Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations watizit

Can someone tell me what creature is making these holes in the mud in the pond?
Suspects are turtles, frogs, fish. Holes are about 2 to 3" in diameter.

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j42/scott68er/Pond/IMG_1585.jpg

Without seeing them and probing the hole depth, probably crayfish.

that would be good news! Some of the PB brain trust has suggested that crawdads would be a good addition to my forage base. I too being raised in Ohio always called them crayfish. But our southern brothren insist on crawdads. Since the only place I ever et them was in Loosiana - and they were so good - I will henceforth respectfully refer to them as crawdads.

If I decide to wade and probe is there a way to confirm the holes are crawdad made? The are only 3 or 4 feet off shore in less than 24" of water.

Buckeye "crawdad" vs. "crayfish" pronunciation -

This must be a North/South half of the state thing, like "greasy' vs. "greazy" and Indians-Reds.

Being almost smack dab in the middle, I'm confused - greasy, crawdads, Reds.

They were always crayfish when I was a lad. Could be there is a regional line north of which they are known as crayfish, south crawdads. Don't know if the line meanders across many states or if it is just here in the Buckeye state.
I do know when I ate em in Loosiana they were red but not greasy.
BTW carbonated flavored water is known hereabouts as pop - soda everywhere else I've been.
And if you get much south of Columbus you can hear the locals pronounce the plural of y'all as "all of y'all"

I nearly died of thirst in San Diego trying to get directions to a pop machine in the old General Dynamics plant . Fortunately my Brother-in-Law is from Chicago and I remembered hearing him talk funny, so I finally asked for the soda machine. Presto - they had one of those :rolleyes: .

I-70 is often considered the North-South cultural dividing line in Ohio. I believe that it is the northernmost point reached by the worst flood Ohio ever had - when they opened the first bridge from Kentucky, and let my family in :rolleyes: .

ok ok.....South Louisiana born and bred.

1. it is crawfish and they are boiled, fried, or
used in an etoufee'(pronounced a-too-fay)

2. Any carbonated beverage is called Coke
regardless of the flavor.

Ya, where do people get off calling crawfish "crayfish" or "crawdads" ?

You know you're a Cajun when you can look at a platter of boiled crawfish, and easily spot the "dead ones".

Back to the original topic, crawfish are a good thing in ponds if you have no seepage/leakage worries. It's almost self-controlling, because a lot if leakage is associated with sand, which crawfish avoid. Crawfish are a bit scary in dams. With all the crawfish around here, if I had a dam, I would make sure it's plenty wide.

They also have a nickname of "mudbugs"

Up here we always associate crayfish with rocks and gravel bottoms although you can find them on a sand bottom after dark. Once while SCUBA diving in Lake Simcoe I collected a coupla dozen off a smooth bottom in 90ft of water but didn't have the proper spices on board to do them justice when cooked. At least with freshwater clams you only need garlic salt and butter.....

Crayfish holes in the pond bottom should not be very deep before they bottom out and form a small cavity.

BTW...here in SE Iowa, they're crawdads, too. 8^)