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The tail wheel is definitely at risk, as is denting/twisting the deck. The heavy duty 5' Bush Hog brush mower that I have has withstood what the King Kutter would not. I bent back the wheel assembly on that one more than a couple times. I have used my brush mowers pretty hard including backing over some pretty large multiflora rose clumps and lower it down to take them out (when clearing land). Probably pretty tough on my PTO as well, but my JD 1070 has done pretty well over the last 30 years.

Scott,

I would bet a stack that the windmill domes over. My unit is a double compressor. This is directly from Koenders "At 1 ft of depth you will get 3 cfm...at 10' about 2.5 etc." I replaced the 3/8" line they provide with 5/8" line. The tower sits in about 1' of water and my airline goes straight down into deeper water. As far as I know mine has never frozen up. It will make a wet spot here and there throughout the winter. I am almost positive it is struggling due to doming. We moved it closer to shore and near a boulder that sticks out of the water. Will see if that improves its' performance this year. If the pipe works then next year it'll get a pipe and we will watch yet another experiment. Oh isn't learning so much FUN!!

Well, if the law is pretty clear about something, you could get in trouble. But, I doubt that the average GW is going to spend time worrying about it. However, catch that same GW on the wrong day and you get a ticket. And, honorable intentions don't help.

Happy Birthday to Muleshoe's finest ever!

(I looked it up; it's true.)

Does the pipe show signs of degradation?

I asked snrub the same thing about the hump in the forage pond.

That is actually the old "edge" of the pond. He dug the original pond with his dozer. He later decided that he wanted a slightly larger pond - so he dug out a little more on one end using only his backhoe.

We found out the hard way that the bottom of the original pond that was compacted with dozer treads was much firmer for walking than the bottom of the portion that was excavated with a backhoe on the bank and never compacted at all!

If the muck had been any deeper - we would have needed to go on a Snipe hunt.

Hey jpsdad thanks for your input. I'll attempt to answer your questions. 2 months ago, we had a biologist perform a fish survey. Our lake was built in the 1970's and the dam has failed 3 times with the last time being in 2005. The lake is 80 acres and is fed by a creek that runs all year. There is 5500 acres of watershed that flows through the lake so it resembles that of a creek system(somewhat tannic) and the watershed:pool ratio is 63:1. Pretty much every species of fish exists in the lake that you'd normally see in middle GA(LMB, Crappie, Bluegill, shiners, threadfin and gizzard shad, catfish, chain pickerel, creekchub suckers, etc. Up until about 7 years ago, the fishing was really quite unbelievable, with normal catches of very large crappie(3 lbs+), bream(1.5lbs+) and LArgemouth(over 10lbs). Numerous fish were caught by any angles on just about every outing. 5 years ago the weeds were getting bad and a couple of the folks wanted to get grass carp, which we did, and they did away with the weeds. Since then, the fishing has just gone downhill each year. A few months ago, the neighboring landowners around the lake(there are 10 of us total, with 8 houses) "nominated" me to head up a revitalization project to get the fishing back up to par. There were multiple recommendations made by the biologist, all of which we are going to attempt to follow, except the siphon system(The primary lake owner will not agree to this). These include installing 16 feeders around the lake to feed the bluegill to help them grow more quickly and reach spawning size(within the next month), removal of as many bass under 14" as possible via electrofishing this winter, stocking 21,000 3-4" bluegills in spring 2021, 6 loads of shad spring of 21, attempt to fertilize(although, I'm not sure it will be feasible due to the high flow through). We have implemented catch and keep on small bass. Everyone is on board. There is very little fishing pressure, so we'll have to do all we can to manage/maintain the population. I'll be paying for the food and fertilizer(if we decide to fertilize). The water quality is decent, at 21 ppm hardness.

You must be taking very good care of him to reach that age. Lucky dog!

TGW1,

The kids that fish the pond will always have fun catching the "culling" size fish. If I did manage to raise a 6-7# LMB, it would be fun for me to catch. However, it would be WAY MORE FUN to see the smile on the face of a little person if they did manage to land that fish!

Thanks for your response - it did confirm what I was thinking. I was also thinking of "trophy" fishing with a big bait shop goldfish or a full 12" earthworm. Something that looks tasty, but the fish in the pond have never seen before.

Mike Otto can use a dozer to collect every drop of available water.

Tracy can now use a dozer to collect "extra" water for his ponds.

When you write your book showing all of us how to bring the rains on command, I predict you will sell thousands of copies on Pond Boss alone!

P.S. Hopefully, if you can't get your duck habitat finished, you will at least get enough rain in your existing ponds to raise the water to the "duck-friendly" levels.

Thanks for the feedback Flame. So, if I only stock the bait/forage fish in, say Feb or Mar, how long should I wait to stock the LMB and CCs? How often do the forage fish reproduce? I plan to have some larger logs about 8-10 feet out in the pond and partially on shore for them to place eggs under. anything else I can do to encourage breeding amongst the FHM, HBG, and RES? Thanks

Thanks for the vote of confidence Dave_IA. She rose about 1.5" over thanksgiving and the ground is staying damp. Hoping for some snow and serious runoff throughout the winter.

Sometimes it is hard to distinguish between Chara and Coontail. The leaves on your plants have small spines and both plant types can have similar shapes unless one looks very closely at the leaves. I would like better pictures with a few close images of the growing stem tips. One predictable way to tell if it is Chara is to crush a handful of it and see if you get a garlic or strong earthy or skunky odor; NOTE some chara species do not have the strong odor. Your plant resembles Chara vularis (type with strong garlicky odor) that when grows in deep clear water it results in longer stem length between the nodes and it often has the small looking spines on the leaves.
I cannot see the individual leaves close enough and well enough to completely eliminate the Naiad species. Stems and leaf arrangement on your plants look like one of the Naiad species. Again I need better pictures or a few live specimens.

Tracy, right now 9 foot IS MY DEEPEST water. I believe I followed your placement plan several years back. I have ALL 3 diffusers in the deepest part of the pond about 20 foot from each other in a triangle.

Mine came today.

Looks beautiful!

Good luck harvesting a deer this fall and growing out some nice LMB next year.

(My doctor keeps telling me to diversify my diet - looks like you are gonna' have that covered!)

https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=40647&Number=527822#Post527822

Consider the aerator company used a pump that was not actually designed for the way it was being used. Here is a very good example: using a shop air compressor as air production for aerating a pond. Bad idea.

FishindRod, I misspoke a tad earlier. I just doublechecked my records and the water sample was actually drawn and sent off the day before the heavy rainfall. With that said, yes, the heavy runoff did produce the "tea color" and I never equated that with the tannic acid in the runoff. Thanks for the 'edumication" on that issue.

No fish kill, in fact, the RBT are still very active at the feeders.

I am going to re-test. I talked to the lab about that yesterday. I have some extra BPA-free, sterilized honey jars leftover from my honey extraction this year and I am going to use one of those for the repeat water sample.

I'm still a bit befuddled by this, particularly with no discernible swing in the pH.

Thanks again for your input.

If they were setting on the ponds bottom then I would say they contribute to the suspended clays. Or at least they did @ my pond.

Thanks Bill. (Dr. Perca rides to the rescue again!)

I knew some of the fish-raising experts would know the exact sizes.

That would also explain why FireIsHot has not suffered any contamination with his careful use of his 300 micron bag system.

I have no idea on time. I THINK that depends on the composition of the soil.

Wikipedia on Medaka for anyone who is interested in Medaka but also as ignorant as I am.

From this position of ignorance, I'd want the Northern variety if I was overwintering Medaka under ice.

Don't know if any other members do leaf removal from their BOW, but in an attempt reduce leaves that will eventually become muck on the pond bottom, I've made multiple trips with a 8' kayak my wife gifted me last spring, this Fall. I use a couple different pool strainers and bring a 5-gallon bucket with me for the "harvest".

When we first bought the property I thought shading the pond water could benefit the summer water temps and provide some improved, lo-light environment for the LMB. Fast-forward 30+ years and growth of 10 to 15' saplings into mature trees, I now realize one should be very thoughtful about the quantity and type of trees located near the pond. Some of the trees were present when we purchased the residence, so I can't take ALL of the credit! Deciduous trees upwind and within 30' of the pond can be a big problem. My leaf harvest consists of Maple, Pin Oak, White pine (needles) and now Bald Cypress leaves. I made about half a dozen kayak trips in October and November combined for leaf removal from the pond surface. I estimate that I removed over 60 gallons (packed volume) of leaves from our 1/4 acre pond. The small size of the pond is part of the problem too, of course. I added aeration to the pond the summer of 2019 and I've seen a significant reduction in muck. It doesn't help, however, to have trees adding significant volumes of organic material to the pond every fall season. I now have earmarked three trees for removal next spring to reduce the organic material introduced into the pond which should reduce the number of Fall kayak trips for leaf removal.

Just be careful what you wish for with regards to shade trees planted near your BOW. 50' to 60' tall Maples and Oaks drop a LOT of leaves every year. And in the wrong location, many of the leaves will end up in your pond. And while paddling around in a kayak can be relaxing-- it's not as much fun scooping leaves from the pond surface from the kayak....

Nice descriptive pic, QA.