After living in my house with pond shore (ha) for 3 years, we have fished it a number of times. At first we were only catching carp and bullheads, but last summer I caught a Northern in the Spring and then in September we were catching Sunnies like crazy. My question, why did it take so long to hook into the sunnies and why did they only show up in September? The pond is 30 acres, located in MN, and mostly 6 feet deep with a few deeper holes. It does outlet into a creek that connects to a number of lakes, but the creek outlet is pretty much polluted with cat tails. Do sunnies migrate in the fall? This year was the 1st time we tried night crawers - could that be it?

Thanks,
Bob
http://home.mn.rr.com/pondidypond/ (includes tons of info on the pond)

Bob,

Bluegills (a type of Sunfish) move out of deeper water in the spring when the water hits ~50F, and go into the shallows. They will remain on spawn beds, to a certain extent, until the water begins to cool again in the fall, at which time they will move back into winter groupings.

I would guess that fishing locations and practices would be the reason that you only caught Sunfish in the fall.

What is the biggest carp you have caught? in inches or pounds. The MN state record is 55 pounds and 5 ounces, I wouldn't be surprised if you had 30lb carp in there. Also in the spring you should try fishing for northerns, northers spawn in shallow weedy bays, I have seen northers run up shallow rocky creeks from rivers. You probably have large pike spawn in your pond. If you had one small northern you have larger ones just waiting to be caught.
You pond is a pond, the definition I heard somewhere, and go by myself is - a lake has a stream or river flowing into it, a pond does not. As you did not mention a river inflow, I deduce that you have a pond.

One last thing, when is CarpFest '04 and is it open to the public? I would love a chance to tie into your monster carp.

Hey Mankato -- sorry it took me 6 months to respond -- I never noticed your reply. Sorry, You missed Carpfest 2004 -- it was in June. (look for 2005!) Carp are not biting well this year -- the largest pulled in was 6 pounds. The darn bullheads keep hitting our bait every second. Also no sunnies or Northerns yet this year. Anyone have any idea what Sunny's like -- but yellow Bullheads do not?

Oh, and to answer the river question - the Pondidy has Purgatory Creek running into it. The creek eventually hits the Minnestoa River.

Purgatory! No wonder you've got those little devilcats living in your lake! I'll bet there's horny-heads in it too!