My wife & I enjoyed the PB Conference very much, though had to leave early Saturday due to family stuff. Frustrating, but still productive!
A few takeaways from day one from my very limited perspective...
Good to see Tracy again, who kindly volunteered to help me trap the critter (nutria? beaver? muskrat? otter?) that's moved in to my pond. Would much like Tracy to visit, maybe even take a boat tour & fish out smaller LMB.
Bob Lusk showed his chops once again as the guru of gurus. His story about observing how Fla LMB reacted to goldfish (yawn, we'll get them eventually) versus how Northern LMB (over in seconds!) really helped me understand the behavioral differences. I have high quality Fla LMB which bite pretty readily, but that's not surprising given the biggest is probably only 2 lb yet. We'll see!
He also discussed his very interesting experiments with forage and bass stocking. Contrary to conventional thinking (fewer bass stocked per acre equals more food per bass equals bigger chance for a trophy), Bob pointed out that relatively few LMB really have what it takes to get 10 pounds plus. Thus, stocking 200 per acre rather than 50 would give four times the chance for a giant, all other things being equal.
Remember, males will never get to trophy size. Of the 50 percent which are female, perhaps only 25 to 30 percent have the genetics & adaptive capacity to reach lunker size (maybe 7 lb N LMB, 10 lb Fla or F1). Bob also discussed female only stocking, which he thinks may end up going toward female dominant (but not only) stocking.
Sadly, Dr Condello could not attend, but Bob Lusk talked about some of Dr C's unorthodox strategies. Twelve pound bass in the Midwest? Yeah, if you feed them enough! Really brought home the huge importance of forage. Bass are limited more by access to food than anything else.
I'd be remiss if I fail to mention PB reader Todd Watts presentation on underwater structure. What he's done in Ohio is vastly superior to my mediocre efforts. Now that I finally have some pond weed to protect the little guys, I intend to make some substantial habitat improvements next year. About time!
There's a lot more to say, even from someone who only made day one, but don't want to go on too long. La Toretta was an excellent venue, beautiful & very spacious suites plus good food!
PS If anybody wants to post about some of the great presentations I missed, that would be much appreciated.
The family made it back home early this morning, 1204 miles in just under 20 hours. Plenty of time for us to talk and think about ideas we have for our existing pond and the ones we have planned.
Some of my favorite topics Saturday were as follows.
1. Dale Baden from Texas Hunter did an excellent presentation on laying out your property for feeders, food plots, and blinds. Dan Van Schaik did a great job in his talk of showing options of attracting and holding wildlife on your property. These two were the favorites that our kids enjoyed Saturday.
2. I enjoyed Jim Willis presentation on native grasses. Tied in well for the native grasses I've been planting on my place. As a beekeeper I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the beekeeping presentation from the Brazos Valley Beekeepers. My best advice is if interested in beekeeping to get involved with a local club to learn.
3. Liz Edgerton gave an fantastic presentation on aeration. In speaking with her during the conference she came up with an improvement to our planned aeration we had never even contemplated.
4. Kelley Duffie was on point as usual on aquatic vegetation and herbicide. Ken Hale did a great job in his Thursday and Saturday talks. A wealth of knowledge.
5. I enjoyed both Andy Benson talks on habitat and subsequent discussions on the topic. Nate Herman drove home the point to build fun and interesting things into our ponds to and keep families involved.
These were the high points for my interests from Saturday, I had notes from every speaker that will go in my files. Excellent topics and speakers overall. Thanks.
Bryan
Bryan,
Thanks for the excellent teaser. I'm so happy that you and your family were able to clear the schedule and get there and back and bummed that I could not! What an epic adventure and journey! I certainly would love to see a midwest, central or eastern geographical location for a future pondboss conference!
I'm curious how your pond was doing without aeration up to this point? How will you be improving it?
Sounds like a great conference with incredible speakers.
CC
I think a good time was had by all.
The benefit auction made my wife's day. She had taken down three pieces of her art work donated to the benefit auction for hurricane relief.
Two of the pieces brought good prices and we were happy that the proceeds were going to a good cause. But it was the third piece that made her day.
I had noticed, going around checking bids, that what appeared to be the handwriting of a child had made an initial bid of $3 on a color pencil reprint of a flower. But the bids soon went up into the 60-80 dollar range. Then I noticed that the same bidder bid on the color pencil print of a underwater crab picture. Well it so happened the $3 bid got this piece of art. That's ok, between the three pieces in total they brought in the neighborhood of $150 for the benefit.
My wife happened to be around the area where the auction payments were being made and it turns out a little girl had won the auction of the crab art. My wife said the little girl could hardly contain herself she was so excited about having the winning bid and getting the art work of the crab.
Made my wife's day knowing her art work went to an appreciative home and that little girl was so pleased with her purchase. Had the art went for more money we would have been happy for the benefit auction. But the fact that it made someone so happy to get it was also a great reward and a source of satisfaction for Carolynn.
Canyoncreek,
The 26 acre pond is only utilized for waterfowl hunting. It has an average depth of 6' or so, maybe a bit deeper. As I dig some deeper holes in it I will probably add aeration as well. The new pond I'm working on and spoke to Elizabeth about will end up just over an acre when complete. It will be long and narrow and she suggested incorporating a directional circulator to help aeration in the shallows. The deeper portions will have a diffused aeration system. I'm planning to have smallmouth as the primary species in this small pond. The article from PB May/June on hatchery ponds has me thinking along the lines of a couple of those as well. Thanks.
Bryan
Good news Bryan, keep us posted and post pictures! Not sure where/when you will get your SMB but if you get pellet trained SMB from Laggis next year I'd be interested in splitting an order. I only need a few and I think the minimum order is still 100.
Canyoncreek,
I'm sure I won't have the pond dug and structure in at any point next year. There are several other tasks I have in front the digging and structure work which will take time as well. I'll try to get pictures sometime but usually don't remember that until a project is done. Thanks.
Bryan
He also discussed his very interesting experiments with forage and bass stocking. Contrary to conventional thinking (fewer bass stocked per acre equals more food per bass equals bigger chance for a trophy), Bob pointed out that relatively few LMB really have what it takes to get 10 pounds plus. Thus, stocking 200 per acre rather than 50 would give four times the chance for a giant, all other things being equal.
Remember, males will never get to trophy size. Of the 50 percent which are female, perhaps only 25 to 30 percent have the genetics & adaptive capacity to reach lunker size (maybe 7 lb N LMB, 10 lb Fla or F1). Bob also discussed female only stocking, which he thinks may end up going toward female dominant (but not only) stocking.
2 points to remember about that scenario. You have to have enough forage fish in there for all 200 fish to grow to a size that you can determine sex, and hopefully grow to that size by the next Spring. So, that equates to the 200 fish eating a wee bit over 2,000# of forage fish. For that density of fish, you HAVE TO have a well designed aeration system to offset the O2 load.
Jim Willis was the presentation I enjoyed the most. We have around 10 acres that require seasonal maintenance, and native grasses make a lot of sense in those areas. A winter burn to open various seed head's is the only maintenance required. We'll seed shop this winter, and then hopefully pull the trigger this next spring.
Don't forget the really shallow plow to turn up the seed bank and allow what is there to germinate... that was a cool take-away from that presentation as well.
/c
Jim Willis was the presentation I enjoyed the most. We have around 10 acres that require seasonal maintenance, and native grasses make a lot of sense in those areas. A winter burn to open various seed head's is the only maintenance required. We'll seed shop this winter, and then hopefully pull the trigger this next spring.
native grasses make a lot of sense in those areas. A
Al I have areas like that....out of reach of sprinkler...I am what 25 miles from you?...what native grasses are you using...Buffalo? I see pastures that are green and I know the farmer can't be sprinkling that. Are you doing winter rye this winter?
While I was at the conference I purchased 16 gals or 4 cases of BioCycle rehabilitator. This 16 gals was a recommended dose for a 3.2 acre pond with average water depth of 6'. (the pond is down about 18" due to drought) I purchased the product to reduce the nutrients in the pond water so I could reduce the heavy bloom that has been going on now for the past two or three weeks. The product arrived day before yesterday and was added to the pond that day by adding 4 gals per acre of the liquid in the prop wash of a 50# thrust trolling motor. It spread out pretty well and did turn the water behind the boat a darker green color from the lime green color caused by the bloom. One of the selling points of the product is to reduce sunlight penetration and reduce phytoplankton growth. This product is all natural bacteria that when added to the water to scour the water column of soluble nutrient necessary for algae to sustain life and grow. The bacteria competes for the nutrients with algae.
So, we shall see what happens. I was told it takes around three weeks to see benefits. If that is the case, I wish I would have added it three weeks ago when all this heavy bloom started up. Before adding the BioCycle, the water had gone from dark olive green with 18" visibility and turned to pea green with 10" vis. and then it turned dirty brown and now a lime green with still only 10" of visibility. The paper work that came with the product said it would change the water color and it did behind the boat but now a couple days later I see little or no change, maybe I did not add enough. I sure hope this stuff helps to control the excess bloom because I worry of a fish kill most everyday right now.
I also stopped feeding two weeks ago and with the low visibility I am pretty sure the fish are not gaining the weight I want them to gain at this time of the year.
Mark, I haven't looked at grasses yet, but I'll let you now what I find out. I'll talk to our TX Ag guy, and get recommendations from them too.
Tracy, let us know how it goes. I talked to the Aquafix guy, and may try Pondzilla next year. I need to identify what strain of filamentous algae I have first though.
Tracy:
To determine (besides visually) whether the stuff is working or not, a water test would give you hard numbers to go by. Usually a test is run pre and post treatment to see if what you are using actually works.
Scott, I am guessing a plankton count? Mr. Bill Cody I'm guessing? You are right, about before and after test and pic's. Shoulda, coulda done that.
I went with the bacteria over chemical treatment because I have seen bacteria eat oil spill for clean ups and I have seen bacteria eating result when treating Paraffin in oil producing equipment so if Bacteria will eat that type of stuff then surely bacteria will eat up some excess plankton bloom. As I told the seller, I just did not want ALL the plankton eaten up, just the excess lol
You can get water tested for Ortho-P, Total P, Nitrogen. But the time of the year will also have an effect on the test results.
i.e. a water test taken in the middle of winter while the plant life is at it's ebb in the pond vs. middle of summer when plant and plankton are growing strongly. Then more nutrients are tied up in the plants/algae.
Scott, what or how is the best way to reduce the P in a pond? I am assuming (I know
) excess P in my pond is from feeding the fish. And if seasons make a difference in testing then what season gives the answer that is necessary to make a decision whether to treat for excess P. Whew! that was long winded question
The time to get the most consistent test is winter when little plants, algae or phytoplankton is growing. When water tests are done, the water should be as consistent from test to test as possible, i.e. same plant/algae growth, etc.
How to reduce P is a book. I don't think there is ONE magic way, a multi pronged approach is required. Many plants growing and utilizing it. Both floating islands, and submerged plants. You can lock it up with Phosloc or aluminum sulfate. Tilapia dying every Fall and being removed from the pond. etc.
There are low P foods out there too..... I saw a reduction in algae growth in my pond when I switched foods. BUT, I didn't have a baseline water test done prior, so I have ho idea if there is less P. My gut says yes.
The time to get the most consistent test is winter when little plants, algae or phytoplankton is growing. When water tests are done, the water should be as consistent from test to test as possible, i.e. same plant/algae growth, etc.
How to reduce P is a book. I don't think there is ONE magic way, a multi pronged approach is required. Many plants growing and utilizing it. Both floating islands, and submerged plants. You can lock it up with Phosloc or aluminum sulfate. Tilapia dying every Fall and being removed from the pond. etc.
There are low P foods out there too..... I saw a reduction in algae growth in my pond when I switched foods. BUT, I didn't have a baseline water test done prior, so I have ho idea if there is less P. My gut says yes.
Thank you sir!
that's what I thought, several ways to reduce but not a sure thing, esp when the Tp will be taking a dirt nap soon. Where are all those DAM fish eating birds when I need them lol