Like I said before, they are semi predators. Some fish like pike are complete predators that feed only on fish, frogs etc. Ide eats small minnows but it loves other food too - different bugs, snails, worms, grasshoppers and similar creatures.
It's mouth isn't designed for predatory behavior and that means it can't eat large fish.
Almost 2 years have gone since the first fish were stocked. Now it's the right time to eat some of them, isn't it? Largest caught carps were about 2kg in weight. Not bad (about ~0,3 kg when stocked). Many other fish were witnessed and everthing seems quite OK. But... the story isn't about that. Who likes to read such stories without any pictures? Nobody actually...
I received a message from my brother. After visiting this pond he found a dead sturgeon and sent message to me. The prime suspect was blue heron (there are some of them left despite our plans to eliminate all of them around the pond). But then I asked about the size of this fish. Theoretically it should be at least 1-2 kg in weight and it's too much for a heron. This fish was like 30 cm in length only! After that I received a better report and a picture too. Seems like this fish has been sick for some while (maybe some parasitic worms inside). It looks like it hasn't eaten for a long time. Too bad that nobody tried to look inside it...
The CZ550 carbine in 9.3x62mm sounds like a supreme beaver killer to me. A 286 grain pill slipping out of the 20" barrel at around 2700fps.
That's some serious medicine right there. I would go as far to say that it doesn't even really matter where you hit 'em with that. Any torso hit with result in the beaver's demise.
You can hunt them little buggers from August through March. I wish that I had the time and the funds to come out and visit. I would take care of all of those beavers for you.
The MSRP on that guy is $911 USD. It could be the best money you ever spend in pond management LOL.
It was too shallow and beavers had done a great job to ruin it. No possibility to drain it too.
At first a ditch was dug around the concrete dam to drain all water. After that all the turf is going to be removed. Seems like this might be a deep one. There is a deep hole that could reach even 4,5 m depth. We didn't expect it to be that deep but sometimes such things happen Probably this week everything will be done and then there will be time to wait until it fills itself. Of course, there will be time to think about stocking something too.
It's good for a garden but not for a pond. I enjoy swimming better in ponds with sand or clay bottom. Another disadvantage of it is that this soil isn't predictable. What does it mean? Some part of it can simply rise to surface - such things happened in the past and that's why it has to been removed until the clay is reached.
An advantage - usually it can be found in very wet places - it's doubtful that such pond could dry.
It's porous. Pay attention to the first picture. Probably you see a "duck house", don't you? On the left side of it there's a bit higher place than average. Once it was such floating island... Why it happens and how? I'm not sure but maybe it's caused some gas (most probably methane) pressure from the bottom. Methane is charasteristic to such swampy areas.
By the way, look at the last picture too. Do you see some black stuff in that hole? These are pieces of that soil.
Probably old peat moss full of methane and soil. Great for gardens, not so great for ponds. Looks like you have a lot of work to do to get the pond "clean".
Everything should be finished till Thursday (approximately). The rest of works to be done can be seen in the 4th picture. Other parts of the pond have been finished - clay has been reached. Banks will remain of this soil but I can't do anything to improve that. The swamp is large enough to make it impossible to dig it all out if you aren't Rockefeller
After several rainy days water level has raised and we expect our pond to be filled till the winter. This year isn't dry and it shouldn't be a big problem.
In posts above you can look in the past and see how it was before. Now:
These little fellows will live there:
(Wels catfish. Like 10 of them).
Some trouts have been added to another pond:
Lets see if they are able to survive during a hot summer.
I wanted to add some perch to the pond. As I was ice fishing this weekend, I managed to get 27 of them. Not much but other fish species were more active on the lake Why in the winter? I wanted them to be ready to spawn in the pond this spring but I'm not sure about my possibilities to get them in the spring before spawning time.
kenc,pretty sure it was a 5 or 7 liter bottle that mineral water comes in from the store.They have tons of uses,in Bulgaria I use them to bring wine and brandy home from the in laws and also have one with a bubbler to keep bait fish in.
It's not any kind of trap. Robert-NJ is right - it's plastic 5 liter bottle used for transporting (in this case there was a little problem. These fish didn't come out as easy as in :D). I caught these perch at local lake using simple winter fishing technique.
Originally Posted By: kenc
Please post some pict. of your catfish wnen they get bigger.
Gr,I am a patience soul(been waiting 42 yrs. for my wife to do some of the things she said she would whenI agreed to marry her),so post them when you have them.
Two ponds, 13 and 15 acres on the Mattaponi River.
This weekend we added some additional perch. Here is video from 7day - 52 fish. Now there are ~97 perch. Some may die and some are too young to spawn this year but anyway that number is big enough
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