Pond Boss Magazine: Editor's Letter Nov/Dec 2023

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Editor's Letter Nov/Dec 2023

POND BOSS

Administrator

The Next Trip

As we all put a wrap on 2023 and look forward to the next trip around the sun, I

cannot help but be thankful. Thankful for you, thankful for your devotion to stewardship,

and thankful for the opportunity to participate in a nation where we can thrive and

succeed.

Perched on a chair, looking at our stretch of the Brazos River here, I can see carp

tailing the shallow water. I know further upstream, Largemouth bass haunt a stretch of

the channel, deeper than our piece of the river.

When I was a kid, gigging and tossing those carp on the shore to feed less-than-

deserving raccoons or buzzards was fun. With a career of fisheries management in my

biological rear-view mirror, my perspective has changed.

Carp are digging into the river bottom, sucking up heaven-knows-what,

swallowing it and changing some of that muddy stuff into carp flesh. Makes sense today.

I’m thankful for that. Those bottom-feeders are, at the very least, consuming

something other fish won’t, and converting it into flesh.

Hurray for carp in the river.

Studying our ecosystems, our ponds and lakes, has become much more than

trying to figure out how to grow the biggest game fish on the planet, or even how to

produce a sunfish worthy of a five-year-old’s battle on a Snoopy rod bought as an

afterthought because it’s Christmas-time.

We’re all caregivers, caretakers, and stewards of something...whether it’s our

land, or family, or our pristine waters we cherish.

Congratulations to all of us, we’re learning about pond and lake management,

how to take better care of our resources, with a strong sense to enjoy that journey as we

take it.

Many people dig into this pond management thing with concrete goals and

specific targets to accomplish. Rarely do they actually see it’s more a

bout the journey than it is about their destination.

I’m thankful for each of you and knowing you are in this stewardship thing for the

long haul.

The next trip around the sun promises to be another fun journey, even if we think

we know the destination

A series dedicated to Bob Lusk's general musings about land, water and life.