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

Supposedly the two flocks of turkeys at my property eat a lot of ticks. However, they are NOT keeping up with the tick reproduction rate, so I am definitely looking forward to your tick-bat project!

I have a lot of woodpeckers making holes in the old trees. I assume the bats are living in the otherwise unoccupied holes.

If we can ever move out to the property, I do want to put up a few bat houses and monitor them with a game camera.

I also might put up a dock light 8' in the air, along with the one just above the water level. Might as well feed mosquitos and midges to the bats from one light while feeding the BG from the other light.

I am also glad to hear about the efficiency of your "eagle feeding" project. Hopefully, you can also train the eagle to snatch the next otter that tries to enter your pond.

I have a small pond probably less than 1/4 acre, south Louisiana. About 6' deep right now, bought this place about 3 years ago. Stocked it with a few bass and catfish otherwise its loaded with decent sized green sunfish, snakes , turtles. I knoticed about a year ago i had about 4 baby catfish, this is before i stocked any.

Today im looking at my pond , recently added aeration to it. Anyway on the other side of the pond i see something submerged. Appeared to be 4ft long and very thick. I watched it thinking it was a log i hadnt noticed before but soon it swam a little and dissapeared. .


Wth is it? Either a gator, which i dont believe it is or maybe a flathead or blue cat. It was very large. Whats the chances of a cafish growing that large in a farm pond?

You guys ever see something in your pond that isnt suppose to be there?

I have grass carp that size in my 1/4 acre pond. They appear as logs until they move.

I didnt think about a grass carp, its possible.

That was gonna be my guess, a flat or blue of that size in a qrtr acre pond, you're not gonna see very many GS in

Large catfish or carp is certainly possible. Have seen 60 lb FHC in 3-acre pond.

It was cool enough today (low 70's, no sun, breeze) to put on a long sleeve shirt while fishing. The fish didn't seem deterred.

Im going fishing in the morning. By 10am its to darn hot to stand in the sun. Ill try to post pics of my small pond catch.

I went fishing this morning. Didn’t weigh any. Three were in the 19+” original stockers from 9 or 10 yrs ago. Ended up catching four like this. One was from the second generation. I kept one because he swallowed my lure..

What’s your opinion of this YP, could it be from this spring? Looks skinny to me.

SetterGuy,

A 9-10 year old SMB is pretty good for your warm waters. You are definitely keeping your pond pretty healthy.

The YP looks a little "funny" to me, but I go YP fishing so seldom over the last few years that I wouldn't trust my opinion. However, I would never judge the health of a pond population by a single fish. When cleaning fish, I am frequently amazed by the variance of a single species from a single pond.

Thanks, I looked back on my notes. The smallies we stocked in October of 2015. We have never had to restock. Some reproduction but not a huge number.
I think our crawfish numbers have dropped. We used to catch quite a few with a net just dragging it up the bank. Not any more. Still catching a lot of glass shrimp.
Caught this one this morning also. Definitely not an original stocker.

That is a FAT belly for a SMB in August!

I may have a theory about what happened to your crawfish.

I did have that SMB yesterday that really swallowed the lure. I kept it just in case it didn’t recover. What did I find inside it when dressed? Crawfish. Yep.

Not my pond but we visited a fellow PB member Fishingadventure's ponds.

Just wanted to share a great experience my son and I had over Labor Day weekend. We took two of my grandsons and two of their buddies out for a campout at a property near Clinton, Oklahoma—and I’ve got to say, this place is something special.

The owner has built a truly fantastic pond and camping setup. Pictures don’t do it justice. It’s clear he’s put serious thought and care into the layout, habitat, and overall experience. The boys had an absolute blast catching bluegill and crappie, and I culled a 2.5 lb channel cat and a 1.88 lb largemouth bass to help with his management goals.

If anyone’s ever passing through western Oklahoma and wants to enjoy some great fishing and a well-kept facility that’s perfect for RV camping, I highly recommend reaching out to him. It’s a great spot for families, and the fishing is top-notch.







Here's a link to a drone flyover of the ponds.

Thank You, Learnin , just very glad it was an all around enjoyable fishing / camping excursion for your family and friends. Really appreciate all the video for our marketing effort. God bless.

Sampled some HBG (BG/RES) with the 2 year old grandson. They are just over 1/2 pound in one year, stocking size was 3-5"



https://youtube.com/shorts/n19_FKeQmdA?feature=share

I added 50 coppernose bluegill, 1-3" and 25 CC 6-8" . I hope the coppernose survive.

Got my courage worked up to mow the back of the dam. Waited until it was bone dry. Like no rain for 2 months. Ha!
I am a little nervous on the tractor on the back of that dam. It’s a lot steeper than it looks. We pushed right up on the property line, so they made it pretty steep.
Following advice I received here, I backed the brush hog down the dam and worked my way across without getting sideways. Way better than a weed eater and poison ivy! Didn’t get it all, but close enough for government work, as my father in law used to say.

Looks good SetterGuy!

Little known physics fact: all slopes become much steeper when it is YOUR butt in the seat.

Right now when your plants are still growing is an excellent time to hit them with herbicide. Have you identified the plant species in that area that are invasive/undesirable? If so, I would hit them now with the correct herbicide for those species. You can probably set them back another 6-10' with a good wand on a hand sprayer. I would pick a day with a gentle breeze that is blowing in the downslope direction - so you can spray deep into the area and YOU are not in drift mist.

I think I’ll give the herbicide a try. I’ll go visit the dealer next time I’m up there. Lots of autumn Olive and black berry briars back there. Along with the poison ivy. Ha

I have had excellent success (100% kill rate) on my poison ivy using Crossbow and a little bit of the matching surfactant. I just looked up the product label, and blackberry is also readily controlled by Crossbow.

I have no clue on the Autumn Olive. I don't recall ever seeing it specifically listed on a herbicide label. I don't believe it is even a true Olive. I would suspect the Crossbow will work on it. (Non-expert opinion, but I don't think there is any harm in test spraying it.)

Further, the Crossbow is selective to woody plants and broadleaf weeds. I have sprayed poison ivy in my prairie grass and not harmed the grass at all. If you use it to control your nasty plants, the grass will survive to maintain your erosion control.

P.S. My county Noxious Weed department sells herbicides to landowners in the county at their cost - which is much cheaper than retail. I can also ask the department head questions when I have very difficult invasive species to eradicate. You might check to see if a similar resource is available to you.

FR,
Thank you sir. You’ve got me thinking.
I met with my forester from the Missouri Dept of Conservation last year. He enrolled our place into a program that had all the invasive plants sprayed. I contracted with a guy that came out twice. Once to spray the multiflora rose, and again to spray the autum olive. (Then Missouri reimbursed me.) He was close to 100% successful. I’ll reach out to the guy that did the spraying, and see what he used. The. Use crossbow on the rest.
Thanks again

Finally got a couple grandsons out fishing on our 3 year old pond and they had a good time catching SMB and YP. As is a law of Nature, the younger one caught all the fish and his older brother came up empty handed. I only got one pic. which I post here. As you can see from the smile, they'll be back next summer. The SMB were put in last July up as 2" fingerlings and are now up to 12-1/4" with measured WR >100.

Our pond's water temp has dropped top 52 degrees for the last 2 weeks. In response, no fish have showed themselves for that period of time when I walk out on the dock and toss a little feed.
But as Bill Cody wisely suggested on a thread that's been active for a few weeks here on the forum about feeding, our BG and YP have adjusted, acclimated, to the lowered temp and fed rather well this afternoon. No GSF; Im believing they have a slightly higher temp cutoff point. They start accepting feed a little later than the BG in Spring and seem to disappear slightly earlier that the BG in Fall. And although the lighting did not allow me to identify a fish making much larger splashes, I'd bet it is the single LMB that has really taken to pellets this year.
Once again my observations indicate the experience and wisdom of Bill Cody shine through all the darkness.