Gleaton Chip Ranch Updates

[bgleaton]

We were able to make a quick trip out to the ranch yesterday and picked up 10lbs of golden shiners and 75 bluegills and put out some more artificial structure. There is a lot of coontail grass growing in the 1ft to 6ft depths and are seeing a lot of really small fish in the grass. Not sure if this grass is ideal or not but it's only in the shallow areas. We got our pond water and well water tested and both are in the ideal range, which is great news. I purchased a Deeper Pro Plus sonar to help us create a contour map of our pond. I'll be sure to post some pictures of the contour map once we finish it. We contacted Vollmar Pond & Management today to see if we can get them to deliver a truckload of forage fish. Looking forward to hear their recommendations for our pond. We want to get these bass growing!

[bgleaton]

Here are a couple of pictures of some young bucks we are seeing. We dumped a bale of alfalfa in one of our cottonseed feeders to try it out and the deer and blackbuck are hammering it. It will be interesting to see how it works.

[bgleaton]

Here's a picture of big brows several days ago. He always grows later than the other bucks. Hopefully he finishes strong!

[Puncher51]

Everything is looking great!

[bgleaton]

The alfalfa worked really well inside the cottonseed feeders. The deer ate a lot more than I thought they would, see the attached picture. The feeder on the left side has alfalfa and the feeder on the right has cottonseed. They finished almost an entire square bale in a couple of days.

[bgleaton]

I was out there for a day trip last week and was able to get the drone in the air above the pond. The greener areas are pond weeds that are growing in the 1ft to 4ft depths. We used a sonar and found that the deepest part of our pond is only 16ft deep so it's not as deep as we thought, which is great for bass. We are working with a company that will help stock forage fish this fall. I'll be sure to share information on what forage fish we stock and what their recommendations are for our pond. I'm hoping we get some rain over the next 2 weeks but it's not looking promising.

[Chance Love]

That tank looks “bassy”!

[Puncher51]

Man that pond looks great! Will be a great addition to the property. Can’t wait to follow along with that as well.

[bgleaton]

We are going to have Vollmar Lake & Pond Management come out in November and they will be conducting a fishery survey to see exactly what's in the pond so we can come up with a gameplan. They are also going to be testing our bass to see if they are actual Florida bass or if they are a native bass. His recommendations are to stock native bass because they are more aggressive and easier to catch. He did say that they don't grow as quickly as the Florida bass but confirmed they can still get up to 8+lbs if we manage the pond properly. I'll be sure to share some pictures from the electrofishing survey in November.

We conducted our first spotlight survey two weeks ago and we saw a lot of fawns, which is a great sign especially with how hot and dry it's been. I'm hoping we can all get some rain/cooler weather soon because everything is so dry!

[Droptine3030]

Any updates ? Been awhile since u posted!

[Big pig]

Sure miss some new Gleaton game and ranch photos!

Big pig

[bgleaton]

Sorry for not providing updates in a while. I’ve been busy with work as well as coaching my sons football team. Unfortunately, big brows, our biggest buck from last year, is a lot smaller this year. This is most likely due to the drought along with his age. Our goal this year is to remove only cull bucks and let the trophies go another year since it was so hot and dry. I hope to have some pictures of our bucks this week.

We are hoping to plant our 3.5 acre field with a fall food plot blend in mid October. Hoping we will be able to get our hands on a big sprinkler so we can keep it irrigated. I’ll be sure to provide some pictures and updates.

have a great day!

[bgleaton]

Here are some pictures of our bucks. The first two pictures are of Big Brows, you can see that he just isn't as impressive as last year. Hoping to give him one more year and see what he does. Hoping to plant our food plots in the next 2 weeks. I'll be sure to post some pictures of everything we are doing.

[Puncher51]

Dang good looking deer! I always get excited for this thread and how y’all are managing. Great things to come!

[Colton]

How old do you think Big Brows is? How old do you try to get your bucks before y'all take them?