Weekend To Remember

Last week we traveled to Ottawa to consult at several ponds and finished up the week at a large property near Pittsfield, IL stocking full size fish, aeration systems, fish structures, fish feeders, etc. and even found some mushrooms while measuring through the woods.


Put together lots of feeders and structures for all the ponds, here is some stuff for the lodge pond:


Found a snake while electrofishing one of the existing ponds:

Lodge pond still needs more water, we are gonna remedy that soon.

Big blue cats went into the blue cat pond:


These 9 ponds are spread out over this large property and are going to need a constant water source in order to hold large amounts of trophy fish. We shot all the elevations and took all the measurements for connecting all the ponds and will be filling a large wetland from the creek and using it as a water source for all the ponds during the summer. Very cool project that you will be hearing more about for sure!

Also while working near Pittsfield Justin, Jared and Phil stayed there while Jared and I popped over to Lewiston, MO to electrofish for client Richard's 40 acre lake. Richard has spend the last 2 years diligently working on every recommendation from his original lake management plan we wrote up on our first visit in early in 2010. To date he has removed 1839 largemouth bass from 10-13 inches, placed lots of cover, enhanced the bass genetics, also stocked lots of bluegill, installed bluegill feeders and he is now turning the corner and creating a trophy largemouth bass fishery! Finally lots of 15-17 inch bass that will be pushing 18-19 inches by the end of this season!! Oh yeah, Richard is also the guy with the monster crappies:



Also en route to Pittsfield I forgot about the electrofishing survey at Otter Creek Wednesday evening. Dynamite is all I can say, walleyes and other fish are really packing on the lbs:

So I get home at 4:45 pm Friday afternoon and am out the door at 5:45 pm headed to the Weekend to Remember conference with Brook in Bloomington. Let me just say, if your married get yourself to one of these conferences, they hold them all across the nation. Best investment you can possibly make for yourself, your wife, and your family.

If you have ever taken anything away from any of these blog posts, I would hope it would be this advice- take your wife to a Weekend To Remember conference. Its not convenient and never will be, but get it done.



So I go to pick up my kids Sunday afternoon at the lake and get roped into another project. First we went fishing:




Then we started to just lay out the new bedroom additions and before long we are full swing into digging the footings.

Monday after finishing some consultations in Metamora and Germantown Hills I am rushing to the lake to prep and then pour the footings all at once. Lots of rebar, some foam and 47 yards of concrete later we get er done.


So if building my own house in my spare time isnt quite enough, now every other spare moment will be spent building this 7 bedroom addition for my parents. I'm not complaining since its me and my kids and such that will ultimately benefit, I just got a little more on my plate at the moment than I can chew. Whats new I guess.

Last thing, I am getting a special delivery of tiger muskies coming in about 2 weeks. Typically tiger muskies are only available in the fall, but I have worked out a deal with a major muskie supplier to bring me some advanced size fish this spring. Anyhow just email me if your interested in more information- nate@hblakemanagement.com

We have been aggressively stocking muskies at Hidden Lakes for the last few years in some of their lakes to eat up lots of small fish. The plan is working and they are growing rapidly, here are some pics from hidden lakes from last week:






Got a text today from a client whose large bass are all dying from some sort of disease/virus with large sores on them. I don't know how to fix it, but can at least post a pic:


Oh yeah, we found a baby raccoon last spring and left food out for it at our barn all summer and winter. It was actually a pretty friendly raccoon all summer, but as winter progressed we saw less and less of her until this spring. Well, Tink had some babies last week and is not quite so friendly anymore. Her babies are sure cute though. We found them in our life jacket shed:






So oh yeah again, we are sleeping in a cabin near Pittsfield last week and just before bed I get a text from Justin who is already in his bed: