Didn't get let down, thanks folks! I will try and answer the questions as best I can, given the firing on fewer than 8 cylinders situation.
Sorry to hear of your status catmandoo, it sounds very much like my own. I was in a better place with regards to the pain four years ago, I have an internal pain pump and had Prialt pumping into my spinal cord, I am nearly impervious to Fentanyl, Dilaudid, all the opiates, and Prialt is the venom of the Australian Cone Snail. But for Christmas of 08, the pump suddenly went supernova one day, putting me in a coma in less than a minute. On the plus side, that was the best sleep I have had before or since the accident! Pump is still in there, just sitting idle, not unlike its owner
We are located about 2 hours from Branson, in the south central part of the state, close to Rolla, Houston. Something like you suggested, while I understand is a long shot and I completely understand given the nature of your schedule and workload, would still be absoultly amazing if it were to come to fruition. Everyone out here own a pond of some type. Well, that one was kinda a given based on the part of the country we live in I guess. We do have a fish hatchery 28 miles to the North that delivers fish either to the pond directly, or most commonly, "fish day" at our local MFA'S, and the local farmers line up with their tubs and buckets of all sizes and shapes to attempt to get the fish back to the pond in time; always a "cannonball run" type of thing to see if we can get them to our remote locations in time to get the fish in the ponds without suffering any loss. Twenty minute drive is about the limit when buying them 100 at a time ( 3-6" ) in 20 gallon containers without any aeration.
The only water that leaves my pond other than the leak, which is really just heavy seepage, is the evaporation. I have read about some plants that might be able to help, a couple of hurdles to overcome with that are getting out the GC ( spookier than many whitetail bucks ) and finding the correct plants; it is very difficult to find anything close to us, we just are not located in an ideal spot for shopping. Basically, we are half way between St Louis and Springfield, it is a 2 hour drive in either direction. I do not know if such items could be purchased through the internet, but considering that I seem to have a destructive batch of fish, lots of pretty big turtles ( which we very much like ) and maybe 8 GC, I would think that any vegetation would quickly be attacked with zest. But I may be way off on that, we already see what happens when I think for myself
This pond just does not fit all the molds. Most of the fish seem to thrive in what appears to be very poor conditions/ they continue to reproduce at a rapid rate, all with little attention over years from us other than feeding. I finally put in some HBG this spring, small fish, since I know nothing is gonna be able to find them and eat em! Prior to that, I had not planted any of them in 5 years. Yet any bait, or especially any lures within reason ( they even hit very large bass lures ) will usually produce a very nice BG on every attempt, and strangely, perhaps 30% or more will still be HYB. In fact, before we put in the small ones this spring, I noticed that when we had some company that we coaxed into fishing, they caught and released maybe 6 SMALL, clearly spawns, something that I know should occur rarely.
Again, the pond does not seem to fit what the text would indicate. The bass are indeed slender, but still reproducing like crazy, baby bass everywhere every year. The fathead minnows put in many years ago that I assumed would be gobbled up quickly with any survivors croaking soon after, have apparently thrived so well they have established a very large and healthy breeding population, at least it would appear so, as there are ALWAYS an abundance of them, regardless of the time of the year.
We used to have normal catfish food in one feeder on the bridge that separates the ponds pointing into the deep end of the new, larger, deeper pond, and another pointing the other direction, the smaller pond seemed to hold a few more of the BG, so that feeder was filled with Purina 500. Then we went to a mix of 600 and normal catfish food for the big pond feeder, and after we noticed a large number of BG big enough to eat those pellets also ( new goal for last year or so is for big BG ) we went to a mix of 500/600/normal chow. Finally, we have just settled on 600 into the larger pond, 500 into the smaller one.
Because our pond is located just 80 yards out our back door, I actually watch them feed every single evening, usually from the house with a 45X spotting scope, and often we will go right to the bridge and watch the action up close. We always take any visitors out there for feeding time, the feeders go off same time every night ( so great to watch the abrupt waves start forming in the normally very still waters about 30 seconds before the feeder go off as the jockeying for position begins ) and it is a sight indeed, something that people not used to seeing large fish very close slapping the surface in a feeding frenzy do not soon forget. I guess everyone that has CC and GP, lots of large BG, etc has the same thing, but there is no "gentle" surface feeding from these catfish ( some are large albino ); everything is what appears to be race to the finish.
I have always struggled with the question of overfeeding. I know there is no hard answer here, the "fifteen minute" rule is about all I really know of, but again I am a little confused here. I can set the feeder to deliver the max 20 second load, and they will wipe it out within 3 minutes. I program in a second load of 10 to 15 seconds right behind that one....all gone within just a few minutes. Everyone is in on the nightly feast, even the turtles ( we have one turtle that I have been unable to identify, very large, clearly NOT a snapper, and VERY spooky, can't get within 50 yards of the pond, usually only seen through the spotting scope ), the raccoon are in the dugouts on standby by for anything feeding to close to shore. the kingfishers are watching from above for the occasional morsel, it is really a show each evening. Combined with the deer and turkey that are also within 150 yards of the house feeding off another feeder, it is better than anything I can find on TV....and I watch a LOT of TV since I was put down
You mentioned fish numbers and types. I am still petty confident ( well, you know how that goes.....) about the types, nothing has ever been pulled out of the pond other than what was put into them. Could be something out there not landed yet. As to numbers, I can only attest to a few things, most are unknown to us. We are certain that everything but the GP are spawning regularly, in fact, it appears that this year, the greenest the pond has ever been, with terrible visibility, is the best year yet for spawns, but the poor bass, while also spawning right on schedule every year, look like they are starving while everything else we pull out of the pond looks like Jabba The Hut of the fish world.
Since I watch them every day, both in the morning for a short feed and the evening for the normal one, I have become so ( I have done this every day for all 7 years! ) familiar with the fish I actually know many of the larger CC by name, we gave them names some years ago. Based on what I see, and the number and ease of BG that can be caught ( and size!), I THINK that despite the fact I have only stocked a few hundred fish maybe 3 times in 7 years, considering it is so lightly fished, they are actually staying ahead of the curve. I have not taken on any real aggressive program since I realized that I would never be able to get the pain levels down to a point that would allow me to get out there with any regularity, but the amount of company we expected to show up at out door more than willing to take some of these fish off our hands never materialized. So, it is for the best if I do not get to many fish in there actually. In fact, I have no simple way of knowing what the current population is ( pond cannot be drained easily, nor would I want to occur the expense of trying to start over ) except for the GP, I know there are 8 of them, and I have a pretty good idea on the number of large CC. Not to many of them, perhaps 15 and they are not that large, last ones caught were only 12 pounds, 30" long. The 4 or 5 big guys are extremely wary, no one has ever been able to land one of them although at one time or another everyone has had their lines snapped off by something, probably one of them.
Speaking of difficulty in catching CC, I know I have read in PB and other places that pellet fed catfish are not harder to catch than those that are not. Another rule breaker for this pond I suspect,when I put in the feeders a few years ago, they became so picky that it is nearly impossible to catch any of the medium or larger fish, they simply ignore EVERYTHING offered to them, instead waiting like dogs at dinnertime for the evening meal. About the only hope I have for any guests to catch them at all is if I have advance notice of their arrival by a week or so, I will turn off the feeders ( if I leave the BG feeder on with tiny 500 they just race over the bridge and eat that like it was their last meal ) and then they have a chance, otherwise, despite the fact it is not a very big pond and does indeed have plenty of fish in it, as the poor hapless fishermen see after fishing without luck, only to see the surface boil like hot water as the feeders go off even as they pack up all their gear, having caught plenty of big BG, but few skinny bass, and almost no luck on the catfish, only to see big albino cats now feeding with gusto on the surface, a scant few feet away from them. More than a few have inquired as to the possible use of my crossbow back at the house
I think my green water is a self feeding thing. The ponds are sheltered from the wind, but do get a lot of strong sunlight, almost no wave action. I notice that all the ponds around us this time of the year sooner or latter "turn over" or whatever the proper term is for it ( my 86 year old neighbor not to far up the road has a smaller pond, never lost a fish, this summer his pond "turned over" twice, resulting in a large kill each time ) or develop a lot of algae floating on the surface during the very hot months, and yet our pond has always seemed immune to this. With nearly a million gallons of fresh water being injected into it every month, I assume that is the only logical explanation for why we are able to escape such problems.
I have some picture of the ponds, the water, etc. I have never tried to attach any pics to any posts anywhere, so that is something I will have to read tomorrow and then see if I can send so pics so everyone can get a better idea what I am talking about. In fact, as I was trying to pound this out, it was time to get up and open up the back door and watch through the 45X scope for the evening feeding, although it is close enough that is not really necessary, but does give great detail. We finally had a tiny few drops of rain yesterday, what a beautiful evening, as I watched the feeders go off a scant 9 iron from the house, a little bit farther off I watched 8 turkeys mingle with 10 deer, two of which were spotted fawns, while 2 raccoon stood guard on the bridge....just in case. I managed to snap a few pics, not that great, does not zoom out enough, but still, I got em !
I certainly appreciate so much the kindness and help that is offered to me. I know it may seem a little off to ask for help when I am not losing a single fish, and the fish I do have seem so healthy, save the poor bass, but with water this green, in addition to not looking the way at all we want, I have a sense of dread, I think I am on borrowed time, I think it is only a mater of time, and I feel the need to address this oops of mine before I make the raccoon out there very, very happy with dinner for all
Thanks again!
