Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations So it begins

I duplex printed it for evening study. Thanks

The stick commentary: The four on the upper left won't make the knife. That is typical of the crappie you get if you stay too long after dark. I would give $20 to know what is going on down there that consistently moves the bigger crappie off and just the small ones bite slowly.

May be predation. LMB and NP have better night vision than BG , Crappie etc. As it gets closer to dark the bigger forage fish stop and hide while some of the small forage fish , with less competition from their larger siblings , get brave and keep feeding

Dwight, please send the $20 bill to me....here you go---
The new generation of crappie teenagers sleep all day and stay out all night....party animals

I don't have a clue about your time deprivation BCP but looking up to the right side of the picture...I will have a red beer with 2 olives please.

Once again..nice catch of BCP.

ewest, I like your answer a lot. Do you have some ewest knowledge to point me where the larger BCP move? Structure, specific bottom areas, hovering well off the bottom in mid-depths? I am clueless to their movements. One other question; although I have caught quite a few NP at night (ice or not). I have always read that NP are poor night feeders. Is this wrong?

I like the Daily's (Thick and Spicey) plain with just vodka and ice. A nice varient is a 1/4 tsp. of prepared horse-radish, and squeeze of fresh lime. For those that like them hot, a dash of Choluha and a dash of Chipolte is pretty good. Daily's spent a fair amount of time coming up with the mix, so hitting it to hard with anything is a sin.

I will dig around and see what I find.

I do have a suggestion. Get Dwight's underwater camera (it should have IR) and look for the big crappie around structure at twilight/first dark. Another option which I don't suggest often is catch a big one just before dark and attach through the dorsal fin a 30-40 ft piece of very small line 2 lb test with a very small bright float/cork/bobber on the other end. The line must be long enough so that the float never stresses the fish by being pulled under. Wait and follow the float. Gently take up slack to see the exact spot and mark it. Then harvest the fish or take out the line and release - your choice.

I've heard of that trick before, but hard to do with 20 inches of ice and snow cover. Maybe a few tiny transmitters and a receiving device so we can track those fish under the ice!

That will work well and would be a good project. The students from SDSU could do that and it would be a good project for them to write up. Telemetry tracking of crappie feeding and movements in small impoundments. Could also do YP and BG etc..

I agree with ewest about the SDSU telemetry study at Dwight's pond since Dwight is already gathering a wealth of chemical data. Why not use some of the Jesse West foundation money for telementry implants? The range finders are probably already available at SDSU. When I did my MS thesis I had to fund it all myself. Times change.

how much do you guys think one of those tagging/tracking systems costs?

Bill I know they have a bunch deployed in LMB at Eagle's Nest as we speak. Next step may me to move them north to Dwight's to track crappie , BG , NP and YP = fish community movements in Bremer Pond. That would be one neat study with a wealth of info for all of us to contemplate.

Rats, I started a long reply, and then lost it. I hate when that happens. Now it's going to be a shorter version, that's for sure!

Costs? It all depends. Transmitters can be sonic (need to put the receiver under the water or under the ice to get the sound wave signal) or radio (signals will go through the ice, but range is limited). Costs -- I haven't looked for a while. Sonic transmitters maybe $150-400 depending on size, power, and battery life. Receiver systems maybe $2,000-4,000. Couldn't find radio transmitter prices on short notice, but the sonic prices give you some idea. We do have some receivers here. Not sure of their condition.

Crappie don't take handling very well, as I'm sure most Forum readers know. We have done three previous crappie tracking studies. In the two below, one is white crappies and one is black. Technology at that time allowed us to only implant large crappies (10.5 to 13 inch white crappies; other study is 12-13 inch black crappies).

http://pubstorage.sdstate.edu/wfs/154-F.pdf

http://pubstorage.sdstate.edu/wfs/123-F.pdf

Then, we did one study of nesting male black crappies that were 9-10 inches because the transmitter size had decreased. Paper link below. I don't know how much smaller they have made them since then because I haven't looked.

http://pubstorage.sdstate.edu/wfs/246-F.pdf

We did these studies with surgery to implant the transmitters in the body cavity. On a later study for sauger, we actually used external attachment of radio transmitters, which might be something to try on crappies in the future.

How's that for talking around the issue??

Why will these not meet the knife?

I believe I have cleaned fish much smaller than these.

Acoustic transmitters and a receiver is now on my list!! Dave, any recommendations for a name brand?

Nate, i havent looked into this for a while and not sure i should give advice. However, we have always used sonotronics for sonic transmitters with good results and service.

It is easy to find fish locations but hard to know fish depth at a location.

I fear the ice fishing season has ended on Bremer Pond. My buddy and I were out on the ice yesterday and we did catch about 10 bass before the water on the top of the ice started running down our holes. The hill getting down to the pond was slick when we came so we packed it in. Tried to get up the hill twice with my old Ford, but to no avail. Dwight came down with his Mule and pulled us up the hill. Thanks Dwight.

Gettin' time to break out the Barge!

Stick did you fill in the ruts or leave that for Dwight ?

So it ends......(Ice Fishing-Spring 2013 that is...)

Since the ground is frozen under the top inch of super-soaked soil (er, mud) there are no ruts. There is a cool set of of slip and slide tracks documenting the fact that 4WD isn't of much use on mud covered ice.

Need a heated 12 foot wide cement landing built from pond edge to top of hill. How many crappie, bluegill, and perch did we take this winter? Everyone of them are in the pictures.

Don't forget these.