Bill Cody has had two large floaters so far in his tepid water temps. Anyone else? I haven't seen any perch yet except for a small floater a couple of weeks ago in the holding pond. It seems the largest perch are more susceptible. I've got my fingers crossed. I just don't want to crank up the well if I don't have to!

On a good note Bill Cody and my original perch supplier think our pond fish are more resistant to heat than their Great Lakes ancestors, as they have been reared in warm ponds for several generations. Let's hope so! My perch and some of Bill's have been reared about 30 generations since they first came from Lake Erie.

I wonder if the floaters of Bill's are some of the ones that I caught last month when he allowed me to fish his pond for some R&R.

I sure hope not! I was unaware a lunker YP was in the 14" range and I caught several in that size class. None were out of water more than a few seconds, but a couple could have been hooked too deeply. Bill Fried up the one we knew was sure to die. MMM MMM MMM Good!!!

None here in SW Ohio, Knock on wood, my fish have been hitting the pellets with plenty of gusto, mostly 9-11" fish. Will keep an eye open, next two days are supposed to be 95-96 degrees.

Salmonid

I had a couple of YP floaters last week, but none so far this week. We are getting the hot weather here too. One was about 10" and the other was a small one (maybe 3")

One 11 inch floater so far, but that was right after I had done a bunch of hot laps in the pond with my Boston Whaler. Stirring up the water with a 90hp Evinrude may have contributed to his downfall

Mine are doing fine but it is going to be really hot the next couple days. I don't know if it will help but I think I'll run the well water in the pond till Sunday.

mine are doing fine (though they are smaller). They are hitting pellet at any time of the day. My one 13" is the first one to show up, and brings a bunch of 5-6" in tow.

My YP are born and raised right here in NE - in two years I've never seen a mort - must be far more tolerant of high temps. However, I sometimes wonder if my resident coon population manages to get them prior to me visiting the ponds. I'm sure I've lost SOME fish, but have never seen a mort with the exception of RES on intial stocking and a GSH every month or so.

I was wondering if the YP were feeding actively still and tonight they made a pretty solid appearance at my last daily feeding at 9:05. Managed to catch a couple around 7". Amazing how slowly the males grow vs the females. I've got to have some pushing 13" by now - twice as large as the males??? Crazy.

What's your surface water temperature?

I will check next time out...

No floaters here, still have good/avg pellet consumption since switching to dusk only feed schedule. I think I have enough turtles that if I do have a floater it is quickly consumed. Of course my FA problem could conceal them too. We have been getting rain pretty regular, I'll have to check my surface temps.

Glad to hear everyone is doing O.k. The low here last night was 80 F.!

When I got up this morning, the thermometer said 81, with 84% humidity. That was before the sun peeked over the horizon. Tomorrow isn't supposed to be any better. The yardstick in the pond showed that it dropped 1.5" yesterday, and we had 1/2" of rain in the late afternoon.

At least you're getting rain Scot! We haven't had any in at least a week. It fizzles out by the time it gets over here. Of course I want to be careful what I ask for as Milwaukee, WI got 7 inches in 2 hours the other day!

I've cranked up the well. I figure the expense of $100.00 a month in electricity is offset by the $3000.00 lost if I lose the 100 big perch before harvest this fall. That's my tax money! I'm hoping I won't have to run the well more than a couple of weeks though. Even a month I can handle.

The former trout pond should be no warmer than the mid 60's in a few days and will be overflowing into the biggest pond where the biggest perch are. If my memory serves me correct I'll be able to keep the biggest pond below 80 F. by running the well.

I do have to make sure no bluegill fry get into the biggest pond so I stretched some pantyhose over the overflow. I will have to change it out and clean and rotate periodically of course.

Are you going to transfer the fry to the indoor tank or one of the other ponds?

I had a 5 gallon bucket sitting by the pond today full of water. From 7:00 a.m. 'till 5:30 p.m. it dropped almost 7/8" just from evaporation. Even running 25 or so GPM into the pond the level still dropped 1/4" today.

No. I'd have to drain it down a few feet to seine it, and frankly I don't want to stress the fish in it. I'll have plenty of of bluegill this year. That's not the main production pond anyway.

Raining here right now. Not sure how much as we are on the southern edge of a good storm. No more coming on the radar. Most of it is going north.

We got some much needed rainfall in t'storms in the wee hours of the morning. I won't complain if we get more.

I've got my well running 24/7 now. Only problem is the pantyhose barrier from the pond that the well is pumped into and overflows to the big pond needs repeated checking and cleaning. But the alternative is mixed sex bluegills fingerlings in the male only bluegill pond and I've worked to hard to prevent that.

I do have plumbing that is supposed to go from the well directly to the biggest pond. Not sure why but it can't handle the flow. Another future project to work on.

I got less than 1/4" from the two storms. My buddy from Chicago called and said that the water was coming up from the sewers in the streets 3' high. When the storms quit, you couldn't see where the curbs were - the water was up onto the lawns.

I wouldn't mind having some of that rain here.

Cecil, you gonna call roto-rooter? I'm wondering if it's growth, or a collapsed pipe that is limiting the flow? What kind of pipe does the water run thru?

I may check into that but it's not an imperative. Part of the pipe is 4 inch PVC connected to that 4 inch corrugated black drainage tile. I have since learned if I go with that corrugated black drainage tile to go with 6 inch or larger for my flow that is not under pressure.

The problem probably is this one curves quit a bit around the trout pond. I'll bet debris builds in that curve. I had some water pumped in under pressure once to clear it and ended up with some small geysers shooting up out of the ground.

The corregated stuff has a lot of turbulence in it, restricting the flow, and it compresses easily, so it might have gotten smooshed as well.

I've had two floaters in the big pond in the last three days. If that's the extent of it I'm not worried. I just wish a good cold front would come through and cool things down a little. Long range forecast isn't showing it. Since I a lot of money to lose I'm going to do some digging soon or next year to make sure I can pump the well right into the big pond to keep temps down.