West Boggs Tournament Info

There are some new features for information regarding tournaments on the parks website. If you go to the fishing page of the new site you will find the 2008 tournament schedule now includes the ability to include flyers for the tournament groups on the list. So Far Dogwood Bassmasters is the only group that has taken advantage of this new function, but we expect more will do so before the season kicks in. Anyone who knows the coordinators of the other events might want to make sure they realize this system is now in place.

As the season gets underway, we also plan to add tournament results to the website, in a very similar manner. To make this happen it will be important for event coordinators to complete the department’s tournament report and submit it at the end of each event. The form itself will be available online as well and will be able to be submitted by email, so coordinators should check the site often to make sure you are up to date on changes as they are made available. If you are not already familiar with it the web site is www.westboggs.com.

Hey Mike........

Is the lake frozen over..............was thinking of some winter fishing, but not too sure.......

Thanks,

Geo

Geo,

No, the lake is ice-free right now. itis about four feet below normal pool, which should allow carefull boating. If you do go out let me know how you do. I'm seein ga lot of gulls, which should mean dead and dying shad out there. If so the bass may be too well fed to hit much.

I wonder if the bass will eat a dead shad? I know that crappie sometimes will refuse to eat a dead minnow. It just doesn't smell right to them or something. Or maybe like other predators the prey has to try to escape to make the predator pounce on it.

I have had crappie in my aquarium for 4 years not and have been watching them and noting their behavior over the past 4 years.

Note: Some crappie died and were replace with new crappie.

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I learned that my black crappie will eat lunch meat if I run out of minnows. But the White Crappie refuses to eat anything but live minnows. He tried to **** in a piece of honey ham that I sliced up into small pieces but he spit it right back out. Now this crappie had not eaten in two weeks. I ran out of minnows and have to go buy some more. It's a lot of work trying to keep 6 dozen minnow alive and it takes up a lot of time. Changing water in the minnow buckets daily is work. LOL

But when they do have minnows to eat they eat their fill everyday. And they can eat a lot of these chub 1.5" long minnows in one sitting.

I have noticed that when they are full they won't eat anymore minnows. I have also just dumped in a dozen or more minnows into the aquarium to let the crappie eat when ever they like. Those minnows may last two days or possible three days and then they are all gone.

I have also noticed that even if the fish have not eaten in two weeks and start to feed on lunch meat pieces and are almost jumping out of the water to grab the lunch meat out of my hand that when I turn on the aquarium lights that the fish will immediately head to the bottom of the aquarium and stop feeding.

Well, the black crappie is the only one that feeds on the lunch meat and so that's the only one that stops feeding when the lights are turned on. But if I turn the lights back off the black crappie will feed again.

They defiantly don't like the bright overhead aquarium light on when feeding.

I don't keep the lights on all the time and in fact they mostly see the sunlight coming though a North Facing window in the room. Sometimes I'll open a window on the South side of the house and in the winter time when the sun is low in the sky the sunlight will shine though that window and though the hallway into the room with the crappie. So they get some Southern Sunlight at times. They like to face away from the light most of the time.

But, the current from the filter will determine where they hang out in the aquarium most of the time. They like to sit in the area where there is as little current as possible to save energy I guess.

I have a power filter that sites atop a 1" diameter 10" long plastic tube that's connected to an under gravel filter. This power head will draw water up from under the gravel up through the tube and out the side of the power head. The water that's flowing out of the power head is mixed with air from an air tube and that helps to filter and aerate the water. The under gravel filter draws the water down through the gravel where Nitrate eating bacteria work on the crappie poop and helps to fix the nitrogen into Nitrates which are less harmful to the fish.

Ammonia will kill the fish and they are sensitive to nitrites too.

I have to change the water often to get ride of the nitrate build up. The amount of nitrate in their water is normally very high.

I have to clean all the gravel and take the fish out of the aquarium to do this job. It's as stressful on the fish as it is on me. There is a lot of gravel that has to be cleaned and washed and returned to the aquarium.

I normally take the fish out and then drain all the water out of the aquarium with a siphon and then take the aquarium outside on the back porch to wash it out thoroughly. The gravel is put in a big bucket and the garden hose is used to flush all the sediment away from the gravel. The water is normally really dirty.

But I found a new way to clean the tank of crappie poop.

First I don't feed them everyday which cuts down on the amount of waste.

And second took the gravel filter plastic nozzle off the tubing and just use the tubbing to **** up the crappie poop off the top of the gravel. It's less dense than the rock so it will **** up into the siphon tubing and flow down thought the tubing into a bucket sitting on the floor. I can clean the gravel much faster now.

In the past when I used a gravel filter the one way value was too small to pass the poop though it and fish scales combined with other debris would clog up the exit hole. And then the water would not flow up though the hole and down into the bucket. That was a pain to have to stop, clean out the gravel filter and then reestablish the siphon each time.

Now with just the hose alone I can clean the up the crappie's mess much faster. And then the gravel stays much cleaner.

I also use a activated carbon filter system to keep the other chemicals in the water to a minimum.

I guess I could have a dog and have to pick up dog pop out of the yard everyday. No thanks. I have enough dogs in my neighborhood that leave land mines all over my yard. Why don't they poop in their own **** yards?


[quote=MikeAxsom;316180]Geo,

No, the lake is ice-free right now. itis about four feet below normal pool, which should allow carefull boating. If you do go out let me know how you do. I'm seein ga lot of gulls, which should mean dead and dying shad out there. If so the bass may be too well fed to hit much.[/quote]