Water Snakes, Turtles, Raccoons and other predators have taken their share of the fish but quite a few survived and they grew bigger on the commercial catfish feed. They are now up around a pound with a few even bigger.
We decided to take our 3 1/2 year old grandsons to fish in the pond for their first fishing trip and it was quite an experience. One loved it and other hated it but a good time was had by all involved. The next week I took my 76 year old uncle who is an expert fisherman but does not really get to go anymore to the pond and let him fish. It is really just harvesting the fish more than fishing because they hit almost instantly. I can tell you that my uncle was all smiles and laughter the whole time. We kept a dozen of the fish he caught and filleted them out for a few catfish dinners.
If you can take a kid out or someone that doesn’t get to go fishing anymore, do so, it will make their day and create a memory. I spent most of my time removing hooks, untangling line and putting on fresh bait and it was worth every moment. By the way those home-raised corn-fed catfish fillets were wonderful. Wild Ed
