snrub, your fish look good to me and like Tbar said the housing for the air looks good also. I have no skills @ such things but your design is something for me to work towards. And I can see a movie being made about snrubs frogs. "Attack of the Kansas frogs" they will eat anything !! They may eat any baby snakes that might show up.
Tracy
Do not judge me by the politicians in my City, State or Federal Government.
Starting to get some nice sized fish in the pond. Wife, grandson and I caught some fish today, fried them up, and along with some fresh garden tomatoes, corn on the cob, and new potatoes had a wonderful farm raised meal tonight. YUM. Caught them, cleaned them and the three of us in the kitchen prepared it all then had a great supper. Nice quality time together.
Caught a couple CC, one about 1.4# and the other right at 2#. Also a couple nice 7.5-8" BG right around a half pound, and I caught the very nice HBG pictured below at 9.5" and .83#. That is the size fish I would like to see a lot of in the pond. Nice fillets. Talk about some good eating.
I do like those HBG. Don't get as tall as the BG, but talk about meaty thick fillets!
Planted a couple different varieties of Rush around the main pond. Hope they are good kinds. Got them locally.
The first three pictures are what I believe to be a variety of Spike Rush but would not swear to it. Just planted about eight spots around the main pond about a week ago. Will see if they take hold. The pictures are from a stand that came in naturally from my old refurbished pond. It appears to have some seed and is only about 4" tall.
The last two pictures are of what I believe may be Soft Rush but there are supposed to be hundreds of variety of rush's so who knows???? I have 4 spots around the main pond where it was planted early this summer and it appears to have taken hold just fine.
Also planted what we call Arrowhead although the shape of the arrow head is nothing like in the pictures at Tamu. Really wanted it to get going. Wife has been raising it in the concrete pond with success. Grows in local seasonal creeks well. But right after planting it we got rain that brought water up enough so that (I assume) my two grass carp made short order of my plantings and grubbed them off at ground level. So no go on it. Did get a bunch of seed from wifes plants and scattered around pond so maybe next year. This is what Tamu has for Arrowhead Arrowhead - Bulls tongue but ours has a different shape arrowhead. Or maybe it is something else, but have not found a picture that matches.
Have some rush's starting on their own (birds brought in maybe???) in the sediment pond. Not sure of variety.
snrub, I have had some rush that came up in one are of the pond, along the shore line. But with the drought we had here in E Texas, it died out when the pond dropped a couple of feet. It looked like what you are calling soft rush. And my crawfish have pretty much eliminated most everything that has tried to grow in the water.
Tracy
Do not judge me by the politicians in my City, State or Federal Government.
I know nothing about Rush. What are you trying to accomplish?
Just some vegetation that looks decent along the shore line but that will not get excessive growth. Wife likes the looks of the Arrowhead and the rush does not get too big or can be mowed.
Some vegetation basically. Something to help use some of the excessive nutrients.
The spike rush grows in the old pond where most of the water enters from the nearby field. Looks like it provides erosion control there.
FWIW Water Arum, Pickerel Plant, Lizard Tail and Duck Potato might be few more marginal options for you.
My Soft Rush drowned. I planted it too close to the shore and then the water level came up 3 or 4 feet for several weeks. The Creeping Rush (common rush) survived and went on to thrive. I planted Knob Rush from seed in small biodegradable pots. Time will tell if they make it.
Wish I had that option! I did find a couple of places I can find a decent assortment of plants, in small quantities at a reasonable price. I am experimenting and learning as I go as there is really not much info available I've been able to find on how to plant. I planted small quantities and will see what thrives in my conditions and go from there. My goal is the same as yours. I just want to get some desirable vegetation going before the undesirable guys show up!
Edit: Maybe worth noting, I see what appears to be one plant of American Pond Weed growing in the shallows. If it comes back next year, I will post pics for a positive ID.
Got back from over wintering to hungry BG on March 2. When I drove around the pond, they swam right toward the 4 wheeler. Tossed a little feed out and they cleaned it up pronto.
Checked water temp yesterday and it is at 52, so it looks as if feeding season has started. Likely will have another short bout of cold weather again and if we get cold rains might have to stop for a while, but today it is beautiful.
Been dry since the earlier flooding (where I was told water was flowing over the emergency overflow) so water is down about 9". FA growing like gangbusters so put out some Cutrine granuals a couple days ago.
Caught first BG of the year. Nothing spectucular, but probably in the 7-8" range.
I don't know if Cutrine is damaging to snails of not. Maybe the experts can help. I don't think there will be any shortage of food for the snails even after killing some of the FA, but the copper itself may be an issue.
Went out a while this late afternoon with the intention of catching and releasing a bunch of BG. It amazes me how what seems like thousands of 6-7" BG show up the minute I drive the 4 wheeler around and want feed. And will clean up the feed I am feeding pronto. But throw a hook and line in and.............. lock jaw. I caught about three but expected them to be jumping on the hook the way they were hitting feed. Maybe I'm just a poor angler, which is entirely possible.
But did hook into a 3.15# CC that I did not expect. Had not seen any CC hitting feed yet. Time to harvest cats!
snrub, The very best bait I have found for BG is a 1/64 ounce chartreuse jig with #8 hook tipped with a Berkley Gulp Alive Chartreuse Waxie. This combo outperforms earthworms at least three to one in numbers caught for time spent. I use this on a 12 foot Mr Crappie rod with 4 or 6 pound line. Just swing it out with about 10 or 12 feet of line out and swim it around about a foot or two off the bottom. That's how I caught all 30 of my brood BG out of a friend's pond.
Grandson and three buddies went CC fishing yesterday late afternoon and till about 11pm. Caught 22. The one I weighed early on was 2.05# and the other 5 at the time were about the same size with a couple maybe 2.5#. Did not see the rest as I went inside. Biggest I have caught is a little over 3#.
Am guessing with those 22 we have taken about 125 of the original 300 stocked out now.
The boys (high school graduate age) had a lot of fun.
Nice HBG caught yesterday. Largest to date. Have not caught any of the original stocked HBG (accidentally -about 30 total) for a long time because I fished the limited number out and moved to my old pond. That was before I decided I really liked HBG. This was one I had missed earlier. All the other hybrids that I have caught have been more recent introductions that naturally occurred in my sediment pond and I moved to the main pond. They are all smaller. Looking at this nice fish, wish I would have left them in the main pond!
Also caught a BG about the same weight but a half inch shorter. Had him laid out beside the tape just like the HBG pictured and when I snapped the digital picture the fish snapped and landed on the ground all covered in dirt. I got a picture of the tail gate and the fish went back in the water. But every bit as nice as the HBG pictured. Now if I could only get more of those 7-8" fish up in this range.
The second picture is something I did not expect to see. We cleaned some CC a couple weeks ago filled with eggs, but did not expect to see this little guy on the end of my hook about sunset. My wife was ecstatic to see the reproduction. I'm just hoping the CC don't get carried away with reproduction and the LMB can keep them in check. Was not really wanting to see this little guy but made my wife happy so not all bad.
Sprkplug built a nice fish cleaning station some time back that inspired me to create one also.
Bought a ready made fish cleaning table and was going to attach it to my dock. But I worried about it not being sturdy and the wind blowing it away. The more I looked at attaching it, I just decided to build a table to set the pre-made table on and just use the top. The legs are still folded up underneath the top in case I ever want to take it apart and just use the table separate.
The whole thing is hooked up to a freeze proof hydrant I installed at the end of the dock, via a garden hose. I also added a short hose and spray nozzle so we can simply spray the whole shebang down when finished cleaning fish. We have two 15x20" cutting boards. One fits on top the plastic table and the other over the boards at the sink end. The hole in the table goes to a 5 gallon bucket held on the lower table for the fish scraps. The plastic table came with a filet knife and a couple stainless steel bowls that fit in the recessed area of the table.
The whole thing is attached to the steel I beam dock frame via the steel pipe railing.
Even though mine is quite different, thanks Sprkplug for the pictures of your fish cleaning station that inspired me to make one. Pictures below.
Not the biggest rain events we have ever had here in SE Ks but enough to make the emergency overflow run. My pond has seen water go over the emergency overflow before, but never when we have been at home. So this is my first chance to see what it looked like. I had tried to envision it, but had fallen short. I had no idea how easy it would be for creek fish to contaminate my pond. May be the answer where a few of the fish that have surprised me came from.
For fish to come from the creek, swim up the emergency overflow, and get into the pond, they first have to BE in the creek. The creek is a seasonal creek and can go completely dry. So for fish to be in it, there first has to be a big enough rain for water to flow to the main creek about a half mile away. Once fish populate the puddles and holes that remain (sometimes for the whole summer, in a drought year they dry up), then a subsequent large rain event like the one July 3rd can back water up to the point my emergency overflow can connect with this creek. Pictures below of it doing just that, and we had a high water event earlier this year where I saw 2.5' carp in the small creek.
I never saw any fish swimming up the overflow water, though at its maximum flow small ones sure could have. There were hundreds and hundreds of BG from yolk sac up to a couple of inches and gambusia that went into the creek and got stuck in the grass as the water quit flowing though.
I could hear the 8" overflow pipe on the opposite side of the pond sucking air down a vortex all the way across the pond at my patio.
Wish we could have gotten a rain like that! We had less than an inch on the third, and it came rather slowly. The pond only raised less than an inch. We are in a drought locally. Some areas around here within seven miles got over 2.5 inches in a couple of hours on the first, only 0.3 inches here. If this trend of rain missing us by a few miles continues, I fear to lose all my fish. The creek has dried up already too.
I wish you would have gotten some of this. 1.5" on the second which was fine then 4.4 on the third and it came fast and hard. Still have about one third of our soybeans to replant because of wet fields and it is getting late. But would much rather have too wet than too dry like you. Hope you get some.
Got a jar of the chartreuse waxies like you left me but I don't think they are quite as good as the ones you gave me. They catch fish just as well but it seems like they are of a less firm foam material and they come off the hook easier. I only get one or two fish before I have to replace. I was getting 4 or 5 per baiting with yours. These are about the same consistency as the Gulp pink maggots I got, which seem to catch BG very well also.
Trying to thin out my 6.5-7.5" range BG. Seems like I have a huge number of that size and few LMB large enough to eat them. Have cleaned a couple batches of 30. Not sure I am making a dent in the population but they sure tasted good. Putting the bigger ones (8-9"+)back in for my brood stock to make more babies.
Hope you get some rain. We are doing a motorcycle ride tomorrow with wife, daughter and grandson to Eureka Springs. Then next day south on the Pig Trail. Will wave as we go by!
Edit: Fish cleaning table works great! Wife loves it. No more mess or smell in the kitchen.
Update on the fish cleaning station. Works great. Wife cleaned a couple batches of 30 BG and a couple CC recently and I cleaned 42 BG today.
This project was one of those that I figured we would either use it a lot, or it would set there mostly unused and a waste of time. Well it looks like we are going to use it a lot. I would be half afraid to clean fish in our kitchen. I'm a bit sloppy. But at the fish cleaning station just hose it down before beginning to make sure it is clean, clean the fish, then hose it all down again. Cleanup is a breeze.
A few BG from last night. I can not tell if the first two are from my original stocking March 2013 or if they are from the first years spawn. If they are originals they have kind of stalled out on growth. Nice enough fish, just not terribly large for the age. The third picture is of a CNBG and I know for a fact it had to be one I moved from my sediment pond over to this main pond because the original stocking was regular BG. The CNBG were stocked in the sediment pond in 2014 I believe October. So the CNBG would be a two year old fish. I measured them and all are about 8" give or take a little.
I'm getting an over population of BG and not enough recruitment of LMB to control them. So the plan is this fall to get another 50 LMB fingerlings, put them in the sediment pond where there are no predators, let them grow to about a foot or 14" length, fish most of them out and transfer to this main pond to help with the BG control.