My front yard cow pond - part 1.

I pondered for some time about how to begin this story, and I couldn't come up with any better place to begin other
than in the beginning, at least the beginning as far as my life and experiences with this pond have gone, so here it is...




In 1961 my folks were recently married, and purchased 40 acres of Boone County dirt a few miles east of Columbia, Missouri
the following year. There were a few overgrown pastures, a wet weather creek, some rusty old wire fences in need of help, a
dilapidated old wood frame house that hadn't been occupied in a good long while, a few acres of woods along the creek, and
a cow pond. Actually, it wasn't a cow pond, not back then anyway. It was a pig pond, or at least it had been not too long
before they bought the place. The farm had long been used for running pigs on dirt, something that's not much done in this
day and age of CAFO efficiency. Even now, 60 years after the pigs left, the ground smells like a hog lot when you dig.

1956 Assessor's office image. The pastures look fairly well beat down and the dam appears rather bare. Good chance there
were some pigs around when this photo was taken.


My folks dozed the old house, and built a new one on the same site in order to make use of the existing water cistern. The
cistern was in good condition, and public water didn't exist outside the corporate limits of Columbia at that time, at least
not on the road where my folks' property was located, so it made sense to them to put their house where the cistern could be
used, and save a few $$$ on construction costs.

1962 Assessor's office image. The farm had changed owners ~'58. The pigs were gone and part of the land was planted with crops.


I came along in May of '63, and the house was ready to occupy by December of that year, so we moved in. I say we, but it
was my folks that moved in. I was just along for the ride. When I got big enough to sit still for a few minutes at a time
Pops started taking me fishing at the pond. The area around the pond was reasonably clear of brush, thanks to the pigs, so
it wasn't difficult to find a good spot to drop in a worm or grasshopper.

The only fish in the pond were bluegill. More bluegill than you could count. If you pulled one out that was 5" long it was
considered a lunker. Pops called them potato chip fish. Scale em, gut em, chop the head off, roll em in crumbs, and then
toss em in the grease. They came out crispy like a potato chip, and about the same size. One bite on each side. But they
tasted great, they were easy to catch, and they were free. My folks didn't have a lot of money in those days, and free was
a good thing.

As I got a bit older, maybe around six or seven years old, my brother and I would spend a lot of time at the pond. Living a
few miles out of town we didn't have much else to do in the summer time when school was out, so we occupied our time as best
we could, and the pond was our favorite place to be when the weather was nice outside. Eventually when we got big enough to
work a real fishing pole we upgraded from cane poles to real fiberglass fishing poles with Zebco 33 reels. My folks owned
some sort of ancient riding lawnmower, and a two-wheel cart to pull behind it. We mowed a trail across the hay field from the
house to the pond so we wouldn't get ate up so bad by the chigger bugs on the way. Life was much simpler in those days.

1968 Assessor's office image. Looks like it must have been a dry year as the water level in the pond appears to be quite low.


As the years went by, Pops was making upgrades around the farm. New fences went up, and with fences came cattle. By the time
the cattle arrived the public water district had run a main line along the road we lived on, which allowed my folks to tie in
to water that never ran out, but it did cost money, and my folks were tight. Pops couldn't stand giving district water to the
cows when there was free water in the pond, and with that our little potato chip bluegill pond began to change, and not for the
better. The formerly clear water was now constantly muddy due to the cattle using it for a swimming hole in hot weather. We
once could catch all the fish we wanted in a couple hours. After a few years of cattle running in the pond we were lucky if we
could catch a dozen. There was cow poop everywhere. In the field, on the pond banks, and in the water. Our paradise was lost.
We stopped going to the pond. There was nothing left there for us.

But the sun comes up every day, and things change. Little kids get bigger. Interests change. Life changes. And so it was with
me. Somewhere along the line when I wasn't paying attention, my Grampa Wilkie tossed some leftover bait in the pond, and some
small channel cats, and some other stuff. Nobody really knows what all he tossed in there. If he was still around I'd ask him,
but he's not, so I can't. He had a commercial fishing license, and decided the pond would make a good place to store live bait,
so he just started tossing stuff in so it would be there later when he wanted to seine out some bait for his trotlines on the river.

Sometime during the early 70's, I'm not exactly sure what year, and it really doesn't matter when it happened, only that it did
happen, my folks sold three acres to some friends who wanted a house in the country. They wanted at least 200' of road frontage.
Pops wasn't around when the surveyor showed up to measure out the lot. He staked off 200' of road frontage, and went from there.
Doing that put the new property line, and a fence, across a shallow neck of the pond. Not a big deal at the time, but many years
later it would turn out to be a major nuisance for me.

1977 Assessor's office image. New outbuildings all over the place. Signs of livestock damage on the pond dam. And that fence...


1980 Assessor's office image. There's plenty of water in the pond, but the cattle have absolutely wrecked the dam.


1981 was a drought year in this corner of the world, and the pond by then was a disaster from years of cattle running in it.
Shallow, stinky and full of muck. When it would get very low the cows had trouble wading out to get a drink due to the depth of
the muck, so Pops called dirt guy out to fix it up a bit. There was no consideration given to anything other than making it a
better place for a cow to get a drink of water. Pops still didn't like paying for cow water, so preserving the little bit that was
in there was important at that time. Dirt guy dug out the muck around the edges with a high-lift crawler, and left what Pops
called a "volcano" in the middle. Basically a mountain of semi-solid mud/muck, that held what little water remained in the pond.
The cows would walk down into the basin of the pond and stick their necks over the edge of the crater to get a drink. Somehow
through all of this some fish managed to survive. Eventually the drought ended and the pond refilled with water, but all of that
mud and muck and poop and nastiness that formed the volcano was still in there.

Fast-forward 15 years or so and I've got a wife and kids of my own. Pops had discovered that the pond still held a good number of
channel cats and had started feeding them. When my boys got big enough to start hanging out with their PawPaw, he would take them
to the pond and they would throw a few jugs in, and most times they would manage to catch a catfish or two. It's not likely any of
the cats that my Grampa tossed in 20-odd years before were still living, so they must have been reproducing on their own. Most of
them were a pound or three, but every now and then they would pull out a whopper. Mother Nature finds a way, I guess.

1994 Assessor's office image. The dam is getting really worn down by the cattle. The overflow had always been on the northeast
(upper right in the photo) side of the pond. Now the low spot is on the southwest next to the corner of the lot that was sold many
years prior, and trees have begun to grow on the dam.


2002 Assessor's office image. With no leaves on the trees it's easy to see that the wear to the dam caused by the cattle is becoming
progressively worse.


Fast-forward another ten years or so and my daughter decided that she was a horsey girl. There was no room for horses on the little
country lot my family and I lived on, so we kept the horses at my Gramma Easley's farm a few miles away. The girls wanted to get a
place where they could keep the horses at home, so we started looking for property. We looked and looked and looked, but nothing we
looked at ever felt like home. One day, out of the blue, Mom says "Why don't you buy ten acres from us and build a new house out here?"
So we did, and that's how I got my pond back.

2007 Assessor's office image. We're a few months away from starting construction and the poor old pond is looking rough.


We designed our new house, hired a contractor, and broke ground in July of 2007. By this time, the wonderful neighbors that built on
the three acres my folks sold back in the 70's had gotten old and moved to town, and been replaced by a couple who came here from
Chicago. They had it in their heads that if my folks ever sold any land, they would be the ones who it would be offered to. To say
the least, they were not happy when the dozers showed up to start cutting in the lane to our building site. (Note - I thought long
and hard about what/how much to tell about my dealings with neighbor guy. It's not my intention to come across angry or bitter, or
PO'd or anything else in telling this part. I seriously considered not telling it at all, but it's an important part of the story so
I decided to leave it in.)

I was out here doing groundwork one day, I think we were running the water line from the main out at the road, when neighbor guy
waved me over to the fence. He'd already thrown a couple big fits at me, and to be honest I had no use for the guy from the day I
met him, so I'm wondering what it is that he wants this time. He says to me, "I wanted to talk to you about the pond." I say to
him, "What about it?" I've got a house to build, and when you're building a house time is literally money. I haven't yet gotten
to the point that he's a non-person to me, but it won't take much to get me there. So then he says, "I'd like to do something about
the pond. Clean it out and make it bigger." I respond by telling him that I have a house to build, and the pond is the least of my
concerns at this point in time, but if he wants to talk to dirt guy to have at it, and let me know what he finds out, and I go back
to whatever it was that I was doing.

A few days later he waves me over to the fence again. "I talked to dirt guy. He told me that because of the way the land lays, for
me to get more water on my property and not have the banks too steep the dam will have to be raised up about ten feet." I ask him if
he got a cost estimate for that, and he says, "Yep, it will be close to (it was a big number and I really don't want to say what it
was, because he was probably lieing anyway), and I was wondering if maybe you'd go halves with me. I know you've got a big construction
loan, so spending another (big # many thousands $$$) won't hurt you." I say to him, "The time to make this pond bigger was before I
started building. You've lived here 15 years and not said one word to Pops about the pond. I've got a power line and a water line in
the ground below the dam. To make this thing bigger the dam will have to be completely dozed out, a core key dug, and then a new
dam built from scratch. None of that is going to happen. I'm not going to spend a dime on the pond right now. I've got a house to
build, and I'll worry about the pond when I'm done doing what I need to get done." Then he went absolutely ballistic, called me a few
choice names, and says, "Well fine! I'll just build a whole new pond and you won't have no pond at all!" In that moment he became a
non-person to me. I told him to do whatever it was that he felt like he needed to do, and went back to my own business.

Not long after that, dirt guy showed up and began to build a new pond on neighbor guy's side of the fence. I told them that my only
concern was that they make sure any water that comes out of the spillway from the new pond drains into the old pond and doesn't run
across my front yard. Well they didn't do that. There have been rare occasions when we got really heavy spring rains that some
water from his pond ran across my yard - twice, maybe three times in the eleven years we've lived here. I probably wouldn't ever have
noticed, except one of those times some of his trash fish came along for the ride and wound up stranded on my lawn. Sounds crazy,
but I've got pictures to prove it. In thinking back on that now, I should have told them to make sure none of the overflow from the
new pond made it into my pond, and to send all of it across my yard. That pond doesn't have enough watershed to stay full, but I
didn't know that at the time. I was talking to Pops about it recently and he told me that our good dirt guy came out and looked at
the site, and refused the job because he didn't think it would ever fill up, and was worried about getting paid if it didn't, so
neighbor guy found a hole digger to do the job.

Anyway, I don't want to spend any more time talking about neighbor guy. He did what he did on his side of the fence, and I'm really
happy that he did, because now I don't have to cooperate or deal with him in any way in terms of what happens to my pond going
forward. I'm already working out what I'm going to do to minimize the possibility that his trash fish get into my water. It's
unlikely that I'll be able to 100% prevent that from happening, but there's a lot I can do to keep it at a minimal level so that it
won't have much, if any, long term impact on the management plan that I've developed for my pond.

The south side of my pond dam was riddled with muskrat holes when we bought the property, and had been leaking a bit for several
years. I cut half a dozen middling-sized thorny locust trees (a couple of them better than 18" at the butt) and a bunch of smallish
tree sprouts off the dam, had the guy who dug the basement for our house dig the stumps out with his dozer, and use some of the clay
from the basement dig to fill the stump holes and smooth up the back side of the dam a bit. A couple years later I had him back to
add some topsoil where the basement over-dig had settled, and he did a bit more smoothing on the pond dam so I could get over it a
little better with the lawn mower. Definitely not what you'd call a fix, but at least now I could mow it, and keep it from growing
back up with brush. After finding the Assessor's office photos I remembered that one weekend I had a rented mini-excavator out here
for another project. I got done with whatever that was and had most of a day left with use of the machine, so I dipped the pond around
the edges as far out as I could reach with the boom. The water was so low at that time I was able to get out into the pond on the
upper end. Jamie asked me if I could make an island, so I did. Then after the weeds grew up on it she saw a big snake and wouldn't
go out there anymore.

2011 Assessor's office image.


So... I spent the next few years working on our new property, getting things set up to suit our needs. Built a riding arena for the
girls, cleaning up the fencerows, so on and so forth. Eventually I get things to the point I can start thinking about what I want
to do with my pond. One day Pops asked me if I'd been feeding the fish. "Well, no, it hadn't even occurred to me. Why?" Then he
reminded me that there used to be some whopper channel cats in there. So I went to the local farm-n-home store and bought a sack of
floating catfish food and started hand-feeding in the evenings. There wasn't much action at first, then there was a bit more, then a
bit more, and before long it was a genuine frenzy when I'd toss a handful of pellets into the pond. This little puddle is loaded
with fish! Now what to do?

We started fishing, that's what! How could it be possible that this shallow, nasty, neglected for years puddle could have so much
life in it? It was absolutely amazing. That's when I really started thinking about what I could do to make it better. I wasn't
too far into the thinking about it process when Mother Nature took charge, and set the stage for what was to come.

End part 1.

My front yard cow pond - part 2.

9/27/11
Yep, it is a nasty, stinky, muckhole. Not much more than waist deep. Full of FA and mutt fish - CC, LMB, BG, BCP, GSH,
GSF, BH, a couple giant GC, a snapping turtle or two, a family of muskrats, and no telling what all else. Our ducks thought
it was a paradise. Everybody else thought it was pretty gross. I'm starting to think about how can I clean up this mess,
but it really wasn't close to the top of my list of things to do. Not quite yet, anyway.


4/8/12
It looked a little better the next spring, but that was about to end.


7/21/12
2012 was a very hot, very dry, summer here in Central Missouri. The pond had only 10 days to live when this picture was
taken. Oldest son and I went to the 360 Sprint Car Nationals in Knoxville, IA the first weekend of August. When we got
home from the racetrack the pond was dead. There were a few BH piping, and the surface was littered with dead fish.
Thousands of them. The stench was horrendous. I knew there were some whopper channel cats in here, but I had no idea
how big or how many. A dozen of them would have been over 20lbs when they were alive. It was a really sad day.


9/24/12
There was no point in letting it refill, so I called dirt guy and had the dam cut. His guesstimate for cleanout was between
$7k and $11k. That set the gears in my head to grinding. After being snowed-in a few times, my wife and I had already been
discussing the purchase of a tractor. We'd been thinking a 4wd Class I compact around 30hp would do what we needed with regard
to clearing the lane of snow, cleaning horse poo from the barn, mowing pastures, etc. After additional discussion we decided
that finding something big enough to do all of that, AND de-muck the pond would be a better choice. She found a mid-80's vintage
MF 50E industrial machine for sale on CL the next spring. ~65hp, 13k pounds, MFWD, hydrostatic drive over a 4-speed gearbox, cab,
heat, 3/4 yard bucket on a full-frame loader - a much more capable machine than any Class I, and the price was closer to the
low end of dirt guy's guesstimate than it was to the high end, so we bought it. What could go wrong, right?


4/18/13
I mentioned earlier telling dirt guy and neighbor guy to make sure the overflow from neighbor guy's new pond went into the old
pond and NOT into my front yard. We got a big rain, neighbor guy's pond overflowed, and this is what I found in my front yard
the next day. Yep, bullheads. In my yard. Unreal.


5/19/13
I started working muck out of the pond and of course the first thing I did was drop the front wheels off into the ditch where I
was dumping the first of the goo and got the tractor stuck. It was the first time getting stuck, but it would not be the last.
Note to self - get something on the rear TPH for a counter-weight. Pops came over with one of his old Minneapolis-Moline tractors
and we pulled it out. He thought it was funny. Jamie (my better half) just shook her head and went back to her flower garden.
I got another beer and went back to work. Looking back, I wish that I had bought one of those little click-counter gizmos before
starting this project so I could have kept track of how many bucket loads of dirt I hauled out of the pond.


5/20/13
I got a navigable approach scraped out on the shallow side of the pond in the area that served as the overflow,
and started working muck down to the clay. I made a bit of progress and then it rained.


5/20/13
It's not possible to operate efficiently in wet, slippery, clay, so I called it quits, and (very much prematurely)
congratulated myself on this first small victory.


5/21/13
Then it rained some more and filled up the hole that I'd excavated in the muck. OK, time to buy a trash pump, but first I need to
do some work on the tractor to fix up a few little problems that showed themselves after I started to work it hard. As such things
go when dealing with older machinery, one little fix reveals another problem and another problem and... After handing a bunch of
Benjamins to the parts guy at the MF dealer, and being broke down for most of the rest of the summer, I was no longer feeling even a
little bit smug. I tell myself that it's OK having to spend some money on repairs, because I'm still in for a whole lot less than I
would have been for a newer, smaller machine, and dirt guy isn't getting any of my $$$, but to be completely honest, I'm already starting
to question my ability to make a rational decision. By the time I was "done" fixing the tractor I realized that I'd forgotten to buy
a trash pump and Hip National Bank was broke. The hole had three feet of water in it so I admitted defeat and used the winter to regroup.


3/8/14
After spending some more money over the winter for repairs to Nanner, (that's what I named the tractor. what else
would you call something that's big and yellow?) I went back to digging. The spring of '14 was dry and I was able to
get around in the pond with little difficulty. I'd gone to the china tool store and picked up a $69.95 trash pump and
I'm moving in the right direction. Water coming out, muck coming out, Nanner working right, life is good.


5/8/14
The dry spring continued, and I'm feeling pretty good about my progress. I tell myself that I'm gaining.
But in between this photo and the one previous, I had a lack of situational awareness moment and smacked
the muffler on a tree limb. Did it break the $50 muffler? Nope. It broke the $1475 cast iron elbow piece
that connects the muffler to the exhaust manifold. You say that sounds a *wee bit* steep for ten pound
piece of cast iron? I thought so too. The parts guy at the MF dealer almost choked when he told me the
price. I took the busted pieces to a local welding shop and had it brazed back together. $80 fix. Told
myself to do a better job of keeping brain engaged when operating under overhanging tree limbs.


5/13/14
And then it rained again. So I start pumping again. But now the hole is a lot bigger and holds a lot more water.
Some tightwad was only willing to flip $69.95 on a cheap, scrawny, trash pump, but I'm a patient guy, and the pond
is still going to be there when the water is out, so I tell myself that it's all good and just do what I can, when I can.


9/30/14
By the end of September I'd managed to get a lot of muck out in between rains, but there is still a mountain of the
stuff left in there, and I'm starting to wonder if I've bitten off more than I can chew. The deeper I dig the heavier
the muck is getting, and I still haven't fashioned a proper counter weight. Cart before the horse...


10/2/14
And then it rained again. By this time it's taking *quite* awhile to get the water pumped out. There's only so much
water that can be shoved through a 3/4" garden hose by a $69.95 trash pump from the china tool store. I'm running the
pump pretty much 24/7 in hopes of getting some more muck out before winter sets in, and very much questioning my judgement.


10/8/14
I got it dried out enough to work around the sides of the water hole with Nanner, and managed to get a bit more muck out.
Then it rained again and I called it quits for the year.


End part 2.

My front yard cow pond - part 3.

7/29/15
Wet weather and other priorities kept me out of the pond until July of '15, and I've realized by this time that this is
a much bigger project than I'd anticipated, so I told myself that it would be done when it got done, and there's no point
stressing over the slow progress. By now I'm on the 2nd $69.95 trash pump from the china tool store because the first one
quit working, but I'm still $$$ ahead vs. a different machine, and dirt guy still doesn't have any of my $$$.
Point to me, at least that's what the voices in my head are saying...


8/14/15
By this time I've removed the muck from a little over three quarters of the pond basin, and I'm starting to get an idea of what
it may have looked like inside when it was originally built all those years ago.


8/23/15
Aaaannnddd it rained again. Pump, pump, more pump. Wait, where's that funny noise coming from? Oh, it's coming from the
pump. So Mr. Tightwad makes trip number three to the china tool store for another $69.95 trash pump. Slow learner, I am...


8/23/15
But I'm determined, if nothing else, and stubborn, and I will not be defeated by a simple mudhole, so I just keep nibbling
away at it. 3/4 yard at a bite. I'm gaining. Slowly, very slowly, but gaining is gaining and that's what I'm doing...


9/5/15
In spite of being a slow learner, I'd figured out by now that it was much more efficient to remove dirt from the basin and
dump it at the edge of the pond near the entry ramp. Especially when the material I was working was wet and sticky. I'd
build a loose pile at the edge and let it dry out for a day or two before moving it out of the pond to the skeeter hole that
I was filling. The skeeter hole was actually an old creek loop that had been cut off who knows when, and bermed up to hold
a couple feet of water to make a waller hole for the hogs that used to run here. It was an absolutely disgusting place.


9/20/15
I had the phone line flagged before dirt guy cut the dam, so he would know where it was and hopefully not get into it with
the excavator bucket. Those flags were pulled after he was done, so I had called in a new set of locates when I started
pulling muck out because I knew that eventually I'd need to get inside the cut to clean it out before the dam could be
closed up. The flags were set a good 15' below the heel of the dam. I found the phone line a good 30' uphill from where
it was flagged. This was the third time the phone line got cut since we built our house. Every time it was due to bad locates,
and every time the repair bill went to the location service company. Always call before you dig - it will save you $$$.


9/20/15
Yeah... that black wire to the left of the big green horseweed... it's not supposed to be there...


9/22/15
I rigged up a temporary patch to the phone line to get the DSL internet back up while waiting on CenturyLink to send a tech.


9/25/15
It's starting to look like maybe the end is in sight. No, not really, but it does look a lot better than it did before I
started digging. Progress is slow, but steady, and I'm starting to think about how nice it's going to be to have my pond back.


9/25/15
The dog is wondering what the heck is going on and if Dad has lost his mind for good this time.


10/11/15
It's difficult to convey dimension in a 2D photo, so every so often I'd take a photo with the tractor in the hole to put
some scale to the image.


10/16/15
There was a snake hiding in the pile of loose dirt that I was hauling out to the skeeter hole.
I tried to catch her, but she was fairly well PO'd and was not having any of that business, so I left her alone and called it a day.


10/18/15
Now it's really starting to look like something. At this point I'm more or less down to the original basin of the pond. I could
have stopped right here and had seven or eight foot of water in the deepest spot, but the memories of only being able to go in
feet-first off the dock of the neighbor's pond when we were kids wouldn't leave me alone. This is when I really did lose my mind
for good and decided to see how long it would take to dig all the way to China. A week or so later Nanner's water pump shelled out.
I was done for the season and the tractor was back in the shop for awhile. But I'm still $$$ ahead vs. a Class I and dirt guy still
doesn't have any of my $$$, so it's all good.


5/20/17
What? Where are all of the pics from 2016? Well, there aren't any. I had a giant attack of stupid and set out 500 tomato plants.
Thought I might make a little play $$$. Wrong, Wrong, Wrong. Note to self - don't be stupid. But, you may notice the pretty blue
thing coming out of the mudhole in the background. Well, Mr. Tightwad here got his wallet out and bought a proper 2" discharge trash
pump and 100' of lay-flat hose. After burning up china tool store $69.95 pump number three I had to do it. The hole had gotten to a
size such that it was taking two weeks to empty it after a rain. The new pump emptied it in less than half a day. Much more better.


5/27/17
Then it rained again, so I pumped it out again and got back to digging.


End part 3.

My front yard cow pond - part 4.

6/15/17
Then it rained again, but now I don't care because I have a proper pump and can empty that hole lickety-split. Life is good again.


7/23/17
And then it rained again some more, but I still don't care because I have a proper pump and can empty that hole lickety-split.


8/13/17
On my way to China, or at least close enough that you're going to have to work to reach the bottom when you dive off the dock that
eventually will be floating on top of where Nanner is parked. And look at what's hanging off the back. I'd been needing to fashion
a counter weight since Day One of this project, and one day during the previous winter my dim bulb flickered for a moment - it came
back to me that 15 or so years back I'd bought a 6' box blade to grade a spot in the yard at our old house for the above-ground pool
my wife bought. It was a King Kutter cheapo from the local farm-n-home store, and by the time I was done with the pool site the
brackets that attached to the TPH on the tractor were pretty well pretzelized. I dumped it in the busted implement heap at Pops'
house and had all but forgotten I had it. I hauled it to my workshop over the winter, repaired the TPH bracketry, slapped a new
paint job on it, and stuck some John Deere decals on the side to make it go faster. Then I hung 760lbs of suitcase weights on it.
Now I've got a proper counter weight, AND I can peel clay from the pond bottom with very little effort. Things are looking up.


8/25/17
Wait a minute. Didn't I just say that I'd fixed up the TPH mounting bracketry on the box blade? Along came another one of those
lack of situational awareness moments. I was stripping clay one afternoon and had the rear position control set to only pick the
blade up a few inches off the ground. Got the front end on a hump, the blade dug in when I reversed, and wadded the hitch up big time.
But that wasn't the worst of it. When the hitch folded the grousers got into the rear tires on the tractor. Cut em both. Calcium
chloride ballast fluid all over everything. And I'm stuck, stuck, stuck, bad stuck. Blade stuck in the ground, hitch folded, two
rear flats. I said some bad words. Very bad words. More than some. A lot. Not a good day.


8/25/17
Yeah, this is a pickle. We tried to pull it out with Pops' big Minneapolis. No joy. More damage to the blade. By this time I'm
making up new bad words to say because all of the old bad words aren't making me feel any better. Really not a good day.


8/25/17
As Fred G. would say, "Lamont, ya big dummy!"


8/25/17
So, there was only left to do what had to be done. I loaded my acetyline torch in the truck, hauled it out to the pond, and commenced
to burning steel until the blade was free from Nanner. Pops brought Jr. Red over and hauled the blade out of the pond. I called the
local ag tire shop and asked them to send a service truck. The only good part of this whole deal was they have a top notch field tech.
He made boots (big boots) for both tires, installed tubes, pumped them full of ballast fluid, and I was back in business. I walked
funny for a few days due to my wallet hip being a whole lot lighter than it had been, but if I'd had to replace those tires I would
have been parked for a couple months. R4 tires are really expensive.


8/27/17
Tires repaired and I went back to mining clay. All of that mud is from the CaCl solution that used to be in the tractor tires.


8/31/17
Another angle of the area in the photo above. At this point in time I'm intending to excavate another 20' or so towards the little
neck on the upper end of the pond and leave some shallow water area up there. Prelude to a later lack of situational awareness moment.


9/25/17
This is my little buddy Rocket. Her momma was a chicken thief, and she wound up on the wrong end of a gun one night. The next day
we heard an awful wailing from the big hackberry tree in the chicken yard. Yep, little blind Rocket. Five days old. Cold and hungry.
I have no problem dusting a chicken thief, but I'm a sucker for almost any kind of baby critter, and I'd wanted a pet coon since I was
a kid, so instead of doing what I should have done, I bottle-raised the dang varmint. She was a hoot and absolutely loved to chase
bullfrogs in the pond. I loved her. I built a coondo for her to sleep in. Then the ungrateful little brat r-u-n-n-o-f-t.


7/8/18
So another winter and spring gone by, and here I am, back in the hole, and almost done excavating.


8/17/18
This is the day that I've long wondered, is it ever going to come? I'm done, done, done, and finished. I've got the depth I want.
I've got the dropoffs into the drink that I want. I've got plenty of shallow, gentle slope for BG beds. I'm done! All that's left
is to repack the dam. And then little Fred G. on my shoulder says "Hey Lamont, ya big dummy. Where are you going to get the
clay to repack the dam? You put all of the good stuff in the skeeter hole. You're going to need that big pile that came out earlier
to landscape the back side of the dam so you can mow it without killing yourself." Yep. I did that. I hauled out all of the best
clay from down deep and I dumped it in the woods. Recall previous note to self - stop being stupid. Yeah, not going to happen...


8/17/18
Well, it is what it is, so I commence to doing what I have to do. Go deeper. Go farther into the neck on the upper end. That's it.
This is a view of the back side after filling in the ditch with dirt I'd saved back for landscaping. The cut is all cleaned out and
has been brought back to grade in ~6" lifts with plenty of bentonite mixed in. After I destroyed the box blade I put the tiller on
the tractor. That worked out really well for this stage of the operation.


8/17/18
Another back side view of the cut. You can see the difference in soil color from what dirt guy took out when he cut the dam compared
to what has been packed on the back side of the dam.


8/17/18
A wider view of the back side after hauling in and packing a small mountain of clay.


End part 4.

My front yard cow pond - part 5.

8/23/18
Third, and last time getting Nanner stuck. This spot has had a tiny seep for quite awhile now. Not much, but I know that anyplace
water comes in it can also go back out. I had intended to pack over it with a couple feet of new clay/bentonite mix, but now that
I've had another stupid attack and dumped all of my good clay that option is out the window. I have no choice but to dig through
and past this spot to get the clay I need to close the dam. When I was cleaning the slop and water out I discovered the source of
the seep - a little patch of red sandstone. Not good! Not good! NOT GOOD!!! So at this point I'm scratching my head and wondering
how this is going to shake out. After everything I've been through on this project the last thing I want is a leak.


9/15/18
I have one place to get clay for the dam now and this is it. The upper end of the pond. I'd intended to leave a good bit of shallow
water area up here. Fred G. still on my shoulder and he won't shut up. For perspective, Nanner is 9' tall at the top of the cab.


9/15/18
Staging clay for the dam, and that doggone seep just keeps seeping.


9/15/18
Inside view of the dam, packing clay/bentonite in shallow lifts, and making a point of wrapping the repack around the face of the dam.


9/16/18
Back side of the cut. Adding clay to the inside, then coming on the back side adding dirt and grading.


9/16/18
On top looking in. Pack, pack, and more pack.


9/16/18
#2 Son Clint and Jr. Red helping out with the landscape dirt on the back side.


9/16/18
Inside view, getting closer to done. Pack, pack, and more pack.


9/17/18
Back side of the cut starting to look like something I can get over with the zero turn and not die in the process.


9/18/18
That looks more better. Of course it will settle, and I'll have to do another topping layer, but I'm determined to get grass on it
before winter and avoid a really nasty mud mess.


9/18/18
I know, the inside face of the dam isn't pretty, but it isn't as bad as you might think. That side of the dam has never leaked,
and I didn't disturb it during the cleanout. Took the muck off and dumped good clay back into the toe. It's a little rough, but
that should help to hold the crushed limestone that's going to be dumped on the inside face of the dam.


9/18/18
Ready for seed. I tossed down 2 bushel of feed wheat, 20lbs of dutch clover, and ten pounds of fescue to hold it over the winter.
Now I can take the Mrs. to sunny Florida for a nice beach vacation and not worry about the pond.


10/3/18
At this point in time I hadn't found the PB web site and forums. I was thinking typical Missouri pond fish mix of BG, LMB, and CC.
So after pulling all the guts out of my ancient, dry-rotted, Monark tri-hull, I deep-sixed it for a catfish hide. I didn't really
intend for it to wind up against the side of the cut like that, but I hit a pocket of red sand when I was mining clay for the dam.
There had been a tiny seep up there for quite awhile, and when I uncovered the sand the seep got bigger. Bad, bad, and more bad!
Nothing to do about it now but see what happens when it goes under. Obviously those vertical cuts are going to slough back quite
a ways. Will it be enough to sufficiently cover that little bit of sand lens? Time will tell.


10/4/18
That's about 25 ton of crushed limestone on the shelf. We call it surface rock around here. It's 1" and down with all of the
fines left in. Should make for nice BG beds.


10/4/18
More cedars. I have enough cedars to fill every pond in the county and I'm starting with this one.


End part 5.

My front yard cow pond - part 6.

10/9/18
Finally, we got some rainfall. There's enough water in there to show the elevation changes in the deep area of the basin. With
this water, the far end where the cedars are runs from nothing to about 4' depth, and the near end runs from nothing to about 3' depth.


10/10/18
More cedars in, and more rainfall overnight. Aside from what came in the two little seeps, this hole hadn't seen water since June.
It was dry down there. The level dropped almost a foot in the week after these rains, and that had me a bit nervous, but when
I considered how dry it had been that made sense. After that initial drop in water level it has been stable. The sheer cut on the
east side (left side of the photo) of the upper end is sloughing as expected. That's the spot that gets most of the runoff water.
You can see clearly that the west side of the cut, which also was a near vertical face, has hardly sloughed at all. We have some
seriously good clay here. It is deep, and it is incredibly expansive. When we built our house the building inspector guy told me
that this clay is the 6th most expansive type of clay that has been documented anywhere in the world. I can't say with certainty
if what he said is true, because I haven't researched it myself, but can say with certainty while I was cleaning this pond out,
if it rained I was pumping before I could get back in with the tractor. It is some seriously good clay.


11/10/18
We got some more rain, and the level is rising. Every time it rains I jam a stick in the mud at the new water line. So far it stays
where it stops, and both sand veins are under water. Maybe Lamont will luck out. Maybe Lamont will have to spend some $$$ on
Soilfloc. Lamont doesn't know yet, but Lamont is hoping he will be like the blind squirrel who found an acorn.


11/21/18
More cedars in the upper end, a good line of them against the cut running down the middle of the pond, and I haven't even dented my
cedar tree patch.


12/1/18
I bought 26 ton of 2"x6" crushed and cleaned limestone and placed it in the pond along the bank on the upper end. That's where the
runoff comes in. Lining that bank with stone will stop the shoreline from eroding and moving uphill, provide good hides for crayfish
and minnows, and help with the ph. Since this photo was taken I added another 25 ton of surface rock to the shelf. A week or so
prior I was down with a bad cold, and stayed home from work for a few days around Thanksgiving. That's when I found PB on the interwebs
and started reading the forum postings. And from all that reading now I know I should have put some sort of geotextile material down
before I dumped the surface rock on the shelf. I suppose I could have dug it back out and put something down, but then Fred G. wouldn't
have anything to yak at me about.


12/23/18
I went and made nice with neighbor guy today. Figured there was nothing to lose by making an attempt, and it worked out great this time.
As we walked back to the pond I told him what I was planning to stock, and I told him the story about finding bullheads in my front yard,
and that I really wanted to do whatever I could to keep them out for as long as I possibly could. I asked him if it would be alright
with him if I built a terrace to keep the overflow from his pond out of my pond. He was completely agreeable to everything that I was
hoping to do. Might have helped that I offered to put up a new fence on the property line once we were both satisfied with the dirt work,
but bottom line... the overflow channel from his pond to my pond has been diverted, and he's no longer on my list of non-person people.
I'll need to get back in there after it dries up a bit to smooth things up, and I want to make sure I've added enough dirt so that all of
the water runs down the hill rather than puddling up and making a skeeter hole. It needs some rain to settle the dirt before I can finish
it up, but it's good for now. Merry Christmas Eve Eve to me.


1/1/19
Took the Mrs. to Branson after Christmas for a few days of relaxation, and to celebrate our 27th wedding anniversary. Noticed things
looking rather soggy on the drive back home. Turns out we got a nice, long, soaking rain while we were away from home.
There's a couple feet of new water in the pond. More good news - the terrace I built to keep the overflow from neighbor guy's pond
out of my pond worked perfectly.



And that gets the story of my front yard cow pond to where I am at present.

I know a few things, and I don't know a whole lot more than a few things.

I know that the pond must fill up to the level of the currently existing overflow before I'll really know if I have any leaks.
I don't know if there is a core key under the dam, but considering the age, size, and original use of the pond, I believe that
it is rather unlikely, but I suppose that it is possible. Before the cattle got on it, all of the ground around and below the
dam stayed dry, except during periods of wet weather when the pond would overflow. There was a period of time, much later in
the life of the pond, when the ground below the south side of the dam had a tendency to stay a bit wet. The pond was full of
muskrats then, and the dam was in terrible condition from being stomped by cattle. There were also several large trees that had
grown up due the damage inflicted by said cattle, which made the dam unsafe to mow. Those trees were removed from the dam after
we bought the property, and it's been dry on the back side since then. It's my hope that any voids resulting from the decay of
those tree roots have filled in due to the passage of time and all of the heavy machinery traffic that has happened there since
the trees were taken out. The several-feet-thick clay cap that was placed when the back side of the dam was landscaped should
help out as well. I haven't forgotten about the two sand pockets that I hit while mining clay to close the dam. It's very
possible the pond could leak through those as the head pressure increases. If I wind up with any leakage, I'll get my wallet out
and throw a unit or two of Soilfloc in the water.

I don't know where the full-pool water line is going to wind up, exactly. I know where it was before I started the process of
de-mucking, and I'm certain that it will be below that level now due to my use of the historical overflow as the entry ramp into the
pond. Literally thousands of trips over that area with a heavy machine have compacted the soil quite a bit. That, coupled with the
erosion that occurred due to the grass sod being beaten down to bare soil for a five year period of time has reduced the elevation
by at least a foot, and very likely more. I never shot the elevations. I couldn't change the footprint of the pond, so I didn't really
see much point in it. I'll wait for it to fill up, see where the water line comes on the dam, and decide at that time how much, if any,
I want to raise it from there. It won't be difficult to rework the overflow area if I decide to raise the water level a foot or three.

I had originally intended to do the normal Missouri BG, LMB, CC mix. I mentioned that earlier, I think, but after reading on the PB
forums all of the success folks have had with YP, RES, SMB, HSB, and WE, that's what I've decided to do. I've got no shortage of
places where I can go to catch "normal" pond fish, so I'm going to do something different. Will doing so require more intensive
management compared to doing what's easy and normal? Probably. Surely. But that's OK. If it hasn't become obvious by now that I'm
the kind of guy who enjoys a challenging project you haven't been paying attention. As far as that goes, I pretty much have to have
a project of some sort in the works or I get bored. After eleven years here almost everything else is in maintenance mode, so the timing
of this is all good for my mental health and happiness.

The plan is to stock the forage base (FHM and GSH) in the spring of 2019, and follow up in the fall with the YP and RES. SMB and HSB
will be added in spring of 2020, then I'll add the WE in the fall. Before the sport fish go in I want the pond to be at, or at least very
close, to full pool. If the rest of this winter and early spring turn out to be dry, I'll wait until there's adequate water. That would
give the forage base more time to make babies, and that would be fine. So I'll see what the weather does and I'll stock it when Mother
Nature tells me that it's time to stock it. I've contacted TJ about getting some grass shrimp in the spring. I'm also thinking I'll
add some scuds, but it would probably be best to wait until the pond has filled and the water clears up, so that will wait until next year.

I'm working with the owner of a local bait-n-tackle shop on the stocking plan. In addition to the tackle shop he does pond and lake
management on a commercial basis, and I'm confident in his ability to source good fish. I've fished several of the lakes that he manages.
The fishing and water quality in those lakes are both quite good. I do still need to find out if the hatcheries he buys from sell
pellet-trained fish. If the answer to that question is "no", I may reconsider where I go to buy my fish.

While the shallow areas are still dry land, I'm going to build pallet structures for the FHM, and spawning beds for the SMB. I have most
of the materials to do all of that already on hand. Now that I've been able to build a terrace to keep the overflow from neighbor guy's
pond out I'm not as worried as I had been about his bullheads and what-not getting into my pond. It is just a matter of time, I suppose,
that some undesirables will find their way in. I will deal with that if/when it happens, but it is my expectation that my stocking plan will
result in a healthy predator population that should be able to deal with a handful of mutt fry. I understand that the balance of life will
change over time, and I'm prepared, within limits, to accept that. If it gets too far out of whack to suit me, I'll draw the pond down, nuke
it, and start over. I'm going to toss more cedar trees in the upper end of the pond until I decide there are enough in there. I've got a
perfect spot to build a forage pond, and I'm hoping to find time to work on that this coming summer.

I'm going to install an aeration system in the spring. I've been in touch with KASCO, and they have designed a system that's suited to
my pond. I have spoken at length with the folks at the closest distributor. Haven't decided if I'll go with that one, or buy a system
from my local guy. Right now I'm leaning that way, but I still need to look at what he's got and get a bid.

I'm going to build a 12'x16' floating dock, anchored with mud poles, and connect that to shore with a gangway. The dock will be decorated
with permanent bench seating, a bait cage, a big livewell cage for fish that are destined for a grease bath, a cleaning station with a
whopper-size poly cutting board and a chum grinder, a folding swim ladder, solar accent lighting, solar/battery/invertor system for powering
additional lighting and a music system, etc. This is going to be our happy place, and I intend for it to be comfortable.

As weather and time permit, I will cover the inner face of the dam with 2"x6" crushed limestone, or maybe something a little bigger.
Based on what I placed along the north shore, that will require 100-125 ton, maybe more, depending on how thick I dump it. I'm also going
to need to do another landscape topping on the back side of the dam to account for settlement of the material that was added earlier this
fall. I still have a sizable pile of spoil that came out of the pond during the early stages of de-mucking, so I'm hopeful that I won't
need to give dirt guy any of my money. Other than what he got when the dam was cut all those years ago I've managed to avoid financing his
new dozer, and I'm hoping to keep that streak alive.


So, there it is. That's where I'm at today with my front yard cow pond. Certainly there's something I've forgotten to mention, or never
thought of in the first place, and I'm hopeful that you folks will fix my thinking (or not thinking) where I've messed up. There are some
things that simply can't be changed/moved/redesigned/etc., but there's still a lot to be done, and none of what remains is set in cement,
so please, I want to hear your thoughts.

Going forward, I'll post my progress to this thread in order to keep it all together and hopefully somewhat coherent so I'm able to share
my successes and failures, and easily find all of the good advice that I hope to receive. I've attempted to edit my ramblings to the extent
that it all makes sense. My brain tends to run far in front of my fingers, so there's bound to be something up there that will cause you to
scratch your head and wonder if American is my native language.

Thanks for reading.

Greg

Greg, thanks for the fascinating saga you've written describing your past many years. I think this will be one of the most memorable stories that I'll read in all of 2019.
And since I hadn't already said so, welcome to PondBoss.
Roger

Your wife is a saint!
The only thing at this point that I would modify about your stocking plan is to add the YP and RES with the forage base (FHM and GSH) in the spring of 2019. All will co-habitate well. With this, the YP and RES will spawn in spring of 2020 to enhance the forage-panfish base. The WE and YP may struggle in your maximum pond depth. Keep us updated about your fishery project.

Thanks Roger.

I've certainly gotten a lot of enjoyment from reading other people's stories over the short couple months since I found this place.
Your comment alone has made all of the time I spent working on my story worthwhile.

Thanks Mr. C. She truly is better than I deserve.

The stocking plan I described above isn't set in stone. I'd prefer to add the YP and RES this spring if the pond is at, or at least close, to full pool. Would you recommend I go ahead and put them in this spring based on the amount of water that's in there now?

Please help me understand your concern about the max depth. Are you thinking too much deep water, or not enough? I won't know for sure until it's full exactly how deep it will be, but by my eyeballs I'm thinking 14'-16' based on the existing elevation of the overflow. There's close to 10' in the upper end now, with a good 5', maybe a bit more, to go until it's full.

Wow that's quite a story. I see some similarities with my story. Thanks for posting it and letting us follow it.

That's a very good read, Augie! very cool.. If you happen across any FHM, I'd take that opportunity to get them in. When the time is right to spawn, they'll already be in the best areas for the conditions.
This will be fun to follow.

LOL, AWESOME man, that was EPIC!

Ping me anytime if you need some fishery management help, I love cool water species and have helped a lot of guys in the Midwest.

TJ

Love it.

Great story. You should be really happy with your pond.

I enjoyed the read. Thanks for the story. Best wishes for your 2019 pond start-up

Great story.

Amazing what some perseverance and sweat equity will accomplish.

Augie - I would add the fingerling RES-YP whenever you add the minnows (FHM-GSH). Fingerlings RES-YP will not compete heavily with the minnows. If you can get pellet trained YP, all the better because their growth will be faster when they ar eating pellets and when YP are larger (4"-7"+) they will eat fewer minnows because most of the YP will be eating mostly pellets. You will not be able to locate pellet trained RES. All most all with pellet eating RES, they have pellet trained them their-self.

From your pond building pictures it appeared the depth was only around 9'-10ft. If your depth is greater than 13ft then YP should be able to find some some thermal refuge during the hottest part of the summer. The YP smaller than 7"-8" appear to tolerate warmer water (85-88F) well. YP become susceptible to heat stress primarily after they grow to 12". The biggest, oldest, weakest YP will usually die first during hot spells. If in MO, it behooves you to buy YP from a supplier that raises them closest to your geographic latitude. These YP will then trend toward more heat tolerance.

Great story! Really enjoyed reading it. I also agree with your stocking plan. You are not very far south of me, and my fish are all doing well. (Except the HSB, and they may be doing fine, but I haven’t seen one since stocked three yrs ago, lol).
I imagine in the time this property has been in your family Columbia has grown out and around you.
Looking forward to following along. I really didn’t see that many Lamont moments..
Jeff

Nice write up! I enjoyed your style.

Two quick suggestions that I don't think you mentioned in your postings...

One, check out Harrison's Fishery in Hurdland, Mo. The can't be too far from you and that's is where I got my HBG, RES, and HSB. It was a good experience.

And, two, put some pallets in your pond when the FHMs go in for spawning purposes. If your pond is still filling up, you can build the pallet stacks before the water hits full pool, you just have to guess/know where full pool will be. Otherwise, I would consider strapping thee together at a time and floating them in the pond, anchored to the shore so they do not travel around. Here is a link to what I did with the pallets...


http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=458150&page=2

Very nice and quite the saga.

You can't be more than 5 miles from us. I have sourced FHM and GSH from Anderson Minnows by overnight mail delivery for a good price. They're a reputable place down in Arkansas.

I really need to learn some of the acronyms for fish...

Welcome to the gathering place. I'm hoping to see some full pool pics this spring. I'm currenting in the middle of what you had awhile back but I went with the 33hp Kubota and yes its taking ma awhile lol. But I also get 2 put the dirt right where I want it. Your place will be a thing of beauty come summer time. Southeast Kansas here so I hear ya on that good clay we get to enjoy.

Thanks QA.

I've sent a query to Harrison's. Google maps says they're an hour and 45 minutes from my place. It will be interesting to see how their thoughts on stocking numbers compare with the recommendations that I've read from the experts here.

I have access to all of the free shipping pallets that I can use. I've got 18 of the 3'x3' size stacked outside my workshop now. I just need to screw them together and place them in the pond.

Thanks Bocomo.

I've requested a quote. We'll see what they come back with.

Just an FYI, NeMo fish hatcheries in Perry MO used to stock YP, I’m not sure how the fish are. I bought FHM from them, and they did very well. I also bought HBG from them, and they’ve done well, except reproducing way more than I thought they would.
I bought my YP from Rainman here on the forum. I believe he got them from South Dakota, but not sure. They’ve done very well.

Rex (Rainman) is a GREAT guy. He talked me OUT of a sale I didn't realize I didn't need so I feel like I owe him some business.

I got a few pallet structures done today. The bottom of the stacks might be in a bit deep once the pond fills, but it will be easy enough
to add more to the top at a later date. The pallets are screwed together, and then wired to the t-posts.

I used up the whole lot that I dragged home from work awhile back. I'll keep my eye on the dumpster spot and scrounge a few more as
they become available. Haven't decided if I'm going to put a couple more of them in this pond, but I'll need them for when the forage
pond is done. I really like this 3'x3' size. They're easy to handle.

The water was quite turbid after last weekend's rainfall. It has cleared up quite a bit since then. Jury is still out on whether or not I'll need
to do a floc treatment to settle out the bentonite, but I've got the feeling that I will.

1/6/19
I put one in the upper neck.


1/6/19
One about 30 yards to the east next to the overflow.


1/6/19
And one tied to the fence on the west side. Didn't see any reason to use additional posts here.

Nice work and thanks for the pics ! Added them to the archive thread.

Cool thread, nice pictures, and a nice write up!... I really enjoyed it

Hey EWEST how can I find where you put this picture at?

Great work! I tried sinking a pallet one time by stuffing it with thin cinderblock and was shocked when it floated away...

Pictures are in the Archives Common Pond Q&A. Newest pallet pictures are at the end of pg2.
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=92463&nt=2&page=1

Augie,

Wow, you have a way with words. Your story was an awesome novella, full of hope, dreams, disappointments, hard work, and success. Glad to see you on the forum. It's nice to see another Missourian, I am in West Central Missouri, over near Warrensburg. I will also recommend Rainman (Rex) here on the forum. He brought me some YP a few years ago, they were big and healthy. Plus he is entertaining!

Thank you for the kind words, Neighbor.

I have a good relationship with my local guy, but he did tell me last week that he doesn't really have any experience with the yellow perch. I requested that he ask the hatchery if the YP he might be getting for me would be pellet trained.

I do a good bit of business locally, and with this pond project getting to the "I need to buy a lot of stuff" stage there is potential for quite a bit of money to change hands. I consider myself fortunate to have a local outfit that cares about the success of what I'm doing. It would be my preference to get everything from one place (one throat to choke if something goes wrong, you might say), but... this is my first, best, chance to get the pond off to a good start and I refuse to let friendships compromise that.

I'm thinking it's time I contact Mr. Rex...

Major snow event in this part of the world. It's not often we get a foot of snow in one shot, but we've got that and more, and it's still
coming down. I thought I might head down to Eagle Bluffs today and see if I could dip some grass shrimp out of the marsh, but that
adventure will have to wait for another day.

1/12/19

The temps have been mild since the big snowfall and the meltwater is helping me out. Water is creeping up onto the
shallow shelf for the first time since the dam was closed.

I spent some time on the phone this week with Kurt Harrison. Nice guy. He likes the idea of YP, RES, and SMB, and feels
confident that getting gravid females this spring won't be difficult. I very much like the idea of stocking the 6"-8" size YP
and having a chance to pull off a spawn right out of the gate.

I haven't been able to connect with Rex, but I will keep trying.

1/19/19

I cut nine cedar trees today and chucked em in the pond. I think there are probably enough in there now, but I haven't made
my mind up completely on that. I'd liked to have gotten a few more out on the ice over the deep hole, but the ice isn't safe
to walk on and I'm not man enough to throw a 20'-30' tree that far. Two or three more big ones on the shelf next to the pallets
might be good.

I've located a local source for aluminum sulfate. $34 and change for a 50lb bag and no shipping charges to get it here.

Tomorrow I'm going to chop a hole in the ice to dip some water for a jar test, and order another load of 2"x4" crushed limestone.
It will need to either freeze or dry up some before I can start placing it on the inside face of the dam, but it will be here and
available when conditions improve.

1/27/19

We've received two rounds of substantial rainfall here during early February. The ice is a nuisance, but I'm happy to see the
water continue to rise. I bought another 26 ton of 2"x4" crushed limestone. It's too muddy right now to do anything with it,
so I wait for the ground to either freeze or dry up.

2/10/19


2/10/19

I'd been concerned about the water color so I cut a hole in the ice and dipped some water out for a jar test.
Based on the results I don't see any need to floc the pond at this time.

This is what it looked like fresh from the pond.
2/2/19


I put a pinch of pickling lime in one jar. Eight days later it looks like tap water. The floc on the bottom of the jar is algae.
The jar in the first pic doesn't look much different than it did a week ago.
2/10/19

With the improvement in the weather I've been able to get a bit done on the pond over the past couple weeks.

There was a bit of frost in the ground when I put the crushed limestone down on the north bank. It was semi-mud and semi-frozen
and extremely slick. I didn't really feel safe getting close enough to the edge with the tractor to get all of the rock over the edge,
so I wound up with a knee-high pile the length of the bank. I've been piddling at tossing that stuff into the water and finally got it done.

I figured since I had to toss all those rocks into the water I might as well do it in a way that would improve the habitat for the fish.
This gap between cedars seemed a natural place to make a long pile.

3/22/19



I built two more piles on the outside of a big cedar that lays parallel with, and right up against the bank. There's another
one underneath the big one that is visible next to the rock pile. These piles will have three to four foot of water on top
of them when the pond is full and hopefully will prove to be suitable bedding sites for the SMB.

3/23/19



I used the tiller to chew up the ground so I could improve the grade where quite a bit of water runs down to the pond from
the driveway. The soil that came out was used to build a small terrace that will catch an extra little bit of runoff and drain it
to the pond. This spot had eroded quite a bit over the winter so I dumped in a couple yards of crushed limestone.

3/23/19



Same spot from a different vantage point.

3/23/19



Tilled, graded, and ready for grass seed. I got that done and put a hay mulch on top to help the baby grass get established.
I also added about 20 ton of crushed limestone to the driveway to bring it up to roughly the same elevation as the new terrace.
That should greatly reduce the surface erosion further down the slope on the driveway by sending the water into the pond.
It will need more work after everything settles, but it'll do for now.

3/24/19



Right now the pond is a foot and half, maybe two foot from being full. A couple more good rains should do it. Then I'll decide
if I want to raise the spillway or call it good where it is.

I found some pre-owned encapsulated foam dock floats on craigslist a few days ago. $300 for enough of them to float my dock
and gangway and have a couple left over. I'm not going to build the dock until I know where the full-pool waterline is going to
wind up, but finding the floats gives me a good head start on the materials, and saves me over $1000 compared to the cost of
buying them new.

I should have a stocking quote from Curryville Fisheries in a day or two. Forage minnows, RES, and YP will go in this spring.

I bought a small order of scud bugs from Kyle. They arrived today in decent shape considering that it was 70� here this afternoon.
There were a few morts, but I'm sure that is to be expected even under the best of weather conditions.

After I turned them loose in the pond the sleepy ones woke up and they were swimming around like happy little scud bugs should.

3/27/19



Pops scored a small pile of limestone rocks and brought them over this afternoon. Not enough to make a proper rock pile
in the pond, but it's a start on one. I'm going to get some more out of the creek at our other farm after the ground dries up
enough to get in there without getting stuck.

3/27/19

Got a good start on my dock after work today.

4/8/19

Got the other two floats wiggled into position under the dock frame after work yesterday.

4/15/19

Took off early from work yesterday and did a bit of work on the dock. Floorboards are all down but still need some screwing.
Five pounds of screwing is all the screwing my old bones can take at one shot. Another five pounds will have the floor nailed
down to where it shouldn't fall apart in a stiff breeze.

And now I have a brief rant regarding PT 5/4 deck boards... That stuff is junk! I would lose what little is left of my mind
if I had to build with that stuff every day. I picked the best of what was on the pile at Lowe's, and grabbed three extras
just to be safe. By the time I had the dock covered two of the boards had warped so badly they couldn't be used. I'd have liked
to quit about halfway but if I'd done that it would have meant taking all of the remaining boards back and trading them in for
straight ones. It's unreal to me how fast that stuff warps when the sun gets on it.


4/16/19

As the pond has gotten closer to full pool it has sprung a few leaks. Couple days ago I happened to notice some bubbles
in the water. Three or four little bubbles... pause 5-10 seconds... three or four little bubbles... repeat.

I grabbed a sack of bentonite and my tomping stick and got after it. Tomped the dickens out of the general area where
the bubbles were appearing then dumped 50lbs of bentonite on top and tomped some more.

No more bubbles. The trickle below the dam stopped completely overnight. There are two more small leaks that I need
to find and fix. One is a trickle and the other is just a low spot that's standing water. Pond was losing about an inch a
week. The leak I fixed was the worst of the three, so I'm expecting to see a noticeable reduction in the rate of water loss.

4/27/19



Planted a bald cypress tree on the northeast corner of the pond near the overflow. I know it will be a water sucker,
but that will be more than offset by the beauty of the tree.

4/28/19


Planted two cardinal flowers and a buttonbush on the south side. Both are native species, attractive, and wildlife-friendly.

4/28/19


4/28/19

We got a veritable toad-strangler of a rain overnight. Added a good six inches, maybe a little more, to the water level
in the pond. If the weather guessers are right about what's going to happen tomorrow it should hit the overflow by
Friday morning. Happy, happy...

5/1/19

Weather guessers guessed wrong. We got some rain, but not what they were expecting. It brought the water level up a couple more inches, but not enough to hit the spillway. It's supposed to rain some tomorrow, then more next week, so hopefully it will be full to the brim within a week.

Talked to fish guy today. It seems the weather is causing gill fungus issues with the sunfish at the hatcheries around here. He won't take them without a clean health certificate, so it's not certain when I'll be getting those. So far he's not been able to find pellet trained YP from a source that he trusts. Those may have to wait until fall. Regardless, the FHM and GSH are coming on Monday. I'm going to be down at Bennett Spring trout fishing when they arrive, but I'll ask him to get some pics of the stocking.

A couple or three weeks ago I bought some PK shrimp from the ebay guy in Louisiana. I didn't really expect much out of them, just did it because I could. Hadn't seen any sign of them since, not that I really expected to, but yesterday as I was watching the various wiggly things in the water I saw some critters that I couldn't quite make out what they were. Skinny, clear, black spots, maybe 1/4" long, lazy movement with an occasional twitch. Went out this evening with an aquarium net and dipped some out - turned out to be itty-bitty PK shrimp. About half of the order were females that were loaded with berries, and it seems that some of them hatched. I'm hoping to get a big order of them from TJ towards the end of the month, and now that I know for sure that the water is suitable for them I won't fret over dropping some coin on something that's just going to croak on me.

Forage minnows were installed on Monday. 15lb FHM and 5lb GSH. I tossed a few handfuls of feed store catfish food out and was able to observe a few coming to sample the offering. I don't expect it will take long for the rest of them to figure out that Lamont's Free Soup Kitchen is open for business.

Had a nice visit with TJ on the phone this afternoon. Discussed the seeps that have popped up since the water has gotten close to full pool. I found another new one yesterday while mowing the grass on the dam, so that makes four very small leaks that I'm aware of.

It was agreed that a SoilFloc treatment on the area where the dam was re-cored would be worth the effort, so that is going to happen real soon now. I drove a piece of 3/4" pvc pipe with 1/4" graduations into the pond bottom so I can closely monitor the water level both before and after the SF treatment. Empirical data for the notebook.

We also discussed my stocking plan and the difficulties my local guy is having finding pellet trained YP this spring. TJ recommended another hatchery close to me where I should be able to get them, and that it would be best to wait until fall to put them in to make sure I'm not getting runts left over from last year.

He also offered PK shrimp once conditions are right at his place for harvest, so it looks like I'll be making a road trip to Lincoln sometime next month to stock up on those. The 20 that I bought off of ebay guy have been very prolific so far. I found two more groups of about two dozen baby shrimp this afternoon. I think tossing in another four or five hundred of them will be quite a boost to the food chain.

So, TJ, many thanks for taking the time to help me with this stuff. I hope to make it worth your while, one way or another.

Thanks for the update Augie. I enjoy reading your thread.

P.S. Happy belated birthday! Hope it was a good one!

Bill D.

Made some more progress on the pond dock in between rains this weekend.

Son Clint helped me out and his GF Kat supervised. We applied some lessons learned while building the platform section.
The gangway section was small enough that we were able to assemble the frame on my trailer. We pre-cut the floor
joist boards and screwed it all up on the trailer deck, then hauled it out to the pond.

5/12/19


I used Nanner to haul the floats to the pond bank, then picked up the dock frame, set it down on top of the floats,
squared it up and put the deck boards on.

5/12/19


These sections are ready for hardware and carpet. I'm pondering whether or not I should give the deck boards a good
soaking with boiled linseed oil before I put the carpet down. Daughter's doberman must have some lab in the woodpile.
She has decided that she's a retriever...

5/12/19

Sweet! Look well built - ready to withstand many years of fun!

Hmmm Nanner! I have an Urnch to do my hauling. Lol

Urnch is the noise my back makes when I try to lift something heavy.

After getting sticker shock while shopping around for manufactured dock hardware I decided to build what I needed rather
than buy it already made. I spent $180 on steel and a few hours in my workshop drilling holes, welding and painting.

I had another Lamont moment when I fabbed up the mud pole brackets. I drilled the holes too close to the center of the
mounting plates. Didn't have enough space between the pipe and the fasteners to get a socket on the bolt heads. Had to
run the lags in with an end wrench. Big dummy...

Wife and daughter bought some marsh milkweed at a native plant sale yesterday and stuck those in the dirt on the dam
near the bald cypress tree this afternoon.

Got the corner braces and mud pole brackets bolted to the platform this afternoon.

5/19/19


Also got the corner braces and hinge plates bolted to the gangway.

5/19/19


The FHM that were stocked on the 6th are using the dock floats for spawning. They were not happy when I started moving
the dock around so I could work on it.

I noticed a few dead FHM floating this morning. Mostly big males, but I did find a dozen or so smaller ones along with a few
dead shiners. Unless I see a bunch more I'll chalk it up to stocking/spawning stress.

And just like that, my pond is full. Got a toad-strangler yesterday, and another toad-strangler today.
Now if the wind will just lay down for a bit so I can apply some SoilFloc all will be right with the world.

edit: Checked my notes on water level. Gained just shy of 8" elevation in two days.

5/21/19

Thousands of toadpoles. The first batch of them left the water yesterday morning.
By evening it was impossible to walk near the water without stepping on them.

5/24/19




This red-eared slider turtle was not pleased with me interrupting her privacy while she was laying eggs on the pond bank.

5/24/19




The FHM and GSH are making new ones. There are clouds of minnow fry along the entire pond bank.

5/26/19

Got the two dock sections joined yesterday. Still need to install pipe sleeves on the walkway section.
Soon as that's done I'll move it to the deep side and pin it down.


5/30/19




My home-made hinges worked out pretty good. I screwed a couple 2x4s down to the deck to hold things still so I could
line up the holes for the cross-pins.

5/30/19

That is looking great! The ole "cow pond" is turning out great.

Augie, what are you using for flotation on your dock, Thanks, am thinking about building one myself.

I snagged some used encapsulated polystyrene dock floats on the facebook marketplace back in the spring.
Got five 4x8x1 and one 3x4x1 for $200. They were a bit beat up from spending a number of years on the Osage,
but they're plenty good for my little puddle.

I like the 1' thick floats because they keep the top of the dock close to the water.

Quite an accomplishment

Looks great- lots of hard work to get that done

The fishery outfit my local guy works with has been too far behind to get to my piddly order, so I took matters into my
own hands today. Called NEMO to see if they had any RES. "Yes, we do have RES. How many would you like?" So I jumped
in the truck, drove up there, and brought home a sack of them. I expect the fuel I burned getting there and back cost
more than the fish, but that's OK.

They're in the pond now. I'm going to attempt to feed train them while they're in the cage. The hatchery called them
1.5"-3". If I can't get them to take minced shrimp or catfish bellies or something of that sort I'll just turn em loose.
There's 10 million minnow fry and almost that many itty bitty snails in there that they can munch on.

The cage is 2' tall, so I staked it down in about 3' of water on a gravel patch for now. That should keep Mr. Kingfisher out
of them. Soon as I get the last section of walkway done and have the dock pinned down I'll move them over there into
a little bit deeper water.

6/24/19

One of the pallets I put in for FHM spawning broke loose from the stack, but that's not what's interesting about this pic.
There's a patch of arrowhead coming up on the dam. Thank you, Mother Nature.

6/30/19



Not a great pic, but a few of the RES that I have caged have already figured out that when the dock shakes it's time for
lunch. There are half a dozen of them that come begging as soon as I open the cage. I mixed a small amount of the
Optimal with some minced up bluegill/nightcrawler. They will fight over a piece of meat, but so far they pretty much
spit the pellets, at least the ones that come to the top are doing that. I can't see all the way to the bottom so I don't
really know what the others are doing. The fish that come up are quite bold. I think I'll have them eating out of my
hand before too long.

6/30/19




I snagged a used pool ladder for $50 last weekend. It's much easier for this old fat man to get out of the water now.

6/30/19

I think you will like the arrowhead, I know I do. My ponds first year proved to have an Arrowhead explosion, but I think the crawdad explosion to follow cut the arrowheads back quite a bit. They tend to chew at the stems towards the end of the growing season, cutting them loose to float around the pond.

Nice score on the ladder. I need one! I don't swim in my pond, but what if I accidentally did...a ladder would be nice.

There was a lot of arrowhead in the pond before I cleaned it out.

I like it a lot. It's quite attractive, especially when it's blooming.

We set out four of the broad-leaf arrowhead that daughter bought at a native plant sale last month.
The ones that are coming volunteer are a slender-leafed variety.

Rained all day here so I welded up the corner braces for the last section of dock walkway. Floats are supposed to arrive tomorrow on the Santa truck.

7/4/19

I made a bit of progress on the pond dock over the weekend. Got the last section of walkway framed and hauled out
to the pond bank. Once this piece is in place I'll be able to pin the other section down and get on to the next thing.

7/14/19




The Cardinal Flower that Daughter planted earlier in the summer has started to bloom for the first time.

7/15/19

I just went back and reread this post. It gives me inspiration to get back 2 digging on mine. So for that alone I think you. My wife on the other hand might not lol. It took alot of time just write all that I'm sure. I wish there were more stories on here like this one. Alot of your pictures are gone. Dang it It does help it being visual also.

Yes, tinypic shut down in August. I found a new image hosting site and have gotten started uploading my pics there and editing the post to point at the new image location. I haven't had a ton of free time to fiddle with that, but I will get them all back working eventually.

I'm going to use this post to keep notes on YP spawn.

Fingerlings and brooders were stocked fall 2019.


2/22/20 Ice out
2/26/20 ST 41.7°F
2/27/20 ST 43.5°F
2/29/20 ST 44.1°F
3/3/20 ST 48.2°F Magic number achieved. Time to drag the pond hopper boat out and start checking for ribbons.
3/4/20 ST 50.0°F
3/5/20 ST 50.0°F Cool day, 30-40mph winds all day.
3/11/20 ST 51.8°F Water still quite stained from rainfall runoff. Haven't spotted any ribbons.

Random observation:
I have some Optimal Starter #3 left over from last summer. Started hand-tossing half a cup or so on 2/28/20. First few times I could see the minnows taking pellets, but no good swirls that would indicate a larger fish. This afternoon (3/2/20) a few minutes after the minnows started to feed they were running for their lives - jumping out of the water, skipping across the surface, etc. The water is too murky from the recent rainfall runoff to tell what was marauding them. It's not likely to have been the RES, so it seems safe to assume the Snipe strain YP came through the winter in good shape.

3/12/20 Was making my lap hand-tossing feed and looking for ribbons and noticed a pair of hand-size RES lurking in a cedar tree. They snuck out real slow and hoovered some pellets. They cruised around for a few minutes then slowly disappeared back into the cedar tree. Both of them looked to be in good condition.

3/31 Repeated heavy rains throughout March kept the water stained. Wasn't able to see any ribbons in the brush that's visible from the bank. There's a lot of brush that can't be seen from the shore, and the muddy ground kept me from getting the pond hopper boat from its parking spot so I wasn't able to check all of the spots that could have been used for spawning. I've been using a torpedo trap off the dock to catch FHM for crappie bait for the past couple weeks. When I pulled the trap today there were half a dozen sunfish fry in the trap. Can't tell if they're BG (hope not) or RES, so I tossed them in the minnow cage to let them size up so I can get an ID on them. Noticed later in the day several schools of sunfish fry hanging in shallow water near the bank. Needless to say I'm eager to get an ID on them. I have a feeling that I'm going to be dealing with a BG problem. As far as the YP go, I'll have to do some trapping later in the year to find out if they pulled off a spawn.

4/14/20 Found this one floating in a tangle of cedar branches. On the bright side, the RES I put in last summer as 1.5"-3" fingerlings are now the size of my hand, and back to their Pac Man behavior at pellet time. Over the past week I've seen as many as 20 of them at a time hanging just under the water's surface soaking up the sunshine.



Never did see any ribbons, but there had to have been at least one. I trapped a dozen-ish yoy YP in late August/early September.

Yes, I'm talking to myself again...

All of the pics on the OP should be visible now. Had to upload them to my photobucket, and then replace all of the links that pointed at the old tinypic hosting service.
Very tedious and annoying project, but it needed to be done.

Still need to do that for pics that were added later, but I've had all of it I can stand for now.

Augie, is that a hole in the mid section of that perch?

Yep, it's a bit mossed over, but it's definitely a wound. Pretty sure the heron got her.

Mrs. Augie has made it abundantly clear that there will be no murdering of the herons, so I'm limited to throwing rocks and cursing as deterrents.

Before the cold snap chased all of the fish back into the deep earlier this week I'd been seeing several large schools of 1/2"-3/4" sized fry swimming around.
I'm hoping those are perch. I'll start trapping for them in mid June.
I've seen a lot of what I think are YP taking pellets when I feed. They hang near the bottom and streak through like little turbo subs. Estimate them 5"-7" size,
and the behavior isn't anything like what the shiners do when they feed, so I think there is hope.

The RES that I stocked the last week of June definitely pulled off a spawn. I've been catching a few 3/4"-1" size in the torpedo trap.
Probably have 15-20 of them incarcerated now. I've been tossing them into the 2'x6' cage and feeding them smashed up Optimal starter.

OK, I've managed to get all of the photos that were on TinyPic loaded up to PhotoBucket, and replaced all of the old broken links, so it's time to get caught up.

Got the last section of dock basically set into place. Just need to screw the top on and move the rest of it into position.

7/28/19



A bit of adjustment and a few more pipes driven into the mud and this part of the project will be finished. The section that sets on the bank is bedded in gravel,
and the mud poles/brackets are drilled and bolted together so it doesn't move around. The rest of it can move on the poles as the water level fluctuates.

I built this stand out of 1/2" PVC pipe to hold the bubbler up off of the pond bottom. I set it in ~14' full-pool depth.
I tied a jug to it with a poly rope so it can be easily retrieved for cleaning or repair.

8/10/2019




So far it's working great. It makes a huge boil and doesn't stir up any mud when the air is running.



I bought a RubberMaid tote to keep the pump dry until I can finish the shed around it. It's a bit of a nuisance dealing with the lid, but it's just a temporary thing so I can live with it.

8/11/19

A few of Mother Nature's gifts to the pond. This stuff all came volunteer. There's kidney-leaf mud plantain (hat tip to QA for ID-ing that one),
sago, APW, and arrowhead. I still haven't figured out the little reed-grass looking stuff. And I need to pull out that runaway pallet and put it
back on the pallet stack it floated away from. Big dummy Lamont must have forgot to screw it down properly.

8/30/19

Augie you have a nice looking place there. Someday I hope my water looks that good.

I'd just gotten home from a visit with QA when I noticed this common snapping turtle headed towards my pond from the creek, so I flipped him over
and went to find a 5 gallon bucket. He just barely fit, but I managed to get him stuffed in head-first. There was a bit of disagreement about him
going in, but he finally saw it my way. Then I hauled him a few miles down the road and put him in a neighbor's pond where nobody will bother him.
I don't mind having a snapper in the pond unless I have ducks, and Mrs. Augie thinks she might want to get a couple ducks, so Mr. Snapper had to go.

8/31/19



I traded some plants from my pond for a trap load of northern crayfish from QA's pond. With no bass in the pond right now these guys should have
a fighting chance to get a breeding population started. The next day I found one half a mile away in the middle of the road. I guess he was homesick.



Pump shed is boxed in and roofed with recycled barn metal.

9/2/19



Made a little more progress on the pump shed. Ready for paint and door latches.

9/8/19

I'm going to jump ahead for a minute here because something really cool just happened.

I didn't see any ribbons in March when they should have been here. The water was super stained from frequent heavy rains,
and there's a ton of brush that I simply can't view from the shore.
Then I found a heron-stabbed YP the other day, and that started the gears to grinding in my little pea brain. (dangerous, I know)

Anyway, I decided to toss my B-trap in to see if something might decide to swim into it, so yesterday about an hour before dusk,
I chucked the trap into about four foot of water next to the dock. No bait, just an empty trap.

This is what I found when I pulled it up this afternoon:



I count at least 26 YP in there, and they appear to be in great condition. For scale the cage is 18"x36" at the bottom, and made from 1/2" mesh.

So I think it's probably safe to assume that the clouds of tiny fry I've been seeing since the water started to clear up over the past couple
weeks are most likely YP, as the water hasn't yet reached the temps needed for FHM and GSH to start spawning.

I'm really happy to know that they didn't all die after they were stocked.

Very, Very cool Augie! I'm envious. Looks like you have been pretty busy.

I would say they survived with flying colors.

Any tips on how you built a 'B' cage? I love your innovation and this might be easier for me to build than a Clover or a Z cage

Same here, I need some pictures or instructions.

The B trap is super simple to make. It's sort of like a cloverleaf trap that's been cut in half across the top.
Flat piece of mesh on the bottom, then the B perpendicular to that, then another flat piece on the top side of the B.

I built this one a full 2' tall, but that's probably not necessary. I also added some cut-up cattle panel for stiffness, thinking that might help it to hold up in the creek.
It's ~18" front to back, and 36" wide. Again, maybe more than is necessary. The throat on this one is a bit more open than what you might want if you're just
after bluegills. It's ~1.5" wide and 12" tall. I did that so it would fit foot-long bullheads and common carp. If I was going to make one just to catch panfish I'd
probably go with a 1"x6" throat opening. There are also possum cop rules that need to be considered - this one wouldn't be legal to use in public waters in my
state because the throat opening is larger than allowed, so if you're going to build one it's a good idea to check the rules if you think you might want to use it
in public waters.

Catching those YP yesterday was the first time I used it since I built it last summer, and it's hard to argue with results like that, so I'm gonna say that I'm rather
pleased with how it works. You could almost build two like this one with the materials it would take to build one cloverleaf trap.

I can't take any credit for the design of this thing - it's been around forever. When my Grampa Wilkie had his commercial license back in the 70's he preferred these
over the cloverleaf style because two B traps took up the same amount of space in the truck bed as one cloverleaf, and he said two Bs would catch more bait than
one clover. He had ten or a dozen of them. They all disappeared after he passed, probably just got chucked in the trash, but I didn't forget what he taught me.

Thanks Augie! That looks easy.

The fish swim threw the inch opening? Does that hurt the fish? It seems like they would rub again it. I havnt messed with traps before. Might have to make one of these. Looks really ease.

Fish relate to cover/structure, and when the trap is in the water it's a piece of structure. As they swim/hold near the trap some of them find their way inside.
It doesn't hurt them to rub on the wire. Fish scales are tough.

Getting the transport tank ready for a trip to meet Snipe in windblown Kansas and bring home a load of fingerling YP.

9/19/19



I think is probably the first yellow perch that I've ever touched. They are pretty little things. Shame what happened after they went into the pond.
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=511908#Post511908

9/22/19



I made another run to Almost Colorado, Kansas to meet Snipe and get some more perch. Hatchery guy couldn't be located, so Snipe went above and beyond - he dipped some fish out of his own stock.
Most people would have just said "Sorry, dude, let's try it again some other time." My list of good guys is very short. Snipe is on it.

10/20/19



This was a nice batch of fish. Almost all of them were 6"-12" size.

The last week of April brought lots of sunshine and warm weather. Water temp went from 59° to 69° in ten days time, so I switched the aeration from daytime running to nighttime running.

I had intended to switch over when it hit 65°, but I wasn't paying close enough attention.

The dang sugar ants decided to make a nest in the pump timer and wrecked it, so I've had to remember to start and stop the pump manually. That's a nuisance.

I guess I need to shop around and see if I can find a decent solid-state timer at a reasonable cost.

Did these survive? I gotta know!!

They seem to be doing well. I wasn't prepared to take weights/measures when I did this, but they are fat and frisky.

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=519854#Post519854

Nice!!!

Tree frog napping on the pool ladder. He wasn't terribly concerned with me stomping around on the dock while tossing fish food.

5/3/20

How is that trap working for large BH? I have four cloverleafs and they catch small BH pretty well.The entrances on one were enlarged but I'm not catching large ones. It seems the small BH just swim in and out based on the amount of bait that goes away.

Augie, ,is the white square thing on top a door to dump/remove fish?
Pretty neat design

I haven't tried it in water that has BH.

Neighbor guy has BH in his pond and would like to be rid of them.

Next time I bump into him I'll see if he wants to borrow the trap and try it.

The white square is where I would put my name and conservation number if I was going to use the trap anywhere off my property.

The dump flap is on the top right in the photos. The shiny flat metal thing is the door latch. I had the latch left over from
daughter's bunny-raising days. Drawback to using it is the flap has to swing into the trap to get the fish out. That makes
dumping the trap a three-hand operation. Before I use it again I'm going to cut that one out and make a new one that
opens outwards.

Got it. Thanks

Here I go talking to myself again...

I've been hanging a torpedo trap off the dock catching FHM and GSH for bait.

Also been catching the occasional 1"-3" RES and similar sized BG and RES/BG hybrids that resulted from daughter's doberman wrecking the cage that held the hatchery "RES" last summer.

Most times I bait the cage and hang it ~1' deep off the side of the dock.

Today I tossed it on the bottom in about 4' water with no bait.

Pulled up a dozen-ish 2"-3" baby RES and RES hybrids when I checked it.

Tossed em in the big cage with the others that I'm pellet training.

The original stocker RES, the ones that took to pellets anyway, have grown quite large. I've not yet fished for them, but observing them when they feed the biggest of them look to be 8"-9".

Things seem to be going in the right direction for now.

I think...

Forgot to mention that there were two ~3/4" PK shrimp in the trap. I put 20 in last summer that I bought from ebay guy.

Decided it was time remove some of the larger accidental BG/HBG from the pond.
I've been feeding earthworms along with the pellets beside the dock. The RES have moved off the dock and are fanning beds.
There are at least half a dozen rather large BG/HBG that come out from under the dock every day to slurp pellets and worms.
None of these fish have ever seen a worm that had a hook hidden inside. I tell myself that I should have the upper hand.

But no, the fish have the upper hand. I start tossing pellets and worms and Oh, look at that, the RES are back.
Not all of them, but enough of them to make a nuisance of themselves by trying to bite the worm that is supposed to be for the BG/HBG.
Dang RES. Laziest fish on the planet until they aren't. When it's raining earthworms they will fight to get theirs.
I hooked three of them. One of those flipped loose and landed on his head on the dock. Maybe it knocked some sense into him.

And yes, I know I should be doing weights and measures on these fish, but I'm not prepared for that just yet.
Digital scale and adhesive-backed steel measure tape will be here soon. Once those are here I'll be able to collect some data.


The YP are ridiculously fast. I tried my best to keep the worm away from them, but the one time I let it sink just a tiny bit too deep... KABOOM!
This is the first of the Snipe strain YP I've caught by angling. I didn't want to catch it, but I caught it. Released to fight another day.

5/26/20




If I wanted a bluegill pond I think I'd be very happy with the condition of these fish. They were ~2" sized when they went in 11 months ago.
I hooked another one that managed to flip loose, bounce off the dock, and then flip back into the water. So now there's one in the pond who knows what time it is.
These two I put to the knife and tossed in with the sack of BG that I took out of the freezer yesterday.

5/26/20

This little guy was in the crayfish trap when I pulled it up this morning.
I assume by the size he's one of the fingerlings that went in last September.




8/11/20

Nice, Augie!

Is your plan to focus on big YP? I forgot.

That was the plan. Big YP and RES, with SMB/HSB/WAE for crowd control.

It's still the plan with the complication of accidental BG/HBG. I know I can't get rid of them, so I'm going to have to manage around them and make the best of what I've got.
I've been trapping and removing them by the hundreds. The 3"-4" size have mostly been used for bait so far. The 3" and down size are being relocated to my buddy's quarry
lake and into my new forage/bait pond. I pulled a few 7"+ size on hook and line earlier in the summer. Those went into the skillet. There are a few more of those still in the
pond that need to be caught out, or maybe left to grow to whopper size. Reality will probably be a little bit of both.


The SMB are reserved at Hartleys in KS. Supposed to pick them up sometime next month. Also hope to take home a handful of HSB from Mr. snrub's pond on that trip,
then will make a run to Snipe's later in the fall for the WAE.

Pulled these two baby YP out of the Z trap this morning. They look to be a bit on the skinny side, but they are living proof that the Snipe strain perch that were stocked last fall pulled off a spawn.

9/3/20

The day that I've been waiting for, the day that paid back every bit of the $$$, toil, and suffering that it took to resurrect my pond, finally arrived.

Between the COVID panic, military obligations, nuclear reactor training, and all of the other assorted craziness in the world today, it's been over
six months since I've been able to see any of my grandkids. Things worked out to where they were all able to come for a visit over the weekend.

This one is Lexi. Just turned 5yo, she belongs to my oldest son Justin and his wife Amanda. Lexi has been asking to go fishing since the first time
she saw the pond after it filled, so she got to go first.

9/12/20




Then it was 4yo Rhett's turn. He belongs to #3 son Taylor and his wife Rachel. This kid is a pistol. Pretty sure he's going to be the one that
turns out to be Grampa's fishing buddy.




This is 7yo Lennox. He belongs to Taylor and Rachel. Poor guy suffered a brain injury at birth and is severely challenged mentally. After seeing
the other two catch a few he looked at me and said "Fish, Grampa?" You could have knocked us all over with a feather at that moment in time.
It was obvious that he'd been paying attention. He grabbed the rod and the reel handle just like how I'd been showing the other two to do it, and
dipped the jig in next to the dock like a pro. Soon as he felt a tug he was cranking on the reel like he had Moby Dick on the end of his line.
Moments like this don't come along very often for this kid. I'm glad I was able to be a part of it.




Wife Jamie, daughter Leah, and Logan - the doberman that thinks she's a Lab rode herd on Lexi and baby Ruby while the boys were fishing.




There was way too much going on to get weights and measures on the fish we caught, but just from visual observation they are doing very well.
Every one of the RES and BG/HBG that were caught were in great shape. Most of them were in the 8"-9" range. I was especially impressed with
how thick the RES are across their backs. I don't have a lot of experience yet with the YP, but they looked to be in good shape too. We caught
half a dozen of those, all in the 7"-8" range, so I'd assume they were all fingerlings from the first stocking in September of '19.

But this day wasn't really about the fish, it was about the kids. The fish could have all been stunted 3-finger BG and it wouldn't have made a
nickel's difference in the amount of fun that was had and the memories that were made.

Augie, that’s what it’s all about.

That's what the pond is all about, the kids and especially the memories.

Glad to hear the day came together for you and yours!

That's really awesome and some great pics. Since we bought our place my wife's constant refrain has been "it has to be a place that everyone wants to come visit". Seems like you have accomplished that.

That post was the best read I've seen on these forums.

'nuclear reactor training' would have one that alone but the kids stories.... oh man.

That is what I want with my son (and I hope it isn't too late for my daughter, 12).
And my niece and Nephew, both just under my son's age (almost 3 for him)

No joke on the nuke plant training. Oldest son works at the Ameren plant in Mokane, MO.
He just finished nine months of operations training and passed his plant operator test a couple weeks ago.

When he started there he was Klaus Hergersheimer checking radiation shields.
Now he's Homer Simpson pushing buttons on the reactor control console.

Future picture of Augie and his grandkids fishing at his pond.



Sorry, couldn't resist lol.

I laugh every time I see that three-eyed fish. If I catch one out of my pond like that I'm gonna have it stuffed.

Been busy repairing dam damage done by the muskrat invasion last summer. It took 1500lbs of bentonite to pack all of the tunnels.
I bought a unit of SoilFloc from TJ last week, and will apply that to the dam damage before I put down a nice thick layer of crushed limestone.
I'll follow that with another application of SF. With any luck that will stop the leaks and deter any future rodent tunneling.

The fish seem to be doing well. I caught these two a couple weeks ago on a little bead-head fly.


10/13/20

The muskrats did a lot of damage when they invaded back in the summer. It took 1800lbs of bentonite to pack the tunnels they dug in the pond dam.
I did a light Soil Floc treatment around the edge, then used Nanner to place ~20 ton of 3x6 crushed limestone on the face of the dam.
That should do well to thwart any future tunneling attempts. I've got a few hours worth of hard labor in store re-arranging and smoothing out the stone.
Once that is done I'm going to hit it around the edge with a triple-shot of Soil Floc, then wait for the rains to bring it back to full pool. After that it's wait
and see if that stopped the leaks.

11/5/20

I love the look of a rip rapped pond. It will look very nice when your done and very helpful. Some day I wanta do mine.

Even as messy as it is right now it looks better than it did before. I've got ~5 ton left, but I don't think that's going to be enough to finish the job.
Once I get the last of it applied I think I'll let it settle over the winter and decide if it needs more when the weather warms up next spring.
I want to finish the rip-rap project and get the leaks all plugged before I do the final landscape grading on the dam.

Did you put anything under the rock? If so what did you use?

I didn't. The inside face of the dam is a pretty steep slope. Figured if I tried to put fabric down it would just slide into a heap at the bottom rather than sticking where I wanted it.

Some of my bank is pretty steep also. So it's got me curious. Will you spray for weeds or let them grow?

I don't like to spray chemicals around anything that I intend to eat, so it will be me and the weed whacker if anything comes up that I don't want growing there.

Will you post some more pictures please? I'm not crazy about chemicals either but not totally against either. Also I like the looks of a well manicured pond. Some ponds looks awesome with plants n trees around them.

Goats do a good job of eating stuff.

On Saturday I added the last of the crushed limestone, and spent several hours cleaning up, moving rocks from where they were to where they were needed.
Think I'm going to need to buy another load next summer, but first I want to see what it looks like at full pool.
It was way too windy to apply SoilFloc, so that remains to be done.

11/9/20

It's been a little over a year since the YP stockings, and I decided that it's time to start figuring out how to catch them.
I know I can catch them on a piece of nightcrawler, and I'm sure a FHM would work just as good, so I'm experimenting with artificials.

I'm not trying very hard, just putzing at it for a few minutes after work a couple days a week.

Already learned that bead head flies and little black rubber stick things on a tiny dart head jig work.

Few days ago I tied on a black 1/16oz marabou jig. Never got a bite on that thing. Didn't matter how I presented it.

Yesterday I hung that one up and had to break it off. Tied on a white/chartreuse 1/32oz marabou ~6" above a light blue 1/16oz marabou and promptly nailed a double.

Top fish was ~7 inch size. Bottom fish flipped off before I could lip it, but was substantially larger than the other. I was fumbling the rod with one hand and fumbling for
my camera with the other and gave em too much slack. With the hook barbs pinched down they slip right off if you don't keep the line tight.

Next thing I'm going to try is suspending the jig/s under a float. I noticed last year that the fish moved away from the dock where I'd been feeding, and into the cedar
tangle when the water began to drop below 50°. It's tough to swim a jig through that stuff, so we'll see if suspended slightly above the tangle will entice them to bite.

Just a bit more work to do and it will look gorgeous. I wish I had the same view around my house, but there is no any river or lake, and in general there was only tall grass growing everywhere, when I returned from city after some time. It was a problem to mow it, because it was too big. I did some searching on the internet and found this list of tools https://www.growgardener.com for cutting tall grass, now that place looks way better, I don't feel like lost in the jungle anymore, proud of how it is right now.

Good job!

Water temps in the pond have been about right for the YP to spawn, but I haven't seen any ribbons yet.

Thought I might test the waters this morning to see if I could stick one for a condition check.

Nightcrawler on a floating jig, split shot up the line ~18". Five minutes later I had the answer as to why no see-um ribbons - they're still in the fish!

From the looks of this little girl I would say that ribbons are imminent. Her belly was tight as a drum head.

Wow that is cool!
what a nice fish.

Are you sure she didnt swallow a football. Holy smokes she looks to b ready to blow 4 sure. Surprised she didnt have them right their on ur dock lol.

Back on the pond dam project over the weekend.
I put the smash to a pair of last summer's muskrat dens, placed ~8 cubic yards of 3"x6" crushed limestone, and started filling the low spots.
I'm not looking to make the cover of Better Homes and Gardens, but I do want it to look like somebody cared about what he was doing.
I bought another twin-screw load of stone in February and I've just about used it up. It's going to take one more load to finish the job.

4/4/2021

Since my pond is near a creek, I constantly fight muskrats. They are persistent and very hard to deter.

Looks nice, I wish I had some of your level ground!

This pond is ~400' from a seasonal creek, and there are six other ponds within a quarter mile.

We've killed 8 muskrats since last July.

That looks nice. Someday I would like to do some around my place. I bet your back is sore.

It's been a year since the SMB and HSB were stocked. Water temps have cooled to the point that the HSB can be caught and released without killing them,
so Mrs. Augie and I set ourselves to catching out some of the accidental BG. We put a dozen or so in the fish fry cage, and another 20-ish in the bait cage.

I wish that I'd been set up to do weights and measures. Mrs. Augie caught two SMB, and five HSB. This is the smaller of the two SMB she caught - ~12",
which I think is pretty good growth considering they ranged 5"-8" when stocked. I didn't want to over-stress the HSB, so didn't take the extra time to get pics.
They were 8"-10" when stocked, and are now running 15"+ and thick across the shoulders. I'm probably going to need to take a few of them out next year.

Those HSB are a blast to catch. Mine are in the 10" range and fight like a pissed bull.

You've got to appreciate a lady who 'dresses up' to go fishing!!!!

That fish for sure not gonna escape!

22 accidental BG, one GSF, and one hook-swallowing RES joined us for the first fish fry since the cow pond renovation.
7"-9" slot were released to the grease, <7" went to the bait pond, and the >9" size went back into the drink to grow some more.
I did post-mortem weights and measures on the fish that were kept to eat. The fish were caged for 1-3 days after being caught,
then iced down for ~3 hours before being butchered. I expect the live-weight numbers would be slightly higher, but still aren't
half bad, with only two fish under 100% RW. All but one of the fish that I butchered were males.

Species Length Weight Standard W Relative W Date

Bluegill 8.00 0.47 0.42 112.75% 10/1/2021
Bluegill 7.25 0.34 0.30 112.76% 10/1/2021
Bluegill 7.50 0.37 0.34 109.02% 10/1/2021
Bluegill 8.50 0.54 0.51 105.06% 10/1/2021
Bluegill 8.00 0.40 0.42 94.91% 10/1/2021
Bluegill 7.50 0.41 0.34 120.21% 10/1/2021
Bluegill 8.25 0.56 0.47 120.72% 10/1/2021
Bluegill 7.50 0.38 0.34 110.49% 10/1/2021
Bluegill 8.75 0.65 0.57 114.87% 10/1/2021
Bluegill 8.50 0.54 0.51 105.06% 10/1/2021
Bluegill 8.75 0.60 0.57 106.74% 10/1/2021
Bluegill 7.00 0.32 0.27 116.67% 10/1/2021
Bluegill 8.25 0.52 0.47 110.84% 10/1/2021
Bluegill 8.00 0.51 0.42 120.60% 10/1/2021
Bluegill 8.25 0.43 0.47 92.79% 10/1/2021
Bluegill 8.25 0.55 0.47 118.79% 10/1/2021
Bluegill 8.00 0.43 0.42 102.29% 10/1/2021
Bluegill 8.25 0.53 0.47 112.77% 10/1/2021
Bluegill 7.50 0.42 0.34 123.75% 10/1/2021
Bluegill 8.25 0.58 0.47 125.44% 10/1/2021
Bluegill 8.00 0.46 0.42 108.47% 10/1/2021
Bluegill 8.00 0.48 0.42 114.89% 10/1/2021
RES 9.00 0.66 0.52 126.35% 10/1/2021


10/2/21



10/1/21

All of these went back in the drink to get bigger.

Good job, Augie!

+ 100 on your first pic.

Man couple of those were just about round. They have been eatin good for sure. Sounds like a good few days.

Augie, try the bluegill cake recipe that is in the last issue of PB. As my grandson said one time- puhwishush!!

That recipe has been recommended to me a few times. Shouldn't be difficult to source the materials needed to make it.

I know a good spot to catch some BG.

When I first read the recipe, I thought it was a waste of BG, but we were culling some small BG, so we diced them up and made these.

Did a bit more work to the gully wash spot at the top of the pond. It needs another foot of cobble added, and I've used up what I had on hand,
so I'm going to have another load delivered this week. I'm pondering the idea of clearing the brush off of this spot and excavating a proper
settling basin. There's enough room to go 20'x30'-ish, and a couple foot deep. If I wind up doing that, and it holds water, it would make a nice
production pool for FHM. Wouldn't be much trouble to add a solar panel, battery, and 12vDC pump to keep it full and semi-fresh during dry spells.

As the water temps have begun to cool this fall the BG and RES have slowed down feeding, but the HSB and SMB have been absolutely crushing at pellet time.

Tuesday evening when I fed it was like they had vanished. Wednesday wasn't much different.

Thursday I get a text message on my phone, "Hey, it's Adam. We delivered your minnows on Monday."

Mystery solved. lol

After enjoying mild temps for most of the month of December, we've been tossed into the freezer.
Christmas weekend we were in the 60°s. We've seen single-digit lows the past few nights.
The shallow-suspended ring diffuser is doing a great job maintaining open water.


11/8/21



1/3/22

Hello.

Thank you for taking time to put all these photos.

It gave me some ideas.

A+

Spent some time testing the waters this morning. Didn't find any YP, but I found some other things.

How's this for a two year old SMB? I think not too bad.



The RES and BG also came through the winter looking fat and happy.

I hope your BG and RES pull off a successful spawn.

Otherwise, they are too big for your SMB to eat!

Awesomeness!!!