It may be that the shallow water in the grow-out pond just got too hot. It was actually more shallow than I realized...the pond must be 60 years old if its a day. Muck and the dry summer had reduced the depth to an estimated 3 to 4 feet instead of the 6 to 8 feet I thought it was. I'm guessing that the shallow water just got too hot for them.
The pond is about 1/4 acre in size. I checked the temps in the big pond regularly, but did not check the grow-out pond. Sure wish I had done that now cause I think it would tell the story.
Three or four feet of water in this climate was bound to be well into the 80's and my guess would be approaching 90 during the heat of the day. There was no place to hide, no deep water sanctuary.
It's amazing I thought I knew that pond having fished it a lot in years past, but it was just much more shallow than I thought. The muck was unbelievable. It will take a month for it to dry out to where I can push it out of the pond. But, it will be a great Kid's pond soon with gravel beds for the Rio Grande's and CNBG and female F1's...I think I will call this pond the Phoenix.
EWEST: Remember me telling you about adding on about 1/2 acre to my big pond? I was thinking of making that an attached forage pond until last Saturday when Bob convinced me that it probably wouldn't work. Anyhow, we dug out the area with a track-hoe moving out about 3000 yards of material in one hell of a day. I asked you about whether to open it up to the big pond or wait for rains and we both thought I should wait for rains...well Nature had other plans...while walking out by the pond after dinner tonight I heard this rushing sound, the unmistakable sound of rushing water. A sandy area had given way and the whole thing was quickly filled up with water from the main pond. I didn't even have time to get any structure in there. Man it filled fast and in spite of being 6 feet deep and about 1/2 acre only lowered the main pond about 6 inches. What a day...you just can't beat the sights and sounds of the track-hoe throwing that dirt around. A really fun day.
