Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Property Projects & Construction What did you do at your pond today?

It's only a half acre, and the emphasis is on big BGxRES. I'd crowd the predators more if I could.

Rod, two common sucker species are prevalent in Ozarks streams - the River Redhorse and the Northern Hogsucker.
Snagging season for suckers is a big deal in the Misery Ozarks.

As previously mentioned all you need is a lightweight rod rigged with nothing but a hook/worm and a split shot if you
want to catch them the sporting way. You've already noticed that they are quite skittish. Approach quietly from downstream,
pitch your worm a couple or three feet upstream from the school (they will orient facing the current unless they're spooked
or swimming back to the lower end of the hole to start another feeding run). This will sound funny, but watch what happens
when one of them spots your worm sinking to the bottom - the fish will swim to the bait, sniff it, then start to eat it - lips extend
once, lips extend twice, lips extend three times - lift the rod tip and virtually every time you will have them hooked in the corner
of the mouth. Lift on one or two you'll miss. Lift on four the fish swallowed your hook.

They're super easy to butcher - scrape the scales off, remove the filet, score down to the skin every 1/4" or so. Dip in your
favorite fish fry mix and toss em into hot grease. It will be some of the best fish you've ever eaten.

Oh... I have no idea if the OPV will whistle at me when/if it pops. It looks like your garden variety OPV that would be found on
an air compressor, but I can't imagine that the volume/pressure our diffusion pumps run at would cause it to make much noise.

Thanks for the sucker advice! Definitely need to catch, identify, and perhaps eat.


I have seen high-pressure OPVs that are spring loaded on gas pipelines. They typically have a little disk that blows out of the vent port when they open due to overpressure, or have a thin wire attached that breaks when the stem moves on the relief port.

I was just wondering if you could make some "poor boy" version of that? Maybe just lightly obstruct your pressure relief port with a dowel or similar item that would easily blow out if you hit overpressure. That way you would at least know that something was plugging in your system.

There's a reason why a pressure gauge is highly recommended to be incorporated in an aeration system............................

On my own pond, I have two pressure gauges and one OVP valve. One gauge by the compressor, one in the Remote Manifold Box at the edge of the pond.

esshup,

With that set up, can you also start to observe when you are getting wear on your compressor and it is time for a rebuild/replacement?

My pond is like the cobblers kids. The answer is yes, but by then the pressure gauge usually reads 0.

OTOH, in the years that I've had the pond I've only had 2 compressors that needed rebuilding, both rocking piston types. I change compressors like underwear, testing different things. Currently there is a 1/4 hp Gast rotary vane running to the pond.

I have run a 3/4 hp rotary vane testing different single membrane diffusers. No failures noted.

Spring's here, and this is my "still working on it" shoreline combo that is just now popping up. Water Iris and reeds help stabilize the shoreline, and water primrose and hardy lilies provide shallow water shade.

Wow, great looking combo on the plants!

That would certainly also earn the Mrs. FishinRod stamp of approval. Which, as everyone knows, is one of the MOST important items when managing a pond.

That looks great Al!

I bought some Hardy Lilies last Fall, overwintered them inside and they will be going into the pond (inside wire cages to protect them from geese, TGC and turtles) in 3-4 weeks.

With my continually fluctuating water levels, I think I'll leave them in containers.

I'm thinking of putting them in mortar mixing tubs, attaching the cage to those and making sure that there is a long rope on them before they get put in the pond. I can push them deeper with a long stick and pull them shallower with the rope.

Scott, I help a guy that has a pond at his RV park, and I had him do the same thing with a mixing tub. It works good when the water level drops.

Today, the guys from dumpsterrentalslafayette.com came and took the waste left from my pond renovation.
Yeah, I'm rebuilding my pond now. The current setup isn't meeting my expectations anymore. There's a persistent issue with algae growth, and the water quality just isn't where I want it to be.
Firstly, I want to improve the overall aesthetic and functionality of the pond. I imagine a more naturalistic design with better filtration systems to maintain water clarity. Additionally, I'd like to introduce more diverse aquatic plants and fish species to create a balanced ecosystem.
Also, has anyone experimented with including a small waterfall or stream?

Here's mine. Too much to type. https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=12914&Number=151543#Post151543

Nina, you probably need to start a new thread for that type of question.

Can you list some of the characteristics of your pond, and then what is wrong, and then what you would like to change?

That should get you some helpful responses.

Dug holes at the house for my wife to plant her new plants in the morning. It was so dry that I did not find a single worm. I wanted to try and catch some of those large sucker fish in our creek!

Went out to the farm to water trees in the afternoon. Took a fishing rod to clean out some of the GSF from the creek such that the suckers might actually have a chance the next time I had a bit of worm. Threw a small jig with a tiny grub about 12" farther up the line. Caught a 10" LMB on the first cast. Caught a 14" LMB on the second cast. Both bass were caught on the tiny grub lure. I am pretty sure there were only two bass in that hole when I looked last week. Both were well above 100 RW.

Never caught a GSF the whole time.

The water was clear last week, but some bloom was going this week, so I couldn't see very well into that pool in the creek.

The advice last week was to try a bit of worm on a small hook. Anyone know if they would also bite on corn or a doughball?

Sorry, I don't yet have a positive ID until I put some on the bank. I am pretty sure it is a long-bodied type of sucker. NOT a common carp or as deep-bodied as a quillback carpsucker. Although I am looking down from a high bank, so my fish ID skills in that circumstance are even worse than usual!

FiresHot, I made a mistake showing my wife the plants you’ve got growing in your pond. Now she’s on a mission. I suspect I’ll be planting soon. We just have this ongoing drought so our pond is up and down, mostly down. We have had a couple of nice rains lately. Water level is up a little, but still 2’ below full. I’m not sure how to plant in a pond with such varying water levels.
I turned on the feeder yesterday. We caught several keeper YP a few weeks ago, and I’d like to see more. Unfortunately, the test feed throw from the feeder revealed less than stellar interest from the fish. I’ll be back up in a week, I’ll see if the fish have responded, I sure hope so. For now I turned the amount of feed way down. (4 seconds a day).
When I was at the fish sellers place getting the food for the feeder, I asked if he had any WE in stock. He does! I said I may put in some. We discussed numbers etc. His recommendation for my 1 ac. Pond was 40 walleye. He said if I put in a dozen, I’d probably never see them. Of course he wants to sell more fish.. Food for thought. He did say, I needed to keep the ones I caught, and start eating them! I think I can be talked into that. Ha!

I love messing with them, and the blooms are just now opening up and showing off. If it's something y'all would like try, here's a link below to a brand new hardy plant I potted last year. I've had good luck purchasing from Pond Megastore, and stay with hardy lilies, not tropical. Plants with bigger leaves mean faster spread, so I might start with a smaller leafed plant.

Potting Detective Erika
https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=558629

My big pond
https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=558533

No bait stores to buy some redworms?

I have not been in a bait store in many years. (Which clearly means - too much working, not enough fishing.)

I remember them carrying nightcrawlers and minnows, because there are no good panfish BOW near me. But somebody must have some redworms.

Thanks.

Even the WalMart's here have live bait in a cooler by the register in Sporting Goods.

Score!

Web says store by me has redworms along with nightcrawlers.

Yesterday we worked on touching up some seed for the bare areas, cleaned up and organized some of the old projects, smoothed a bit of dirt with the box blade on the tractor. It didn't even feel like work. Was a pretty nice day out, a touch windy.

Today, shorter visit to the farm as we made lots of progress yesterday. Had some rain overnight, and we decided to stay off the dirt where we could for the day. That left getting in the water and cleaning up a couple of the trees I had set to protect the little ones we hope to see spawn this year. Water temps in the 50's and had a blast!

Great pic, Boondoggle!

I bet that water was still a mite chilly. However, it did give me a good idea.

My old knees sometimes get pretty achy working at the farm. I think I should follow your example and just sit on a sandbar in our creek and soak my knees for about ten minutes. Towel off and go back to work.

Heck, the minnows in the creek might even give me a pedicure at the same time.

Ambient temps were right around 60 degrees today in western PA. We've had colder weather the few days past along with good rains, so the neighborhood pond was high and muddy/murky. Fish took to feed very lightly.

At my neighbor Lee's pond, I caught 6 yellow perch with the largest being 8-9", and healthy. Lee's water was not muddy but was not clear either. YP hit on worms.

My buddy Nick and I spent Saturday morning in the woods searching for morels. The season is just starting to get good here.



After we got back we pulled out the fishing rods and spent an hour collecting some fish to cook with the morels.
We pulled two more HSB, which makes 12 harvested of the 20 that were stocked. Both were <85% wR. Until the middle
of last summer I'd been seeing >100% wR from every HSB that was caught. My theory is that they were thriving up to the
point most of the crayfish in the pond were gone. We've been in an extended drought here. Most of the riprap on my pond
dam has been high and dry for over a year. By the middle of last summer it was becoming unusual to pull more than one
or two crayfish in an overnight trap soak. So it may be a lack of preferred forage that's holding them back.



The BG seem to be doing quite a bit better than the HSB. I haven't been taking weights and measures on the over-slot
BG that were released immediately after being caught, but they are clearly in good condition with nice fat bellies. We're
waiting on water temp to align with free time to deploy the fyke net. I'll make sure to get a good sampling of all sizes
when that happens.

Wow, what a good weekend Augie!

Also, your BG on the chart are very impressive.