Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Easter Weekend Smallmouth

Absolutly, less clarity would keep the excessive weed growth down to more healthy levels for the fish.

I think there are several contributing things that keep the water as clear as it is. The cedar tree lines on both the south and north side keep the Nebraska wind from stiring sediment up along the bank, the cattails in the west end also serve this function, and we have prairie grass planted in the water drainage areas keeping a lot of sediment from cominig into the pond when it rains hard.

Nebraska wind? Huh, I hadn't noticed any the last few days.

Wind??

...and here I thought all along that the wind was always calm here, but the entire state was always moving at about 25 mph.

Shorty how are your baby SMB behind the net doing. Don't keep them there to long if they are not eating. Keep us posted.

Ewest, the smallmouth are doing fine, I put the last of my FH's in the pen yesterday, about 15-20 dozen of them. The water temps are in the upper 50's right now and I will keep them in the pen until the water temps start to warm up a bit more. The SMB ate so heavily yesterday that they they were reguritating a few of the FH's. I even saw a few minnows jump a foot or more in the air yesterday trying to escape. I also ran the seine net yesterday and added (100) 1" to 1-1/2" small BG in the pen. I was a little suprised as I also caught 2 small LMB in the 2-1/2" to 3" range which have to be from last years spawn, I added them to the pen as well. The SMB should be good for a couple of days until I can go siene again. The siening right now is getting tough in places, the milfoil has really started to grow in the last 10 days, the bottom of the siene net just starts to roll up as you go through the weeds. We have 200 lbs. of Navigate on the way that should be here early this week, it looks like we will be treating a good portion the milfoil here in a day or two. BTW - there was a large dragonfly laying eggs on some of the floating vegetation in the pen Friday night.

Steve, I got 50 of those Indiana SMB from Richard Carlson last year. With delivery, they came to about $5 each. Before that, I got 100 HSB from Richard that came from Keo in AR. I gave 50 of them to Jim Mannerud by Brookings via Dave Willis. In return, I got about 50 SMB. The feed trained SMB from Indiana are definitely larger than the other SMB this year. I fin clipped the different groups in different ways. When I count the cost of delivery, I consider both to cost about $5 each but keep in mind, these are fish big enough to escape predation.

If you let Richard know you're interested in something, he will keep you in mind forever.