Hey guys,

Today on the way back from the lake I took my wife and the boys by the farm. We drove up to our 7 acre pond and it is almost full. One more good hard rain and it will be filled up. I've had nothing but problems with this lake from day one but we put bentonite sealer in the bottom this summer and it looks to be working. If it will be able to maintain it's water level then I forsee me and the boys spending ALOT of time out there next spring/summer. I'm getting a little excited just thinking about it.

-lee-

What a beautiful place, Lee. Judging from the trees, your soil must be a bit alkaline. Were you losing water into a limestone formation? I am originally from down-river (Vicksburg) and the less hilly parts of the surrounding county look a lot like your land. I have sometimes wondered if ponds in relatively alkaline soil ever need buffering with lime. Does anyone here have experience with that situation?

Also, have you considered planting cypress trees in the shallow end of the pond? They sure are pretty this time of year.
Lou

LH....yes I should have limed it by now but I was waiting to see if it would hold any water .....I hated to go any further without making sure the water would stay put. I imagine that we will probably lime within the next year. I have been told that I will need 2-3 tons per surface acre and it is around 7ac when the pond is full.

-lee-

Lee, Looks great. Thanks for sharing. Hope you and the boys have a ball.

Nice place Lee! You're sure to have many memories made there in the future.

Check out your "doctored" picture.

Looks great Lee. Our new 3/4 pond filled up quick with all the rain in the last month. I guess we will find out next summer if they will hold tight. Fingers crossed for the both of us.

Coach....we are still about 18-20" below the over flow pipe. I hope and pray that we will be able to get it to full pool and have it maintain itself. I have worked so hard on this pond that I'm starting to loose my enthusiasm for it. But seeing that pond with that much water in it has rejuvenated me ........Now I'm ready to catch a few bluegills and catfish in the spring

-lee-

Duffie, did you post those two pictures together to make it a panoramic? If so, that looks great!

Lee: Nice place!

Kelly: I second jdk4174! It looks great! How did you do that?

Graphic software: MS DIGITAL IMAGE SUITE 9

I overlapped the three individual images on a blank template, aligning any notable reference points. Then, cropped the final picture from the template of overlapped images.

The ideal method is to take several overlapping photos of a scene while panning the camera lens horizontally, while keeping the relative horizon at the same position in each picture.

Lee's three pictures overlapped, but the horizon-point varied - thus requiring the fairly short image height relative to width. The center picture barely covered the gap between the two outer pictures and had a lower horizon (see pre-brushed picture below).

Addendum: Now you know why digital photos are inadmissible in a court of law.

Once again, I'm impressed. I'll have to try that someday. I've got Adobe Photoshop on my work computer, and I've fixed a few photos already with the clone tool, blur, etc. Just have to watch out for the boss while I'm playing around...

Great looking pond. I can already see 5 pound bass blitzing the surface next summer.

Kelly your editing talents are fantastic. I need to test this out for myself.

It is possible to have some fun with digital image "editing".

Take, for instance, one of my supplier reps who is a self-proclaimed master hunter. He stuck a truly nice elk back in October. We (on a national level) heard so much about THE ELK, that I decided to grow some more points on the animal - post mortem. > (Pic 1)

Then, one of our mutual associates started in with his comments that our elk hunter buddy could obviously hunt - but couldn't fish worth a flip. So, a little further refinement of the picture followed, along with an explanation that the elk had plunged through a nearby stream before breathing its last breath. In doing so, the elk provided the hunter with a nice haul of smallmouth bass, countering the other fellow's no-fishing-skill challenge. > (Pic 2)

We've had several laughs about the elaborate and "fishy" story.

In case you're interested, here's the orginal (non-doctored) picture of the elk - which really was a trophy in its own right. > (Original Pic)

One more, with similar modifications. But, besides the numerous extra points, the hunter was "shrunk" to half of his original size and placed closer to the animal's head to give the forced-perception of a much larger animal. ( Picture )

This is similar to the technique used by many fishermen, where they extend the fish much closer to the camera - using the fish's body to hide the fisherman's extended arms. Basically, with two-dimensional images, the eye tends to correlate the relative size of one object to that of the other.

I didn't mean for this thread to transition into the subject of image-editing. But, if someone wants to make panoramic images of their ponds and property, the process of merging multiple images is fairly simple - with a little practice.

Ok Kelly,
you didn't really catch that smb you used to have in your profile pic did you? :p
It looks an awful lot like the ones stuck on that elks horns!

Wow those are some nice drum in your profile pic now! And a cute/proud little girl!

Ric, had the smb picture been doctored, the fish would have been MUCH larger!!!

The little girl in the picture caught her redfish while fishing the jetties on a Galveston partyboat. I was with a group of conference-goers on that partboat, and happened to be standing next to the little girl (she's from NC, coincidently, visiting her grandparents in Texas City). She hadn't caught anything all morning when, all of a sudden, her "pool cue" fishing rod bowed downward over the boat railing. I barely caught hold of the rod before it was wrenched from her fragile grip. For the next 20 minutes, I held/secured the rod while she operated the winch, er, I mean "reel". It was a lot of fun watching her battle that fish. We (her family and others) were able to see the fish as it neared the surface. However, due to her short stature and the height of the boat railing, she didn't see the fish until it was gaffed and brought on deck. To say that the fish "made her trip to Texas" is an understatement.

Just another example of how fishing can make life-long memories....

Geeez, Kelly! Nice Redfish!!!!!!

Fortunately, redfish this size (breeders) are no good to eat - even if it were possible to ignore their internal parasites (worms).

However, try telling that to a nine-yr old, who just caught a whopper - and it was her FIRST fish to ever catch.

lee in memphis, beautiful pond. i can picture a house on that green cleared spot. great place.

kelly, great work. i like the fish pic and the one where you added points to it look real. i couldn't tell the difference. good job. oh, i'm sure you told your wife you were working hard at the office huh!!!! mark

Hey Mark - don't blow my cover!!! My wife often reads my posts - though mostly to correct my grammar.... ha