Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Spring is here

My pond last weekend

wow and here I am looking summer square in the eye! 92F yesterday

Hey James, drag that water hole down to Bowie Texas. Two things will happen. First, you will ice out in about 7.3 seconds. It was 94 yesterday. Second, all of the water will evaporate and it will be easier for you and the boys to haul it back.

spring greetings to you up there in alberta.

its cooled off today, but wow, yesterday there were temps as high as 99 in the sac. valley. its drying out fast here.

wood, have you tried fishin that open water?

Guys, I can't imagine 90 degree anything, just doesn't happen here, 30c in summer is smokin hot and not typical. Died, no fish in my pond, I know it's almost a sin but I can't get trout to survive through summer. They will live through 200 days of ice cover and go belly up by August. I have mostly given up on re-stocking and have let nature take it's course, the pond is now a refuge for a vast array of critters, last year I had over 40 baby ducks raised on my small pond. I like it, and I don't have to choose what birds or animals conflict with my fish goals, bring em on. The lack of fish has also resulted in an explosion of scuds, amazing numbers.

I fish the local lakes and live vicariously through you guys and this site.

What do your water temps peak at (in August), Wood?

IIRC you can't (legally) stock anything other than trout - correct?

Wood,

How about running in a well only a couple months of the year?

Theo, last time that I kept track, temps in all depths never exceeded 72f. My fish license only allows rainbows, brook, brown and artic char. I have experimented with bottom aeration intervals of 24/7 and also night time operation only or when air temps were lower than water temps. I'm sure local native species would survive, i.e. yellow perch as they are common in small shallow water bodies around here.

When my pond was dug it was 15 feet deep across the entire bottom, I have spoke to others with trout in my area, and the successfull ones are usually 25 feet deep.

Cecil, the wells here only produce about 5gpm. I had to drill a new one for my house a couple of years ago and that's the best gpm that I could get, it also cost $10,000 for 200 feet.

Wood - we hit 80 F yesterday, but the cool front came through and highs for the weekend will only be near 50.

Where does all that snow melt go?

correct me if i'm wrong wood, but yer proabably located on good OLD canadian shield (i.e. Pre-Cambrian hard crustal rock - metamorphic or granitic). all the water just sits on the surface. unless yer lucky enough to hit a good producing vein, or some glacial deposits w/ yer well location, there probably isnt much high producing groundwater.

You know I thought about that Dave. Down here it's 400 feet of glacial till etc. until you hit bedrock. When my excavator did a test dig for my pond he hit sandbox sand and then beautiful gravel at 15 feet. Where I pump my well the aquifer starts at 30 feet and goes down to at least 88 feet which is the bottom of my well.

Yesterday it snowed by the pond, hi temp 38, this morning it was 29 but warmed to 71 by afternoon. Pond temp at 5ft has dropped to 42 degrees.
A pair of Mallards, and hooded Mergansers on the pond.

Wood � Thanks for the spring update. Don't forget the sun screen!

1 ft. depth here was 71* today @ 10:00 a.m. Air temps hit 82*F in the shade today.

As in your case the high winds and warm temps are warming up water fast. I want to fertilize one of my ponds with the sprayer and some 10-34-0, but it would be like *issing in the wind!

spring is gone and its already summer here in the south. Temps got up to 90 deg. yesterday and its going to be the same today.

You're forgetting the first rule - always *iss WITH the wind!

Yeah but want to go all the way around the pond rather than stay in one place.

As so often happens in this area, we went from ice-out to summer in a relatively short time. We had heavy frost several days last week (mid-20s). It was in the high 70s three days ago, and it hit 87 degrees yesterday and today.

It was interesting to see the pond change colors three days ago. We went from five to six feet of extremely clear "black water" to less than two feet visibility in nice green water.

The fish have gone crazy with several bug hatches in the last couple of days. I was working a few hundred feet above the pond this afternoon. I saw what appeared to be a snake swimming across the pond towards the dam. About six feet from shore, there was a tremendous explosion of water. I figure that some bass had a nice Sunday afternoon meal.

I harvested four nice female bluegill (8-1/2, 9, 9-1/2 and 10 inches) this evening. They were really fat for this time of year. From their size, I expected them to be full of eggs. Instead, they had a lot of black bugs in their stomachs, and all four had some nearly digested pellets, probably from last night. But, only one had any trace of eggs, and that trace looked far smaller than the usual drop of mustard that usually falls onto my necktie before an important meeting. Their fillets were thick.

Ken

Let's hope for a great year.

Once the wind dies down here in the evening the black flies or what ever they are hound you and bite you. I thought that only happened in Canada? I've never experienced aggressive biting flies like this before.

Last Tuesday, it snowed here.

Saturday and Sunday, I had LMB staking their claims to spawning beds all around the pond.

Two posts away and NOW he's all business!