This little puddle has really changed since my last post. There wasn't much activity to talk about until the water (surface) temp hit the mid 50's. At this point, the bass and BG started showing up. I've been tossing a few handfuls of pellets for the BG but the majority do not seem interested. I thought perhaps the BG are feasting on the tadpoles, that have exploded in the pond, but the 'poles seem to have free reign of the pond without any concern for the BG.
Along with the explosion of tadpoles, the algae has also taken off. I had anticipated some algae and my first attempts at manual removal yielded satisfactory results but as the daytime temps have warmed, the battle was turning in favor of the green team. While thinking of ways to hasten its removal, I hit upon an idea that was sure to have all the neighbors talking about the nut at the end of the road. Mimicking the same technique used to corral oil slicks, I hit the local Wal-mart and purchased 4 lengths of "pool noodles". The ones I purchased were 4" in diameter, 5' in length and had a gear shape with fish hook shaped teeth (looking at them from the end). Each one also had a 3/4" center hole that ran the entire 5' length. On my first attempt at skimming the pond, I fed a piece of clothesline through each one, giving me a 20' length of algae "boom" and ran it across the pond. This didn't work too well given the fact that the noodles were designed to float. I needed to add some weight and came up with the perfect use for a 20' lenght of 3/4" electrical cable I had left over from when I built my house. After sliding this into the center hole of the noodles, my sister and I gave it another shot. Much to my surprise, it worked better than expected. We simply corraled all the green goo using this boom and pushed it out the pond outlet. Total time to clear the pond, after the intial engineering changes, was about 15 minutes.
I'm still chuckling over this and the pond looks much better. I almost can't wait till the next batch needs skimming.
Next two projects for this little puddle will be placing some riprap along one edge and building a small dam to raise the water level another foot.
