. Those individual little cells are usually occupied and those bluegill will fight like crazy to keep other fish out of their nests. I was sitting down there one day just watching and to the left of that stump up came a snapping turtle. He didn't surface and I don't think he was up to any mischief really but he was about to enter the forbidden territory of that first cell to the right there. He just had his front feet over the lip when Mr. Bluegill jumped him. He was so fast and furious that old turtle didn't know what hit him! That bluegill was as fast as Ali in his day stinging like a bee! Needless to say the snapping turtle lost that round and made a hurried exit back down into the depths. I guess snapping turtles don't get too many bluegill fish eggs for meals... I never would have bet on that one.It's still early and I haven't been to the pond yet today. I usually head down after noon between 1 and 2 and I've been asked why I feed at that time as everyone keeps telling me that bass eat in the early morning hours and again around dusk. Well, those are your bass. Mine like to eat and hunt after noon. I don't know why - that's just another one of the rules down at the pond that they haven't chose to explain to me. I just go along with it because that's what they want.. I don't go to other ponds so I can't compare and don't know what other bass do but mine like to eat in the afternoon and they don't care if it's 100 degrees. Mine like to eat between 12 and 3 and I'm sticking to it.
When it's a bit windy things do change and everyone in the pond is super paranoid zooming here and there. A dragonfly flitting by will send them into the deep and have them scurrying for cover. A leaf might fall and panic will set it.
I need to get back to El Torpedo from yesterday. I've seen him many, many times although just glimpses and he really isn't one of the crowd. He's usually a BIG whitish torpedo shaped moving thing that I see from 50 feet or more away gliding slowly and silently through the water. He almost never gets closer and then it may be only for an instant and all of a sudden. One second I'll be looking down in the pond daydreaming and the next second there he is then he's gone! He's certainly the biggest fish I have in there. My guess is he's about half again as long as the other larger bass. Anyway, I don't know how big bass get but he looks big to me because I'm not used to looking at any as big as he is in my pond.
El Torpedo will eat commercial fish food at times but not anything else I throw in and he'll only eat the food when it floats out into the deeper water. I can't ever seem to get a photo of him worth a hoot at all - my camera is just too dinky and he's just too far. By the way - I don't have a polarized lens or anything on my little digital camera which makes it darned near impossible to see my fish in some of my photos. The only adjustment I do to the photos is to change the contrast. I can see the fish just fine standing on the bank but when I take a photo it's not so hot... I get glare... Maybe someone out there knows a better way I can fix this?
Back to El Torpedo - yesterday way after I was finished feeding and I was just sitting and daydreaming in came El Torpedo! He glided in all the way to the bank and stopped right in front of me and took a good look at me! My heart was pounding and I was afraid to move lest I scare him away. I have two chairs out there and my camera was on the other chair. He finally backed off and started swimming around in that hunting mode fashion they have. (I'll try to describe that in a minute.) I slowly reached behind me for the camera and got it, clicked the little wheel to the auto position and the lens slid out. I looked through the view finder, got in position and snapped... nothing happened... Isn't it always this way?
I tried several times turning the camera on and off to different modes and such. I could see that there were words on the screen and it was trying to tell me something - no glasses except for sunglasses so I couldn't read it. I don't bring glasses to the pond because I don't want to see the grasshoppers I catch up close.. I wouldn't be able to catch them anymore I'm sure. I can't really even think about catching grasshoppers eeeeeeeeeuuuuuuuu.
I still had some hamburger and threw a ball of it in front of El Torpedo. He paid no attention to it but the bluegill did and quickly tore it apart. This seemed to disturb him. He was hunting after all and was trying to single out a fish for a meal and I messed things up for him. I find my bass don't just run right into a school of bluegill and gobble away. They carefully watch for just the one they want. They slowly swim eyeballing different fish until that certain one catches their eye. They may slow down almost to a crawl at this point or even come to a complete stop. Next thing you know, at the speed of lightning and faster than you can see they make their move. ZIP ZIP ZIP through the water and with a lot of splashing and half the time I can't even see if they were actually successful. I don't know what calls their attention to certain fish yet and I may never know but I suspect individual tastes may play a big part. I know my bass have individual tastes for sure... By the way - it was about 3 PM when El Torpedo came hunting.... It was also about 100 degrees and he was in about a foot of water. So much for fishing at dawn and dusk...
Since all my fish can't be male even though they look like it to me I've decided to change the name of El Torpedo to La Torpeda. I wonder how to tell the difference anyway? I guess that's something for me to ponder instead of vacuming the livingroom.
Well, it's 12:45 and cloudy so I won't be getting any good photos today but I need to be getting my things ready to go down to the bass pond. Bye for now.
No comments:
Post a Comment