Time Flies When Your Having Fun!

Days and weeks are flying by at such a fast pace, that I should probably start sharpening up my ice augers and organizing my ice fishing gear! I cant believe how fast this spring flew by, and now summer is knocking on the door just 2 weeks away! Typically summer seems like its only about 3 weeks long every year anyway and then its back to school, etc.

Monday we were in Secor treating a pond for watermeal and applied a few gallons of aquashade and also did a pretty extensive nutrient reduction treatment with some live bacteria and then met up with Phil Stalter down the road about designing his dock. It is going to be a sweet floating dock wrapped with a nice bench seat.

Then from Secor I headed to Chenoa to do an electrofishing survey for Jacobs Lake Fishing Club.

Tuesday we treated a waterskiing lake on Cottonwood Road for watermilfoil and coontail and american pondweed and cury-leafed pond weed and sago pondweed and some algae, kind of a mixed bag of vegetation, but with new boats coming in and out every week, there is bound to be all types of lake weeds brought in on the boat trailers and props. Then we headed out to investigate a fish kill on a 16 acre lake in Elmwood- only male bluegill between 5-8 inches were killed???? several hundred of them. I figured that they were guarding there nests up near shore when the algae blooming in the water either released some toxins or caused a dissolved oxygen crash for a few minutes in the shallow water and those male bluegill would not leave their nests and ended up dying.

Wednesday I was stuck in the office all day long catching up on management plans, emails, voice mails, and other stuff. I have found that on the day in the week that I stay put and actually have a chance to answer my phone and emails promptly that I sell tons of lake products to people across the nation that are looking to purchase stuff and just need a bit of direction. I am talking thousands of dollars worth of aeration systems, fish structures, algaecides, and herbicides! I can make more money by staying put and talking on the phone all day long than I can actually being out in the field working on lakes, but than I would end up hating my job and gaining 100's of lbs! I will just stick with one day per week in the office and enjoy the diversity of my job, and let the other lake management companies sell some stuff too! Then in the evening I enlisted the help of my wife and kids to empty the trapnets and just make sure the electro fishing boat was up and running smoothly.

Thursday was perhaps the best weather of the year! Warm, sunny, and just a light breeze! I had a truckload of Hybrid Bluegills, Hybrid Striped Bass, Catfish, and Rainbow Trout come in from up north for the new Hooked On Fishing Park. Also had 100's of lbs of fatheads, shiners, and some other fish come in for a handful of local clients as well. My brother Justin and Allen delivered the rest of the fish, Justin Steffan and Josh Thames worked on a dock project, and I just kind of floated around for a few hours working on some fish cages and stuff while enjoying the weather! Yep, I dont think I have written about our employees yet, but we have 3 aquatic technicians working full time (if you consider 60 hours per week full time?) My brother Justin (I havent thought of a good job title for him yet? maybe Project Manager?) We also have a full time office manager- Marcy Cox. She takes care of everything from A to Z. She is also our only employee with a bona fide college degree and a big key to our success! And then I would round out our 5 person company. We are all young- ages 20-26, but we work harder and longer and smarter than most big companies! Wow, that was kind of off the subject- now back to whatever it was we were writing about????

Friday we all fixed a dock in kickapoo for Doug Oberhelman, than I headed out for a loong day with Justin Steffan.

We treated a small pond with some white cap in kickapoo, checked on our fish at the fishing park, delivered Hybrid Striped Bass to Hidden Lakes and also treated some of their lakes, then treated a small pond in Victoria, then headed to Cabin Fever to check on their main lake, then off to Laura, Il for an electrofishing survey for Larry Hines.



We finished at Larry's lake about 6:30 pm and I headed straight to the lake for the weekend.........