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

It didn't look much different than the other one. I gave both of them the wire brush treatment to get most of the crust off and was interrupted by SWMBO
while I was doing the H2O2 soak and only got one of them finished. They were both wet from the scrubbing and I simply managed to grab the wrong one.

I'm not using membrane diffusers like most guys do. These are ring diffusers made from what looks like the soaker hose that's used for watering your garden.

The back pressure was more than the 30psi gauge could tolerate so I shut the pump down immediately.

No blood, no foul, lesson learned - H2O2 soak is mandatory between seasons for ring diffusers.

And yes, a pressure gauge on your airline is a very good idea. I've got a pop-off valve to install but I've been low on roundtoits and haven't gotten that done.

Read "Birdman" Mel Toellner's article in the May/June Pondboss and just had to mention my Red-Winged Blackbirds. I can't get within 20 ft of my inlet/sedge-meadow or the male is circling 6 feet above my head and squawking at me. I just don't feel welcome at my own pond! He staked out the area and got a girl to nest in the sedges and now wants to defend her. I am attaching pictures of him, of her on a post, and a drone shot of the sedge meadow where the nest is well hidden (she is on the post in the upper left). Glad to see them nest but looking forward to getting my pond back.

Awfully considerate of you to pound a t-post to give him an elevated guard station!

I went to work at my farm last weekend. The redtail hawks are clearly on the nest now. I had one circling me and screaming to go away at every single location where I did a project. At one point, I was a 1/4 mile from any large trees and a hawk was still screaming that I was too close.

I have big flocks of redwing blackbirds by my ponds. Over 100. They get use to you. I like them around because they gang up on the blue herons and chase them off. My pond work for last couple weeks has been feed training smb fry.

Feeding today from Pier #1 , Original Pond , big surprise for me , 3 years of hand feeding, this last year Optimal , the SMB finally showed up on their own ! A beautiful 16"-17" SMB and 2-3 8"-10" SMB . What a surprise. Of course , hoping many more figure out Optimal BG. The pond never fails to surprise. RBT disappeared a week ago, no LMB allowed , guessing the CC that we're constantly thinning , 18"-26" length , got a big Protein boost. Be glad when last CC 12" and longer is gone.

Not today, but yesterday, I fed my green sunfish and refilled the feeder on my bass/big pond.

That's good new Dave! You got the water levels up to where you feel comfortable feeding?

Took out the 2nd beaver in my oldest pond. They are programmed to clog the drain pipe.

Boondoggle, we got some decent rains that helped but perennially low water levels is symptomatic on my land. I own a high hilly area. When I met Bob Lusk, many years ago, I told him where my land was. He knew the area. He said, he had been watching radar weather reports for years and wondered why the clouds split at that point. My hill does that and I’m only about 25 feet higher than my adjacent neighbors.

I’m reminded of what the Prime Minister of Israel once said. His remark was that his ancestor Moses wandered all over the region and stopped in an area where it didn’t rain much. I know the feeling. Full pool on my ponds is unusual. As Fire is Hot said, ‘ Its a tad rocky”.

Spent a few evenings over the course of a week catching a fish fry.
Butchered 30 BG yesterday and one HSB on Friday.
My buddy Nick got to that one with the fillet knife before I had a chance to weigh and measure it.
Consistent with previously butchered HSB, this one had one Optimal Hand Throw pellet and two large crayfish in its gut.
150 or so smaller BG were packed off to Nick's quarry lake. Didn't take the time to weigh and measure those.

This is how the fish fry BG measured up:

Length Weight Std. Wt. wR
9.50 0.71 0.74 95.53%
9.00 0.65 0.62 104.63%
9.00 0.64 0.62 103.02%
8.00 0.38 0.42 89.20%
9.25 0.67 0.68 98.48%
8.75 0.39 0.57 68.92%
10.25 0.88 0.96 91.51%
9.50 0.76 0.74 102.25%
9.50 0.66 0.74 88.80%
9.00 0.61 0.62 98.19%
8.75 0.49 0.57 86.60%
9.50 0.73 0.74 98.22%
7.75 0.30 0.38 79.29%
8.00 0.43 0.42 102.29%
8.75 0.60 0.57 106.04%
9.50 0.72 0.74 96.87%
9.00 0.60 0.62 96.58%
9.00 0.56 0.62 90.14%
9.75 0.83 0.81 102.46%
8.25 0.55 0.47 118.14%
8.00 0.38 0.42 90.39%
8.75 0.52 0.57 91.90%
9.00 0.55 0.62 88.53%
9.25 0.70 0.68 102.89%
8.00 0.33 0.42 78.50%
9.75 0.67 0.81 82.71%
9.00 0.72 0.62 115.89%
7.75 0.40 0.38 105.71%
8.25 0.35 0.47 75.18%
8.00 0.40 0.42 95.15%

Very interesting Augie. I have some questions about this:

RW's seem to vary a little could this be male on the high side and female on the low side as BG are in the middle of spawns?

Possibly the area of the pond they were caught? Thinking about my BoW (1.5 acres) there is a section of the pond on far side from the feeder that we regularly had feed but not near the frequency that the auto feeding hits. I haven't sampled any RW's yet but I'm guessing the fish that don't come to the feeder may be a little lighter than those that do. This is a complete guess on my part.

My pond is small - 1/3 acre. They come from everywhere at feeding time.
They've already spawned at least once this spring. The males are fairly well beat up from nesting activity.
Several of the females that we butchered were full of eggs ready for the June spawn. A few others were spawned out.
Some of these fish had been caged for a solid week and were fairly stressed out. Two of them had stab wounds from the *&%^#$% heron.

I'm still waiting to record the first BG over a pound. I think it will happen yet this summer.