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

Roasted/BBQ racoon is one of my favorites, but I won't butcher a sick one.

We are overrun with coons , you are welcome to come get as many as you can carry

Thanks for the reply Augie.

The only time I ever ate BBQ raccoon was at a Soul Food festival. It was excellent, but it was also served in a home made sweet KC-style BBQ sauce that was so good that it would probably have been tasty on sawdust. My grandfather took me to meet some of his old fishing buddies who were presenting some of their favorite foods. We were the only two white people at the event.

I got to try multiple dishes of food that I had never had before - or since! I wish I had been a little older so I could have appreciated all of the foods and all of the different cultures they derived from.

Had a chance to get by the farm today, started clearing a couple acres for more foodplots for turkey and deer. was tickled to see we had 3 1/2" of rain there Sunday, 3" at home, but filled my pond up to overflowing from about 6 to 8" down. all came in a really short time, not much over an hr. some of the neighbors on both sides of there had 4".

Working really good for clearing trees, with a track-hoe you can pluck the little ones out in the bottom ground like a weed, roots come out clean as a whistle. helps that it is a real sandy topsoil loam about two' deep.

Great report!

Wow! I sure wish we’d get some rain in northeast Missouri! One of these days.. Hopefully. I’m heading up tomorrow to check things out. I was going to post a joke about catching these or stocking these in my pond, but gave up trying to make it humorous. I’ve been up in the Northwest Territories of Canada. Up above Yellowknife.


Just had an amazing week of fishing up there.

Wow and Wow!!! on those fish.

You probably should have bucket stocked them into your pond at home to see if you could grow them a little bigger!

Goodness gracious! I bet that laker made a nice sackful of steaks.

Another one. A bit chunkier.. Everything was catch and release except for a 8-9 lb shore lunch Northern every day..

Impressive fish that produce great memories. Thanks for sharing. Catch and releasing those far northern fish helps keep the system in balance to maintain impressive catches in that clear low productive water.

Beautiful pics, thanks for sharing. Makes me wish even more for O2 saturation tech that could enable my pond to keep tiger muskie healthy below the thermocline all summer!

The water was incredibly clear. You can see the bottom in 12’ very clearly. The fish were pretty aggressive also, we caught 80+ on a couple of the days. Barbless hooks were required, and the guides handled the fish very carefully. I was told the 40+ inch pike were over 30 yrs old.. There’s a fair amount of concern about a road that was recently put through, possibly bringing in more fishermen. While we were there, we were the only boats out.

Those are some awesome, beautiful fish, had to been a ton of fun to catch, I have several friends around here that go to a lake up in Minn, right on the Canada line every yr, another friend of mine has a cabin up there on that lake, Ive never been able to go, its on my bucket list.
If you woulda told us you caught them outta your pond Ida been up there before daylight! with my heaviest fishing gear.

Pond is about a year old (full pond in January) and finally got 2 kids and 4 grandsons at the pond for swimming, paddle boarding, canoeing, kayaking. A good return on investment! No pictures, too busy enjoying the day.

One asked if he could fish; I said next year. Trying to do perch, SMB, pumpkinseed but having a rough time finding any at NYS qualified hatcheries. Zetts in PA would only sell 100 perch fingerlings (shipping next week), no SMB. I will see if I can get more locally in the fall. I think the grandkids had enough fun they will ask to come back (live 3-1/2 hours away), with or without the fishing.

Retired on 40. My grandkids absolutely love our pond. Fishing, swimming, kayaking, rowing, catching frogs, tadpoles, crawdads, jumping off the dock, and trying to dunk grandpa. They can’t get enough. The single best investment I’ve ever made, was putting the pond on our farm.
It’s also VERY nice when they leave, and grandma and grandpa can float peacefully with a cold beverage. Ha!

SetterGuy, they bring a lot of energy and somehow it seems quieter after they leave than before they came.

It's out there. Break out the pocketbook though!! Send me the pond coordinates and I can give you a quote, but it will be in the middle or a bit higher 5 figure range.....

Thanks for the tip, Eric. The price makes me gulp -- I'm doing okay, but no billionaire. Still, would love to pull it off! May PM you if I can ever convince my better half...

Today my wife & visiting mother went to pond. Only had two sacks of fish food at Purina store, so deployed them in my feeders. More frustration with the feeders, as one year old one on the dock ceased working.

The first few years, every new feeder worked fine, the only exception being when the lower housing got flooded. The last few years, new feeders have a 50 percent chance of lasting two years, even though not flooded & much more expensive. Not sure why.

No cormorants, geese, nor otters. I plan to move a working feeder from a corner of the dam to the dock, want fish to keep coming there. Not seeing the HSB nor LMB smash feed much anymore, just CNBG.

Another balmy day in NE TX

Your idea and mine are a tad different on “balmy”

Not my pond but a customers pond. Electroshocked up an 11.5" Northern Bluegill that weighed 1.8#, and a 11" Hybrid Bluegill that was 1.75#

It's nice when they listen and follow the management plan. It shows!

The customer said that those weren't the biggest in the pond either, and he's got Redear that are over 12" long. Stocked in 2017.

Interesting. I stocked Redear over 8 years ago. We catch a lot of them, but have never caught any that were very big. We caught (and released) one last weekend that was maybe 8 or 9”. That’s one of the biggest ones we’ve ever caught. I’m guessing the fish are there, it’s the fishermen that need to improve. We did catch one of the original HBG. It was a big one.

Pat, it was brutal. This weather cap is supposed to be heading east, and unfortunately it's gonna hit other states. Keeping the goats and chickens out of the heat, and providing cool water for them is tough. Humidity is worse than the temp.

Started planting the new switchgrass plugs on the dam of the 4th pond after running out last year. The switchgrass plugs from last year had what appears to be 100% survival on a pure clay dam and are really doing well this year. In my area in central Indiana, this seems like a good way to stem erosion on a steep dam. Wife is growing the plugs for me. We finally have a little rain which is why I started planting them. Using a bulb auger in a cordless drill which works quite well.

The switchgrass in our prairie acreage appears to be exceedingly drought tolerant. Should make an excellent long-term solution.

Do you mow your dam, or just let the switchgrass stand tall - which might intercept some leaves headed to the pond in the fall?