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

Yeah, if they are old enough to drink beer & make the long trek to my pond, they are old enough to prosecute. And, as you say, if they get away with it, others will follow. I may unlimber my rifle and do some target practice, too, as the sound should have some deterrent value.

FishinRod, that's a Blue, out of the river tho, my pond is only 3 yrs old. this one went a little over 75#

Dr Luke, that's a pretty impressive sized snapper, and clean, I don't think Ive ever seen one that clean, most of them are nasty muddy looking, Ive even seen them with algae growing on the shell

Dang it, I missed a good joke! I forgot your pond was only 3 years old.

Did that big Blue make it to the hot oil, or did you put her back in the river?

Dang it, I missed a good joke! I forgot your pond was only 3 years old.

Did that big Blue make it to the hot oil, or did you put her back in the river?[/quote]

Usually we would have put it back but we had a newbie fishing with us over the weekend and due to a wild fire running us out of our campsite boat ramp, he had to move some vehicles and couldn't be with us when we pulled him in, off of a bank pole, so we kept it so that he could see and get some pictures made with it his first monster fish. so yeah, it wound up in the grease.

His back 1/3 was actually covered in mud/silt. He also smelled like death/decomp (rotten fishy smell). Truly nasty critters.

gehajake,

Was that big Blue tasty?

I have never eaten any catfish that large. I assume you have a specific cleaning technique for big river cats.

Some people consider turtles (including snappers) a delicacy to eat. (I have never eaten one.)

I know pigs smell nasty, yet I love bacon, honey-roast ham, etc.! We humans sure are weird.

I've had turtle soup, reputed Southern delicacy. Unlike fried okra, gumbo, boiled crawfish, boudin, etouffee, blackened alligator, grilled redfish, spoon bread, and beignets, however, one taste was more than enough.

They are tasty if cleaned properly and fixed right, a tad more fatty but pretty good. nowhere near a Flathead or yellowcat as some call them but damn good. its all in the cleaning and prepping. gotta get rid of the red meat veins.

Used to run bank lines on a large creek as a kid with my grandfather, fishing for big cats. Anything over the ~10lb mark, he'd chop the end of their tail off, hang 'em by their lower jaw & bleed 'em out. Pretty sure he trimmed out the red meat, but can't remember definitely. I can tell you we ate a LOT of catfish & I don't recall any of it ever having a muddy or "fishy" flavor.

We do the same, anything over 10 12 lbs we let them bleed out good,
We have also theorized how much firmer and better meat a river cat has then a lake cat, especially the bigger, older ones, seems like the currents or something must keep them more active or something maybe, the lake caught catfish seem to be even fattier, and the meat was more mushy, not as solid, firm.

Went fishing in the pond Sat and caught several LMB BG and a half dozen WE, the biggest one was right at 19" and probably over 2 lbs, ( I didn't have a scales with me). not too bad for just being stocked a yr ago last April at under 3", I don't know what the relative length and weight should be for them, the chart I printed out didn't have WE on it. beautiful fish tho.
https://imgur.com/pTt1Vjy

I may try to get some WE this year. I think my numbers of bigger fish are down due to otters. The GSH will take over.
Where did you get your walleye? I hear there’s a hatchery near Vandalia or Curryville.

Relative weight charts are in the archives. Here's one for BG, PS, CP, BC, WC, RBS, YPO & WE:

https://www.fishandboat.com/Fish/PennsylvaniaFishes/Documents/weightlength1.pdf

Makes sense to me. I'll have to harvest a couple catfish from Truman, say around Fairfield & a couple from the Sac or Osage & do a taste test sometime.

Thanks Esshup, according to that, at 18.5 to 19 inches I should be real close to 100% weight to length ratio, granted I am rough guessing the weight and even the length I had to take a piece of wire and get his length then measure it later.

Setterguy, there is a fish hatchery around Curryville, I think that's actually the name of it, I have been dealing with Harrison Fishery though, which is a ways north of there, north of Mark Twain Lake I think, Hurdland MO is their address, have had real good luck with them.

Pretty weird this year. All the leaves came down at once. I’m thinking it’s the lack of rain. Usually it’s spread out over a few weeks. Almost looks like I could walk on these. Strong south wind has them all up against the dam.

It might be a fool's errand, but after tonight's storm (they're calling for thunderstorms with winds up to 35 mph), I'm going to attempt to use a skimmer/dipnet to get the leaves out of mine. Very high percentage are oak leaves & I don't want to run the risk of issues from the tannins or future muck build up.

Carl, that was my first thought when I saw all the leaves. Then I started thinking about the shear weight of all those wet leaves. I get this many every fall, and haven’t removed any yet. A few months ago I waded the circumference of the pond, about 10-12 feet from shore. I was really surprised at how few leaves I was finding. Maybe they dissolve or just drift deeper.

Yeah, I have no idea. Probably just overthinking things. At least my sweat is free & the pond is small. Lol!

SetterGuy,

Your picture looks like a perfect set up to get the leaves out with a pool skimmer net.

Organic decomposition is strongly dependent on water temperature. As the water temperature cools, the leaves that sink to the bottom will barely decay over the course of the winter. The first spring rain that brings some silt into your pond will begin to cover the leaves and remove (bury) them from the oxygenated water/bottom interface where most of the decomposition occurs.

I have observed sunk leaves held up in shallow water within BG beds, cattle hoof prints, etc. If your pond has relatively uniform slopes, then I suspect the leaves that make it into your pond work down to the deepest portions of your pond.

I guess I could get some out. I’ll be back up this week. Like I said, that many leaves, and more get dumped in every fall.
I think you’re right about where they end up. Down in the deepest parts of the pond. 15’ deep, I used to get to the bottom, but not for the last few years.
I do not have aeration in the one ac pond.
Thx

I have similar "stupid" physical labor projects to perform at our property.

My justification is, skip a workout at the gym and count the labor at the farm as a double-dip for getting exercise and accomplishing a marginally beneficial project.

It would definitely be more peaceful to me to be skimming leaves at your beautiful pond than working out inside a noisy gym!

The benefit of busting butt on the pond is the nap after.

Friends harvested 15 smaller LMB the other day. Largest LMB caught & released around 3 lb. They enjoyed a tough fight with a 23.5 inch HSB. Fortunately, they released it quickly. They also caught several giant CNBG which were returned.

Foot control trolling motor bit the dust, irreparable. Replaced with similar power hand control motor which works quite well. New mounting bracket fabricated by my handyman friend, who actually caught the big HSB.

Pond is still close to 3 feet low. Needs a lot more rain!