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Joined: Mar 2006
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I had a pond dug on my property near Burleson, Texas, just south of Fort Worth. It is an oval shape 60' x 120' with a depth of 10' with 30 degree off horizontal sides because of the space I had to put it in. It filled up for the first time with the big rains of a couple of weeks ago and is holding water nicely.

I need some recommendations on first stocking. My estimate of pond size is a little over 1/4th acre. According to the "Basic Pond Management" book and taking a quarter of the 1 acre recommendation the range is 25-250 CC and 1 to 1.5 fathead minnnows. I do plan to feed. I would like add BG and LMB later.

Thanks for your suggestions.

Richard N

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There are lots of options for any pond. It sounds like you are interested in the standard LMB/BG/CC.
Here is a recent thread you may find nteresting:

http://www.pondboss.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=6;t=000153;p=1#000007

I would strongly recommend you stick with the standard forage first and predators later. In other words, I would not stock CC now if you plan on stocking fingerling bass and BG later. CC aren't the most efficient predators but I bet they could clean house on new fingerlings their first nights in the pond.

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I would go lightly on any first stocking. Due to lack of rainfall, your 1/4 acre could wind up as 1/8 acre. Expect it to drop somewhat as the dry sides wick some of the water back into those sides. Also expect, in our part of Texas to lose about 7 ft. of water annually to evaporation. As you know, those good rains haven't been all that dependable.

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Jay and Dave,

Thanks for your help.

Richard

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Dave,

Due to an unwelcome visitor to my pond, I may not get to have a problem with having too many fish in not enough water.

I put in 200 CC and 4lbs of FH the other night and thought that I would see a few floaters in the morning. I didn't see any in the morning before I left for work. When I got home I got my first cup of fish food and was walking towards the water when I saw something that looked like a small pterodactyl take off from the shore. In the mud there were bird tracks measuring 6" from middle toe to spur and I think its wingspan was at least 5’. I assume this monster was a Heron. I did get fish to take the food after a while but I bet the bird made lunch of a few of them.

I’ve read stories about these things cleaning out hatchery ponds and wonder if there is any way to keep them off my fish. Scarecrows?

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RN:

Sizing sounds about right for a Great Blue Heron.

Since you have a fairly small pond, you may want to emulate Cecil Baird1's heron exclusion efforts. CB1 has had pretty good (although not total) success by placing visible string (80 lbs monfilament - bright colored) around the pond, IIRC just inshore and just offshore, 12"-18" high. This discourages them from wading in the shallowest water that is their hunting zone.

Here are some heron control threads:
1
2
3
4


"Live like you'll die tomorrow, but manage your grass like you'll live forever."
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I have 2 schools of thought regarding herons. The first is that it isn't going to make an appreciable impact on your pond.

The second is that I have every intention of being the top of the food chain and all competitors are dead meat.

It is against federal law to harm them. However, if I felt like breaking the law or had a depradation permit, I would hunt them like I would a trophy buck. Sit in a blind of some kind during the day with as much time as I could afford. I would probably use enough gun to be sure of the effectiveness. Then I would follow Cecils mantra of shoot, shovel and shut up. I hear they taste a lot like chicken.


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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All birds are good eating. \:\)
I love turkey, I wonder how water turkey tastes? \:D


Edward A Long
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Thanks for the suggestions. I am going to get some line and stakes and put up the anti wading fence.

I don't know what the heron's appreciable impact on the pond is but the impression on me is one of watching a poacher steal what I built with my hard work.

Yesterday, I spoke to a farmer who works the property next to mine and he told me that one of the ponds there had an alligator in it. Maybe the heron can go fish over there.

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Richard, I think it is unreasonable to build an area of great wildlife habitat and not expect different forms of wildlife to use it. That's like having a pasture and not expecting any deer to go there because they might compete for some forage. This just isn't the real world.

About the only way that I know of to avoid this is to have a swimming pool and manicured yard.

What we can do is modify our pond environment so that it discourages the wildlife we don't want. Canada geese are a good expample. They can be a horrendous problem. But they hate tall vegetation because they can't see predators. I can't get rid of all the deer on our property but I can and do invite lots of people over to kill all of the does they legally can get.


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Norm, off topic a little, but did you read the question a couple of days back in regards to drum in ponds?


Holding a redear sunfish is like running with scissors.
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Yes, Bruce, I did and posted on it. Thank you for the kind words.


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I still have fish since there were a lot of rises when I threw the food on the water at sunup. I will forget about the heron for now since I am busy preparing for another event that was the other reason for building my pond.

I fly radio controlled electric powered model airplanes and a number of the events I fly at are indoors in basketball courts and buildings where we don’t have to worry about whether the sun is up, if it is raining, or if it is howling windy outside. A few years ago, a friend of mine put together an event for flying model floatplanes at an indoor swimming pool. We learned that floatplanes have their own special requirements for successful flight and that the four hours of the event was something too rare to be spent on testing.

The nearest pond was miles away and I had always wanted a pond for fishing anyway so that gave me one more reason for having a pond in my back yard.

The event is the Lockheed Martin Aeromodelers Indoor Float Fly at the Keller Natatorium in Keller, Texas, on the northeast side of Fort Worth. It will happen tomorrow April 8, 2006 from 4:30 to 9:30. All the details are at this link:
Lockheed Martin Aeromodelers Indoor Float Fly

There are a bunch of pictures and links to our past events here. Come have a look at another way to have fun with your pond. I will be the guy in the yellow kayak doing rescue boat duty for less than perfect water landings.

See you there.

Richard

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I think that is most probably a first for that new pond use here, Richard. \:\)


"Live like you'll die tomorrow, but manage your grass like you'll live forever."
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I once had a friend who flew high performance radio controlled gliders. He painted one to resemble a seagull and drove them crazy. I bet an rc painted to look like a hawk would do the same to the heron, bring it in out of the sun and ....


1/4 & 3/4 acre ponds. A thousand miles from no where and there is no place I want to be...
Dwight Yoakam
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Are these floatplanes big enough to mount a 410?


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