Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Seining pictures of my pond I'm draining down

Any way to get those rocks out of the bottom for future seining projects? Or at least drag them up above the depth for seining? Can you make some sort of rope bag to pull them out with a tractor or car?

How many feet of hose was that on the suction end of the pump. Looks like a lot!!!

Boy Cecil, better hope no red necks with 4 wheel drives find that mud hole

May want to fix or boot that sump pump. A tickle could indicate you were a path to ground, just not a good one at the moment.

You should have seen where my boss had me standing last fall No need for a story here, but I was totally drenched, standing in mud, and within a foot or so to the exposed business end of a high voltage supply to a pretty large factory. He walks away in his million volt suit and yells back, "don't fall!".

I did not know that I needed one of these suits. I am supposed to be inside and dry at all times

It's irrelevant Bill as there will be no more seining.

I think they are two 20 foot sections.

I won't using the sump pump again. Scared the sheet out of me. The trash pump is faster anyway even though my neighbor behind me whines if I use it at night. Only pumping now will be the trout pond every two years and the two back ponds once a year to remove bluegill and perch fingerlings. They are 1/6th the size of the front pond so it's a breeze to pump them down. They are also connected to the highway ditch via an underground 6 inch corrugated drainage pipe.

I'm actually starting to wonder if I'd be better off buying my fingerlings as it's probably more cost effective consider how feed is going up, utilities, etc.

Pond is now refilling. Thanks to Scott the remaining water in the water was nuked twice with rotenone. No life down there that I can see!

Here's an extension I added temporarily to allow the underground overflow from the trout pond to fill the pond without gouging out the bottom. Even the dog seems interested.

No problem Cecil. Hopefully we'll get some rain in the next few days.

Get some FHM from the bait shop and put them in a small minnow trap or cage in the pond after the water comes up. If they live, then the rotenone has dissipated and you can start transferring the fish.

The outside thermometer in the car hit 80°F today.

You can have some of the rain we got today

Starting to clear up tho.

Phil,

How much rain did you get? We could get 3 to 4 inches here but I'll believe it when I see it. Actually I hope Scott gets it his way as I would rather fill my pond with the well water than have a mud hole temporarily.

If it's like the rest of the storms this year, it'll stop right to my west, and re-start to my east.......

So what did you do Scott to get this kind of treatment?

Update:

Here is the pond filling back up primarily from wellwater that is overflowing from the trout pond and some recent rain. The green tint is iron in the well water.





A previous picture for comparison before the remaining water was treated twice with rotenone. The two tanks were moved after this picture to an area where water and fish could not be trapped underneath and survive the rotenone. Now the tanks are just floating around the pond.




I had a heron back today that was feeding on the remaining small fish when the pond was drained down before it was treated with rotenone. He was there today just standing there probably wondering where all the fish went. I ran him off primarily because of the remote chance he could regurgitate a live fish from another nearby pond. Very, very, unlikely, but after all the work and expense it took to drain this pond down and move the fish, I don't want to take any chances! Plus of course they are parasite vectors.

Once the pond fills back up I'll have the staked lines back in place and they won't be able to find a way in.

Cecil thanks for all the pics and info on the draw down process. I want to try this and start one of my ponds over. I have a question...

Have you ever done or seen any one use a freeze up to complete a fish kill. What I mean is...draw the pond down in Dec or Jan to a depth that would ensure a complete freeze to the bottom. Eliminating the chemicals and using the bitter temps to my advantage. Would this work?

It seems to work up your way with ponds that are used to produce fathead minnows that routinely winter kill. However I would be concerned if there is even a small bit of water trapped under the ice, or you got a sudden warm up and heavy rain, and you had some fish fry that could survive. I have an incredibily heavy population of ramshorn snails that are part of a parasite cycle and aren't as optimum for fish to eat vs. other species.

If you can't use rotenone for small amounts of water, either chlorine and potassium permanganate can be used and quickly dissipate to harmless compounds. I may still treat my pond with PP before adding fish to not only make sure the rotenone is neutralized but to kill potential parasites and pathogens. It could do a number on the snails too if I use a heavy enough doze.

This pond I am planning on renovating has BH in it. Along with the BH's, it too has ramshorn snails. In my other ponds the YP have lots of black spot and that white worm (can't remember it's name).

I am planning on making this 1/4 pond a YP only pond and would love to start fresh. Thanks for the info

If it was me I'd hit it hard with rotenone. Bullheads are some tough critters! I've seen them live out of water for hours!

How fast is your pond filling up? did you throw the fish back in yet? I hope it's going good for you.

Haven't moved any fish back yet. Need to be sure the rotenone isn't toxic anymore by putting some fatheads in a minnow bucket. We went way above the recommended amount as it has a shelf life, we didn't foresee using it again, and we wanted to be sure there were no surviving fish. But that shouldn't be a problem as the overdose was for the few remaining gallons left upon drain down. But cold water does take longer to detoxify.

The plan is to seine Sunday if the rotenone is no longer toxic.

About a foot to go until it reaches the bottom edge of the pier. 3 to 5 inches of rain in he last week helped too.

Did you take those pictures this evening? btw you seem to be really good with a camera nice pics!

Yes just before I went to feed the fish.

It's not hard if you have a good digital camera. The milk delivery truck in the background adds a nice touch doesn't it?

You're too young to know but I and others here remember when you had to do all kinds of things to take a picture like focus, wind in the film, know which lense to use etc. etc.

Didn't take long to fill up... Now let's hope there are no stragglers in there!!!

A half a gallon of rotenone applied to about 2000 gallons of water left maximum. I kind of doubt it.

That didn't stop a heron from standing in the water for a few hours. He's just like some people. Fish where there aren't fish but hope for the best.

Couldn't blame him though. There were lots of small fish confined in a small area just before we used the rotenone. He thought he found himself a perpetual honey hole.

Is that a Kingfisher just to the right of the floating white tank? (flying)

Nope Barn Swallow or Bank Swallow. The two species were flying together. By the time I took that photo they were calling it a day.

I do get a Kingfisher that shows up every year for a short while. He was here already for a short while after I drained the holding pond down a few feet before adding fresh water. He had his eye on the smaller fish I added for forage.

I watched him closely to see if he had any interest in the trout pond. None. Apparently the iron makes it too murky for him to see well and I believe the trout are too big for him.