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Bill D. #430836 12/05/15 04:36 PM
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Originally Posted By: Bill D.

Update,

Here are a few pics of what we did for erosion control. Finally, making some progress. smile We have the rip rap in the waterways where they access the pond (I think I got the idea from Snrub?). The rest of the waterways was seeded and covered with erosion mat. You can also see the rip rap we put around the shoreline on the northern half of the pond for erosion and habitat. There is heavy fabric under the stone in the waterways and on the shore. The remaining shoreline will be intermittent areas of native stone and marginal plants as that area does not see much erosion.

I let the pond go to low pool for the work. At full pool only a foot or so of the rip rap will show on the shore.



Update...

Missed my guess a little on how much rip rap would be above the water line at full pool. Here is a pic taken today of the East Shore for comparison to the previous pic. The 6 foot wide band of rip rap came up short. Looks like I need to add another couple feet. If you look at the left side of the pic you can see a boulder on the point as reference point to how much the level changed from the previous low pool East Shore pic.

I am hoping small crawfish, tiny fingerlings and any other small forage will find refuge and thrive in all that rip rap. smile




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East Shore Full.jpg East Shore Low Pool.jpg
Last edited by Bill D.; 11/14/19 03:42 PM.

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I told my wife I was hungry for some Thai food a few days back. She took some small BG fillets we had culled from the puddle last summer from the freezer, teamed them up with some boxelder mushrooms from the freezer and greens over Thai Jasmine rice and her secret Thai Mojo ingredients. Result...It don't get much better than this if yer looking for an Asian snack!


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Bill D. #431553 12/13/15 08:05 PM
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It's a little after 7 PM with temp at 59 on December 13th! Heavy rain on my little puddle. Level had dropped a few inches from full pool since the last big rain. Forecast is for record rain tonight and tomorrow. May be able to fish from the deck on the house on Tuesday! frown

Last edited by Bill D.; 12/13/15 08:08 PM. Reason: Clarification

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Bill D. #431582 12/14/15 06:32 AM
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Is the rain over? How much?


It's not about the fish. It's about the pond. Take care of the pond and the fish will be fine. PB subscriber since before it was in color.

Without a sense of urgency, Nothing ever gets done.

Boy, if I say "sic em", you'd better look for something to bite. Sam Shelley Rancher and Farmer Muleshoe Texas 1892-1985 RIP
Bill D. #431587 12/14/15 08:07 AM
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Still raining. 2.1 inches overnight. Hopefully, we won't get much more. Pond is full full.


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Bill D. #431700 12/15/15 10:37 AM
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Bill, Great thread! Im stuck dealing with a future industrial park pond we have in Montgomery IL and wish I could have it in my back yard to spend the time on it you do! Im sure all this work will be WELL worth it! Also get my fish from keystone and they have been great, glad to hear you have had the same luck. Have you considered adding any pike/musky to the mix? I just added a couple TM to help with my lack of culling (no clue if it will work).

On a side note. I am an excavating contractor and I noticed you have about 18" of stone in your driveway. Im guessing that the 9' of fill is clay? Im not sure how long your driveway is but one thing I would recommend is (if its practical) is to try and place some perforated drain pipe below the stone. A lot of times what happens the rain water from your lawn will drain to the clay (if your clay subgrade is below your topsoil) and will hold there between the clay/stone sub-base and on years like this (real wet/warm early winter) and when it freezes will start to crack your driveway. May cost a bit now but could save a lot in the long run.

Sorry for the rant just run into this issue a lot in industrial buildings but usually they are re-surfacing due to heavy truck traffic so its not as important.

Bill D. #431745 12/15/15 09:01 PM
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Z6,

I am always looking for inputs. Montgomery is not that far from us. We're near Belvidere. Yeah, the folks at Keystone are great. I wish they had pellet trained fish though.

Here is a picture of the driveway. I was standing on the road in front of the house when I took it. For perspective, the garage floor is 9 feet above the original grade. The drive is about 160 feet long and slopes up gradually from the road to the house. The fill for the drive and the yard was provided by digging the pond. It's a mix of gravel, loam and some clay. The yard has a topcoat of a few inches of good topsoil I scrapped from the pond site and reserved for covering the fill. It doesn't show that well but the drive is pretty much the same grade as the yard. Any thoughts on how to improve things before putting down the asphalt are appreciated!

Just curious..do you dig ponds? Lots of folks here on the forum are always asking for recommendations for pond builders and they are hard to find by me.


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Last edited by Bill D.; 11/14/19 03:44 PM.

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Bill D. #431756 12/15/15 10:31 PM
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"Just curious..do you dig ponds? Lots of folks here on the forum are always asking for recommendations for pond builders and they are hard to find by me." That is the first thing I thought when I read he is a dirt guy. Been two very recent posts for N IN.
Bill, that is a real nice lookin house. It has a few more peaks than my trailer but other than that would say about the same level of class. Cecil, Bill C and Scott have all been to my place. Give them a chance ta change their pants and then ask em how nice it is.


Do nature a favor, spay/neuter your pets and any weird friends or relatives.
Bill D. #431758 12/15/15 10:40 PM
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Bob,

Wife says she has the guest room all ready for yer visit next summer if you are lookin for a road trip!

P.S. Please bring toilet paper, these cobs are rubbing me raw!


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Bill D. #431785 12/16/15 10:14 AM
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That is a great invitation and I will very much consider it. When will her unmarried sister be visiting?
What's toilet paper?


Do nature a favor, spay/neuter your pets and any weird friends or relatives.
Bill D. #431806 12/16/15 11:52 AM
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Beautiful home! Even if the stone is level with the topsoil the problem is it might still drain to dirt below the stone. It looks like your yard does slope away from the drive so you might be ok. Its not a HUGE deal...i only brought it up because my mind works that way haha!

In regards to digging ponds...we do but usually only for industrial parks. We are a union contractor so we cant really compete with the other guys. I dont get to spend as much time on here as id like (so much information) so i may not be able to give much advice/opinions as other people. One thing i noticed is in our line of work when excavating a pond we are using that material to build a building pad. Most people on here are adding a pond and dont have any where for the excavated material to go so they build berms around the pond. I will say i always prefer a natural cut pond to a berm pond...to many things to worry about in regards to leaks or dams breaking.

Side note...in a private pond are safety shelfs required? In most cases for industrial/office parks they are...was kind of curious about that.

Bob-O #431867 12/16/15 09:42 PM
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Originally Posted By: Bob-O
...What's toilet paper?


It kinda looks like a YP egg ribbon. It grows from yer neighbor's trees, usually on Halloween night. It's kinda like gathering mushrooms. Get out and gather it quick thou cause rain really screws it up.

Last edited by Bill D.; 12/16/15 09:47 PM.

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Bill D. #431869 12/16/15 10:11 PM
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I'll start payin attention.


Do nature a favor, spay/neuter your pets and any weird friends or relatives.
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My plan for Mutt Pond this spring is to fortify the food chain. The broken concrete, rip rap and boulder piles are now in place.

Plan is to stock paper shell craws as they are a preferred forage for my WE, SMB and YP. My concern is this will divert the attention of these predators from the PS and BG spawn. Might end up with an overpopulation issue there but I think I will take the risk.(We love to eat SF! smile )

I will also keep working on getting desirable vegetation in place and, if successful, will be stocking scuds and grass shrimp.

Any thoughts and suggestions would be appreciated.

Last edited by Bill D.; 12/28/15 09:02 PM.

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If the PS and BG start to overpopulate, they are easily trapped, or you can try throwing HSB in there.


www.hoosierpondpros.com


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3/4 to 1 1/4 ac pond LMB, SMB, PS, BG, RES, CC, YP, Bardello BG, (RBT & Blue Tilapia - seasonal).
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A few HSB is in the spring 2017 stocking plan...along with HBC instead of CC and maybe a few HBG just because I have become a big fan of them. smile

Last edited by Bill D.; 12/28/15 09:26 PM.

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Bill D. #433984 01/08/16 07:58 PM
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Dinner tonight was CC fillets from the CC harvest last summer from the pond. Cleaned per Snakebite's recommendations. I have to say, I have always loved CC for the table but these are the absolute best I've ever had. Grain based pellet fed for the most part and cleaned to eliminate any strong "muddy or fishy" tasting sections. Awesome! Snakebite, I salute you sir!

In the fall of 2015, I only stocked 10 new CC bringing the total in the pond to 15 for 2016 harvest. After tonight's dinner, I am adjusting the spring 2016 stocking plan to add another 20 in the 10 to 12 inch size for the fall 2016 harvest cause I know you can always freeze the fillets to eat on a cold night in January! smile


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Originally Posted By: Bill D.
My plan for Mutt Pond this spring is to fortify the food chain. The broken concrete, rip rap and boulder piles are now in place.

Plan is to stock paper shell craws as they are a preferred forage for my WE, SMB and YP. My concern is this will divert the attention of these predators from the PS and BG spawn. Might end up with an overpopulation issue there ....


For anyone that might be following along as my pond evolves, a lot of good discussion on stocking craws in both my pond and other ponds can be found here:

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=434555#Post434555

IMHO this is a good illustration that introducing a new forage species is not as easy as it first may appear...It Depends!

Another thing I am working on is raising forage in aquariums. A lot of info on that on this thread.

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=435166&page=1

and more aquarium info here....

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=435191#Post435191

Bill D.

Last edited by Bill D.; 01/21/16 07:41 AM.

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Bill D. #437563 02/12/16 09:07 PM
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Update....As part of my effort to improve the food chain, I realize I must continue my efforts to improve vegetation habitat in the pond. A couple of forum members have offered to send me some starts of red tip eel grass. I will try getting this going in the pond this spring. Although I THINK I might have a small start of American Pondweed in the pond already, I am still looking for a source for more.

I will be ordering some scuds this week. Plan will be to populate a 20 gallon aquarium in the basement for spring stocking to the pond. The balance of this order will be dropped thru the hole in the ice created by the winter diffuser...hope a few of those bugs make it! smile

Update….

The Scuds arrived safely today. Must have been a couple thousand of them. They came in a breather bag which I’d heard of but never seen. No need to add O2 to the bag. Pretty cool!

I put probably 200 in the 20 G tank and another 40 or 50 in a 5.5 G tank. The rest I put in the pond where they disappeared immediately into the rip rap.


Here’s a pic of my 20 G scud tank.



And here’s a pic of a few of the scuds getting busy chowing down on leaves.







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Scuds in 20 G.jpg Scuds Chow Time.jpg
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Bill D. #439132 02/29/16 11:28 AM
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Originally Posted By: Bill D.
Supposed to be heavy rain tonight. Hoping to see a fuller puddle in the morning. If we get it, it will be a great opportunity to assess my erosion control efforts. I also dug in all the downspouts from the house out to the waterways. I am very curious to see how they perform.


Update...

What a difference a year makes! This time last year when the snow melted and the ice went out, the pond had about 12 inch visibility and appeared muddy. After all the erosion control efforts last summer, this year after snow melt and ice out, visibility is easily 5 feet! Wish I had a polarizing lens but maybe you can get the idea from this pic...




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Bill D. #439136 02/29/16 11:55 AM
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Bill, TurtleMountain,
Any updates on the Scuds? Growing, eating? etc?

canyoncreek #439137 02/29/16 12:28 PM
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Originally Posted By: canyoncreek
Bill, TurtleMountain,
Any updates on the Scuds? Growing, eating? etc?


Mine are doing great! Some have already molted. All are spawning it seems. They are eating an incredible number of maple leaves. They reduce them down to dang near nothing. I am hooked on these little guys. I consider them perfect forage to add to a pond. They turn detritus material into high protein fish snacks instead of muck!


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Billy Bub, good to see what progress your puddle(actually you) is makin. Also a big thanks on the scud info. I never considered the lower ranks of forage but now feel compelled to develop such lower level feed. Now this kills me but....THANKS!! Last two summers I been micro fishin and am developing a new respect for the little things. No, no, no, it has nothing to be with my personal anatomy.
I will be buggin (pun intended for Charlies benefit)you on having working aquariums.


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Bill, I assume you are putting colored maple leaves in (ones that have lain on the ground for a while?) Are they brittle and falling in pieces or do you put the whole leaf in?

I'm considering putting a few in a tank to watch but I don't have an aquarium setup so once my water gets tannin or debris I can't easily separate the little guys out to do a water exchange.

A fish tank at the kids school has 6" goldfish in it, I'd love to bring some to school for kids to watch. But maybe goldfish would snap them up?

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Originally Posted By: Bob-O
Billy Bub, good to see what progress your puddle(actually you) is makin. Also a big thanks on the scud info. I never considered the lower ranks of forage but now feel compelled to develop such lower level feed. Now this kills me but....THANKS!! Last two summers I been micro fishin and am developing a new respect for the little things. No, no, no, it has nothing to be with my personal anatomy.
I will be buggin (pun intended for Charlies benefit)you on having working aquariums.


Bob, I gotta give credit to Turtlemtn for drawing my focus on these little critters by starting a thread about them. I hope they do well in the tanks so I have some more to throw in the pond. Maybe this spring we can do a little "horse" trading.... smile


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