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Originally Posted By: stickem'
Got out to the pond just in time to watch them feed. Lots of smaller fish it seems. The pellets were consumed in less than 5 minutes. I may increase the feed times by another 25% tomorrow. Water temp was 75 degrees....a little elevated for this time of year normally.



I know right! I keep increasing daily! Those GSF and CC are eating machines. If they keep eating like this, they're gonna eat me out of house and home!



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Originally Posted By: farmallsc
Originally Posted By: stickem'
Got out to the pond just in time to watch them feed. Lots of smaller fish it seems. The pellets were consumed in less than 5 minutes. I may increase the feed times by another 25% tomorrow. Water temp was 75 degrees....a little elevated for this time of year normally.



I know right! I keep increasing daily! Those GSF and CC are eating machines. If they keep eating like this, they're gonna eat me out of house and home!


My GSF came in with a flood that filled the pond overnight. They were so prolific the first year...I would catch 4-5 distinct sizes. I culled out 350 of them and gave them to a neighbor whose pond had "turned over" and had killed all his large BG breeders. His LMB were living by canibalizing their own spawn. Once I got some predators (LMB, BC, and CC) stocked (after about a year) I very seldom catch a GSF. Given time, your predators should take care of your GSF issue.


...when in doubt...set the hook...
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Took friends on a boat trip around the pond, particularly the island. We saw two areas where CNBG were bedding, a third area almost certainly but too windy to see clearly. Great time, exactly what I wanted the pond to be, along with fun place for kids to catch lots of fish.

Tested feeders for 3 seconds, and all feed gone within 3-5 minutes. Now feeding twice a day, 6 seconds each time, from three feeders. That's only 3 pounds of Optimal per day, think I'll double it in a few days.

Look forward to some TP and GSH stocking this week, along with a small number of breeding size CNBG for the forage pond. No aerator yet because no electricity, so will wait until next year for TP in forage pond.


7ac 2015 CNBG RES FHM 2016 TP FLMB 2017 NLMB GSH L 2018 TP & 70 HSB PK 2019 TP RBT 2020 TFS TP 25 HSB 250 F1,L,RBT -206 2021 TFS TP GSH L,-312 2022 GSH TP CR TFS RBT -234, 2023 BG TP TFS NLMB, -160




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I increased the morning and afternoon feed times from 4 to 6 sec on the TH dock feeder (the fish had been cleaning the pellets up in about 3 minutes previously)...then filled the feeder up with Triton (Cargill) pellets...a mix of 1/8", 3/16, and 1/4" size...fish were lively and fed well. Water was 68 degrees. Man, I have a heck of a bunch of red-ear slider turtles from the size of a hard hat down to a golf ball that need thinning out. Knocked down some dead trees with my FEL and drug them to where I normally burn brush. I also set up 2 tripod corn feeders near the pond (no batteries or corn loaded yet). We hope to be moving into our retirement home (there) in about 3 or so weeks.


...when in doubt...set the hook...
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Originally Posted By: stickem'
also set up 2 tripod corn feeders near the pond (no batteries or corn loaded yet). We hope to be moving into our retirement home (there) in about 3 or so weeks.



What are you feeding the corn to? Sounds like a nice adventure in your future.

Last edited by farmallsc; 04/10/17 05:35 AM.


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Bought a new battery for the fish feeder... it could have been out as much as 2 weeks. Needless to say, BG and HSB very hungry!


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Threw out the minnow traps this morning hoping to sample some small perch. Baited with optimal fish food and a little dog food (kids thought it would be funny to mix dog food with the fish food....)

First pull in, nothing

2nd time, a little deeper, kept it out longer, 2 GSH, one about 4", one about 2". Looked healthy. Very happy to see that they continue to do OK in a pond with close to zero vegetation. But no predators yet either..

Third time kept overnight, next morning 5 big fat crayfish in it!! I have stocked crayfish 2 summers in a row, no predators, never see crayfish, thought they all walked off and couldn't understand why never saw them at night or in traps. Well, at least 5 of them survived.

When traps are overflowing it will be time to stock predators. I suspect the adult YP are probably going to feast on the young crayfish if we can get some offspring going.

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Originally Posted By: farmallsc
Originally Posted By: stickem'
also set up 2 tripod corn feeders near the pond (no batteries or corn loaded yet). We hope to be moving into our retirement home (there) in about 3 or so weeks.



What are you feeding the corn to? Sounds like a nice adventure in your future.


We deer and hog hunt on our place as well...deer hunt by choice and hog hunt in self defense. I like to keep the animals (deer) close year around. There are even some axis running loose. About 7-8 years ago someone bought a 5000 acre tract of high fence property a few miles north of us and they tore the fences down. I've had axis on camera at the game feeders on several occasions.


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Originally Posted By: stickem'
Originally Posted By: farmallsc
Originally Posted By: stickem'
also set up 2 tripod corn feeders near the pond (no batteries or corn loaded yet). We hope to be moving into our retirement home (there) in about 3 or so weeks.



What are you feeding the corn to? Sounds like a nice adventure in your future.


We deer and hog hunt on our place as well...deer hunt by choice and hog hunt in self defense. I like to keep the animals (deer) close year around. There are even some axis running loose. About 7-8 years ago someone bought a 5000 acre tract of high fence property a few miles north of us and they tore the fences down. I've had axis on camera at the game feeders on several occasions.



There is No better meat than Axis in my opinion

Last edited by farmallsc; 04/10/17 10:14 PM.


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First morels found yesterday!

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Nothing going on here. Water still muddy from flood. Fish won't eat for the next few days. Brother bought me a glider so I can sit by the pond. I really like it!



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Got my dozer back from the highly competent young neighbor mechanic and he started up my backhoe and got it out of the barn. Now I need to plan a 2 week vacation during the summer to dig the next pond... First I get the artesian fen going and level the pad for the new barn. I have 300 years of plans to get started on!

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Been catching re, bg, and lm. At my place the re are spawning and are hitting minnow pattern flies like crazy.
Also have put in some artificial Christmas trees and a couple of cedars.
No mushrooms, but a little asparagus.


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Sounds fun CMM! +1 on the asparagus starting to come thru.

I went out this afternoon and put Bayer Tree and Shrub granules around several of the trees we had Japanese Beetle problems with last year. Took a break and walked around the pond and was happy to see, now that the water is warming a bit, thousands and thousands of small fish and large tadpoles in the shallows. Started watching a Belted Kingfisher and he successfully caught and consumed 3 BG in the 2 inch+ size in about 30 minutes! I was amazed he could still fly away! Definitely entertaining to watch! Started doing the math and was surprised at the numbers. If that guy catches 3 BG a day from April thru October, he eats over 600 BG!

Last edited by Bill D.; 04/13/17 07:41 PM.

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...went out to check on the house and walked down to the pond right as the feeder was going off. Watched the fish feed, then threw a couple handfuls more of pellets. The fish were voracious today.


...when in doubt...set the hook...
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Charlie it won't be long will it

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Walt Overton came out and stocked small GSH and large TP. Also put 50 breeding size CNBG in the forage pond.

And he helped us set up feeder on dock. For some reason we never got the legs for the Texas Hunter feeder, so we did without. The fish didn't respond for about ten seconds, then went crazy. All food eaten in less than 5 minutes.

Neat to see BG bedding just to the right of the dock, in the "fish" area. The left side of the dock is the swim area. Some of the Mozambique TP were a beautiful golden color, easy to spot them. A few of the CNBG were really nice, in the 7 to 8 inch zone.

Still have to reload other feeders, plus set timers on 9am/7:30pm schedule. And need to fertilize, which I intend to do this weekend.

It's coming together, slow but sure.


Last edited by anthropic; 04/13/17 08:33 PM.

7ac 2015 CNBG RES FHM 2016 TP FLMB 2017 NLMB GSH L 2018 TP & 70 HSB PK 2019 TP RBT 2020 TFS TP 25 HSB 250 F1,L,RBT -206 2021 TFS TP GSH L,-312 2022 GSH TP CR TFS RBT -234, 2023 BG TP TFS NLMB, -160




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Originally Posted By: Pat Williamson
Charlie it won't be long will it


No it wont, my friend...builder handed us the keys last night...realtor coming to list this one on Tuesday...


...when in doubt...set the hook...
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Originally Posted By: RAH
Got my dozer back from the highly competent young neighbor mechanic and he started up my backhoe and got it out of the barn. Now I need to plan a 2 week vacation during the summer to dig the next pond... First I get the artesian fen going and level the pad for the new barn. I have 300 years of plans to get started on!


Rah,
Your itinerary sounds much like mine....I wish I was 20 yrs younger. Time to start the Aleve IV drip on my end...


...when in doubt...set the hook...
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Charlie congrats, now the fun begins, for us also. We can move in also crept for a few punch list items

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Rah you sound like the rest of us! 300 years of stuff to do....

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I just shot the pad for the future barn and most of it is 10" high. That is OK, but it ain't flat. Can add a couple days to the work plan. A good operator that can see grade could probably do it in an hour.

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Watched the fish feed at 5:00, then fed them again at 6:30. They wiped it out quickly. Tried to film some fish feeding in slow motion mode on my camera. Water was 75 degrees. Will probably increase feeder time another 25%.


...when in doubt...set the hook...
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I increased the feed times from 6 to 8 seconds on the dock feeder. The fish still cleaned it up in 5 minutes. It felt like summer in SE Texas today.


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81 here today so I thought I'd see if the fish were ready to start hitting pellets yet for this year. Threw a couple handfuls and was really surprised at the response. It was all hands on deck! 8 to 9 inch YP (last years recruits), all different sizes of BG, a SMB and a couple LMB cruisers and, of course, half a dozen CC.

Also found a dead bullfrog on the shore. Maybe 7 or 8 inch. No idea the cause of death and smelled too bad to examine it closely.

Last edited by Bill D.; 04/15/17 07:51 PM.

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