Today was a GREAT day for the pond with the exception of a little cooler weather that rolled through. It started off with a delivery notice that the apple, peach, cherry, nectarine, and plum trees where going to be delivered and ended with planting them and adding in some yellow perch to the pond (Thanks snipe for the fish). We've been so looking forward to those coming in and hope to be good stewards of them as the years progress.
When the bass are biting, I have thrown behind standing timber and caught a nice fish. Farther up the shore, thrown to a washed up tree (horizontal), and caught a nice fish. Then dragged a lure past a deadhead (branches on the bottom, trunk up at the surface on an angle) and caught a nice fish.
I think LMB are pretty sneak opportunists and will take whatever you will give them. However, I have never fished intensively managed ponds with lots of planned structure such that you could run an actual "experiment". So I am definitely a rank amateur.
Hopefully, this turns into an enlightening thread! If there is a "best" way to do this work, might as well try to get as close as we can to the standard.
I'm in Newnan as well. I don't know about the "new" bass you put in, but to sample the originals in that color water, you need to throw a black/blue chatterbait with matching z-craw jr. trailer. It's been producing well in this area since everything around here muddied up a few months ago from all the rain.
Small world! I will do just that and give it a try ive thrown everything but the kitchen sink at them so one more wont hurt lol
A good start - if the owner and wife are on board and you want the work ,would be reduce LMB #s and add adult BG and feed them. Tilapia would be good as they might deepen the pond a bit.
Good idea! Hyacinths would still be an ongoing problem, of course, but the expense necessary to scoop them off the entire lake bottom would be dredgeful.
I have a customer that feeds his fish whenever there isn't ice on the pond and they will eat the floating feed. He doesn't feed a lot when it's cold, just about 1/2 coffee can in a 4 acre pond. It could be the Yellow Perch that are eating most of the feed too, he's not sure.
Al, I'm going to look for the Rend Armor oil you mentioned. I was using a synthetic 2-stroke oil but I only have enough left to treat 2 gallons. The local marina said no matter what gas I buy, to treat it with an ethanol stabilizer because they've seen too many cases of "non-ethanol" gas have traces of ethanol in it.
MnAngler, I could be wrong on this, but if you check with the State of Minnesota and are good with them, I don't you'll need to check with any local or city 'authorities.'
I think it has a LOT to do with how the fish is handled after the catch.. Iced water in livewell? Fish on a stringer setting in shallow warmer water maybe. I pour a bag of ice into cooler with fish on way home, meat stays firm.
But depending on the size and depth of the pond, they will only germinate if they can get enough sunlight. Determine what depth the sunlight will penetrate (Secchi disk), add 3 more or 4 more feet to that measurement and forget about anything deeper.
Read up on some artificial cover threads. If you see some ideas that might work on some of the ponds that have limited access, then I would talk to the owner about your ideas. Many people would welcome your "improvements", especially if you could demonstrate that you did your homework first!
P.S. I also grew up fishing in small ponds and creeks with my father and brother where we were given permission by the landowner. My father realized what an important privilege that was, so he always offered to help out on any tasks that needed extra hands at the farm. I remember lots of projects like holding a long cattle gate against the wind while the farmer welded the needed repairs. Another time I filled a milk carton with baling wire from a stretch of grass that the farmer wanted to re-work. I could barely carry the load when I got back to the barn. The farmer was shocked. He said he had been through there a half-dozen times and wished he had my eyesight! In hindsight, I don't know if that was the truth, or if he was just thanking a little "city kid" for doing some actual work.
I agree with you about the privilege of being allowed onto property that someone else owns. It is certainly a blessing!
Yes, you can definitely control your pond water level! If it is just black polypipe you can make a tee and connections using the barb fittings for that size of line. (You wouldn't think they would work if you are used to "normal" plumbing jobs, but they work just fine for unpressurized lines.)
Float valve installations are one option. Maybe search "float valve for cattle tank" for simple, inexpensive options.
If you don't like that option, then you might try a "timer" valve to introduce some water every day. (If the water level is getting too low, then just increase the run time for a few days.) I have that type of valve on some tanks that I have set up to control drip irrigation on some new tree plantings. The valves I have (discontinued) run for several months on a 9V battery. I just set them up to run X minutes every 24 hours.
If you choose that option, make sure you get the valve for low pressure applications. The ones that run off of your pressurized household lines do NOT work well with only a few feet of head like from a rain barrel.
I don't believe a gentle waterfall would disturb any wildlife. (Except perhaps if they had been coming to the pond and discover a new waterfall on their next visit. I think they would be over that surprise very quickly.)
Will you have 120V electric power at your wildlife pond? (Or the European equivalent.)
If so, there are numerous little submersible pumps available that can move water for your your waterfall.
If you don't have an electrical supply, there are also solar powered pumps for that application. Some are very inexpensive and only have enough solar panel area to run the waterfall a few hours during peak sunlight. (Which may be just fine.)
Or you can design a larger solar system, battery augmentation, etc. and create a very complex and beautiful water flow.
Just adding a note on eutrophication from one of my ponds.
We had a hundred year old groundwater pond at our farm that had been slowly filling with sediment and leaves. The 2-year drought in our area had dropped the groundwater level in the area BELOW the bottom of the pond. The pond essentially looked like a marsh with zero standing water, but heavy plant cover in the damp mud.
I dug the pond about 8' deeper this fall and got the bottom back below the groundwater level. The pond then re-filled with beautiful, clear groundwater for our wildlife to utilize this winter.
I went by the pond on March 5th to see how it was doing. Still had beautiful clear water, but it was a fairyland of filamentous algae! There was lots of algae that had started on the bottom and had even established a few floating mats, with tendrils of algae connecting the two.
When I dug out the pond with the excavator, I certainly went deep enough to remove all of the rooted plants. I don't know where the initial algae starter cells came from, but the FA is essentially the only thing in the pond that is currently utilizing all of the accumulated nutrients. The pond is partially shaded, and we haven't yet had that many warm days, but the FA has already kicked into high gear!
(I just added this off topic note, because the pond was kind of an unusual "experiment" compared to the more typical ponds on the forum.)
Dug up the four buckets of seeds. Ugh! That was work! Even more when you start in the wrong spot! ;-)
Oh no, the Curse of Oak Island has reached YOUR property.
Good luck on your tree projects this year. My tube trees always seem to leaf out later than the existing trees on our farm. Of course, they are different species.
Our native sand plums already have tiny blossoms that are about to open. The pear trees that are in tubes and sticking out of the tops, do not yet even have buds swelling at all.
Oh, cool! What sort of sense? I know lots of organisms have sensory we don't such as lateral lines and ampullae of Lorenzini. Now I'm wondering about what crawdads can do!
I think mostly smell but they have features built in for vibration also.
Had a couple of comments on this about testing the watershed soils. Thought I would follow up. Our testing is in the area that we are planning to plant a mini orchard of fruit trees. Anything we do here will likely impact pond water as this is one of the watersheds to the pond.
Sulfur will have a direct impact on PH. Likely use elemental sulfur pellets as it's a slower process. Likely won't have any impact until the soil warms a little as the microbes in the soil have to break it down. If memory serves the microbes aren't really active in cooler temps.
Usual installation (unless it's a temp installation) is to cover the liner with 12" of soil. Use a tracked vehicle, cover liner as the dirt is placed with the equipment. You cannot have equipment to liner contact or you will be patching the liner. That lengthens the life of the liner by protecting it from UV radiation and also allows for plant growth and ease in getting in/out of the pond.
Anything you put on the liner to help get critters or people out of there has a chance of puncturing the liner unless it's smooth. Chain link, etc. all can puncture the liner at the edges of the chain link.
Just to drive that point home, I called a hatchery in Arkansas today for 2.5"-3.5" RES. They are already sold out and all that is left is 1":-2.25" They won't have any 2.5"-3.5" until July at the earliest.
I would definitely talk to the SP grower that you've found and get his thoughts on the best forage foods for growing the SP. He has success doing this. Ask if he knows anything about getting them to eat high protein fish pellets. Please keep us updated on your pond progress for growing some quality fish.
Dang, I'm sorry to hear that. I would make the top of the dam 12'-15' wide. Over time it will erode a bit and shrink in width. 10' wide could be 8' wide in a few years. You don't want to drop a wheel off an 8' wide dam. Dig a keyway in down to good soil and compact, compact, compact as you build up the keyway That's another reason for the width of the dam, it will allow equipment to pack the keyway.
No membrane needed. Extend the overflow pipe past the toe of the dam. OR make the outflow area concrete thick enough that it won't be impacted by freeze/thaw cycles. Use rebar AND fiber reinforced concrete - rebar for big cracks, fiber for small cracks. You don't want a crack opening up enough that water can get through it and start undermining the concrete.
Download this and read it. It has a ton of good information in it on building a dam. The clay for the dam can't be too wet or too dry for proper compaction.