Is it too late to hope that a wood duck may still choose to use one of the boxes I put up this year? or have they all settled down and laid eggs by now? I would think in Texas you would be way ahead of us up here in MI
Hard to say. They started looking here in December, but I haven't seen any ducklings. It wouldn't hurt to get the boxes up. Put some pine shavings in them. Change the pine shavings each winter.
The ducks looked mine over last year but I think my shores were too bare. This year I'm starting to get shoreline plants and they seem to like it here.
If you do: I'd suggest using cheap 4" PVC for the poles. Coons and snakes find it too smooth to climb. Some even recommend coating the poles with grease. I don't do this. I did camo paint the poles with spray paint. The poles are almost invisible.
If you can put them over water it is safer from predators, but the kids can take a long drop to hard ground with no problem. Whatever works.
4 acre pond 32 ft deep within East Texas (Livingston) timber ranch. Filled (to the top of an almost finished dam) by Hurricane Harvey 9/17. Stocked with FHM, CNBG, RES 10/17. Added 35lbs RSC 3/18. 400 N LMB fingerlings 6/18
I wandered around after work today and just observed things. I don't have any fish yet, aside from a few dozen fatheads that I've tossed in after crappie fishing this spring, but I'm amazed at how much life there is.
The daphnia I put in earlier in the spring seem to be doing well. They are everywhere near the shoreline. The bullfrogs have been busy making more bullfrogs. The bottom is covered with tadpoles. They also seem to like the pallet stacks. I've noticed several different species of aquatic insects, both adults and nymphs.
All of the plants I put out last weekend are looking good.
My previous worries about turbid water were unfounded. Visibility was 4'-5' before the rains came through the other night. It clouded up a bit with the inflow, but is already back to 2'-3'.
Thanks for the advice Vortex. My boxes went up right around ice out and they are up for the first time with fresh pine shavings in them.
I have one on my fiberglass pond light pole so no way predators can climb it (too smooth). The second one is a little higher about 100' away in a dead tree and I have the tree wrapped below it with a 2' section of stovepipe as a predator guard.
I only have grass between the mounts and the pond edge but the houses are mounted right on the edge of a fairly thick stand of trees.
the last two years a wood duck pair stopped overnight around April 12-13 and then were gone. I was hoping they would stop again, but no joy yet.
I did nothing today at my pond as I had a number of blue wing and green wing teal that were enjoying the pond when I got home. I decided to just let them be as I kind of enjoy having them around before they move on. Seeing teal is a sign that tail end of the duck migration is near.
Couple of things happened at the pond over the past few days. One was while I was hand feeding Aquamax lmb pellets. I threw out a few and was getting an eye survey of the fish in the area when I see this Xtra Large lmb swim under a chunk and she just eyeballed it for awhile. She was shaped like a horseshoe and was just hugh! She has to be a Florida lmb because of her size and the fact my northern lmb cant be that large yet and from my understanding the northern does not get that horseshoe shape. She finally sucked down the food chunk. I have never seen a Florida lmb eat fish food before. Man, it's nice to see that sized lmb in the pond. Would have been better if it had been on the end of a fishing pole.
The next thing was while I was walking the boat ramp area, my golden was wading in the water and was about chest deep. He caused a few smaller fish to swim out of the pondweed and when that happened a nice sized lmb attacked these fish and swam between the legs and under the Golden Retriever. Sam, the golden, jumped straight up into the air, freaked out and got out of the water. It was funny to see It took a few minutes before Sam got back into the water. Normally I can't keep him out.
All of the above made a great time at the pond.
Last edited by TGW1; 05/03/1907:38 AM.
Do not judge me by the politicians in my City, State or Federal Government.
Is it too late to hope that a wood duck may still choose to use one of the boxes I put up this year? or have they all settled down and laid eggs by now? I would think in Texas you would be way ahead of us up here in MI
CC- I can only speculate, but I think the nesting season for wood ducks in Iowa is about the same as Michigan. "House hunting" begins at ice off through the end of April. From mid to late April, hens will lay about one egg per day till a clutch of 8-12 eggs is laid. She will then begin incubating them from late April/early May for ~ 30 days (till they hatch). IF she is interrupted in this usual cycle, she will try again. This actually happened with one of my boxes. I checked it from my john boat in late June (no egg fragments, no membranes, no nest activity) showing an unused house. But I had a late hatch on the pond later that summer, with hatchlings seen in August. When I check that box again this winter, it had egg shells and membrane halves! So a hen tried over and had a later (successful) hatch. So you still may have some tenants. Also, she only leaves for an hour every morning, and again every evening, when she starts to incubate her eggs. So the house will seem void of activity otherwise. Watch for the drake 'hanging out' on the water near the box in the morning and evening. The pair goes to breakfast and supper together.
"Politics": derived from 'poly' meaning many, and 'tics' meaning 'blood sucking parasites'.
Tracy that is funny that the bass went right under the dog.
Grandson and I did a little dock modification getting ready for my Texas Hunter fish feeder that should be in next week some time. Made an overhang on the dock so the feeder will not take up any of the existing dock space and moved the storage box to the other side and also got it off the main dock area. I think it turned out good. The feeder will sit on the left side.
The feed will shoot to the south and is out about 70 feet over the water so should get consumed before any SW wind has a chance to blow it to shore.
John, it was funny seeing his reaction. He really jumped straight up in the air. Maybe the lmb attacked his worm lol. It was awhile before he built up the courage to get back in the water.
Do not judge me by the politicians in my City, State or Federal Government.
The part the chairs are sitting on is floating. Pond is at full pool now and it sits level with the fixed portion. The section just beyond the new wood is the attaching portion that connects the main fixed dock to the floating dock and as the pond level drops will take on a downward slope. The new wood is the very end of 80' of fixed dock that is 8' wide. The floating portion is 8x12 if I recall correctly. The attachment is 8' long giving me 96' of length out into the pond from the bank.
The floating part I bought used off Craigs list. The rest I and my grandsons built. The 80' main section is built of steel and was put out in the water in 40' sections on top of 12' hedge (osage orange) posts then the wood 2x6 decking was installed.
Would have been a lot easier had I done it before the pond was 2/3 full. But we got it done. We really enjoy it.
Put 12 lbs of copper sulfate down on the FA. Then started raking in the area where the grandkids fish. Took out many pounds of slime. Found this guy in the slime! I stocked maybe 20 of them three years ago, and haven’t seen one since. I thought my SMB had cleaned them out.
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. Otter attack in 2023
Friend caught multiple HSB on soft shad lure. Vicious fights, none of his lures held together more than two fish. But water temps are approaching danger zone, will have to curb this soon.
We harvested 7 LMB, bringing total since 1 Oct 18 to 195. Goal: 250. Caught half a dozen LMB too big to keep, along with CNBG we threw back.
Was going to add a little more fertilizer, but water was the greenest I've ever seen. Viz maybe 24 to 30 inches, olive green. I think adding more fertilizer is an unnecessary risk now that water is fertile & weather is hot. Besides, I feed daily.
Am pondweed and what looks like nitella are spreading, though limited by depth. YOY fish are taking advantage in a big way. Looking forward to adding 7k TFS in next week or two!
Cormorants are gone(!!!), still have some ducks, a GBH, and a couple of Canada geese. Haven't seen the bald eagles lately, hopefully I will soon.
Fishing weekend with the guys. Cold here and a big front moved through so fishing was ok but not great. Hardly any fish coming to the feeder as water temps were around 60 on Friday and Saturday. As we enter year 4 of managing our 3 ponds i have high expectations. We caught a nice female LMB full of eggs that weighed almost 4 lbs. and a few others just shy of 3 lbs. This is in a 1.6 acre pond that was full of stunted bass 3 years ago. After the initial harvest of 40 per surface acre i stocked in a bit more than 50 1.25 lb. fish in June of 2017 along with 400 adult (5-7") BG. On a maintenance harvest plan since last season of 15-20 LMB under 14" per surface acre per year.
Very exciting seeing the results and expecting to catch some 5 pounders out of there this season. The big female (with eggs) posted a 150 relative weight and more than 85% of the fish we caught were in excess of 85 RW with most in the mid-to-upper 90s to just over 100. That is a huge improvement in just under 2 years post-stocking.
Also put the second dose of copper sulfate in our "Big Lake" (6.5 acres) yesterday....put in 50 lbs. using the burlap bag dispensing method. That was half the initial spring dose we put in 5 weeks ago. Going to try and keep on top of it this year so when our annual Cast & Blast event occurs in mid-September we are not fighting FA for five days of fishing (and dove shooting).
I used the burlap bag method also. Seems to be working pretty quickly, faster than I thought it would. Found a dead crawdad, and tadpole the next day. I know that’s hardly anything, but I didn’t think the copper sulfate would hurt anything but the FA..
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. Otter attack in 2023
Friend caught multiple HSB on soft shad lure. Vicious fights, none of his lures held together more than two fish. But water temps are approaching danger zone, will have to curb this soon.
I haven’t caught a single HSB since stocked three years ago. Any additional info on this soft shad lure? How and where did you fish it? Are you looking for some signs of the HSB working and cast to it? Don’t they stay out in open water? If any of mine survived, I’d like to at least see one, one of these days. Thx
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. Otter attack in 2023
Bought a pizza and a soda, drove 30 miles to the pond, and sat on the tailgate for a couple of hours. Feeding pizza crust to the fish and just took in the pond. No thoughts of what needed to be done with muddy water, plants, water chemistry, stocking, or any other projects. It was glorious as the sun set and the pond settled in for the night. I’m much better at planning and scheming, than taking time to appreciate what has been accomplished bit by bit. Many thanks to this forum and all the contributors for helping me along the way. Hopefully generations of my family will get to enjoy and engage in this long term project.
Bought a pizza and a soda, drove 30 miles to the pond, and sat on the tailgate for a couple of hours. Feeding pizza crust to the fish and just took in the pond. No thoughts of what needed to be done with muddy water, plants, water chemistry, stocking, or any other projects. It was glorious as the sun set and the pond settled in for the night. I’m much better at planning and scheming, than taking time to appreciate what has been accomplished bit by bit. Many thanks to this forum and all the contributors for helping me along the way. Hopefully generations of my family will get to enjoy and engage in this long term project.
You are so right! We pondowners are incredibly blessed to have what we do. Sometimes I forget that.
Friend caught multiple HSB on soft shad lure. Vicious fights, none of his lures held together more than two fish. But water temps are approaching danger zone, will have to curb this soon.
I haven’t caught a single HSB since stocked three years ago. Any additional info on this soft shad lure? How and where did you fish it? Are you looking for some signs of the HSB working and cast to it? Don’t they stay out in open water? If any of mine survived, I’d like to at least see one, one of these days. Thx
I think it was a silver Bass Pro Shad, SG. Retrieve was only a couple of feet deep at steady medium speed. Best luck was around my dock with two feeders nearby, LMB and HSB come around both for feed and CNBG that are feeding. Late afternoon/evening seem to be prime times, less activity in the morning.
70 HSB put in 1 year ago, about 10 per acre. We've even caught some on dark jigworms meant for LMB and CNBG, maybe they are hungry since don't have any TSH. Great fighters, if they jumped nobody would care about LMB.