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Move over teehjaeh57! grin

~1/10 acre pond for smallmouth production. (About 90 X 40 X 28)




Limestone boulders on one side originally in place to prevent erosion.





Limestone boulders that are under water that create natural pockets to be partially filled in with landscaping size stone and cobble stone this weekend.I'll space the beds about 20 feet apart with some shallow and some deep thanks to the advise and experience of Teehjeh57.




One of three chunky smalmouth from 14 to 16 inches moved to the pond today from the main pond. More to move in the next few days. Caught on a beetlespin and carried from the main pond to this pond with a 5 gallon bucket. Good way to get all wet as they really throw the water! I'm assuming it's a female but don't know for sure. I could kick myself for not ordering a catheter tube. I do have the Finquel to anesthesize them for the procedure.



Sorry about the lack of quality in the picture but as we all know it's tough to take a picture of a fish while you're holding it!



Last edited by Cecil Baird1; 04/14/12 10:35 AM.

If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.






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Cool Cecil keep us informed on this project.. What's your overall goals with the fish?


I believe in catch and release. I catch then release to the grease..

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I'll be happy to get a successful spawn, seine them out of the pond at about 1 1/2 inches and feed train them in a flow through tank or floating cage. Then they will either go back into the pond for continued pellet feeding, stay in a floating cage, or go into an RAS for the winter of the ones I don't sell IF I have extra ones. I'd like to add more to the big pond to control the bluegills. They're doing a good job right now but I need to add another age class and size to keep the smaller bluegill in check. I think I'm half way successful keeping the bluegill numbers down due to the high amount of smb I planted and low number of reproduced bluegills caught and observed. I'm sure the large population of large female perch has some effect on the bluegill fry too.

I planted 200 in a .62 acre pond - a very high density of SMB although they are feed trained and do feed on pellets every day.

I should be able to remove the smallies from the production pond with live bait once the spawn is over. I've never seen a smallie that could resist a live crawler dangling in front of it.

Last edited by Cecil Baird1; 04/14/12 10:49 AM.

If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.






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Are you planning on selling any, or is the testing just too big a pain to make it worth it?

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Awesome Cecil - that mama or papa is a horse. Beautiful...and your spawning structure sure looks great to me.

Catching adults out is easy with jig and crawler or a AM 600 pellet fly. How many are you moving? I moved 14 this year so far.

I am excited for your project...please include more details on your beds and everything else. I'm on the edge of my seat!


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Originally Posted By: CJBS2003
Are you planning on selling any, or is the testing just too big a pain to make it worth it?


If I sell any they will have to be in excess of what I need. And there's no guarantee I will be successful. And even then it will be most likely intrastate as I would have to sacrifice 60 for VHS testing and it's a fee of $300.00 for that testing. If the state finds a vet that is willing to take samples vs. the state vet that presently does it at no charge, the cost would probably double.

I suppose if I produced a few thousand I would be tempted to get the testing done and sell interstate but I'm not sure if that will happen in such a small pond.


Last edited by Cecil Baird1; 04/14/12 08:41 AM.

If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.






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Originally Posted By: teehjaeh57
Awesome Cecil - that mama or papa is a horse. Beautiful...and your spawning structure sure looks great to me.

Catching adults out is easy with jig and crawler or a AM 600 pellet fly. How many are you moving? I moved 14 this year so far.

I am excited for your project...please include more details on your beds and everything else. I'm on the edge of my seat!


As I am likewise about yours. Keep us posted!

On how many I will move? If I could sex them successfully I would like to move about 5 females and 5 males. I may hold off for a few days on moving more fish so I can determine sex better. I'm thinking females may become more obviously gravid closer to spawning.



Last edited by Cecil Baird1; 04/14/12 11:18 AM.

If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.






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Great work guys. Cecil a good record of what you do wrt the SMB pond would be of immense value to a lot of us !!
















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Update:

As of May 20th apparently at least some of my smallies have been doing the horizontal mambo (or in the case of fish the side by side mambo.)

Today I observed at least a few hundred to several hundred (perhaps a few thousand) black fry on the side of the pond with all the stone and the beds I set up. If you look carefully you can see the black fry. I tried to collect some in my 1/8 inch net and the mesh was too large. I'm aware that toad tadpoles are similar in appearance but these are definitely fish as they don't have the bulbous head and they swim differently than tadpoles.



I also caught and removed 12 out of the 13 broodfish out of the pond as it seemed at least some were interested in eating them. Or perhaps there were still some fathead minnows left?

Hopefully I didn't jump the gun and prevent some from spawning that were still in the act or just beginning to.

Last edited by Cecil Baird1; 05/20/12 09:45 PM.

If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.






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Nice looking rock habitat for smallies in that pond, Cecil, regardless of erosion prevention! Ha!


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Cecil it looks like you got alot of grass to mow.. What are you using.. Just wondering lol


I believe in catch and release. I catch then release to the grease..

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Originally Posted By: Cecil Baird1
Update:

Today I observed at least a few hundred to several hundred (perhaps a few thousand) black fry on the side of the pond with all the stone and the beds I set up. If you look carefully you can see the black fry. I tried to collect some in my 1/8 inch net and the mesh was too large.


Cecil,

If you go to a pool supply department or store, you can find a very soft fine-mesh net like this, with a telescoping handle, for about $15. They work great for small tadpoles and fry.




The one we are currently using is about 18 inches in diameter, and at least 12-15 inches deep.

Ken


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Ken,

I forgot I actually have a couple of those that are actually used for aquariums I could have mounted to a long pole.

I was only going to collect a few for close up pics, but I think I'll leave them alone for now. Once they get up to an inch and a half or so I'm going to seine them out of the pond and feed train them in a flow through tank.



Last edited by Cecil Baird1; 05/21/12 09:42 AM.

If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.






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Originally Posted By: Bluegillerkiller
Cecil it looks like you got alot of grass to mow.. What are you using.. Just wondering lol


What am I using? My soon to be 76 year old dad! He and my mom live on my property in the summer when they aren't in Florida (there's an apartment above my garage). He bought a brand new John Deer mower recently just so he can cut it. It was no cost to me. I have awesome parents!

I'll have to take a look at the model if you're interested. At least I convinced him to get it at an actual dealer vs. one of those discount stores.

Last edited by Cecil Baird1; 05/21/12 04:07 PM.

If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.






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Nicely done Cecil! Congrats!


Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. ~ Henry David Thoreau

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For a noble gamefish the smallmouth fry sure are stupid! Not only are they staying near the surface, and don't scatter at my shadow they stick out like a sore thumb being jet black in color! The heron defense measures go in place first thing tomorrow!


If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.






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CB1 consider for several (10-20) of those fry what Catmandoo is doing with his LMB fry in an aquarium. Feed training at about 3/4 of an inch. They may take to feed fairly easily at this size. As the fry get a little larger they won't be quite so 'stupid'. However if they are never chased they may stay fairly "friendly".
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=19634&Number=293202#Post293202

Last edited by Bill Cody; 05/24/12 08:23 AM.

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Bill I do plan on seining them out and putting them into a flow through circular tank at pond side when they reach an inch and a half. Right now they are so small they can go right through my smallest mesh seine.


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Looks pretty cool Cecil!

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Cecil those black dots are cool. I sure hope things turn out well.
















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Thank you for the kind words gentlemen. If it works out but if things don't work out as planned I can always try something a little different next year.

I do know the cage spawning of yellow perch works really well and it's nice to just remove the cage and broodfish when they are done spawning. I'm thinking I could do it with bluegill some year also if I had some containers of gravel. Could work for 1 male smallmouth and several females too.

Last edited by Cecil Baird1; 06/08/12 06:22 AM.

If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.






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Cecil, check your pm's. You got one (at least one that is!)


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I replied.


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Update:

Smallmouth are a little bigger at about a half to 3/4's inch since my late report and are constantly moving looking for zooplankton. Some have fecal casts hanging from their anuses which means they are finding something to eat. I've also set up a light at night to concentrate zooplankton and many are milling around under the light. I'm waiting on an order of Aquamax 5DO 00 (starter feed) to see if I can get them interested before I remove them at 1 1/2 inches for intense feed training. I'm going to try a belt feeder under the light just like I do to feed train yellow perch.


There is also some fathead minnow reproduction. Some fatheads survived from the ones I planted to feed the broodstock and obviously reproduced.

The water began gin clear as of yesterday due to the continued expansion and growth of the Chara. I'm in the process of raking it out and hopefully this will allow a phytoplankton bloom to come back. I also stirred up the bottom by raking and along with the diffuser should bring up nutrients into the water column to feed the phytoplankton.

Here's one of two loads of Chara I removed:



Here's the Chara close up:



I will continue to remove as much Chara as i can from this small 1/10th acre pond manually. Copper based herbicides have no effect on established Chara in my ponds (due to the hardness of the water). Even if they did the amount I have now would be dangerous to kill even in sections. I think I've removed less than a 1/5th in my first two hours. Two trailer loads was probably about 500 lbs. wet weight.

Next year I will drain and dry the pond about 2 to 3 weeks before I fill it back up. Hopefully this will allow a bloom before the Chara gets the upper hand. I may consider putting Cutrine Plus granular on the bottom upon filling as a preemptive measure?

Thoughts? Suggestions?

P.S.: Just looking at the picture of Chara brings the skunky oder to mind! (It's also called skunk weed).



Last edited by Cecil Baird1; 06/08/12 10:27 AM.

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Thanks for the update.

What about some brine shrimp or krill ?

In your situation manual removal is best IMO if you can do the work as it removes the excess nutrients. Plus you can control the amount removed vs. killing it all and leaving it to decay. A couple cheap tarps or plastic covering all or part the bottom would help.
















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