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

I walked around my pond today, watched water flowing in from the neighbors and then going out the other side of the pond at the overflow pipe. It hasn't done this in 4 years.

Absolutely beautiful story Sunil.....stunning reward for all the time and work you spent pulling it together.

We’ve had 3.5” of rain at our pond in the last few days. I left as the rain started. I can’t wait to get back up there and see how much it’s come up. Hopefully at least a foot. We’ve been dry for so long it’s hard to remember what full pool looks like.
I sat there last week, just enjoying sitting by it. Fish were moving, tadpoles bobbing up everywhere. One, very very large fish was working the shallow water near the inlet. I’m not sure if it’s a SMB or a HSB, but it’s a monster. I may have to take some time in the next few weeks of food plotting to do a little fishing.

esshup, super happy for you after years of having to report how many FEET your pond was low that you got it filled up. What type of weather event was responsible for that? I hope you stayed away from severe weather. My son lives in NW Iowa and watched 2 twisters go by in the last few weeks fortunately without serious damage but then heard about the big F4 in Omaha and over the weekend some in Oklahoma, scary stuff the spring active weather season.

I'm thrilled to report that the pond boss forum members were correct. All it took is warm enough days (and a warm night) and the toads came. Out of nowhere Saturday evening the pond started to have some splashes and trilling and all day Sunday and last night they were very much in full force making toad baby strands. Encouraging to see it all happen again and to see what seemed like 200 or more American Toads come out of nowhere and all meet again at the same spot.

The new variable this year will be to see if our Pekin duck will eat the toad eggs. We had a pair but sadly about 2 weeks ago one was found dead on the bank of the pond with a pile of feathers scattered around and what looks like damage only to the middle of his neck. What type of critter would take on 2 full size ducks and only 'wring the neck' and leave them without any other markings? What is the point of killing and leaving them?

it was sad for the kids as the ducks were inseparable (male/female) for the last year and bravely sat out on the edge of the pond through some brutal snow/wind events earlier. They have been a fabulous addition to the pond and the neighbors love watching them as they drive through the neighborhood. The neighbors were extending their condolances which was mighty kind of them. We have 3 new ducks just getting past the fuzz and growing some white feathers for a brother in law who wants his pond to benefit from them and then we may try to start another pair to help join our lonely mama duck.

A mallard pair stopped by a few times. I missed my chance to earlier to rehab and set up my mallard 'tube' nest but since they were hanging out the last few days I got busy repairing it, unrolling it, remove old straw, rolling in the new straw and mounting it out in the pond. Who knows maybe a late clutch of eggs will still go in the mallard tube.

Saw only one wood duck pair rest on the shore and paddle around for one day and they were gone. I gave up setting up the wood duck houses as we have had no takers in more than 3 years.

next task is to plan for SFS habitat and spawning structures. I'm going to experiment with some type of enclosure that they may be able to enter that would help me capture/seine out the young ones at will.

Sadly my 25 pickerel weed plants that I planted on two sides of the pond didn't seem to survive, (I assume by now I should see new growth coming out of the ground from the bulbs) I'll likely try again since I would think they would do fairly well around our pond based on reports of others doing well with them in northern ponds.

Sorry about losing your duck.

I think either a fox or a bobcat would take one. Perhaps the culprit was interrupted is why the duck was not eaten?

Also, don't give up yet on the pickerel weed bulbs (unless they were dug up). I have no particular expertise with those, but I am constantly amazed at all of the various plants on our farm that have suffered significant damage or stress, only to slowly come back to life!

The warm fuzzy feeling in the loss was that the ducks were always inseparable and knowing that the male was taken and the female left leaves you proud that the male took on whatever was facing it and died in the battle and the momma proudly lives on. We sell the duck eggs (not sure why but she always lays them in about 8-10" of water rather than in the nice straw nest we made for her) . I have read that a weasel will wring the neck of chickens and take a blood meal but not sure how that really works or if that is what happened here or not.

The trail cam behind the house does show a fox moving through at times and a lone coyote. Our dog is pretty good at scaring anything away but since he snoozes in the garage which is far away, and his arthritis makes it so it is hard for him to get up and get moving he probably was oblivious to the struggle.

I will watch the pickerel bulbs for a while yet. The plants were mailed to me late summer/early fall and looked kind of bedraggled and droopy. After planting they didn't really perk up much or have new growth, time will tell.

The storms last week brought 2.5" rainfall to my pond. There's finally enough moisture in the soil here that we got some good runoff.

Looks like 8" or so new water in the pond today. Still about 2' from full pool.

CC, thanks. Pumping 3.2 million gallons of water from the well really helped, and the recent rains topped it off. Roughly about 6" rain in less than 2 weeks.

I'm betting on a mink killing the duck.

Had the Grandkids over Saturday for a family get together and all the little ones wanted to fish.

His first smallie ever...and first smallie of the year 9.5"!
He caught it on a minnow under a bobber then promptly caught his second a minute later.
I had been throwing Ned Rigs and tubes trying to get a look at the SM all spring to check their growth catching everything but a bass.

Great pic!

Does the dog go on point for smallies? That would certainly help me catch them.

That little fella is what it’s all about

I wish she did!
She loves water, the trouble I have is her wanting to fetch the lures and bobbers when anyone casts them out. Son's dog so I can put up with her crazy for a day.
She is great on pheasants and grouse, our GSP is way more steady, I think I almost could teach her to point SM.

My baby girl



Son's crazy train, she sure has a lot of drive.

I’ve only had one Setter of seven, that truly loved water. She would swim forever chasing dragon flies. Ha! The rest tolerate it, but never get in for fun. My current Setter loves to point frogs, and will stand over one forever.
At the pond yesterday the 4+ inches of rain we had brought the pond up at least 18”. Just about a foot to go for full pool. My wife and I sat by the pond last night, listened to whip o wills, owls, and the start of trilling! I believe the toads are starting.. Wood ducks came by, the GBH flew in, didn’t like seeing us and landed in a nearby tree. We heard the first bullfrog croaks of the season. The feeder went off and the water boiled. The YP are growing. Had a few bats flying around.
We are really blessed to have these ponds. Thanks so much for all the good advice I’ve received here..

I found an 11" BG being eaten by a couple of Turkey Vultures. No other dead fish, though. Whew!

Maybe our Osprey dropped the BG ????

Gotta love the German Shorthairs. Mine graduated many moons ago...still miss that guy.

Maybe need a scarecrow sitting on your pond bench!

Filled the TH feeder with a 50/50 mix of Optimal Bass and Bluegill feed

Got a pic of 1 of 3 SMB of the same size caught this morning. Another half dozen smaller ones were caught too,

Nice SMB !

Would never have happened without the experts at this group!

Nice smallie!

Didn't you recently have heavy rains? If so, I think it is encouraging that they are catchable so soon after your ponds got muddy.

Since you caught three of the same size, any chance you know the age of those fish from the pond's history?

Do you have a pond record for your SMB? If so, do you now have multiple SMB approaching the record? Sounds like things are going very well on your management routine.

Last annoying FishinRod question: Did any of your SMB have crayfish feelers sticking up out of their gullets? (This is the time of year when the spotted bass down in my neck of the woods are full of crayfish.)

Rains made pond muddy, but it is clear now. Stocking was done with 10 SMB added in 2016 and another 10 added in 2017 (20 SMB stockers total). Lots of different sizes in the pond now. Not sure how long SMB live. I have not weighed any of the fish, but multiple fish exceeded 3 lbs. They may be quite a bit heavier since I am not good at such estimates. Neighbor has seen some sizable fish tail fins in the throats of ones he has caught, but no crayfish.

At my neighborhood pond, the water clarity is great, so I can get a real good look at what fish are around and hitting feed.

I have one very large HSB (maybe over 6 lbs) that leads a pack of a 100+ bluegill while waiting for feed. I hand toss the 1" Optimal Hand Throw pellets to the HSB, and he/she slams them. I might be able to have it take one from my hand, but also would risk taking a swim as the slope of the pond is steep and slippery.

I've also seen both blue and channel catfish feeding. I haven't seen any LMB hitting feed in the last week or so, but they may be in spawn.

I did see what I thought was a Yellow Perch hitting feed two days ago, but I couldn't be sure as it was hitting the feed pretty quick. I saw it again yesterday, and it's definitely a YP. For this pond, while there's been YP in there for many years, I've seldom seen many of the YP taking feed. It's rare to see them and rare to catch them.

RAH ; a beauty , I've caught thousands of LMB in my life , they just don't match the beauty , the fight , of a SMB , size to size . One of few things I did right with my ponds , SMB and YP. ( But to balance , I put those rotten , feed gulping CC in there , too ) LOL !

RAH, mark 12 and 15" with pin stripping tape on your rods from the butt of handle or beginning of blank out of handle. You can guess at an inch or 2 short or long of those marks and give a good idea of weight.