Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Ice gone yet on your ponds?

My ponds are ice free now. Front pond had ice over most of it yesterday and with a little help from my two diffusers, 73 F. temps and strong winds it's ice free today.

Ice yesterday -- 45 F. from top to bottom today!

Of course air temps will come down as it's early but it's time to catch some hawg perch!

All gone as of yesterday!

All gone as of Monday. I did find one dead 15" LMB, and 2 dead BG after ice out though, shouldn't be anything to worry about.

If that's all you find I wouldn't worry either. Winter is stressful on fish and some fish don't have the stamina that others do.

I had a pond with 21 big female redears and I found five of them dead from 8.5-10.75 inches.

I guess that's to be expected with the cold winter and lots of ice, but it still bummed me out.

Cecil - I was little woried about the influx of water we had before the ice came off. The water level came up 5 inches one week (9.9 acres) and then another 5-6" the next week before the ice came off. The water clarity went from 108" down to 20" in that time frame too before ice out. I've been keeping my fingers crossed that the heavy snow cover and the dirty water coming didn't create a DO sag, so far things look good. I've seen schools of small BG up shallow since last Friday when the north shore started to open up good.

Bruce Condello - Perhap that cirulator you don't use in the winter could have saved them. I now that doesn't help with your loss, but it is the first thing that popped into my feeble mind.

A note. Big fish are , as one would expect, adults and are often near their age limits. When stress increases ,like cold winter temps, near minimal thermal limits and a fish is old natural morts occur. On a bunch of large old fish (near age max) I would not be surprised to see 15-20 % natural morts after a long cold winter. Especially in RES.

Possibly....but I'd think that circulating might actually be worse for the redears. Being a southern species they stress when water temps drop below about 40 degrees. I think the circulator would have cooled all of the water in this little pond to a uniform 33 degrees when it was really cold in early February.

So true--but I still had an irrational hope that they'd all make it.

the feeder stream for my pond was 45 degrees and it was 78 degrees yesterday got a few logs moved yesterday but im really to depressed to do much after my girlfriend left me for the rest of the school yr till summer comes she said. hey at least i'll have a lot of free time to work

Well at least she's coming back! Cheer up! I had a Harvard law grad dump me for bigger and better things and I felt like my world came to an end. Of course I got over it and them met my future wife.

For the same reason they don't do well in ponds up here but are able to hang in there in the big deep natural lakes. I think that may be due to natural selection and that temps are more stable and slightly warmer in the depths of natural lakes. Interestingly even in these deep natural lakes they don't bite well in winter probably because they are stressed. You can actually see them up to 12 inches down there in your ice shanty but they are reluctant to bite.

Do smaller RES have less trouble from colder water than larger RES do? That seems to be the case in many species wrt low O2 problems, but what about when approaching the lower (or upper - say with trout) temp limits?

Yep larger fish are the first to go when oxygen stressed! Many lakes in Minnesota are used to overwinter bait fish but any larger fish would perish.

Still have about 6" of ice on the pond, although very slushy. Around the outlet I have open water but most of the pond is ice covered. Not unusual for me. Mine is always the last to get rid of the ice in the area.

Welcome back Fozzy! Haven't seen you post in awhile.

Both of my ponds still have ice/snow cover however, the recent mild temps and rains are starting to take its toll.

Yeesh! This time last week we were still completely frozen, with at least 10 inches of snow on top of the ice, and 6-8 inches of snow on the ground.

We hit the mid-70s several days this week. The pond ice was completely gone two nights ago.

We are now awaiting another "major winter event." It has been raining and blowing very hard for the past several hours. Just east of here they are expecting 2-3 inches of rain. They seem to be reluctant to precict how much snow we can expect!

The good news is that the bluegill and bass were in the shallows (a.k.a., lawn -- our water is really high) late yesterday afternoon.

The bad news is that my worm "farm" is still solid ice. I think (know) there were 100% fatalities.

I think I'll visit a warmer place next weekend!

1-2" of ice on Monday morning, gone on Wednesday morning. Baby frogs were already jumping and no floaters. Gearing up for my first full season with my new pond. I've been pacing in anticipation all winter.

Mine finally melted yesterday!LOL Just joking i am bored.

Still 30" of good ice here, -20c last night. Lakes should be ice free by June 1st, then only a four month wait for ice fishing again.
Pic from last weekend

Good looking trio. But, the fish looks the happiest! I'm sure glad I don't have 30 inches of ice.

West Virginia spring-time got delayed by at least 8-inches today.

catmandoo: What's your elevation? I remember passing through W(BG)V in a late February storm that dumped a lot of snow up high, but none farther down.

Here in High View, WV we are only at about 1200 feet. But, it is surprising how things change over short distances. Frequently when we get 4 to 8 inches, they won't get any snow just four miles east of us in Virginia where they are at about 800 feet. Two counties west of us, in Tucker County, WV, and Garrett County, MD, it seems like it never quits snowing. They are at about 3000 feet.

Time to go out and start plowing. Summer is on its way.

Wood � Your kids have a look of impending doom on their faces. I hope you didn�t let them watch the �an inconvenient al� movie (ere �documentary�).

That is a healthy looking Walleye!

Our ice is still 16-18 inches, though the northerly areas have open water and the ice is getting water logged. Any combination of rain, wind, or warm temperatures could take it out.