Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Having a tuff time

Thanks Sunil. I'm already walking more and faster. I've been to the pond 3xs today to feed. What a relief to be able to breathe again.

Jeesh - sorry Kenny and Roger I'm a little late to the thread. Glad you're both on the mend, I'll be sending healing vibes to KS and CO. This may result in some sudden hair loss or your neighbors as this isn't yet an exact science, but my heart is in the right place.

Thanks, tj. Every day continues to be better than the last. I appreciate your energy.

4CP, Mitral valve by chance?
Keep smiling my friend, I'll do the same.

Yes snipe, mitral valve regurgitation due to prolapse.
Pati and I now know so very much more about the heart and all its functions than we ever wanted to know. You could say more than we ever thought could be known!
The knowledge, wisdom, competence, and efficiency of the entire heart team were beyond our expectations.
And yes, lots of smiling going on around here now.

Snipe & 4CP,

I am relieved to read that each of you are recovering well. I add my prayers for your continued recovery. A apologize for not posting sooner but we have been dealing with medical concerns also with my son who suffers from epilepsy and has had recent seizures. We seem to have moved past this but it's left us wondering why there seems to be an annual recurrence in the early November time period. Anyways, keep getting better and keep us posted.

jpsdad,

Sorry to hear that your son is also in the "tuff time" category. I hope he manages a full recovery and can return to his normal activities soon.

One underappreciated benefit of a pond is that it gives you reason to get out, walk around, do stuff in the great outdoors. At least for me, it's too easy post retirement to sit around at the keyboard or read a book all day.

Hello all, I wanted to come back and post a few updates here.
Haven't been "ON" for awhile, miss you guys..
Just wanted to drop in and let you folks know I've been experiencing some side effects (so they say) to my Covid experience..
Started having unexplained seizures nearly 2 months ago now. We "think" we have those under control and I've gotten WAY behind in my fish farm duties, but with my wife's and a couple of friends help, we're back up to speed-if that's possible to catch up- and looks like I'm ready for the year to start.
I am SO VERY PROUD to announce an opportunity that has been given to me that will set new goals going forward...TODAY, I signed an MOU to obtain Sauger for the purpose of propagating SAUGEYE-in the Private sector..
I/we believe this to be the first-ever private sector production process for this hybrid.
I've partnered up with a grower I've been working with in CO. We have the water needed to grow out a good number of Saugeye, WAE and SMB. Things are taking shape.

Snipe,

Hope you get well soon!

Also, congrats on the new Saugeye project!

I hope you have enough time to share what are sure to fascinating results on the forum. (Of course, it is tough to have enough time when you are the equivalent of a one-legged man in an a$$ kicking contest.)

Great news on both accounts !

Hello.

Good luck.

Glad to see you're on the mend. And congrats on the sauger news!! Very cool!

That's fantastic news!!! Now when will the fish business be enough so you can quit your day (or night) job? LOL

Awesome!!

We behind you!

educate us on what a sauger is and why you would hybrid with walleye and then what the advantages (or disadvantages) of the saug-eye might be? are these best suited for smaller or larger ponds and are we targeting cooler/northern ponds or can they do southern ponds too?

Get well soon, Snipe! I have fond memories of fishing for saugeye in central Ohio. Delish!

The Saugeye came about in KS as an additional fishing opportunity that was desirable because of growth rate typical of most hybrids.
What was NOT known for some time was their tolerance of less than stelar water quality, the ability to thrive in higher than both parent stocks temp ranges and then later yet the discovery of their appetite for sunfish opposite the typical fusiform shape desired by most predators. This led to a massive shift in biomass with quantity over quality pan-fisheries. It was found by accident, really.. several stunted crappie situations turned from an untouchable number of 5-7", uncontrollable crappie populations into a suddenly increasing size of crappie that led to large crappie that had never been observed in many KS impoundments.
Over the last decade, studies have shown the Saugeye to work better than anything known for controlling massive numbers of small BG without disrupting other species population such as LMB in a negative manner. Most of the research conducted showed the LMB population structure had an over abundance of small, hungry bass that due to cover related issues, the smaller BG were not being consumed and resulted in some starvation of small LMB with a following explosion of BG. Now, we all know this is a management issue in small ponds, and it's easy to say there is cover that needs removed for predator access. When the state looks at this, the time factor plays a role and it becomes impractical for them to devote Many hours of time to lessen the percentage of habitat.
Enter the Saugeye.. Observations of these fish having one or 2 up cruising through cattails and other dense shoreline cover vegetation running smaller fish out to other waiting mouths.
Stocking rates required have been found to be fairly low when being used as a tool to modify a panfish structure, like 4-10 fish per acre, every other year and like any other fish we deal with, they are culled when desired results are noted.
Walleye can do "ok" in some ponds but if you really note body condition by the numbers, seldom will you ever find WAE above the 85% WR mark, it's just not where they do well. Take a saugeye from a small, slightly discolored, maybe 80-82 deg water body type and generally you will find them in the 90%+ WR.
Basically, the Saugeye gets only growth potential from the WAE.. They take on the traits of Sauger in preferring warmer, turbid conditions where WAE fail badly, then add the hybrid vigor that builds in the aggressive behavior and you have a very useful tool that is easily caught, does a lot of work for you and taste very well on the table.
Many states use the Saugeye in larger impoundments to replace WAE where they won't recruit for various reasons.
For archives: WAE=Walleye, SAE=Saugeye. These are widely accepted abbreviations for these 2 fish and are used by my state hatcheries for ID, so that's how I use them.

Edit: As for location, they do well in the top 1/3rd of Texas-on North. In a nutshell, they handle warmer water than WAE.

Thanks for the assessment Snipe. My pond needs some SAE.

Happy to have you back, Snipe!

And just like that Snipe is back bringing a boatload of awesome information!

I'm sorry to hear about your health issues and truly hope you've got them under control.

Congrats on the opportunity to produce some new fish. Sounds like an amazing situation for you!

Sauger sound perfect for those KS watershed ponds (15-20 acres) that are full of white crappie.

Congrats and good luck!

catscratch, that's where the SAE really shine, but until now we've only had these available BY state hatchery, FOR state-run impoundments.. That's about to change.

I have a pond just as described, but it's not a bad fishery as we catch nice fish out of it. Always interested in ways to improve it. Great information!

Great news Snipe