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"Just like Bob Lusk told me, "You can't catch a fish above the water". Cut them just above the water level so that you know where it is."
???
Excerpt from Robert Crais' "The Monkey's Raincoat:" "She took another microscopic bite of her sandwich, then pushed it away. Maybe she absorbed nutrients from her surroundings."
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The wood above the water does nothing for the fish so you might as well cut everything down and leave just enough above the waterline to be able to find it when you go fishing.
Last edited by Chris Steelman; 04/21/08 07:00 PM.
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I saw a cormorant at Mr H's big pond today while collecting RES. I don't often see them and I wonder if the Ospreys that are nesting at the pond might not keep them away. I've seen them chase off wading birds before. Funny thing is that the Ospreys are using a tall dead tree in the pond for their nest.
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sounds like the perfect osprey habitat. there is a guy that lives on a lake near me who takes some of the most magnificent bird pictures i've ever seen. i've asked him if i could use them and he has no problems with this (he puts his branding on all the pics). here is an osprey he shot (w/ camera) a couple days ago at lake amador. he's done several comorants, but i havent saved one of those yet.
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Does anybody know if Canada Geese are territorial enough that they would try to discourage El Cormorante in a small pond?
Holding a redear sunfish is like running with scissors.
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Here's Mr H's flooded timber wonderland, with nesting Ospreys.
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good question bruce, i have not seen my fish nabbing visitor in several weeks, and the (new) pair of nesting geese are keeping out all the other geese, and possibly the water turkey, but i havent witnessed that confrontation yet.
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Geese can be intimidating when they want to be.
Great pic, GW!
Holding a redear sunfish is like running with scissors.
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The wood above the water does nothing for the fish so you might as well cut everything down and leave just enough above the waterline to be able to find it when you go fishing. Since our ponds are so low and some of the structure is currently above the water level, I took stringers and duck decoys and marked most all of it in the big pond. That should help the fishing later. If we ever get a good rain, that is.
"Only after sorrow's hand has bowed your head will life become truly real to you; then you will acquire the noble spirituality which intensifies the reality of life. I go to an all-powerful God. Beyond that I have no knowledge--no fear--only faith."
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Does anybody know if Canada Geese are territorial enough that they would try to discourage El Cormorante in a small pond? I highly doubt it. I've had both on my pond at the same time, keep in mind my pond is somewhat larger. I don't feel like they compete for the same area or food. Now, we do have some nests built for canada geese that are built over the water. I do think that if the Cormorant tried to climb into the nest area to preen itself, then the goose would feel threatened and run it off. But that would be the only case I could think of. In the years I helped my grandfather raise geese, he used to raise several hundred canadians a year, I found that they only protected a small perimeter around their nest.
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"Just like Bob Lusk told me, "You can't catch a fish above the water". Cut them just above the water level so that you know where it is."
??? You'll have to excuse Sunil today Chris. It's election day in PA.
If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.
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The wood above the water does nothing for the fish so you might as well cut everything down and leave just enough above the waterline to be able to find it when you go fishing. Or so you and your boat motor knows where they are.
If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.
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Davatsa,
Are your ponds already going down? Mine has only dropped a couple of inches.
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Outside of Poth, TX, we've been in a drought for awhile now. The two larger ponds are 4-5' low. The little BG pond is low, but since it gets well water, it is not quite as low as the other two.
At my mom's place near Waelder, we're nearly at full pool.
"Only after sorrow's hand has bowed your head will life become truly real to you; then you will acquire the noble spirituality which intensifies the reality of life. I go to an all-powerful God. Beyond that I have no knowledge--no fear--only faith."
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We had 50-100 cormorants on our lake yesterday. I don't know how long they were there but they left the area when I scared them. This is the first time I've ever actually seen them on our lake. Does anyone know the maximun size of a LMB/SMB or BG they will take?
Norm Kopecky
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Norm, we had a dozen cormorants on our pond this last weekend and one osprey. While fishing Sunday I caught a 17" LMB that was missing scales on boths sides and she looked like a cormorant had tried to catch her. I suspect she was just a little bit too big for a cormorant but my best guesss is that a 15" LMB would be no problem for your average cormorant.
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Norm, we had a dozen cormorants on our pond this last weekend and one osprey. While fishing Sunday I caught a 17" LMB that was missing scales on boths sides and she looked like a cormorant had tried to catch her. I suspect she was just a little bit too big for a cormorant but my best guesss is that a 15" LMB would be no problem for your average cormorant. I saw one cormorant at my neighbor's 7 acre pond the other day. At first I was concerned that a bunch might show up, but if they did, and they removed a bunch of 12" to 15" LMB it would be a good thing because this pond has way too many in that range.
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I think you guys hate when I say things like my post above, but the statement is a fair one isn't it? To say that predation by cormorants is always a bad thing makes me think of Bill Cody's axiom "it all depends".
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Holding a redear sunfish is like running with scissors.
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"People would think I'd lost my mind"
That ship has already sailed, my friend!
GW, the problem is that cormorants don't keep cull records nor do they honor slot limits.
Excerpt from Robert Crais' "The Monkey's Raincoat:" "She took another microscopic bite of her sandwich, then pushed it away. Maybe she absorbed nutrients from her surroundings."
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GW, the problem is that cormorants don't keep cull records nor do they honor slot limits. I don't know about that Sunil, Shorty's post seem to suggest that one tried to eat a 17" fish and failed. It stands to reason that they would probably be most successful in the 10-15" range, and that seems like a common population to target for culling. I don't think the poacher analogy works either Bruce because people will target the largest fish they can catch, not the largest they can swallow whole. Mr. H's big pond is overpopulated with 12-15" LMB. Would it not be beneficial if a small flock of cormorants preyed on them for a period of time? I'm not saying let them wipe out every fish, I'm just saying that at this point the help in culling those LMB would be very beneficial to his pond.
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I see your point, but don't you think that if you make them think this is a safe, productive place to eat that you may have problems convincing them it's time to stop?
Holding a redear sunfish is like running with scissors.
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That's the main question Bruce, and I don't know enough about animal behavior to comment. If it did take extra work to convince them to leave I guess you'd have to contrast that with the service they provided. How hard might it be to remove several hundred ( or thousand maybe?) 12-15" LMB from a 7 acre pond? I've been suggesting a Bass-a-thon for a long time, but the man power just isn't there. Everyone in this area has a pond or two it seems and most of them are overrun with bass.
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One thing that does not depend - I am not farming out my management function to an uncontrolled flock of hungry birds that eat every fish in sight.
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One thing that does not depend - I am not farming out my management function to an uncontrolled flock of hungry birds that eat every fish in sight. Yeah, but it's cheap labor.
Holding a redear sunfish is like running with scissors.
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