Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss About to get cold in East Texas

People in Texas are getting ready for some cold weather on Monday.

Supposed to be 19 below here on Monday.

I HATE both extremes with a passion, but I'm not moving to Cali!
My goal is to live in LC, Colorado June-Sept.

This kinda cold is very rare out here.

In South Texas we are looking at the low 20s. It's been 4 years since my water has gotten cold enough to kill my TP. I caught one over 4 lbs last weekend. I hope it gets cold enough to get rid of them. I would love to get back to the 5 minuets my pond is not overpopulated.

Wow nbell....I guess it's rare in Texas for the tilapia to survive, but I can see how they might in South Texas. I am sure mine are dead and/or dying but I haven't seen any floaters or shore dead. I have an otter again, maybe that rascal is getting the tilapia. I took a shot at the otter, but mostly missed and then the gun jammed. I guess its possible I wounded him with a few pellets, or maybe he got scared and moved on down the road...but I suspect he's still around. Hopeful the otter meets a conibear very soon.

Low 20s, that sounds cold, they are talking upper 20s here in MO for Monday, as in negative upper 20s windchill. kinda makes the low 20s seem warm.

Yeah we don't have any long pants down here

Did you eat that whopper tilapia? If so, was it still tasty?

I am fine with the mild/bland flavor of tilapia - that is what spices are for!

I just don't like channel cat flavor as much when they get too large, and was just wondering about tilapia.

That's my problem, I fish with the grand kids and they keep me so busy I throw them back because they want to move on to the next adventure with PaPa

Excellent. That is definitely a good problem to have on your property!

My grandfather certainly suffered from the same malady.

I have enough grandkids and great grandkids to bait a trotline. Gets kinda expensive.

Sorry guys, I'm gonna have to go with the dark side guys north of the red river. Last summer beat me down with multiple triple digit heat days in the teens. Our heat pumps struggled to keep the house comfortable, bedtime temps near 90 for weeks, our chickens quit laying, the goats really struggled with the unmanageable heat, and I saw more guys bailing hay after dark then ever before. We're comfortable with these low temps after negative temps hit on Feb 19 2021, and we've got plenty of propane for the house, nonfreeze faucets for the critters, and split wood for the shop, to keep things warm. We "should" be able to skate through the next few days.


February 19, 2021.
8" of ice, and the first and only time I'll walk out on the pond.

Last summer was bad. Snow will start this afternoon and be yankeefied weather for a couple of days

Hope you guys all come through this without too much negative impact.

Welcome to the dark side! Just wait, I wouldn't say "only time", you will get itching to fish and will take your chain saw to the pond to cut a hole to fish. LOL

Scott, when we left Nate's place, I gifted TJ and Tony my ice rods because I thought I'd never use them again. Who would have thunk it?

Wind is icy and in a hurry

8 degrees at Bowie this morning with a wind chill of 8 below.snow starting.
A balmy 14 at home in Fort Worth.

10 deg F here, but it's supposed to warm up to 14. The sun is shining; I may work on my tan.

So it was Al that jinxed us?

If he had just kept his ice rods, then these last two arctic air intrusions would have gone over Siberia instead.

I believe there are a few shivering goats that would like to have a word with you!

-9°F this morning with -31°F windchill. It's warmed up to -7°F now.

-9 with -32 windchills here this morning, reasonably chilly, did go down to the farm yest to throw out a little corn for the turkeys, and was surprised to see the pond mostly open water still, just iced in in the coves and low wind areas, water almost white capping from the northwest wind so it might not freeze too fast that way. several trumpeter swans swimming around dipping their heads in the water and preening their feathers like it was 80 degrees.

Sounds like a good time to roll up your sleeves and finish some of those projects you couldn't do in August because it was too darn hot!

Rod, that ain't one bit funny. It's literally a NE Texas whiteout apocalypse, and it's all we can do it barge the back door open. Best I can tell, we're right at a quarter inch of snow, and worse, traffic is backed up all the way to Galveston beach. The horror, the horror....

Goats are shivering, and they aren't happy at all.