Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Help

Also, I have caught a few bass from this pond with chunks taken from them..... I don't know if this means anything.

Personally, I don't care for cattails. Rarely is it a case of IF they'll pose a problem - but WHEN. But some folks like 'em - and that's fine. Cattails may offer some wildlife benefits. But, their benefit to fisheries is outweighed by their hindrance to fishermen. IMO, other forms of structure/cover are preferable - and pose less aerial obstructions to fishing.
Question: What do koi eat? Submersed vegetation? My son will put a slice of cucumber in his aquarium and the goldfish goes to town on it. Wondering if koi have similar feeding habits.

I'm with Kelly. I try to avoid cattails.

I could make part of the project taking them out.............. But its really shallow where they are now

Have any otters?

Beavers, there is a small beaver dam that was built and abandoned

NO not beavers...it's probably just scars from childhood

Is there anything else you guys reccomend I do to this pond? What should i do to improve the water clarity and water quality at this pond? also, Do you think I should install a fish feeder?

I am pretty sure that The bluegill that inhabit are both pure strain bluegill and pumpkinseed bluegill

How bout some good pics of everything.. Including satelite, dam, culverts, fish, anything.

Here is a quote from an article written about the ponds:

Alongside the main creek, the engineers constructed a series of four long catch basins and one large pond designed to absorb excess water when the creek rises to a certain point, and then release the water slowly as the runoff subsides, Twombly said. Sewer lines from the subdivision areas feed into either the creek or the catch basins.

The duck pond is another 200 yards downstream, he said. The creek feeds directly into that pond and is drained by a pipe at the lower end of the pond.

‘‘The entire system has drastically reduced the flooding,” he said. ‘‘Only in extremely strong, sustained downpours does the entire area flood. At those times, it is impossible to even tell where the duck pond is located. Downhill from the duck pond, the drainage enters a broad, flat floodplain that is consistently marshy and often has standing water.”

Twombly added that the ponds⁄basins support a diversity of animals (beaver and otters), birds (ducks and geese), plants (cattails and lily pads), amphibians (frogs) and fish (carp, sunfish and largemouth bass).

‘‘Unfortunately, the flow rate in all of the ponds is very low unless it rains, which allows a significant amount of algae to accumulate during dry spells,” he said. ‘‘Some trash also tends to accumulate in the stream itself as well as the ponds. The combination of algae and goose⁄duck excrement lends a somewhat ‘scummy’ quality to the ponds.

‘‘I am sure mosquitoes are able to breed in some sections of the ponds, though the marshy areas downstream are far more stagnant and do not have fish to feed on the larvae,” he added. ‘‘Whenever there is a major storm, much of the unwanted sediment and, hopefully, the mosquito larvae are flushed out of the system.”


THIS ARTICLE WAS WRITTEN 4 YEARS AGO, THE CONDITIONS HAVE SINCE GOTTEN MUCH BETTER

I cannot find any Satelite photos

Here is a video I made at the pond: http://sharing.theflip.com/session/11fe15658cda4422a0a658cd3d7c9983/video/28652231

This pretty much shows the hole pond....... This video was made in November

Tell us in the correct quadrant and I bet we can find it....

If I had to guess it would be in the 2nd C quadrant somewhere...... It's called the Only Mill Family park. This is the closest I could get to it : http://maps.google.com/maps?rlz=1T4GGLS_enUS402US402&q=Charline+Manor+Park+(Olney+Mill+Family+Park)&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wl The blue thing is the pool, which the ponds are behind, but they aren't big enough to see on a map.

I was thinking about Planting trees around the shoreline to provide shade keeping water temps from getting too high. Should I look into planting a few catfish in each pond as an economical way to control those bluegill populations.

man i just spent about 30 minutes trying to find it.. What street is it on? I checked up and down charline manor rd. I also checked around all swimming pools i could find.. I need a little more info to find it..

Its behing the Olney mill swim club. the pool's address is:


3611 Briars Road - Olney, MD 20832


Just look at the video i posted and it should give you all the views and shots you need of the pond.

Channel cats will not provide much help in controlling a bluegill population. They would only serve the purpose of another species to catch. Which is fine if you think there is enough interest and there's no structure that would encourage spawning.

Your video doesn't details the ponds' sizes or orientation like an aerial image. The below images might help put things into perspective from a time-line standpoint and allow more accurate comments & suggestions.
What is glaringly obvious is the significant increase in shoreline trees and surface "weed" growth between 2006 and 2010. Appears to be a classic example of eutrophication.



BTW: Try switching to 8 or 10 lb mono on the spinning reel; and tie on a 6" smoke-gray Senko worm, "Texas rigged" (weedless) without a weight - worked slowly using a similar technique to that shown in your video.

Kelly, I'm sorry to say that is the one pond I am working on, the other one is only a little bit away from the ponds you found, you shouldn't have much trouble finding it, it A LOT bigger than the other pond.
What your doing I really appreciate!!!!!!!!!!!

I watched your video AFTER measuring the smaller pond, and realized I might have the wrong pond. The drain-inlet in the above aerial images didn't match the orientation of the drainage-inlet shown in your video.
The below images should be correct, since the drainage-inlet in this larger pond matches the position shown in your video. The image below taken in '08 was much sharper than the '10 image; plus the lack of tree-foilage in late April'08 allowed much better definition of the pond's perimeter.

Thanks alot Kelly, now that you have pictures of the ponds, what else would you reccomend I do?

Get vegetation and water quality under control first off..

I typed up a big "plan" last night after i finally found these ponds. As i was finishing up my power went out before i could post it. But it basically included the pics shown, and how the weeds have been taking over and progressing for the last few years. So i recommended taking care of the weed and water quality issues first..