After a day of intense winds up to 55 mph, and above normal temps, this is all that is left of the ice on the biggest pond on the property that is home to the trophy size yellow perch and bluegill:




Here's is a closer picture of the remaining ice. (Less than 10 percent of the pond)



A close up of some open water, which is a combination of Aquashade and a minor coldwater algae bloom. I get my most intense algae blooms in the winter, probably due to more available nutrients for the phytoplankton, due to the dye off of macrophytes. In the water is some kind of sedge grass that has died down and been submerged by high water.



Anyone else see any season changes up north?

Not up north, but open water completely down here. Heading out with the long rods shortly. Hope I haven't forgotten how to fish.

I doubt that!

Still 85% ice covered here, my pond came up 7-8" in two days with the rapid snow melt this week. I am hoping the cold water influx didn't shock my RES. I am thinking another day or two before ice out.

Here in North Texas we have seen early FA production, and Al has coontail starting to take over again this year.


These 68-73 degree waters are tough to manage this time of year.

Yeah that's almost history!

My big pond is now ice free.

Got a ways to go to ice out for good here in N. Illinois. Some of what looks like open water in this pic is actually about a foot of water pooled on top a layer of ice below. Temps supposed to drop back down some next week.

I let Kate out to run around today when I looked at the pond and she jumped off the pier and promptly went thru the ice. I fished her out none the worse for wear. There is still ice all over the pond, but it's very honeycombed, and maybe 2" thick.

Almost all the snow is gone here, but there is still some ice hanging about.

Beautiful weather for Feb tho!

Weatherman says back to winter by next weekend.

We're still locked. Several days of sub zero last weekend tightened things up. This was early, by afternoon it was 56 here... Edges getting soft. It's like 21 days to daylight savings time... Bring it on!

Your water looks really close to breaching the top of the dam on the far side of the picture. Just an optical illusion?

One poster on here had a recent dam failure because part of his dam was lower than his emergency overflow area.

Hopefully is is just the angle I'm looking at it. Pictures can be deceiving.

Well it is getting mild out but still all ice but the the air stations in the shallows.

Getting close, so far no morts.

Looking SSW


Looking north.

We were ice-out at the end of January, then locked right back up again. Sitting at 8 inches or so of crummy snow-filled ice and the prospect of a heavy cold rain this week. Ugh.

I found two morts after work tonight, rough measurement on the slightly larger one was 11-1/4".

Hate to see that. Nice fish though. Hopefully a very small percentage.

I forget, do you use any aeration in winter?

As we know RES are cold water sensitive. Older individuals may be more temperature sensitive than younger RES.

Cecil, no winter aeration due to the RES. Rapid snow melt last week brought the pond up 7-8" pretty quick while it was still ice covered, I was worried it might have temperature "shocked" some of my RES. I have also been keeping an eye on the wind mixing the water column after ice out. So far only two RES, both looked very thick. I still might find a few more floaters in the next few days, last year I found a half dozen RES in the 4-7" range after ice out.

Shorty,

You can't run some air really close to shore without chilling the water column?

I don't want to risk it, the pond is only a 1/4 acre. Winter aeration might get a few RES but more importantly I have dogs and don't want to mess with having areas of thin ice. Years ago at my dad's old pond their 15 year old dog went out on the ice where the heat pump discharged into the pond, she drowned next to the dock in shallow water on a very cold Christmas morning. I will fire the aerator back up when water temps are back into the mid 50's.

Hate to see that. On the positive side however, you are turning out some tremendous RES! Good times ahead me thinks!

Steve I too have RES morts every winter, not a ton, but I often see them laying on bottom with my AquaVu when fishing. It's heartbreaking, I share your pain. When are you coming fishing?

TJ,

Are your RES dying from low O2 or temps? Temps, right?

No additional morts to report tonight.

Really good question Bo - I am assuming it is temperature related, but have often wondered if low DO events due to snow cover might drive RES upwards in the water column seeking higher concentrations of DO, which, unfortunately for them, is also much colder water, to the degree it's lethal. We are nearing the Northern range of RES in Nebraska - I anticipate some morts every Winter, just hope they aren't "special" fish like Shorty's was.

TJ, it has crossed my mind that those two "special" RES might have been from one of the small groups of RES that I overwintered in my aquarium over the last couple of years. None of them were ever exposed to extreme cold when they were young, this might have made them less winter hardy when they were released at a larger size. The RES that I overwintered were all 9" plus when released without ever having experienced a Nebraska winter. Could this have made them less cold tolerant? Just the nature v. nuture debate running in the back of my head.

Absolutely makes sense to me

Guys,

Not redears of course but I bring in YOY bluegill and yellow perch every winter and they are reared in 78 F. water. The following winters they are in the pond. I'm thinking if they have time to adapt over the summer and fall, they are O.K. It doesn't seem to be a problem with them.

Of course you're right you are at the northern end of a redears range as am I. The best survival we have here is in the deep natural lakes that have more stable temps.

You may also want to consider most redears that are planted in ponds are from Arkansas fish wholesalers as are most bluegills. Could it be they are not adapted to our winters? A couple of winters ago we had bluegills in fish farm ponds dying in the winter. It was a very severe long winter with 24 days below zero. I know one fish farmer that said he had never lost bluegills like that and he did everything right.

Shorty:

I have RES in a cage in the pond. The cage is 3' square and 4' deep, and the cage is at the end of the pier in 10'-12' of water. Matt didn't get here in time to transfer them to one of his ponds (they were feed trained on Optimal and are the start of selective breeding for pellet trainability) before ice locked in my pond.

I checked the cage when the ice left the pond earlier this week and while there were some morts., the majority of them survived the winter. The pond was ice covered for about 2 - 2 1/2 months. Since they were in the cage, they couldn't get any deeper in the pond than 3 1/2' from the ice.

This area is approximately the northern edge of RES in public waters. Most public waters have both RES and PS in them here. The local lake has had RES in it since it was restocked in 1969, and it hasn't been restocked by the state since.

I think that the longer that you have RES in your pond, they will become more cold tolerant. Each generation will have cold tolerant survivors, and the overall cold tolerance of the RES in the pond will improve. I don't think you have to worry about aerating in the winter, providing you place the diffuser in the correct depth. I would rather have the option of turning it on and opening up the pond than to take a chance on a DO crash if the winter is bad.

Just to add to the discussion, I have ice anglers tell me while they can get bluegills to bite, many times they observe redears that seem to have lockjaw. This is viewing with a camera.

Another night, no additional morts to report.

Most of my initial stocking of RES came from Hartley Fish Farms in KS, I did a small secondary stocking of RES from the fish truck that likely came from Arkansas.

A few interesting notes from this 1984 publication.

http://www.nwrc.usgs.gov/wdb/pub/hsi/hsi-079.pdf

That explains a lot!

I wonder if increasing salinity would help?

It wouldn't hurt, from the same literature RES appear to be very tolerant of higher salinity.

The first few fish of 2016 caught this moring, water temps should still be in the 40's.

Wow, nice Smallie, Shorty!

And not to sound too dumb, but what is the top pic?

The top picture is a 6-7" golden shiner.

The first SMB was 11 to 12", the second one was 13-1/2 to 14", nothing big but it confirms that I didn't have significant winter kill under the ice. I have soaked a nightcrawler every evening for the last few days and caught nothing until this morning.

It's been on and off for me as well and so far only BG, but I've only tried with small plastics on an ultra light and the little marshmallow power baits. Time to break out the nightcrawlers!

I need to learn more about the golden shiners but I don't know if/how they would survive in my pond or if it would be the right thing to do. I'll check the archives and do some research.

Sure is encouraging to catch that first fish after ice out

A few more.

9-10" GSH


An elusive cold water RES.



7-8" YP

I like GSH with SMB because most of the adults GSH will be too large for the SMB to eat, at least for a few years so there will always be new forage in the pond.

Large GSH do go well with SMB but they don't seem to play well with YP. The small number of YP I have are either average or below average body condition. I probably should thin down some of my large GSH.

I walked the pond with a flashlight last night checking shallow water. I have good numbers late hatch RES that made it through the winter in the 1" to 1-1/4" size.

In the absence of a predator with a large enough mouth gap to control adult GSH, I wonder if the large GSH can over populate and cause a problem in the future as gizzard shad have done in some BOWs. I read in another thread recently where the shad made up something like 60% of the fish biomass in one lake.

Bill, I am pretty sure that the presence of good numbers of 6 to 7" GSH in my pond have significantly reduced recruitment of SMB and YP, is that a bad thing? I'm not sure why my RES bucked that trend last year. Both of the SMB I caught yesterday are not part of my original stockers so I have seen some recruitment, my original SMB stockers should have no problem eating 6 to 7" GSH.

Ice has been off for about a week here in WV.

Nice set up and area Todd.. How far are you from Kecksburg?

Keith I think GSH could be a valuable additional forage source for your bg/lmb/hsb fishery, but you may not need them depending on the wr of your lmb. Call me anytime if you want to chat and compare notes I am happy to help if I can. I order gsh a few times annually and could add you on. Just holler.

Thanks, TJ. I've had some LMB above and some below WR. My forage base (BG) seems to be okay as I've seen and caught plenty in the 6" and less range. But the way it sounds, the GSH could be a good boost for the LMB and HSB. Once I learn my fate here I'll know better of how to proceed for this year, so hopefully I'll be reaching out.

No worries, here anytime. How's your cray population? Have you established grass shrimp yet?

In my mud-bottom pond I've not seen any crawfish or signs of them since I've been here (4 years), and if I need grass (shoreline grasses, pond weeds/vegatation) to establish Grass Shrimp, I'm void in that area as well.

If not for the Xmas trees and PVC trees I've put in, other than some natural lay-downs along some of the shoreline, my pond would be completely void of cover!

And for those reasons I'm not sure GSH would be a viable option (plus I'm still removing BCP).

Ah, so much to do/consider/change/improve, etc.

But always find time to fish .

Last week, as it became warm, the top of the ice looked like there were hundreds of bluegill nests on TOP of the ice.




It then got quite soft in the daytime sun, and the top cleared to water, then it froze a bit at night. We have a rim of open water at the waters edge. I see a thick layer of leaves that blew up to shore in the windy fall weather. Great home for the scuds that I hope to stock on Wednesday.




I also see VERY clear water (thanks TJ for helping me with the Soilfloc) Apparently the tannins have settled out.

My son made an igloo that he could stand up in on Saturday (you can see it in the picture above from a distance).





It was an all time high temperature on Sunday (nearly 60 I think) and it collapsed and by night-fall was just a pile of snow.

Cool pics Canyoncreek.

Your dog isn't left unattended around the pond is it? Good way to lose a dog.

Cecil,
When the dog was a pup and ventured on the ice for the first time we were concerned. We knew he had part black lab and could swim a little but also knew that being trapped in the ice would be bad too. The first season we made it. But as he got older he discovered how much he likes wading, sniffing, pouncing on things, and then later swimming. My wife was sick of the pond smell on the dog so we ran a loop of underground fence off the main loop that goes along the edge of the road and made it go around the pond.

I felt badly taking his fun away as he had endless fun exploring the banks of the pond, grabbing toads, etc but I must say it is nice that he stays out of the pond now. He also stays off the ice in the winter. The kids loved ice skating with him on the ice or in a sled but we found that he never stayed on the ice long (the first year) as the ice seemed to bother his paws. Maybe they stuck to the ice? He would quickly retreat to the snowbank and watch from there.

Also when it was snack time for the ice skaters it was nice to bring the food to the edge of the ice and just leave it out there and not worry about shooing the dog away from it constantly.

The pond loop has been good.

P.S. -1:
One morning last spring some geese walked (flew?) in the pond with young in tow. Apparently the young couldn't fly yet or they would have flown away? I knew we had to move mountains to get them out. We tried rocks, ropes dragging across the water edge with one person on each side of the pond to get them out. With all the flapping of wings and excitement our dog Scout finally decided he was going for it. One leap over the underground fence and he was in the pond. This was the first time he had a chance to 'retrieve' a bird and he wouldn't give up. I think he swam for 45 min or more trying to catch them but of course when he got close they just flew over his head (adults) or ducked under water and swam under him (young geese). He finally must have gave up and collapsed on the driveway. I went out after dark with a strong light and harassed them some more and fortunately the next am they were gone. Must have walked across land when the dog was in the garage at night. SO GLAD they didn't come back as the few hours they were there there was poop everywhere.

P.S.-2
After the first winter and before the loop was installed a neighbor stopped and told me a story. He said he was driving by in the late fall and saw our dog struggling in the water after breaking through thin ice. The dog was probably 8-9 months old and hadn't encountered ice yet. I don't know how far he had ventured on the ice before falling in but apparently the man could reach him from shore and pull him back on land. He said he was swimming but couldn't get back on top of the thin ice. He had a towel in his truck and toweled him off and never let us know till months later. I thanked him profusely for saving our dog and soon after the underground fence went in.

Thanks for sharing that Canyon Creek!

Not fair Dude!!!

I traversed the state today from the WV/VA line of Hampshire County WV/Frederick County VA line to the I-79 corridor at Weston, WV, for a West Virginia Aquaculture Association meeting. I stopped and picked up a good friend in the nearly perpetual-winter area of Scherr, WV. I got to their place, and their ponds were clear of ice. I got to my meeting, and another friend who runs a hatchery and pond replenishing business outside of Clarksburg, said he was ice free.

When I left the farm this morning, the one pond that had been ice-free for the last few days was thinly iced over as I drove out about 7:30 AM this morning. My next biggest pond has gone back and forth between about 6 to 18 inches of ice-free water around its perimeter. My other two ponds are still ice covered, and I've still got snow piles on the sides of my driveway.

Something ain't right!

It was dark by the time I got back to the farm tonight. But, the weather wizards are predicting snow again for Wednesday (I write this on Monday night).

Frozen Ken