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Cool! Wonder if they would help keep water fowl, such as cormorants and GBH, away as well.

I read an article by Bill C. in PBM a couple issues back that mentions sitting down when fishing if you want to minimize spooking the fish.


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Originally Posted By: Bill D.
Cool! Wonder if they would help keep water fowl, such as cormorants and GBH, away as well.

I read an article by Bill C. in PBM a couple issues back that mentions sitting down when fishing if you want to minimize spooking the fish.


Bill D -

I don't have water fowl issues. There were 2 ducks a year back, but they left right quick. Loud noises in their direction seems to inspire them to seek quieter water. Same with a Canadian goose pair a year before that.

Yeah I don't stand when fishing unless I have to. I've climbed trees to cast out. I've laid flat on the ground and flipped the lure out. I've crawled along high grass and flipped the lure over having it appear like the frog just jumped in. LOL I've even set the lure on the bank, opened the bail and walked around the edge to a spot across the way, closed the bail to take in most slack, waited until I spotted a bass or a couple cruising near the lure on the bank, and then gently maneuvered the lure into the water. I even use real short rods in certain places.

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Update 18 January 2016

Water clarity ...

Anyone gander what the depth here is?



You're standing on the bank and you're looking straight into 6 feet of clear water. Just on the other edge of those weeds is a drop off to 14 feet of water.

I don't have the official 8-inch Secchi disk but I spent a few hours today staring at the display of a depth finder and the pond. The water is clear. I decided to take a white filet board and tie it to para cord. Anyone guess the clarity from the pic below?



9 FEET!

Here's the thing - I bet if I had the disk it would be greater than 9 feet. The edge of that board is thin and nowhere near 8 inches.

So when is water TOO CLEAR?

This water _is_ clear.

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I previously thought the average depth was around 8 to 10 feet. Just based on swimming, diving, and fishing.

Yesterday I used an inexpensive depth finder and now am going to invest in one that offers more features such as mapping. But until then, my surprise was that the average depth is around 12 feet, with many areas in the 14-16 feet range.




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Poor boy sechi disk is the top of a white paint bucket.


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.

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basslover,"when is water to clear" it depends lol. I am sure you are aware of me being 1+ year pond guy. No guru here. So "it depends" on ones goals with or for his pond. But it has been suggested to me by a pond master and others to keep water visibility in the 18 to 22" range by using fertilizer (A fertilized pond). For my goals, I try to keep the visibility @ 18". On one or two occasions visibility has dropped to 12" due to blooms and also after doing some work around the pond this past Nov., I have had some cloudy water with 12" visibility, due to combination of green water mixed with some runoff from rain. Once when the weather dropped to a snow period I had 36" or more of visibility. So it depends on ones goals I think.

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Originally Posted By: Dave Davidson1
Poor boy sechi disk is the top of a white paint bucket.


Dave -

Yeah I have a white frisbee I could use, or grab a white 5 gallon bucket lid as you noted. The only white object I had that day was the filet board.

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Originally Posted By: TGW1
basslover,"when is water to clear" it depends lol. I am sure you are aware of me being 1+ year pond guy. No guru here. So "it depends" on ones goals with or for his pond. But it has been suggested to me by a pond master and others to keep water visibility in the 18 to 22" range by using fertilizer (A fertilized pond). For my goals, I try to keep the visibility @ 18". On one or two occasions visibility has dropped to 12" due to blooms and also after doing some work around the pond this past Nov., I have had some cloudy water with 12" visibility, due to combination of green water mixed with some runoff from rain. Once when the weather dropped to a snow period I had 36" or more of visibility. So it depends on ones goals I think.

Tracy


Tracy -

I've read a lot about desired visibility 18-24" range. I can see where that could help forage and predator fish - relax and prey. As well as the photo plankton and organisms. I know that the clarity that our pond is makes fishing more challenging.

But aside from fishing, the very clear water is wonderful. Seeing the fish in their natural habitat, watching them and shooting underwater video and stills - all of the very clear water is perfect for these activities! Snorkeling and seeing a 5 lb LMB in 5 feet of water beside or beneath you is cool. LOL

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Originally Posted By: Lovnlivin
Originally Posted By: basslover
And remember, ALL of this has been human horsepower, Keith. Handsaw, ax, rake, etc. No gas or battery powered tools have been used aside from screwing in the decking screws on the dock (used battery powered drill for deck, but socket wrench for the spax bolts used in supports).

That is truly what makes all the effort even that much more rewarding, satisfying and enjoyable! Including the aches and pains that go along with it!

Great job, basslover and I'm guessing it's only going to get better in so many ways!


That is easy to say when you are young and in good shape. Give it a few years or maybe some back problems, then a gas powered chain saw or other powered equipment looks pretty good. But as long as you can do it, go for it. Cheaper and makes more sense than a gym fee or tread mill.

Last edited by snrub; 01/19/16 11:08 AM.

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In winter time like this my pond becomes really clear also! 7 feet easy. Gin clear as they call it. I do not Fert. though. Once you start to Fert you need to keep doing it so they say. I have managed to grow 10 plus inch BG / 4 lbs HSB and 4 lbs LMB without Fertilizing and that's fine for me. I know in my 1 acre pond I am not gonna break any records this way but I have gotten a nice overall situation that is fun to fish!!

RC

P.S. And your right about the clear water and fishing, I have a 14 foot flat bottom boat and they can see it coming for a mile!! LOL! Cloudy days work best for me in the boat and I have a large bench at the edge of the shoreline to sit on when I am fishing from shore!


The only difference between a rut and a Grave is the depth. So get up get out of that rut and get moving!! Time to work!!
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The water clarity will change depending on water temp, available sunlight, and wave action or lack of it. Clarity here will bounce from 24" to 96" depending on the time of year and amount of plants growing in the pond.

Up here, we don't usually have to fertilize, only *maybe* once to get a bloom going. Also, if you are feeding your fish, that is a form of fertilizer, so I wouldn't be that concerned about adding it if you were feeding heavily.

There is a difference between a bloom and turbidity due to suspended particles. A bloom is the bottom of the food pyramid in a pond, turbidity cuts off the bottom of that food pyramid. Also, in ponds with very clear water, there isn't much there food wise for YOY fish to get a good jump start on life.

I try to shoot for 24" to 36" visibility with a secchi disk, I start to get nervous when it starts to drop below 18", especially if the pond doesn't have aeration.


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Just the few granules of zero phosphorous spring time fertilizer that the crew put down on my lawn that hit the pond will set off a spring time bloom for me. I'm sure if we got a rain soon after the fertilizer application that some run off took more fertilizer into the pond as well. My bloom lasted about 10 days last spring and then it seemed like there may have been a mid to late summer bloom again, but again, i couldnt' rule out a correlation with the mid summer fertilizer application as well to the lawn.

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Depending on the levels of N and P in the pond, N could be the bloom limiting factor, not P.


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Originally Posted By: esshup
The water clarity will change depending on water temp, available sunlight, and wave action or lack of it. Clarity here will bounce from 24" to 96" depending on the time of year and amount of plants growing in the pond.

Up here, we don't usually have to fertilize, only *maybe* once to get a bloom going. Also, if you are feeding your fish, that is a form of fertilizer, so I wouldn't be that concerned about adding it if you were feeding heavily.

There is a difference between a bloom and turbidity due to suspended particles. A bloom is the bottom of the food pyramid in a pond, turbidity cuts off the bottom of that food pyramid. Also, in ponds with very clear water, there isn't much there food wise for YOY fish to get a good jump start on life.

I try to shoot for 24" to 36" visibility with a secchi disk, I start to get nervous when it starts to drop below 18", especially if the pond doesn't have aeration.

esshup, I have also gotten a little nervous when the green water went to 12". I started the water well up to dilute it back and so far that has worked. And after I did some ground work around the pond this past Nov. I have had some cloudy green water. Not muddy bud cloudy. I have been thinking about turning the water well back on. It will clear the water up in about 4 days.

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Originally Posted By: snrub

That is easy to say when you are young and in good shape. Give it a few years or maybe some back problems, then a gas powered chain saw or other powered equipment looks pretty good. But as long as you can do it, go for it. Cheaper and makes more sense than a gym fee or tread mill.


Young? Ha! Definitely not young. In spirit, sure. But in age? No way. frown

Not a fan of the 2-stroke. The noise of a chainsaw in a beautiful forest is at odds with my love of nature. Now a handsaw, it's quiet, and like non-power assist in vehicles, it allows one to feel everything that's going in. In other words, I'm a glutton for punishment wink

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Originally Posted By: RC51
In winter time like this my pond becomes really clear also! 7 feet easy. Gin clear as they call it. I do not Fert. though. Once you start to Fert you need to keep doing it so they say. I have managed to grow 10 plus inch BG / 4 lbs HSB and 4 lbs LMB without Fertilizing and that's fine for me. I know in my 1 acre pond I am not gonna break any records this way but I have gotten a nice overall situation that is fun to fish!!

RC

P.S. And your right about the clear water and fishing, I have a 14 foot flat bottom boat and they can see it coming for a mile!! LOL! Cloudy days work best for me in the boat and I have a large bench at the edge of the shoreline to sit on when I am fishing from shore!



RC -

That is exactly why I haven't fertilized - because then I've got to keep up with it. It isn't about cost in so much it's about doing something that doesn't occur naturally in my pond and having to maintain it. I've resigned to allow nature to attempt to balance the life in and around the pond. Sure, I stocked the fish, but I'm hoping that a natural balance is achieved, or with minimal intervention. Which is also why I haven't invested in an automatic feeder. The benefits are larger fish faster for the forage fish that dine on the feed, but do they then rely on it and starve or unhealthy if the feed disappears one day and they have to hunt for themselves?

I built a couple of fish blinds that I can creep up to, squat, sit, kneel, or lay behind and cast over. But I've also been mastering the art of the long, accurate cast. The todo list for February and March is to finish setting in my habitats I've assembled that hopefully will help create specific areas to fish.

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I wish I had greener algae, rather than the brown I get. I wonder if it's from the feeder? I only feed 4 seconds a day, but it's a long 4 seconds with my feeder. I usually have very calm water in the woods, so not a lot of wave action. Every now and then I would get a whiff of a sulphur smell. In the canoe, on a very calm day. I have not fertilized the water, but I have put down fertilizer on the new fescue around the pond, and I know the alfalfa fields above the pond get nutrients. I know the oak leaves that fall into the pond every fall by the millions add to brownish color also.


9 yr old pond, 1 ac, 15' deep.
RES, YP, GS, FHM (no longer), HBG (going away), SMB, and HSB (only one seen in 5 yrs) Restocked HSB (2020) Have seen one of these.
I think that's about all I should put in my little pond.
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Originally Posted By: basslover
Not a fan of the 2-stroke. The noise of a chainsaw in a beautiful forest is at odds with my love of nature. Now a handsaw, it's quiet, and like non-power assist in vehicles, it allows one to feel everything that's going in. In other words, I'm a glutton for punishment wink


Wait until you are tasked with dropping and removing 100+ dead Oak and Maple trees that are up to 40" diameter at the base in a relatively short amount of time. You will soon learn to love the way the chips fly off of the chain.....

I agree with you about the peace and quiet of the woods, but sometimes when you gotta get 'er done, there's no substitution for power equipment.


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I'm probably as close to my outdoor environment as anyone here, but ain't no way I'm felling trees and cutting wood with a handsaw. A well tuned saw with a good chisel chain speaks to my soul in the same manner as does the quiet of the forest. A different language undoubtedly, but I hear and understand it nonetheless.


"Forget pounds and ounces, I'm figuring displacement!"

If we accept that: MBG(+)FGSF(=)HBG(F1)
And we surmise that: BG(>)HBG(F1) while GSF(<)HBG(F1)
Would it hold true that: HBG(F1)(+)AM500(x)q.d.(=)1.5lbGRWT?
PB answer: It depends.
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Originally Posted By: SetterGuy
I wish I had greener algae, rather than the brown I get. I wonder if it's from the feeder? I only feed 4 seconds a day, but it's a long 4 seconds with my feeder. I usually have very calm water in the woods, so not a lot of wave action. Every now and then I would get a whiff of a sulphur smell. In the canoe, on a very calm day. I have not fertilized the water, but I have put down fertilizer on the new fescue around the pond, and I know the alfalfa fields above the pond get nutrients. I know the oak leaves that fall into the pond every fall by the millions add to brownish color also.


Which leads me to a question about something I read on another web site just yesterday. If I can find it again I will post the link. You say you wish you had the green algae rather than brown. I have thought the same thing at times when my green pond turns brown for no seemingly good reason. Then I read that a green bloom is likely algae and a brownish water afterwords is likely an animal bloom, zooplankton, that is feeding on the algae. Which said article was a good thing because the larval fish eat the animals. Wish I could remember the names but will try to look the article up. But at any rate, if the article was correct, maybe the brown following the green was not a bad thing after all, but natural food production for the fish population.

Last edited by snrub; 01/20/16 08:28 PM.

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Originally Posted By: SetterGuy
I wish I had greener algae, rather than the brown I get. I wonder if it's from the feeder? I only feed 4 seconds a day, but it's a long 4 seconds with my feeder. I usually have very calm water in the woods, so not a lot of wave action. Every now and then I would get a whiff of a sulphur smell. In the canoe, on a very calm day. I have not fertilized the water, but I have put down fertilizer on the new fescue around the pond, and I know the alfalfa fields above the pond get nutrients. I know the oak leaves that fall into the pond every fall by the millions add to brownish color also.


I tested garden netting this Autumn. Caught a lot of leaves as they blew down toward the water. Some wood stakes, some netting, and a few minutes of time. Might consider it for next Autumn at your pond. Easy install, easy removal, and inexpensive.

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Originally Posted By: esshup

Wait until you are tasked with dropping and removing 100+ dead Oak and Maple trees that are up to 40" diameter at the base in a relatively short amount of time. You will soon learn to love the way the chips fly off of the chain.....

I agree with you about the peace and quiet of the woods, but sometimes when you gotta get 'er done, there's no substitution for power equipment.


Ha! I hope not. I've had some deadlines to meet and it was burning the midnight oil for sure. Handsaw goes along with hand rake, loppers, pushreel mower, and the garden that starts from seed inside the home under the light in a peat ball on a heat mat. Our 3 and 7 year olds are getting ready to plant their second garden in a couple of weeks.

I keep thinking there would be a heck of a lot less deforestation if hand saws had to be used ... wink

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Originally Posted By: sprkplug
I'm probably as close to my outdoor environment as anyone here, but ain't no way I'm felling trees and cutting wood with a handsaw. A well tuned saw with a good chisel chain speaks to my soul in the same manner as does the quiet of the forest. A different language undoubtedly, but I hear and understand it nonetheless.


sprkplug - made me laugh with your "ain't no way I'm felling trees ... with a handsaw "! smile

I'm working on a dugout canoe. We'll see how long this project takes.

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Dugout, what type of tree u using? I was thinking of the big oaks are sometimes hollow in the middle, but those are some really big oaks. Would be a really big dugout smile

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Update 30 January 2016:

Began using the Deeper Fishfinder in our pond. I've been using this device in bodies of water I'm unfamiliar with to essentially map the water and identify structure, cover, and fish. You're limited only by the BlueTooth range of roughly 120 feet I think.

For the price point (roughly $200) it offers quite a bit of usefulness. A portable wireless sonar in a round shape perfect for launching like a baseball (or tie it to your yak etc.). Uses Bluetooth to communicate to smart phone or tablet.

Some things I find useful;
- water temperature
- depth finder (duh! LOL)
- fish finder (also shows in small, medium and large fish)
- identify structure and cover in water
- tow it, mount it, sling it, cast it
- records history of data you can playback later
- use location services to map the body of water
- allows you to use the camera to take pictures of the body of water (great for remembering exactly where that target was)

Snap of some fish in 7-10 feet of water. The green shows vegetation. The number above the fish indicates depth fish was.




Showing exactly what our pond has a lot of in the deep areas - NOTHING. No structure, no cover, just deep water with some vegetation on the bottom. No fish frown LOL




A lot of the medium to larger fish were holding yesterday in the 8-10 foot range.


Last edited by basslover; 01/30/16 08:33 AM.
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