Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait New stocking in N TX

Here's a few pix from Friday, when brother Jim and I stocked Dad's newest tank. As you can see from the pix, the pond recently turned over, but other than that, looks to be in great shape. Holding water, growing grass, and just teaming with frogs, tadpoles, water bugs, etc.

We did the typical one-acre stocking.
250 Bluegill
100 Redear Sunfish
4 lbs Fathead Minnows
4 lbs Shiners

We had about a 99.9+% success/survival rate. I noticed two dead shiners when they filled up the bags. After we transported them, climatized them, and released them, all the fish swam off. There was only those two dead shiners and one tiny little FH minnow.

We'll come back next 4th of July, after the bluegill have spawned and put in 25 bass.

A little background on the tank:
Dad had it built nearly a decade ago. We constantly had to pump it to keep the water out during construction. When it was finally completed, we went through a drought for several years. We also had too small of a watershed for the size of the tank. We dozed a few berms to catch water and patiently waited for rain. The tank was built in '98 and just filled up this past summer. The first few pix are of the first time Dad ever saw it full. We waited a loooooong time for this!

Just wanted to share.

That is one solid, square looking dock. My compliments to the construction crew.

Beautiful pond, beautiful day. It looks like it's still Summer down there. I'm getting homesick for TX and I've only ever been there twice.

Wolfman try and be nice to me on here.

N OR O tommorrow?

Thanks Theo, my brothers and dad and I built the dock right after the pond was completed. We thought it would dry-rot before we ever got to use it!

We finally just got our first real taste of Fall this weekend. Blustery winds and rain yesterday, but cool clear skies and mild temps for the rest of the week. Life is good!

RT, Are you kidding? I iz N for Mexican food tomorrow!

Wolfman, Nice pictures I bet you were really excited and congratulations on have a full pool. That really is a nice dock

Are the rocks red sandstone, (non-usable) red iron ore?

The water looks nice and very clear. I hope you keep us updated with more pictures.

Bill, there diffently not non-usable. I have swiped a many of them off the county road along the fence in front of this property. About 200 yds or so from this pond. I've built 2 waterfalls and lined many flower beds with them. Beautiful sand stone every color imaganable is present on this place. The entire bottom of the pond is solid rock. The old guy "Eddie" built this pond and my first pond I live next too.

Wolfman how come you didn't share the whole story, you know, the part were your all Mighty Super Duty got barried to the axles.

Thanks Bill!

We've caught a few nice bass out of the lower tank down the hill, and some pretty good un's over on my brother's place next door.

Here's a couple of pix of a 5.4 that I caught over there, after I got bored trying to call up turkeys one April morning.

Yeah the road winds right below the dam and since this pond's never been full, I've never seen any seepage. But last summer when the grass was grown up too tall, I didn't see the quagmire beneath and went poking along through there too slow and sunk it.

I was gonna get some rocks from along the front to throw under the wheels, but turns out somebody stole them all! Good thing my brother's tractor was only a mile away.

Hey remember Rocky, I have more than a few stories with your name on them. One more crack outta you and it's ON baby!

Hint: Go sight your rifle in for a change

understood

You said the new(water) pond is about an acre?

How big was the pond you caught the fish out of? That's a real nice looking pond fish.

Thanks Bill!

Most of the ponds we have probably average 1/2 acre in size most of the year, and can get up to 3/4 to maybe 1 acre when brim full.

BTW, I noticed you're from Emory. Most of my good fish pictures come from your neck-o-the-woods, for sure!

Hey RT & WM, what is your relationship?

I miss rocks, Not many here, the rare ones I find are fist size or smaller iron ore, but mostly sandy loam with underlying red clay.

I grew up across the river probably about 50 or so miles due north of Nocona between Ardmore and Duncan. On the last stretch of hills from the Arbuckles, and at the end of the blackjacks, before the plains start.

It probably gets about the same rain fall as it looks like you guys get about 25" a year. Did I guess about right? When growing up I always wanted to live in the piney woods. I didnt make quite that far but pines grown well here and I am only about 30 miles from were native pines start growing with the hardwoods. Here if you can find a rare speck of virgin woods there are cedar stands where the cedar grow like pines to over 50' and lose their christmas tree bushy look.

But I miss the hills and rocks but still not the arid climate.

What you said about collecting rocks reminded me of me. My mother and step-father (that raised me)has passed away, and my sister moved about 25 miles from the our place. So I don't go there often anymore. But when they were alive I always picked up a load of rocks and collected them from the bar ditches along the county roads because washes always revealed new ones. My back yard is too shady for grass and with rocks from there I built a 50' and at the widest 20' fern bed surrounded by those rocks, with a few rocks here and there inside it. And like you said the rocks go from a light cream to dark red, when some having swirls of mixed colors in them. The ferns, mostly chain ferns which are very pretty, I collected here battling cottonmouths in creek beds on friends and neighbors property. The one fern I found on my property was a royal fern that was about to wash away or die. I put in the bed and it is huge now.

Unfortunetly I live 180 miles from the home place and hardly ever go there any more.

Looking at your rocks today kind of got me homesick.

Keep us updated on the pictures.

Edited because you guys post while I am writing my long-winded posts. When I lived in Garland I came down and fished Lake Fork all the time, and my father live on a water front lot at Lake Tawakoni. I haven't been out on Lake Fork in over 7 years and almost that for Tawakoni. Just lost interest. I have a boat, nothing fancy alum. V-hull with a inboard motor and when I parked it 5 years ago it worked. Still don't have anyone really to fish with and just got tired of the hassel. Before I just totally gave up I got more into chasing sandbass and fishing humps with slabs on Tawakoni. I don't if you know what I am talking about but north of Emory SH 19 crosses Lake Fork there is a huge bay (shallow back water slew) that real boats can't get into. I live 1/4 mile on a FM that crosses Lake Fork creek and it's about a half of mile of creek to that huge slew. It dried up last year but has a few foot of water in it now. It is always so shallow and has so much flooded timber you never see boats there. But I bought an inflatable kayak a few weeks ago, and took it out a couple of times on the Sabine River between Mineola and Lindale. It was fun and is so light I can get in anywhere. I am debating to do it this year or wait to next spring but I am going down that creek into that slew area! The are no roads accessing it where the creek comes in. Several years ago my brother and I took off from my property and managed to trespass across fences and creek beds that took us forever to find a place to get across to get there. It was full of beaver dams, hog wallows, deer tracks, etc, etc. This little light kayate would be perfect to get there with. If I come across log jams it is so light I could pull it out of the water and carry it around them. I bet that slew and the creek right above the lake in late winter early spring is full of crappie, and later full of bass spawning. But I don't even think I could get my john boat back into there.

But if you ever come down to fish and you've got the time let me know and I'll buy you a cup of coffee or a beer where you put your boat in.

Bill, RT and I used to work together, since back in '92. I'm only about 1/4 of his size, but since we work in different buildings now, I can talk to him however I want........except on Wednesdays....when we go out for Mexican food.

You hit the nail on the head about rainfall. I think Stephenville (near Dad's ranch) only gets about 23"/year on average.

I believe the rocks that Sharon and I just picked out for our new house came from your old stomping grounds. The color is called Oklahoma moss.

I won't post any Lake Fork pix (that would be cheating, right?), but I'll post one from a friend's stock pond out your way near Como. She went 6.9 lbs. I know what you mean about the cottonmouths out that way..... and gators too!

Wolfman & RT, I just edited and added stuff to my last post.

Yeah I have see pictures of big 'gators caught on Lake Fork. While I was on the Sabine we came across a real white sandy beach area, it looked more ocean than river bank and this about a foot or so wide looking strip like something was dragged to the water was a 'gator slide. The person I was in had seen them before.

I was a volunteer with a turtle trapping and marking, weighing, etc project between the TPWD and UT at Tyler. The reason I bought this inflatible kayak, it is to hard get a jonboat in. Other people were using a small two man canoe, but it takes two people to get and out of the water. The kayak is 12' long and only 32lb and can hold two people, rate 400lb but I know this guy and myself used it and we were at least 460 together. I got a cordless pump, can throw in the back of a blazer takes less than 5 mins to inflate. When I get through it takes a min to deflate and throw in back in and go. Problem, I am a big guy and when I get in I let a bit of water in so it is a wet butt ride, lol. But after I get in no problem. In fact not factoring in my wet butt it is easy to get in and out of. But I know I can make some modifications to shore it up a bit. A crash diet would help too ~smile~.

Bill, If you ever take Rocky fishing, I guarantee everyone will have a wet butt......including the people camped out two feet above the water level!

Sorry Rocky, I couldn't resist

Careful Wolfy, I probably have more in common with Rocky's figure than yours.

Rocky invite me out when you two go fishing in Lake Fork, you know people fall off boats all the time and are never seen again.

On a serious note a friend of mine over ten years ago went into the lake in a johnboat with a small engine. The found the boat in about a week of dragging. The body was found by a fisherman 3 months later. He hauled cement siftings for my driveway and it reminds me of him all the time.

BTW, that is a really nice looking rock house.

Bill, Wolfman want every take me fishing anymore. He says I'm to big for his bass boat. He's never gotten over the time we went fishing for sandies on the brazos river in a 10 foot jon boat with his friend Mark. I don't know what scared him I mean we had at least 1 inch of clearance between the top edge the boat and the waterline.

And to beat all that I bought his lunch today and see how he treats me. Go figure

Yeah, you bought my lunch today alright.......with my money......that I found out you were stealing when I left my tip and then got up to pay!

Now check this out. You can tell Rocky didn't take this picture. If he did, there would be nothing but blue sky in the background.

That's 'cause I'd be perched up on the nose of the boat like a seagull on a buoy!

Sounds cool to me Rocky. My fathers house on Tawakoni faced out south towards the dam with seven miles of open water. With the southern winds there was almost always some nice white caps in the evening. When I was 18 to 20 I had this leaky air matress (couldn't afford the $2 bucks for a new one) that I would paddle out about a mile or two towards the dam and ride the white caps back in. My father thought I was taking risks because I had to keep blowing it up during the paddle out and the ride in. I don't know what the problem was, I kept the air valve up next to my mouth.

He told that story to anyone he could find to listen to until he died when I was in my late forties. But it takes a lot to embarrase me. He had about that size johnboat too, I rowed all over that lake. Oh for the wind I had then, the difference between 170 and 275 and 30 something years of chain smoking does make a difference! I had a friend and our clearance was about the same. Damn Wolfe, at least y'all were on a river close to the banks, we got out miles from land with white caps. Some people just have no sense of adventure!

Brazos is pretty out there. Every hear of Fife? It's a sign on a FM and not sure but think maybe one house. About 20 miles north of Brady. Went deer hunting out there once. Dry but once into the brush, amazingly pretty country.

No sense of adventure? I got in the boat didn't I? Rocky failed to mention that Mark (albeit a small guy) brought another friend about my size, so we had about 800 lbs of flesh, 30 lbs of fishing tackle, a 50 lb outboard, and about 40 lbs of beer and ice in that 10 foot jon boat!

He also forgot to mention that the river was about 15 feet above flood stage and hauling the mail! The banks were muddy, slippery and steep, but we managed to get the boat down and in the water without going swimming (it was still early March).

Rocky got in first and straddled the middle seat, me in the back with the motor, and the other two guys in front. We literally had no more than 1" of sideboard all the way around the boat!

So we started the motor and shoved off.....ever so gently. The water was moving so fast that at full speed with that 2 hp motor, it took about 15 minutes to go 100 yards. Then the motor quit. Then we drifted right by our launch site at about mach II.

Once I got her fired up again it was about another 30 minutes back up river to the launch site. Now we're really on our way and starting to feel a bit more comfortable.

Then, without warning, Rocky swung his aft foot to the front of the boat so he could see better! The nose of the boat dove underwater like a submarine! The wet butts were on their way! "Rocky, put your foot back!" I yelled.

Whew! We were somehow still afloat, but with only 1/2" of sideboard now. So we did the obvious thing - cracked open beers and started chugging so we could use the empty cans to bail!

Finally about lunchtime, we made it about 1/4 mile up river to Mark's secret spot. But unfortunately, his spot was about 25 feet below the surface. Our lightweight sand bass tackle just swung up into the grass the second it hit the surface.

Plan was not working. So naturally, we loaded up the boat again and headed back downstream to our launch zone, which took us all of about 15 seconds to get there. Then we drove back to Mark's and drank ourselves into a stupor.

The only question I have is how many pounds of beer and ice did you have when the road trip to the water started? It would have had to been a lot for me to get on board.

Oh well you had fun didn't you? More importantly you lived to tell the story. I assumed your life vests were in a safe place, like behind the pickup seat?

I don't know how much beer we started with, but I know we had to go get more........twice.......I think...

Life jackets! I knew we forgot something!

Good thing we didn't go over. We would have been climbing all over Rocky, like fire ants on a log.

Yeah, somehow we lived to tell about that one. Rocky says he still remembers hanging on to the edges of the boat with his knuckles literally in the water - on both sides!