Spring update:
With the hard water now completely gone off of both ponds, I thought it would be time for an update on my caged fish. Both cages survived the winter intact with no damage. Algae fouling was much less than expected. Ice over this year was earlier than previous years so I do not know what affect, if any, that may have had. Last weekend I took advantage of unseasonably warm weather to swap out the cages, for cleaning purposes. Mixed results on fish survival.
Based on pre-winter numbers, I lost 4 yellow perch but no bluegills. After the cage exchange, I monitored the fish for the next couple of days for any stress injury/death but everything looks good. I have not yet started pellet feeding due to low water temps. For curiosity sake I did toss a handfull of pellets, Aquamax D506 (straight from the bag.....no presoaking) into the pond to see what would happen. To my surprise, I had a half dozen BG take the pellets.
The geese are back, rats are scouting out the pond, water color is a nice blue green right now with limited algae. This years fun may involve an attempt at cage raising some black crappie. Looking forward to another season working this puddle.
Russ
