Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - Love The Pond

First post. I'm a retired IBEW electrician and have been living the dream since I retired in '16. My wife retired a few months after myself. We bought a home in northern central Michigan when we retired 3 years ago. The 1/2 acre pond is part of the homes geo-thermal heating and cooling. We have some hybrid bluegills, perch,and bass, and supplemental feed the hybrid gills for about 7 months out of the year. Looking forward to learning some things from the seasoned veterans here. Aerated 24/7, our pond is a little over a half acre and 14' deep.

We went from living in the Capital city our entire lives to a wonderful rural location with our nearest neighbors about
a half mile away. The wildlife the pond attracts is amazing.

j

Summer view


Winter view












This is the matriarch doe in our area. I believe she is six.
She had twins for three years in a row prior to this last year.
This last year she had triplets. This is a shot of her looking very pregnant last May on the backside of our pond. I have a progression of shots of
her and the triplets through the summer and fall as they use the food
plots I put in for them.
No mistaking her with any of the the other deer as she is a head taller then every deer she hangs with,
even the big bucks.


Early Jun we saw her for the first time with the triplets.


July


Nov


Backyard bucks


Wood ducks and squirrel


Turkey - Squirrel


Turkey - Deer

I also love light line. I usually use McCoy Mean Green in 1 lb test. The "spikes" and "mousies" are larval bait that is actually a couple varieties of caddis. I usually buy a 1000 of each at the beginning of the ice fishing season as they keep well in cottage cheese containers in the side door of the frig. Just make sure the lids are back on tight when grabbing a few for the film canisters on a fishing trip. Wives don't take kindly to loose maggots roaming about in the bottom of the frig or on the floor. Much like the larval stage of a Mayfly, is called a wiggler at bait stores, and my fave bait for perch.

Right now we have about a 1/4 inch of snow, although we will probably get an inch or two in the next couple days, and then up to a half foot by the end of next week. A fairly mild winter so far, although we are about to get our first real cold blast of the winter with single digit and low teen temps predicted, along with sub zero wind chills. Winter in Mich. It could be in the high 30s or 40s a day or two after the cold snap.

J


McCoy Mean Green 1 lb.


Mayfly (hexagenia limbata)


Mayfly nymph "wiggler". I have a hatch of these in our pond that happens nightly for
over a week. Fish stuff themselves when this hatch is going. After 3 years in the lake, river, or pond bottom, they finally emerge from their larval casing and as winged Mayflys,usually mate shortly after getting wings, where they die shortly after mating. The female will die after spending her eggs into the same body of water starting the 3 year cycle over again. An amazing life when you think about it. They grow about a half inch per year for 3 years before emerging. One of my favorite baits.


Mousies and spikes (larval caddis)


The thread art I do on rods I build sometimes takes longer to do
than glueing the 1/2" cork, reel seat, and wrapping thread for the eyelets on the blank.


Another bird pic taken from the man cave. Rose Breasted Grosbeak


Nuthatch