05-29-2019, 05:52 AM
I've always heard different in that the fish stay small in a small aquarium and only get a little larger in a large aquarium, but very big in a pond and living in nature eating as they would in nature instead of flake fish food.
Interestingly, DWR official Tonya Kiefer asked years later upon hearing my story what I did with the goldfish. Not knowing better, I said I put it back unharmed because I respected that it was probably loved as someone's pet. She looked quite frustrated and said that the goldfish was invasive and didn't belong there.
Years later, I saw what was most likely my goldfish jump about three feet into the air out in the middle of Willow Pond and it seemed to be much larger. I've seen hawks scoop up and fly off with fairly large fish, but I suspect the goldfish is now too large to be caught that way. I suspect it's still there, but haven't fished there for many years.
Actually, my fishing in both Sandy and Willow Ponds wasn't really with fishing intent as I was using the pier and the clarity of the water to observe the movement of various lures at various speeds and match lures to my many different rods and practice.
Most of the lures I practiced with there were inappropriately large for actually catching the tiny planter trout and occasionally a pesky tiny one would actually get caught on a lure almost it's size.
I learned how to control swim bait well and that proved very valuable for real fishing in the reservoirs where I favored fishing weeds and sticks and rocks. My precise casts and control of the swimbait was instrumental to getting it to swim past the right spots that hold fish yet not get caught in the rocks and sticks.
Related article:
https://www.ksl.com/article/25110783/hun...leys-creek
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Interestingly, DWR official Tonya Kiefer asked years later upon hearing my story what I did with the goldfish. Not knowing better, I said I put it back unharmed because I respected that it was probably loved as someone's pet. She looked quite frustrated and said that the goldfish was invasive and didn't belong there.
Years later, I saw what was most likely my goldfish jump about three feet into the air out in the middle of Willow Pond and it seemed to be much larger. I've seen hawks scoop up and fly off with fairly large fish, but I suspect the goldfish is now too large to be caught that way. I suspect it's still there, but haven't fished there for many years.
Actually, my fishing in both Sandy and Willow Ponds wasn't really with fishing intent as I was using the pier and the clarity of the water to observe the movement of various lures at various speeds and match lures to my many different rods and practice.
Most of the lures I practiced with there were inappropriately large for actually catching the tiny planter trout and occasionally a pesky tiny one would actually get caught on a lure almost it's size.
I learned how to control swim bait well and that proved very valuable for real fishing in the reservoirs where I favored fishing weeds and sticks and rocks. My precise casts and control of the swimbait was instrumental to getting it to swim past the right spots that hold fish yet not get caught in the rocks and sticks.
Related article:
https://www.ksl.com/article/25110783/hun...leys-creek
[signature]