Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss You guys down in Texas getting some snow?

What's this I hear that it's cold down there?? It's pushing 0 on it's downward spiral right now. Supposed to be -6°F or so tonight.

High of 24 F today in DFW Metromess - all time record for this date.
1-2 inches of powdery snow this morning in Plano - black ice alert for morning commute.
G/

24 degrees and ice?? I'll bring the auger!

Scott,
I left Indy last night in the snow and returned to Texas to snow....... And the wind was so cold.

Tony,
No ice yet, but if this hangs around a few more days, i'll take you up on the offer!!!

Hey Tony - pray for a quick thaw - hundreds of natural gas wells being shut down in Texas due to power disruptions and freezing temps!
Serious shortage of butane/propane exist up north is what I am hearing.
You guys be safe.
G/

I've never caught CNBG through the ice. Come to think of it, I wonder if anyone has?

Hmmmmm......

George,

I was all set to believe the logical explanation that the farmers used a lot this fall to dry crops and this cold winter was not anticipated until I heard we're exporting an incredible amount too. Something like 5 X the amount of last year?

Scott, I'm tired of all this weather. It's not the cold and ice as much as it is the clueless drivers we have down here. On the trip to Nate's, the roads were much worse, and there was far less havoc. That and the almost daily 20-30 mph winds here make it tough.

I guess I'll be glad when I'm sweating outside at 7 am again.

Dang right it is. And the cold. When it's 22 degrees with a 15 to 20 mph wind, it's cold.

I don't know how you guys up north do it...and by north I mean Dallas... north enough for me. I saw a picture from catmando a day or two ago with two inches of ice and about 100 yards of driveway iced up and thought about myself in that situation crying in the fetal position while he was typing about snowblowing. Ill be cussing the Texas summer again by July though so its all relative I guess. We had 1/16 th of an inch of snow/ice Friday before last and the Houston area shut down..18 wheelers stuck on the highway, people panicking the whole nine.

Last couple days in low 30s mid 40s don't think we will see snow this go round. But I would take an inch or two from you fellas up north just so the kiddo can run around in it and I could take some pictures. I just turned 30 and have seen snow 3 times in my whole life. The pictures of iced over ponds look so foreign to me.

My Southern brethren - any guesses of the origin of this NASA shot?

No clue, but it makes me think of lime jello. Tasty lime jello I might add.

Think Green Monster.....

With the winter we are having, your talking whining about temps in the 20's? That's almost T-shirt weather now!!!!

My neighbor put up a new mailbox this Fall. Nice new treated 4x4 post, brand new mailbox. That all changed yesterday morning. I don't know what the snow plow driver was thinking, but at least 80% of all the mailboxes on my street were wiped out with one pass of the snow plow.

His mailbox is that black blob on the right. The 2 blue boxes are for the local newspaper and they are on a (now) twisted "T" post. That funny looking thing to the left is what's left of my plastic mailbox.


I talked to the mail lady and she said "Just pile up the snow a bit more and stick what's left of your mailbox on the snow pile."

That was a bit too redneck for me, so here's what my mailbox will look like until after the spring thaw... It IS screwed on to it so it won't blow away.

Bluegill dont move when it's cold. In december the tops of my aquaponics tanks froze over and i learned that BG lay down on the bottom of the tanks when it gets very cold. I actually threw one away thining it was dead before i learned that they get back up when the water warms up.

brian

Whatever! If this doesn't end, I'll have to buy socks. This weather is not flip flop friendly at all.

Scott, you're right about the whining/bitching about the snow.

Yesterday, I left the house about 7 to attend a meeting 15 miles away. It was snowing with about 20 mph winds. It was a light, fluffy snow and was blowing off the roads so I figured no sweat. However, the warm roads melted the snow, the cars drove over it and the new snow created some icy conditions. My LWB pickup couldn't get traction when I stopped at intersections. I turned around about half way there and headed home. It I got back home about 9:15 and dang near wet my pants due to my morning coffee addiction.

Cars were doing OK but pickups with no weight were in trouble. This happens once, maybe twice per year so I'm not going to get 500 pounds of weight to put in and take out. Our large cities all have high over passes downtown. They get impassable when winter conditions hit.

Since about 30 to 40 percent of the vehicles here are pickups, what we consider foul weather is a real show stopper.

1. I don't know how to drive on ice.
2. Nobody else here does either.
3. I don't want to have to learn.
4. I don't want to have to buy snow tires or chains.
5. Snow tires and chains would be useless unless everybody bought and installed them. They would generally have to be removed the next day.
6. I don't remember how to drive when it rains.

Right now I would consider that a heat wave. -8 in Naperville right now

This was on our local news last night. This drift has been bigger in years before. There is all kinds around here like this. I am getting tired of moving all this snow.

-22c last night with a 50km wind.

Man wish I was in Texas. Can't wait for our golf trip to Florida in March. Had enough of winter.

Cheers Don.

Tony, I'm wondering that as well. As we've talked about, I'm hand feeding right now and letting the CNBG dictate whether I throw feed or not. Last week, we had a 70 degree day, and I hand fed for almost an hour. I kept throwing and they kept eating. The next day was 40 degrees, and they haven't eaten since.

I know where they're at, I just don't know what they're doing. If my water was clearer, I'd have a underwater camera and see for myself.

Don't want to be a pessimist but Bobby Glennon a biologist with Malone and Sons in Arkansas, told me when they get ice on the ponds they lose Coppernose bluegills. Of course production ponds tend to be shallower than recreational ponds, so perhaps recreational ponds have somewhat of a buffer from rapid temps changes before the next warm up?

I have similar pics here. Interesting to note the highway department comes in with a front loader and pushed notches in the snow pile on the side of the highway. I noticed with the last snowfall, when they plowed, it just filled in the spaces vs. just making it higher.

Al, most guys that have CNBG tell me the same thing.....when the water temps fall below a certain point (?) the coppernose just shut down.

I've often wondered, (or at least the prideful side of me has wondered,) is this actually the case, or could some cold-water finesse tactics familiar to those living up north, entice those fish to bite?

This is not at all intended to suggest that the southern contingent lacks the skills usually employed to catch winter Bluegills, I'm just wondering out loud if some northern Bluegill techniques might work on southern fish?

Certainly the Coppernose's intolerance of colder water is well documented, and while I have spent my fair share of time on tough Bluegill bites, I still have a difficult time wrapping my head around the idea that they absolutely will not touch a bait under any circumstances, after the water cools below a certain point.

What is the cutoff temp when a CNBG refuses to feed? My native BG will not feed on pellets during open water periods that occur in the winter, but yet they remain catchable...does this count as refusing to feed?

So many questions.........