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

Neighborhood pond water temp was 58/59, and the ambients have been lows in the high 30's and highs in the 50s/low 60s.

I've been out of town since last Saturday. My buddy fed them twice but did not stay to observe.

The LMB and bluegill were waiting for me. I threw out individual Optimal Handthrow pellets one at a time and it was a melee among the LMB. Once I threw out around 5-10 at a time, the LMB slowed way down, and the catfish showed up. Eventually, the LMB showed little interest in the Handthrow after polishing of the Optimal Largemouth and Bluegill. If the Handthrow sank, the bluegill would enjoy it, and the occasional LMB would take one.

In this pond, most of the fish seem to lack urgency to finish off the feed. It eventually all gets eaten, but still...

We stocked some beautiful fat 7" SMB YOY that we picked up at Fender's in Baltic, Ohio.

They swam off into the structure (easily visible with the ponds over 2" low).

Our creek has gone dry (again) due to the ongoing drought.

I went to measure the water level in my lowest groundwater pond, and it still has 4' of water. However, I could smell "death" at the pond, and discovered a large dead beaver. I assume it was our previous creek beaver. If so, he travelled almost exactly a half mile to find water. He then excavated a nice burrow into the highest bank of my pond. He died about 8' from his burrow entrance, and was NOT obviously gnawed by any predator. The beaver had already started felling a medium willow at the pond, and there are several giant cottonwoods there, so I don't think he died due to lack of food.

I do miss our beaver. My creek is mostly overgrown with lots of undesirable trees, so I didn't mind when he cut or gnawed those. I did like it when he created additional pools on our creek, since that created a lot more fish habitat on our normally very shallow creek. Further, none of his prior creek alterations ran afoul of any state regulations! A lot of aquatic and non-aquatic wildlife are going to miss his habitat "improvements".

I highly recommend a visit to Fenders in the Fall. You can walk through the sales/bagging facility that's almost retail. The fish are in work-table height raceways, and you can walk amongst them all. Being next to the SMB raceway was a pure joy.

And the drive there, at least for me, took me through the Tappan Lake region of Ohio for a bit, and then through some beautiful Amish country.

Got to the neighborhood pond today. Water seems a bit stained, maybe 18" to 24" visibility. Water temp was holding at 59.

I first threw some Optimal Grower to the few BG who awaited me. Then slowly, some LMB and a catfish showed up.

The sinking feed seems to be the most desired, and the feed that floats...a mere sloppy seconds with lethargy and lack of urgency in finishing it.

I have literally never heard of that, while living here for all 65 years.

But then, when we head NE, we've never gone much past Berlin.

That means you went just a little bit farther than the U.S. 1st Army did in March, 1945!

And we pass Dresden and Warsaw on the way.

I got to feed at the neighborhood pond today. Water temps was a hair above 60 degrees, so up by one or so.

LMB and bluegill were waiting while the feed soaked. Catfish joined in.

Worked on BG beds and artificial cover. Going to add some artificial flowers to the artificial cover beside beds to make it even more dense to protect the fry. Ron Ardoin gave me the idea at the PB Institute last week. Cheap stuff on TEMU.

Cut and painted boards for the Culvert water control box (not sure if that's the correct name for it) Pictures attached while getting it ready for placement.

I had previously marked the water level with the electric fence post indicated by the red lines when the pond was just below the emergency spillway so I knew how many boards to add.

Mr. Otto said it will work until the corrugated pipe gives way. Then I will seal it and just use the emergency spillway. It's only ran over the emergency spillway once in 2 years and that was for about 6 hours. So hopefully that will be several years down the road.

2 acre pond only 1/3 of an acre over 4 feet deep when full so needed a way to retain more water. This will add about 3 feet of depth bringing the pond to 2.2 acres.

Trying to be optimistic and anticipating the forecasted 5 inches of rain over the next 10 days will fill the pond back to full pool.

What was the original purpose of your blue and red BG bowls? Those are almost perfect dimensions for their new purpose in life!

I like the look of your new water control structure. Did you mastic/caulk the heck out of the connection where your male culvert inserts into your horizontal outlet?



P.S. Leaving one very small project "not quite finished" is almost certainly the best way to guarantee ample rainfall into your watershed!

Hope you had a great time, learned loads of info and made some new friends along the way Learnin. I find myself in the same boat every time I am near the pond with little projects I'd like to add in, where could I add more habitat, how could I make it better. I'd bet many of us fall into that same boat.

The best part, at least for me, is that it never feels like work.

Not sure how you did on the rain. The phone is telling me we got approx 2.4" with the storm today. I didn't make it out to the property today but it was nice to hear the rain drops hitting the roof at the house. Can't wait to go out there tomorrow to see if the grass seed has finally started to sprout with a little moisture.

Habitat looks great. Looking forward to seeing a pic or two of the flowers.

Those were Cattle Protein tubs that I cut the bottom out of then added the Pea Gravel.

Re: water control structure - Yep I was calking it today, it is cone shaped going into the 19 in culvert, I pounded it in with a 12 pound sledge hammer so it should be pretty tight already. Got that for free from a neighbor who's a welder. Was going to have him make me one and he said he had that laying around for years. Someone brought it to him to use for a pattern and said they didn't want it back.

I still have a few tubs to fill and structure to finish but it's not going to hurt my feelings if it rains too much to finish this weekend. lol

I added gravel to a half dozen SMB spawning beds last night. The pond is so low, my knees didn't have to get wet.

I mean, they did when I slipped in the mud and fell down, but they didn't have to.

Were you wearing your King-Ding-A-Ling flotation/safety devices???

Yes, but no sunglasses. :P

Do you have enough freeboard in your dam to support this?

I was walking around the pond and saw a few bugs that looked like an aquatic version of a walking stick. A quick internet search led me to discover that they are from the genus Ranatra. They were submerged and clinging to shallow underwater structure but started to "swim" when they saw my shadow. They are pretty inefficient swimmers, a lot like me.

Reading the article below, it seems that they are referred to as "water scorpions" and are predatory insectivores and harmless to humans thankfully.

[img]https://imgur.com/a/eGx0JVf[/img]

https://extension.umaine.edu/home-and-garden-ipm/fact-sheets/common-name-listing/water-scorpions/

Very cool, Mainer!

I deepened a completely dry groundwater pond last year. I could not believe how many insects and insect larva were swimming in the pond 60 days later.

Made the trek out to the pond today. Handfed the BG and GSH/FHM/GAM. Was a little cooler with North winds and ambient temps in the mid 50's. Pretty good response from all on taking floating food. I did see/hear a splash or two from what I assume were the LMB taking advantage of the forage size fish preoccupied by the floating food. Played the drift with the wind and food again. Seems as though we have lots of BG's stacked up on the vertical habitat or at least that's where the surface action on the food is the highest.

Zero evidence of TP present in the way of floaters, laying on the bottom, death spirals or feeding.

Our "big rain" yesterday, just under 2", appeared to have very little run off but the ground got some much needed moisture. Water clarity looked good overall not stained or murky due to the rain. High hopes over the next few days the seed will start to sprout, (rye, triticale, touch of clover and fescue) in watershed, and areas around the pond that we did bonus seeding due to the lower water levels. Should turn into some nice shallow water habitat for the little ones next spring.

Pondology is a blast, well worth the fee. It was at Bobby West's place. Couple of pictures attached. He has a very nice set up. His pond is down several feet as well. He rents the cabins out very reasonably so if anyone is looking for a getaway and great fishing in Northern TX look them up.

Jim Allen did a presentation on a revised version of the Relative Weight chart, I will send you a copy. It has multiple years merged with a graph to provide a good graphic of 3 years of electrofishing on the West's pond. I'm looking forward to using it on my pond.

Congrats on the rain, we're still at zero for the month no chances tonight so it's a goose egg for the month.

Yes, thanks for asking. Before adding it I contacted the contractor that built the pond. He said the pipe was not even necessary and could be eliminated because of the way the spillway overflow was designed. He just put it in because I requested it as a primary overflow.. I asked Mr. Otto about the most cost effective way to eliminate it. He said he would just leave it until I see signs that it needs fixed. Our water fluctuates several feet a year because we have way more evaporation than we have rain. It's probably not going to be above the culvert more than 3 months a year.

Fed the fish in the neighborhood pond yesterday around 5pm. Bass and bluegill were waiting patiently while I soaked the feed. The feed pretty strong at first, along with some catfish, and then as usual, lost urgency.

I couldn't stay and watch the rest of the feed get eaten due to prepping for trick or treaters.

I did not know that the trick or treaters would eat more if I soaked the candy first!

You and the White House with selective editing!!! LOL!