Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Two weeks of work, work, play, work

Well, JWHAP and I are back from two weeks of working and playing at our pond property. Jeez, there is always so much to do and so little time. We repaired fences (no the neighbor never put back the fence that he cut so we did, plus repaired two other sections of broken fencing), cut back vegetation on the road, mowed the property (after repairs to the Ranger and the Swisher mower) and a bunch of other chores. We also had fun with, not one but two, fun filled visits with DIED and DWIED and we got to meet and spend many hours with The Pond Frog. We fished quite a bit, spotted a lot of wild life, and did some relaxing.

Here's a few photos...

This is along the south shore of our pond. Because of all the rains this year our pond is as full as I've ever seen it.


Further east but also along the south shore here is our kayak in the weeds before we rescued it...


I caught this LMB, which weighed in at 2.0 pounds and 15.75 inches long. That's only 94% relative weight which I'm not thrilled about but it was still fun to catch...



The "Pond Frog" spotted this in our pond and was concerned about the looks of it. I took photos and a sample of it. Hopefully I can get Commander Cody or one of our other experts to help in identifying what it is...


And this is (from left) JHAP, Pond Frog, and DIED. Sort of a Northern California Pond Boss meeting...


We spent two days culling GSF from DIED's pond. We had an absolute blast (as always) with DIED and DWIED. In two days we moved close to 250 GSF to other ponds (some to my pond and some to a pond that Pond Frog manages).

Despite his somewhat ornery posts here , Richard aka "The Pond Frog" is an absolute great guy. He spent a couple of hours on our property and gave us some pointers on our pond. He volunteered to check in on our property while we were absent. He is a very likable guy, quick to laugh, a family man and fun to be around. Ricki and I thoroughly enjoyed meeting him and spending time with him. We hope to spend more time with him in the future.

As always DIED and DWIED's hospitality was way above and beyond the call of duty. We are so blessed to count them amongst our friends. The remodel of their house is almost complete and is beautiful. They cooked us a prime rib that I'm sure was one third of the cow (biggest chunk of prime rib I've ever seen) plus they didn't make me eat vegetables this trip (finally they are learning).

Spending time at our place reinforces the goal of building a house and moving there. The beauty of nature combined with the generosity of friends is a combination that is hard to beat.

JHAP good to hear your pond has lots of water, hard to believe how much ponds can drop out there.
Maybe your neighbor can show you where to catch the big LMB (just kidding).
Any new signs of people trespassing?

yup, good times, sorry bout monday jeff, got busy, was going to try and get over there while you were there. glad you made it home safe.

i am convinced yer algae is exactly the same algae that the late mortimer asked about (see pg 1 of this thread and the excellent pics of the blue green "septic" algae http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=129663&page=1

there was alot of good discussion about it there, you will glean something from reading it again. i am looking forward to any analytical results bill can provide.

That is a huge challenge with ponds in California. A vertical drop of 6 to 7 feet is normal here. Just in the two weeks we were on our property the pond dropped over six inches. DIED's dropped more (I think almost a foot during the two weeks).


DOH!!!


Fortunately none at all. We added more signs and spoke to our neighbor. The neighbor admitted that his nephew shot up the no trespassing sign (no big surprise there). I told the neighbor that I was not going to tolerate any trespassing on our property. The neighbor is an enigma, he is very pleasant to talk to and seems like a good guy but deep down I'm convinced that he was either involved with the theft or at least turned a blind eye to it. We are trying to stay on good terms with him but told him that in the future we will prosecute any trespassers.

Thanks for the link DIED that is informative reading.

There are very few spots of this stuff on our pond. We had a beautiful olive green bloom going on and the water (other that some necessary weed abatement) looked and smelled great. Due to the heat we swam in the pond daily (and so far we're not dead yet that I'm aware of).

Oh and I forgot to mention DIED, that on Sunday we fished our pond using the small jig with the Berkley worm set up and jigged for sunfish. Bluegill fishing was unreal. We were pulling them in so fast it had us literally laughing out loud.

JWHAP hooked a really nice LMB and fought it valiantly. It tail danced twice before freeing it self. She was thrilled. We wished we could have landed it because it looked significantly larger than the two pounder above. Good times.

Looks great JHAP! I know what you mean about time flying when your working on your land!!! Man before you know it it's Bud 30

Thanks RC. Due to the heat (every day in the 90s and it reached 105 on Sunday) we worked in the morning, swam and fished during the heat of the day and resumed work in the evening. The middle of the day was just too danged hot to work. Two evenings we fished from about 6:30 to 8 or so. The bite really picked up after the sun fell behind the trees and the shade stretched across the pond. We never fished in the morning, I imagine the fishing would have been really good then.

There is always so much to do with a rural property but I really enjoy the physical exertion. Frequent breaks and copious amounts of water consumption were common place.

Great trip report, Jeff! Thanks for sharing that. It's always cool when some of our numbers get together and spend quality time around the ponds and otherwise. Glad you had a nice trip and glad that there was no further mischief found upon your arrival. The pond looks absolutely beautiful, by the way.

Great report JHAP. Glad things are looking up. Now I know why you have been out of posting range. What new and different did you learn/encounter.

Glad to hear the issues you posted have worked out for the better... Hopefully that will be it for the trespassing and other mayhem. Looks like you all had a great time!

Nice report Jeff.

High RW's are a goal, but not a must. Don't be unhappy, 99% of the folks wouldn't have a clue that bass isn't "perfect".

My guess is PF barfed in your pond, and is trying to blame it on a deficiency in your pond water.

Nice group of smiling faces there. Ponds are good for a lot of reasons besides fish.

Thanks for the kind words guys.




Encountered:

A nice sized buck...

JWHAP and I had gone into town to pick up some supplies. Upon returning we drove over to the trailers. I jumped out of the 4Runner and walked toward Mom's trailer. Mom's trailer is parked on a slope such that one side of the trailer is about 2 feet off the ground. I had parked very near her trailer so it only took me about a second or two to cross the distance from the 4Runner to the "high" side of mom's trailer.

As I rounded the corner of mom's trailer a large buck came out from underneath mom's trailer. It was very hot and the poor deer must have been using the shade to escape the heat. So here I am nonchalantly strolling towards mom's trailer when the good sized buck suddenly appears. At this point I was about 10 to 12 feet from it. We both stood there staring at each other with the proverbial "deer caught in the headlights" expression on our faces.

For about 5 to 6 seconds neither of us moved. My mind was reeling with the the various wildlife encounter options:

1. Dive to the ground and assume the fetal position. (I quickly dismissed this option as I feared that the buck would assume that I was a plump doe ready for some "action.")

2. Wave my arms to make myself appear bigger and, thereby, scare the buck away. (I dismissed this option as I was already standing and was probably already involuntarily flailing my arms and the buck had not as yet moved.)

3. Turn 180 degrees, scream like a seven year old girl and run away. (A viable and easy to perform escape method but at this point I wasn't calm and collected enough to perform this time sensitive maneuver.)

4. Shout at Ricki "look at this deer, get the camera." (A risky move because as any seasoned wildlife expert such as myself knows, photos taken during an encounter such as this might perhaps end up on the internet and portray me in a less that manly light.)

Risking all I chose option 4. I started shouting "GET THE CAMERA, GET THE CAMERA, GET THE CAMERA." JWHAP of course had the camera neatly wrapped up in the case and it took her a second or two to free the camera and fire it up.

Knowing that my life was in grave danger, and also remembering from my extensive wildlife encounter training that you should (a) never look a buck square in the eye and (b) that you should never, ever, turn your back on a buck... I diverted my eyes such that I could watch the buck in my peripheral vision and slowly walked backwards toward the 4Runner.

My movement seemed to anger the buck. This large and evil beast opened it's mouth exposing a huge array of razor sharp teeth and let out an enormous roar akin to a lion or a mutant bear. Fortunately the buck then decided that I was not a worthy opponent and bounded off into the scary dark forest surrounding our property.

Although I knew that I would be hailed a hero and would have become an instant celebrity for revealing such a story to the news media, given that no photos were taken, I knew that I had no proof that said encounter had actually taken place, accordingly I opted to remain silent about the once-in-a-life-time encounter.

I did reveal the story to DIED and he told me that one: deer neither have razor sharp teeth and two: they don't roar like a lion. I quickly dismissed his assessment, determining that he just doesn't know that much about carnivorous deer.

Learned...

JHAP is not 30 anymore. Hard work it the heat quickly wears me out. That being said it is amazing what you can accomplish when you pace yourself.

hey, you left out the part where the buck kept winking at you and stalked you for the next three days.

I was trying to keep some sense of decorum in my story DIED. Besides you have no proof that he was actually winking at me. Also, I am of the opinion that the buck was not winking at me at all, I'm quite sure that he had something in his eye.

As you can see, JHAP isn't telling the whole story. The trailer is slightly higher off of the ground than he realizes, and here's the picture that supposedly wasn't taken.

Sure glad you and JWHAP had a great time!!! Even happier the neighbor seems to be respecting the boundries, at least to a larger degree.

JHAP "I opted to remain silent about the once-in-a-life-time encounter."


The buck will probably be there every day during the summer.

great news 94% is not bad. Just proud of you for recording the data. The presence of many bluegill especially if medium size will produce great bass growth.

Did you get the cams up, if so you will see the buck again and have a picture of him, sure the pic will shwo the razor sharp teeth.

That blob is euglena we get it quite often, pretty cool to watch b/c usualy follwoed by a white creamy substance that is protzoan feeding off the euglena.

Jeffie, sounds like you guys had a great time. I'm still wanting to come and hang out with you and DIED and all the Misses. I even like brussells sprouts. Man if you could add some tilapia those bass would be over 100% before you know it.

Apparently it also makes you hallucinate as well...

We even tagged a BG for practice. Dang those tagging guns you have are easy to use. Next decent sized bass we catch will be tagged for tracking.


Unfortunately no. I'll send you an email.



If you look closely at the photo above it has some of the protozoan on it. Interesting stuff.

So I take it that the Euglena poses no health risks to humans?




We'd love to have you up. So far living conditions at our pond place are very primative. We're working on improving it but it's slow going.

You can have my portion of brussells sprouts.

I wish we could stock Tilapia but unfortunately they are not allowed in our portion of the state.

It appears as though we have a good forage base. Lots of BG. We stocked some GSF from DIED's pond. We didn't see schools of GAMs, I'm sure they are there but much of our pond is hard to get to (you can see the reeds in the photo above). We had a beautiful olive green algae bloom going on. Overall I'm very happy with the condition of the pond.

whoa, right over the top of me head greg, can you explain a little more? i'll be googling that in the meantime, thanks.....



over the last 15 yrs here in the summer we've had many generations of does that hang out under our deck, in our carport, the pond spillway, wherever a cool shady place presents itself. its actually pretty rare for here that a buck is doing this near "civilization".



i forgot to mention, jhap ate potato salad. potatos are vegetables arent they?, so jhap did in fact eat some vegetables.

it would be great to visit w/ you heybud, especially if we could time it with jhaps visits......if you ever get this way, know you are welcome....

died, no expert just a witness on many occasions. Blob of bright almsot scray green (euglena) then week later a large mass of milky water out from the green blob that is less than before. I had to learn what this was a few years b/c clients wanted to know. It will cycle back again, pretty cool to watch the process.

WHAT? POTATOES ARE VEGETABLES???


Jeez what is this world coming to.

"Ricki, you have some splaining to do...."

Don't worry Jeff! Frying them pretty much turns them into something OTHER than a vegetable. Get to McDonald's or some other fast food joint, STAT!