Beware Pond Consultants from Other Climates

We live in a capitalist society, and I believe in capitalism; it has allowed me to make a good living. Within a capitalist economy, healthy competition can be a good thing: it can foster innovation and improved service, along with better deals for the consumer. But there is healthy competition, and then there’s unhealthy greed that hurts you, the consumer.

What would you say to someone who advised you, if you were sick, to call a doctor two states away? Would you even consider it? Or would you dismiss the advice as foolishness and look for a local doctor who could actually examine you in person, and therefore be more likely to make an accurate diagnosis?

Here’s another analogy for you. Imagine you have just bought a farm in Tennessee that has a grove of apricot trees on it. You have no experience with apricot trees, but you like the idea of growing your own apricots; you just don’t know how to do it. Would you call a nursery in Kansas for advice, or one in your own backyard that’s actually experienced with your climate? Apricot trees will grow in Kansas, but they rarely produce fruit; it’s common for apricot trees to produce fruit in Tennessee.

My company has worked on thousands of ponds all across the eastern U.S., from Arkansas to North and South Carolina, from Indianapolis to the Florida panhandle. And yet I have never spent the first dime advertising in any state that isn’t contiguous to Tennessee, in part because we stay busy focusing on those states, but also in part because unlike some of our competitors, I actually am an honest man and genuinely care about every customer that asks for our help, and want the best for his or her pond or lake - unlike some of our competitors that care more about profit at any cost and their ego than they do the ultimate success of your pond. I have never once, for example, offered my services to any pond or lake owner in Ohio; it’s only two states away, but it’s a completely different climate than what we have here in Tennessee, and I reason that even a semi-incompetent pond consultant who has years of experience working in Ohio probably has picked up some things from said experience that I would not know coming in cold to work on an Ohio pond, and is therefore likely to do a better job on that pond. And yet there’s a large company based in Ohio that for years now has maintained a small office in an industrial park in Nashville, aggressively advertising their services and fish to Tennessee pond and lake owners, failing even to mention that they’re headquartered two states away, failing to mention that they’re bringing Ohio fish to stock into those Tennessee ponds, fish that are adapted to a different climate that doesn’t get as hot as ours, fish that don’t have the genetics to maximize growth in our climate like the Florida species of bass and bluegill that consultants from this area invariably stock because they get bigger than those northern species in southern waters. They’re applying management methods tailored for northern waters to southern ponds - and as you might guess, this leads to less than optimal results. If this company told every prospective customer that they would be bringing fish from another climate that wouldn’t perform as well as the fish that companies based in this area stock here, how many people would still buy those fish? But they’re not telling you that; they’re intentionally concealing that information because they care more about their bottom line than they do the success of your pond. It’s not a matter of opinion that Florida bass and coppernose bluegill get bigger than northern largemouth bass and northern bluegill - it’s established science that has been proven in multiple studies, and it’s borne out by the fact I already alluded to that all of the top management companies and hatcheries in the Southeast stock those Florida species instead of the northern species, not because they can’t buy or raise the northern species but because the Florida species get bigger, and most pond owners prefer catching big fish to catching small fish.

What if I told you there was a consultant in Nebraska and a fish culturist in Kansas that wanted to sell you fish for your Tennessee pond? Are those guys going to drive to your Tennessee pond to actually look at it and give you expert guidance on the best steps to grow the biggest possible fish? Here’s an even more pertinent question: do you think fish acclimated to Kansas or Ohio summers will thrive in your pond like fish acclimated to Tennessee summers? What if I told you they just want to sell you their fish because they’re arrogant and they don’t really care that they have zero experience working on Tennessee ponds and therefore can’t possibly give you the quality of guidance that someone who has twenty-five years of experience with Tennessee ponds and lakes can give? They don’t really care that it’s impossible for fish acclimated to their climate to thrive in your pond the same way fish acclimated to our climate would. They’re arrogant, and they’re greedy, and they don’t care about the best for your pond: they care about their wallets. Don’t let them cheat you out of having the pond of your dreams so they can have the house of theirs.