Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction Never been much for fishing, but maybe someday....

Not the biggest rain events we have ever had here in SE Ks but enough to make the emergency overflow run. My pond has seen water go over the emergency overflow before, but never when we have been at home. So this is my first chance to see what it looked like. I had tried to envision it, but had fallen short. I had no idea how easy it would be for creek fish to contaminate my pond. May be the answer where a few of the fish that have surprised me came from.

For fish to come from the creek, swim up the emergency overflow, and get into the pond, they first have to BE in the creek. The creek is a seasonal creek and can go completely dry. So for fish to be in it, there first has to be a big enough rain for water to flow to the main creek about a half mile away. Once fish populate the puddles and holes that remain (sometimes for the whole summer, in a drought year they dry up), then a subsequent large rain event like the one July 3rd can back water up to the point my emergency overflow can connect with this creek. Pictures below of it doing just that, and we had a high water event earlier this year where I saw 2.5' carp in the small creek.

I never saw any fish swimming up the overflow water, though at its maximum flow small ones sure could have. There were hundreds and hundreds of BG from yolk sac up to a couple of inches and gambusia that went into the creek and got stuck in the grass as the water quit flowing though.

I could hear the 8" overflow pipe on the opposite side of the pond sucking air down a vortex all the way across the pond at my patio.

Interesting.