Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Property Projects & Construction What did you do at your pond today?

Looks like a small LMB to me, even though it doesn't have the markings yet. If you want to add pictures directly to your post, you need to upload them to an image hosting site, such as imgur.com. Once uploaded, you can get the URL to the image and add it to your post.

Here is the picture that MisterA posted as an attachment:

Thanks for posting the pic Steve. I have actually snagged a few fingerling bass on those mini rooster tails and they look like bass. This guy was different but the mouth does look like it could be an LMB. I am going to build and set a couple of fish traps and see what starts showing up. A friend of mine said it is a shad but the solid black line running the length of the body doesn't really look like any pictures I saw. I am sure it was not an HSB - I've caught tons of those in lakes and would recognize it even in micro size.

bass, certainly not a shad.

Largemouth Bass, color not pronounced probably because of the muddy water.

+1 on water clarity, see that here at times

I pulled the floating pier across the pond to the shallows so I can change out one to three barrels. It is a a pain to change out barrels but I've done it before and I just have to be careful along with being safe. It is an ALL DAY Job.

MrA - to me your fish looks like a pale colored LMB.

Thanks - it seems the consensus is that it is an LMB. Now that I look at the mouth it sure seems that way. I was not aware that they could/would discolor. If nothing else this conversation has pushed me over the edge on addressing the water quality issues. Water isn't horrible because fish are healthy and growing but it is cause for concern. We finally received rain, seven inches, during the last hurricane. Unfortunately we had quite a bit of shore exposed, which is clay rich, due to the pond being so low and we also had done some clearing in the dry creek bed that runs into the pond so the water is very brown now and taking a long time to clear. I finally figured out that running the aeration was keeping the suspended clay from settling out so have shut that down but it is very slow to clear and it was never super clear to start with.

I may ask for more help on that issue but will move it to a different thread. Thanks again...............

Mister A
Have you tested your water? Till I lined mine it was cloudy

Replaced the broken shear pin in my Minn Kota electric motor. Tricky because it is permanently attached to front of pontoon boat so had to do it over water at awkward angle. Also fixed broken motor shaft clamp with 3 C clamps of the right size. Foot control works for speed, but not steering, must be done by hand. I don't mind too much, but it sure seems like lots is going wrong that is not of my doing -- except for the shear pin, I ran into a submerged log going pretty fast.

Fish still taking food, but not quite as eagerly as back in spring and early summer. HSB took my little jigworm to the next county, there's no mistaking the sizzling long straight run of a big wiper! Also caught a few decent LMB, had on a really big one where the hook pulled out. All in all, good fishing.

Fred, my egret, has been joined by little Fred Jr. Fred barely tolerates him, but hasn't chased him off yet. George, the Great Blue Heron is still around, too.

Pat, getting a water analysis done is on the agenda. I'll be dropping off a sample at A&M next week. I know I have a very soft bottom that is likely very nutrient rich but I am going to wait for the water analysis before I formulate a plan. When I bought the place the folks we bought it from were running 30+ head on 21 acres (18 grazable) along with a couple of skinny mares. There wasn't a blade of grass over 1/2" on the entire place and lots of skinny cows. The only water source was the pond. That was 6 years ago but I understand the drought of 2011 was almost a death blow to the pond. I don't think it has ever fully recovered but I am working on it.

I found this GSH at the edge of the water, looks like maybe a GBH might of speared him. I wish he would get the rest of the bigger GSHs.

Bob, why do you want the heron to get your large GSH? Are they too big for your bass to eat?

We changed out two of the metal barrels for blk plastic barrels on the floating pier One of the metal ones had a small hole in it from corrosion after 6 yrs. I hope the plastic barrels will last a little longer. It's pretty easy to change them out when all i have to do is set on the tractor, use the front end loader and bark out orders to my grandson. I'm going to miss him at the farm when he leaves for the Air Force in December.

Yes, that one was probably over 6" and I have bigger ones than that. I just stocked the LMB this spring and some of them are about 12" now but I doubt they will ever be able to eat the bigger ones and I figure their just eating up food.

My 8 year old granddaughter is coming to spend a few days next week - one benefit of Covid is that she is still going to school online so she can come visit and not miss school. Based on a lot of recommendations on this forum I have ordered some Stubby Steve's fish bait. For those of you who use it, what is the best way? Can I just use it on a hook by itself or is it best to use as an attractor with other bait or artificial? We are going to be BG and CC fishing. Do they work with LMB also? She hasn't caught an LMB so that would be huge bonus. She loves to fish and her mom said she is non-stop talking about fishing since we lined up the trip so I want to make sure we are reeling them in. Thanks for any input.

Shiner or fatheads would make a better bait for LMB but you never know, I have caught lots lo LMB on grasshoppers many times . Cut BG also work on them. Good luck. I use this gold Aberdeen hooks a lot , no swivel, very small split shot for weight, smallest cork and usually catch them
Hook live bait through lips

Worms work great for cc and bg. I would always have them in my tackle lineup if I was going to take a kid fishing. And lmb will also eat them if given the chance.

If you catch a small BG you could use it as bait for LMB and CC.

Saw several incoming flights of cormorants fly over ..... ugh that time of year again.....

CHUTE um man just as they set foot on the pond. And dont tell about the hunt

Dumped 10lbs of FHM in the cow pond on Friday.

Saturday I packed a few muskrat tunnels full of bentonite and the last bit of soil floc that I had on hand.
I'm going to need more of each. Along with wiping out virtually all of the rooted vegetation in the pond,
those dang varmints really made a mess of the dam.

After I've finished packing all of the tunnels I'll rip-rap the dam and then bring in some more topsoil
to smooth it back out, and re-seed it with grass and dutch clover.

It's been my intention all along to do the rip-rap. If I'd done it sooner I think it might have kept the rats
from turning the dam into swiss cheese.

Both 1/4 acre ponds are the lowest they have been since first filling (one in late 2015, other in late 20i6). It's going to be a disaster if it doesn't rain soon. We have not had a rain with any run-off at all since the second day of July. DRY DRY DRY

What ever do you mean Tracy ..... wink wink