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Joined: Oct 2017
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Sorry to hear about some of your challenges. I trust that you'll get everything under control soon.


J Waters
Dam'd Waters Farm
2/3 ac dam'd stream pond
BG, HBG, RES, LMB, YP
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I hope so! The one thing that bothers me the most is missing out on two months of feeding my fish!


Mat Peirce
1.25 acre southeast Iowa pond
LMB, BG, YP, WE, HSB, RES, BCP
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It has been a while since I've updated this because I really haven't done anything at the pond hahah - been busy around the house and working.

I've been sending my two oldest sons to the pond nearly every night to feed the fish but headed down myself over the weekend. We've had something like 10 inches of rain in the last week!

There are multiple trees down from super saturated ground and heavy straight line winds.

I have over a foot thick of new sediment (mostly sands) at the mouth of the primary creek! The outlet is running at full bore and the pond is still 8-10" above normal pool


The good news......I have HSB feeding!!!! I haven't seen these guys in so long but last night when I walked down to feed I saw a huge V heading to me from the far corner of the pond. It was a group of 10+ HSB that exploded on the surface once I tossed the first handful! I had a few LMB and a couple of BG mixed in during feeding 1.5lbs. The BH cleared up the rest.


some kind of bullrush has sprouted in the sediment


dead leaves are on the canopy of a fallen young oak - it is a shame and will be a royal pain to clear out


Two cottonwood branches that fell into the pond





there's a whole lot of suspended sediment in that water but it isn't bothering the fish or painted turtles any!

Last edited by Matzilla; 09/04/18 10:52 AM.

Mat Peirce
1.25 acre southeast Iowa pond
LMB, BG, YP, WE, HSB, RES, BCP
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Well I finally made it back down to the pond...I've had another pair of surgeries since last posting - one of which was a PCNL leaving a tube in my kidney. I had to break the rules and do some hiking to check on the pond lol

found the row boat sunk in the mud, full of water


my two oldest sons took turns baling it out


They were still in good spirits after everything was done lol



My creek is completely blown out from the rains we've had this year and has created a new sand peninsula completely blocking its outflow. I'm going to let nature run its course with that one! I'll probably toss down some rye seed in the spring.

I've got a nice algae bloom going which should lead to a productive winter for the fish so long as we don't get a ton of snow/rain.

I might have to sneak back down there for some fishing... wink


Mat Peirce
1.25 acre southeast Iowa pond
LMB, BG, YP, WE, HSB, RES, BCP
Joined: Jan 2011
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Mat, good to see you posting again. Hope your recoveries are going well.
And, Good On You for breaking those "rules". Rules are only guidelines anyway, right? It seems we must pay the closest attention to what our bodies are telling us within the overall framework of what the docs are trying to prescribe.
And the two young men prolly look happier than if they were staring at a screen, right?!

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Hahahah that's so true! I had to sneak down yesterday and fish out some bullhead and stunted crappie! Hopefully I'll be all better by the time ice hits - I've been thinking of doing an underwater camera survey of the pond to see if I can find my YP and HSB

My boys don't mind the outdoors but it isn't high on either one of their priorities. Myself, growing up, I loved to fish - maybe one day they will too.


Mat Peirce
1.25 acre southeast Iowa pond
LMB, BG, YP, WE, HSB, RES, BCP
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Winter has set in on the pond...the south 2/3 has 3" of ice which tapers down to 1" on the north 1/3



I have open water all long the inlet creek and marshy area with a decent amount of flow keeping water well oxygenated. Nice clear ice will allow sunlight to penetrate for quite some time so long as the snow and rain stay away lol water clarity is also excellent considering the wet fall we have had.

I noticed quite a bit of leafy, flat stemmed, or small pond weed bits floating under the ice, nice and green. Makes me wonder if the beavers are still around - I didn't see any sign of them, however.

I have my 6th surgery in 6 months scheduled for dec 27th so I'm going to have to go against orders and ice fish the pond this week hahah

Last edited by Matzilla; 12/10/18 10:24 AM.

Mat Peirce
1.25 acre southeast Iowa pond
LMB, BG, YP, WE, HSB, RES, BCP
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Good luck with the fishing and be careful.


John

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A good buddy and I pulled out a few bluegills and crappie and released a LMB. We stayed on the south side and fished 4" of nice clear ice that will sadly be melting off the rest of this week.


Mat Peirce
1.25 acre southeast Iowa pond
LMB, BG, YP, WE, HSB, RES, BCP
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Matzilla just getting all caught up on your story. Interesting read for sure. You have had a ruff 6 months for sure. Keep your sprits up those fish and boys need ya. I hope all goes well for ya.


The people who say I can't do it can just sit the @^#% down and watch me. Friends call me Rusto I also subscribe to pond boss mag. http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=504716#Post504716
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Hey Mat good update so know what's all in the pond last I know it was BG,BH,WE,YP,HSB,LMB,BC anything else are thoes all still presents r u still get many bullheads and the bluegills still stunted or haa that been solved

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Same fish....honestly if it was my whole owned pond and not part of the hoa - I would have killed it off and started a WE, SMB, RES and YP only pond.

Bluegill size is slowly improving, as are the black crappie. Still trying to harvest as many fish to thin the herd as possible on both accounts. Bullheads - I need to build a couple more traps and hit the pond hard this year....I don't mind their fry as they are excellent forage but the mature BH are just devastating the amount of available food.

I haven't been to the pond since December and am set to have a kidney removed next month - I probably wont be down there again until May


Mat Peirce
1.25 acre southeast Iowa pond
LMB, BG, YP, WE, HSB, RES, BCP
Joined: Dec 2015
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Just read your story on your pond. You have great determination Matt. One person can make a difference with time and effort. I hope your medical problems all turn out good for you.


Nothing like seeing your bobber bobbing.
1 acre pond with LMB BG GSF BH CC and whatever else I can find
Not after trophies I just like catching and eating fish
Buddy R Hill


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Best wishes matt.


It's not about the fish. It's about the pond. Take care of the pond and the fish will be fine. PB subscriber since before it was in color.

Without a sense of urgency, Nothing ever gets done.

Boy, if I say "sic em", you'd better look for something to bite. Sam Shelley Rancher and Farmer Muleshoe Texas 1892-1985 RIP
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Back at it!!!! I hit up the pond last night to check things over and wet a line. GBH circled and squawked a few times, snapping turtle lost all of her eggs to 'coons - for the 3rd year in a row. My feeder creek completely blew out with all of the rain we've had but the good news is all the thick and tall rye growing on the newly expanded peninsula. I also have a large deadfall cotton wood to deal with. Oh and the outlet is clogged up with a stack of dead wood.

The great news - my BG RW's are on the climb!!!! I caught over 25 BG's last night. Average lengths have increased +1-1.5" and the shoulders on those little guys are larger than they've ever been.
I am still culling the potato chip BG's and BH's.



Still no sign of YP or HSB. I caught a few LMB and saw several more cruising in the upper water column. Most fish are lurking in what is left of the curlyleaf stalks


Mat Peirce
1.25 acre southeast Iowa pond
LMB, BG, YP, WE, HSB, RES, BCP
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Fished the pond with an UL floating rapala yesterday. These first two speak to the aggressiveness of the BG/BCP - both were tossed on bank.





Very close to culling size for the goals of this pond.....I need her to chomp up some more BG, BH and BCP before she's done, however.


I need to clear the outlet today and might do some more fishing if time allows


Mat Peirce
1.25 acre southeast Iowa pond
LMB, BG, YP, WE, HSB, RES, BCP
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hit it hard yesterday



cleared the little bit of debris from the outlet and put a solid effort into removing BH along with some potato chip BG and BCP


Mat Peirce
1.25 acre southeast Iowa pond
LMB, BG, YP, WE, HSB, RES, BCP
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Mat did you catch all them on rod and reel? That’s a bunch

Last edited by Pat Williamson; 06/17/19 12:33 PM.
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Pat, sure did - took about 2hrs to catch those in the basket but most of that time was spent tooling around top water frogging bass lol! Once I start tossing around the slip float the BH are impossible to keep off the line.

I need to build another cloverleaf trap very soon


Mat Peirce
1.25 acre southeast Iowa pond
LMB, BG, YP, WE, HSB, RES, BCP
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Mat what you using for bait for the bullheads? I’m catching them on shad imitation jigs

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I've caught them on darn near everything I've fished....mostly a slip bobber to a tungsten ice jig

https://sportsmensdirect.com/shop/ice-jigs/heavy-metal-pro-series-tungsten-jigs/

size 4mm

then I use a small black twister tail - its the most durable bait that they will continue to hit over and over. I've used red worms, tube jigs, gulp, power bait, etc. and the super cheap twister tails hold up the best. They're attracted to the sound of the jig and bobber hitting the water thats for sure


Mat Peirce
1.25 acre southeast Iowa pond
LMB, BG, YP, WE, HSB, RES, BCP
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I've been so busy working on projects around the house the last year I haven't had a ton of time to spend at the pond. I cleared our walking path trail a few weeks back and have done a little bit of fishing with my youngest son (7) while my oldest sons (13 and 15) have been maintaining the boats and keeping an eye on things.

Bullhead numbers are way down! In fact, they're getting harder to trap so I'm building another cloverleaf to help out. We have a couple of cone style net traps running without much luck.

I have still not seen many, or any, HSB - haven't caught one either. YP also seem to be gone or very good at hiding and avoiding a hook. The LMB are on fire! They seem to be doing a decent job of picking off smaller fish and the average size increase of our crappie and BG are proving that. I haven't been feeding the fish for a while now but will start back up here in a couple of weeks. It is a great gauge on the size and numbers of fish in the pond by spotting what readily takes the feed. Feeding over traps also helps to trap stunted gills and bullheads

Cleared 800' of 8-12' wide trail down to the pond over the weekend....the trail wasn't too bad but hadn't been touched in a couple of years. Now we can get our ATV's on site to do more work.
[Linked Image from live.staticflickr.com]
[Linked Image from live.staticflickr.com]

Plan for this fall/winter is to improve trails/access, trap and fish!


Mat Peirce
1.25 acre southeast Iowa pond
LMB, BG, YP, WE, HSB, RES, BCP
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Made a new cloverleaf for trapping bg, crappie and bullheads. 2'x2'x18"h with double rolled swinging doors for the bait basket and emptying door. Hopefully going to get it in the pond tonight.

[Linked Image from live.staticflickr.com]

[Linked Image from live.staticflickr.com]


Mat Peirce
1.25 acre southeast Iowa pond
LMB, BG, YP, WE, HSB, RES, BCP
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picture with doors open or explain what a double rolled door is?

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A double rolled edge is when you fold back the edge twice, so the sharp pokey edge is concealed within itself.

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