There are other online forums that have a great 'sticky' thread that stays at the top of the list all the time. They usually have one that allows everyone to post under the heading of 'What did you do to your 'X' or with your 'X' (classic car, John Deere, pickup truck) today?' That allows for random posts, pictures, thoughts to go in one area without creating new threads all the time.
If such a thread exists on PondBoss then I'm happy to move this one or remove it. Is there a way to create a sticky thread that stays near the top?
As I was trucking out loads of leaves from the pond I thought we need a place to post random pictures of what maintenance tasks, projects, or other random things people do at the pond.
As I was throwing the weighted landscape rake in and dragging it back out and trying to get at least some of the many oak and maple leaves that fall into the pond, I was contemplating whether this work was worth it. Some nice neighbors going by on their walk were laughing at me and said it was far easier to simply cut down the trees that overhang the pond. It gave me food for thought at least... But I'm sure many leaves that end up in the pond are from trees that are deeper in the woods and not only those on the immediate boundary of the pond.
It was heavy/hot work, but hopefully worth it to remove a couple hundred pounds of organic stuff.
I raked on tuesday, let the long row of leaves air out, then raked into piles and went around with garden tractor and utility trailer and forked them into the trailer.
As I dragged in the leaves I saw some salamanders, a few tadpoles, baby dragonflies, even managed to capture one goldfish with the rake. Unfortunately also raked out hundreds of chinese snails again.
Despite sealing the pond bottom, we have had dry conditions and hot weather the last 2 weeks. The pond is dropping from evaporation. I can start the well but hoping that rain will do the trick eventually.
While working around the trees on the edge I noted these vines that have leaves that look suspect for poison ivy. The dog charges through the woods chasing things and then brings the poison ivy oil to the kids on his fur. I'm not sure I can always tell poison ivy from other 3 leaved vines. I thought the 3 leafs of poison ivy didn't have the irregular or jagged outlines (like sassafras leaves to, see the top leaf in the first picture) or maybe not? Here are 2 examples.
That looks like P.I. to me. I don't usually pay much attention to it, since I am non reactive.
I fed the fish and watched the water recede. I have lost over 2-1/4 inches in three days. The soilfloc did not seem to help in the long run and the water loss has worsened since March. There is water coming up in the neighbor's field well behind my dam, but none at the toe of my dam. Might be a spring that was always there, or might be my pond. The field was an impenetrable thicket until he cleared it about three months ago, so water wasn't seen until after the clearing operation.
There are other online forums that have a great 'sticky' thread that stays at the top of the list all the time. They usually have one that allows everyone to post under the heading of 'What did you do to your 'X' or with your 'X' (classic car, John Deere, pickup truck) today?' That allows for random posts, pictures, thoughts to go in one area without creating new threads all the time.
If such a thread exists on PondBoss then I'm happy to move this one or remove it. Is there a way to create a sticky thread that stays near the top?
As I was trucking out loads of leaves from the pond I thought we need a place to post random pictures of what maintenance tasks, projects, or other random things people do at the pond.
As I was throwing the weighted landscape rake in and dragging it back out and trying to get at least some of the many oak and maple leaves that fall into the pond, I was contemplating whether this work was worth it. Some nice neighbors going by on their walk were laughing at me and said it was far easier to simply cut down the trees that overhang the pond. It gave me food for thought at least... But I'm sure many leaves that end up in the pond are from trees that are deeper in the woods and not only those on the immediate boundary of the pond.
It was heavy/hot work, but hopefully worth it to remove a couple hundred pounds of organic stuff.
I raked on tuesday, let the long row of leaves air out, then raked into piles and went around with garden tractor and utility trailer and forked them into the trailer.
As I dragged in the leaves I saw some salamanders, a few tadpoles, baby dragonflies, even managed to capture one goldfish with the rake. Unfortunately also raked out hundreds of chinese snails again.
Despite sealing the pond bottom, we have had dry conditions and hot weather the last 2 weeks. The pond is dropping from evaporation. I can start the well but hoping that rain will do the trick eventually.
While working around the trees on the edge I noted these vines that have leaves that look suspect for poison ivy. The dog charges through the woods chasing things and then brings the poison ivy oil to the kids on his fur. I'm not sure I can always tell poison ivy from other 3 leaved vines. I thought the 3 leafs of poison ivy didn't have the irregular or jagged outlines (like sassafras leaves to, see the top leaf in the first picture) or maybe not? Here are 2 examples.
CC, Looks like poison ivy to me...it never used to bother me until a few years ago, now I can't get close to it without a reaction. Cut it loose, bundle it, and haul it off. Wear long sleeves and gloves. Whatever you do, don't burn it. You may inhale some fine particulate....then, you've really got problems. Good luck!
Double C, very good thread. I'm sure lots of folks will contribute with positive things. My contribution will probably not be so interesting but here it is. My water temp is at about 72, quite a bit lower than body temp. I was fishin and got snagged on a pallet at about 3' and had ta wade in to unhook. When the water level got to navel depth ol body instinct said "OK, let go" and therefore I increased the water temp and salinity level by very few ppm. So... that's what I did in/to my pond.
Bob-O, rolling on the ground over here. Great update
Anthropic, I think I have RES (at least I stocked them twice but have never seen, trapped, or netted one). They may spawn soon then I'll know. I had hundreds of tiny NATIVE snails that disappeared after I stocked RES so I think I have them.
The chinese INVASIVE snails (Chinese Mystery Snails) came from the neighbors aquarium which he transferred to a bucket when he moved out of his house and bucket stocked an aquarium full of fish, snails and other unknown invaders in my pond. The snails are HUGE and nothing can eat them. Perhaps the RES can eat their young?
Double C, very good thread. I'm sure lots of folks will contribute with positive things. My contribution will probably not be so interesting but here it is. My water temp is at about 72, quite a bit lower than body temp. I was fishin and got snagged on a pallet at about 3' and had ta wade in to unhook. When the water level got to navel depth ol body instinct said "OK, let go" and therefore I increased the water temp and salinity level by very few ppm. So... that's what I did in/to my pond.
Bob,
Dangit man! Didn't you bring one of yer Blue Hairs back with you to clear hook snags!
Got the crusher run pad laid out, leveled and tamped for the pond shed that's coming next week. Planting another twenty chestnut seedlings later, brings this years total to 60... About halfway done planting this years crop. Got a little rain yesterday, seed around the lower ponds and upper orchard are looking great... And it saved me four hours of watering parched ground. Life is good.
I have been running 1.5" air line (rolled tubing). I can say that no matter how I try to un-roll a 500' spool of tubing, it will tie into knots. Not just one knot but several knots. It is a PITA to lay 500' sections of 1.5" tubing !!! And I still have another one and a half spools to unroll and lay out.
Got the burlap on our floating island trying to round up some plants to plant on it and launch it. Did a little fishing and caught my first 6" common shiner on a small crayfish. First time for every thing I guess. Did catch some perch to pass the time sitting on the log.
Watched the dog chase the bull frogs around the edge of the pond and checked the water temp that is knocking on 73. Time to turn the falls and aeration back to running at night.
Since I can't reliably eye ball the poison ivy and know what is poison ivy and what is not, my thought was, someone can make a fortune if they could spray some otherwise nontoxic substance on the leaves and if they change color or some how make a change that is visible that other vines do not then we would have a good solution. This way folks could go to the wooded patch around their yards and spray this solution on the whole thing and the poison ivy would jump out at them. I don't know if this is even possible, but I thought if I can find some good healthy easy to identify samples it will give me a mini-laboratory to try various products one per leaf.
I was thinking starting things everyone has in the cupboard like dish soap, dishwasher detergent, laundry soap, then move on to vinegar, weak baking soda solution, rubbing alcohol, bleach, acetone, one of the many cans of cleaners in my wife's cupboard, etc.
The key to keeping ahead of poison ivy is preventing exposure and the problem with prevention is that it is very hard to pick out in a wooded area.
I've always thought if they could spray something on your skin that shows where the oil is (makes it change color) you might have a fighting chance to get it off in time.
I've read that the snails are eaten in asia, not so much taste, but a subsistence staple. I guess if someone wanted to buy the snails by the five gallon bucket for food that is fine with me. However, I'd say since they are invasive and like to make baby snails that it would be safer to destroy them.
That to me looks like what we call poison oak. The leaf looks just like an oak leaf but it grows on a vine. Poison ivy or what we call poison ivy is a small short three leaf plant.
That's the problem Dono, if I google image search poison ivy I get hundreds of plants and all look different. Everyone posts what they think is poison ivy (or poison oak) and they all look so different. We need to find an objective way to identify, just like we struggle to find an objective, by sight features way to sex RES
I agree that my vines climbing up the tree look more like poison oak but it also looks like the stuff that when I clear it I get a horrible itchy rash!!
Well I didn't do anything today but I made this train the other day. The birds love it and the flowers are going great!! It's pine so it may not last long but it was fun to do...
That's the problem Dono, if I google image search poison ivy I get hundreds of plants and all look different. Everyone posts what they think is poison ivy (or poison oak) and they all look so different. We need to find an objective way to identify, just like we struggle to find an objective, by sight features way to sex RES
I agree that my vines climbing up the tree look more like poison oak but it also looks like the stuff that when I clear it I get a horrible itchy rash!!
Sure looks like poison IVY to me.
You know there are different types of poison ivy, yes? Eastern poison ivy is a vine and Western poison ivy is a shrub.
Poison oak is typically in the West and the Southeast. You being in Michigan may not have that much in your state.
Check those leaflets up close - if you find hair on both sides you have poison oak, else it's ivy.
Poison ivy and I go way back. I once pulled the hairy vines from our pines only to coil them up and BURN THEM. Yes, burn them. As I stood 10 feet away tending the brush fire. Internal poison ivy is a treat.
Didn't learn.
Fast forward many years and while in the bush I had an opportunity to SELECT a leaf to use for wiping. Of all the leaves in the area I managed to pick poison ivy. And the proceeded to wipe with it. Then days later entered the dermatologist yet again to confirm I had poison ivy "down there".
Now I easily recognize it, suit up, remove it, bag it, and toss it.
Some botanists think that Poison Ivy and Poison Oak are the same plant, but manifest differently in different conditions. Either way it is very sensitive to Roundup, and due to getting very allergic to it the older I get, I nuke it from orbit (it is the only way to be sure) any time it shows up. What you have is Poison * and your best bet is to hit it with Roundup and then let it sit for a couple months for the poison to break down, then remove it or just let it rot off.
Lately I have just been feeding the perch (they may do a number on the snails by sucking out the innards) and swimming with my kiddo as well as pulling out cattails from where I don't want them. Snorkeling has been a wonder in the clear water, and the fish are getting used to my presence so I can watch them swim around me. All great stuff.
Except for the blobs of algae that keep pulling up debris from the bottom and floating it in small islands of barf. I have too much light on the bottom, though it seems to be helping to pull crud from the deep parts and floating it to the edges for decomposition. Maybe it will have an effect on muck accumulation reduction, especially when I accidentally ingest some while splashing with the kiddo.
Wife and I fished today for about an hour. Caught,weighed,and measured 35 cnbg anywhere from 4 1/2 inch to 8 1/2 inch and weighing over 1/2 pound on some. Average relative weight for those 35 fish was 111%. Worst was 89% on one fish. We're pleased still. Lot's of little 1 inch babies also.Caught all these fish in the rain.
Today was a red letter today for me!! Emphasis on RED!!
My in laws were in from out of state. Their young kids wanted to go fishing. I figured the perch would be up for it as they very aggressively will grab jigs, small hook and worm, or their favorite, green stubby steve pellets.
They did manage to catch the box spring and mattress triangular tent like contraption that I sunk for cover. I'm going to have to put some strings with floats on the 4 corners of that thing so we know where NOT to cast in the future.
Water continues to drop due to evaporation (I hope) and no rain.
I worked on my gold fish trap design. I'm putting a net across the shallow with one about 3' out from shore and the other end right on shore. The hope is that if I throw pellets between shore and the seine net that fish will learn they can't get to the pellets unless they do an end run around the open end of the net. Once they get used to going through that dangerous opening and nothing happens, then one day when a bunch are in there eating pellets, I close off that end and hopefully harvest a bunch.
The Frabil brand net had a poly netting which has a little bigger mesh size which is fine, but the poly will hold up better than the smaller minnow nets that have a cloth mesh that dry rots easier. But somehow the engineers messed up and the sum of the weights on the bottom does not equal or exceed the sum of the floats on top. It doesn't hold the bottom of the net down!
I thought about different things to attach to the bottom to weight it. Using washers or bolts came to mind but steel can get expensive these days. I could buy a bunch of fishing weights and put them all along the bottom, I considered trying to buy in bulk online. But then I figured the cheapest would be stone or concrete. I thought about tying stones in mesh sacks and cable tying those on. Then I wanted to pour concrete into some coffee cans for some anchors anyway so I bought the smallest bag they had of fast drying concrete (red bag)
I found about 30 small plastic cups and then I took some left over underground burial wire from my dog fence to make it work. I took the dog fence wire and started with a 3" tag, then looped the wire around a screwdriver barrel 3 times to make a coil then another 3" tag then snipped the end. I made 30 of these coils with 2 long tags. I then filled the cups about 1/3 full of concrete, pushed that round coil part of the wire down in the concrete to give the concrete some area of wire to hold on to and then let it harden.
Then it was simple to take a scissors and make a small slit in the side of the cup and peel the cup off the concrete weights. I had hoped that these weights would not grab too much on the bottom when seining and wouldn't rust like steel. If I didn't need them or wanted to add more weight or take some away it would be pretty easy to undo the twist in the tag end of the wire and take them off.
taking them out of the mold:
I didn't know how many to add, I have 2 25' seine nets zip tied together, adding 30 weights would have been too much. We ended up counting 2 of the factory weights, putting one between the 2nd and 3rd factory weights, etc. and then adding a weight at both ends to help hold down the ends.
I waded back in the pond and put it back in place. World of difference now with the bottom end staying nice and close to the bottom of the pond. Before the fish were sneaking under to get from the deep to shallows to sneak up and get the pellets, now they truly will have to learn to go around the side. Might take a little to train them.
It started to rain slightly. The kids fished away. One caught a goldfish on a tiny orange jig with worm, one caught a smaller perch, then the excitement of the night!!
I saw my little niece bringing in something that wasn't fighting like a perch or a goldfish. This one was making rapid darts back and forth and even some circles. That was a new pattern of fighting, very much like a BG or sunfish. I had stocked RES at about 1.5" 2 years ago and then restocked a few last spring but always wondered if they had survived the winter... The good news is at least one did!!
I'm pretty sure I was more excited than the kids were when I caught a glimpse of the sunfish type body and then the red spot on the ear tab!!!
I tried to get a picture of the underside but the light was bad and the pigments dark. There appeared to be waste coming out of the one hole obscuring it. The urogenital pore seemed to be small but very hard to tell on this small fish.
So geeked that the RES survived (hopefully a few) I imagine some may pull off a spawn this year too. What a great thing to discover today and to think they were hanging out all along, just playing hard to catch.
Started the day out hooking up the generator and pump to water the grass clover mix around the lower ponds, it's about a four hour job watering it well. Rained last night and the forecast looks favorable for this week so I think this was the last time I'll need to. My daughter brought a friend out to hang out and float in the tubes. I took this as I left to go up and plant more chestnut trees... And to think of a plan for a spring house for refrigeration. There are numerous springs at the head of the larger pond. The water that comes up is perfect for it... I just need a good plan...
My pup loves to swim... He was in much of the time I was watering, the new steps to the dock worked great!
Set the girls to work on a plan for marketing the fine clay silt that comes up with the ice cold spring water...
My best friend came down for a four wheeler ride to scope out this seasons black berry crop, bushes are loaded with blooms, we will be filling buckets in August. Grilled dinner for her on the dock...
The deer flies sometimes get thick up top where the berries are. Not too bad by the lower ponds. She came prepared. I told her she looked like a confused gang member, blood or crip? Pick one!
The "shed" I ordered will be in by the end of the week. View looking North...
Wife and I checked two of our feeders, refilled one, wiped Texas Hunter solar charger clean (it picks up dust fast). CNBG go absolutely crazy when the feeder goes off, or when hand feed Optimal. Great to watch! We also unloaded some stuff from our garage to a container sitting on the land at the pond, making it considerably nicer in our garage.
Button bush continue to flourish at pond's edge, reducing erosion. My dirt guy put some rocks in strategic places for the same purpose.
I got a spare wooden pallet for the FHM and small CNBG, tied on a piece of cement to make it sink, and launched it near one of the feeders. But instead of sinking, it floated away! Will catch and sink it eventually, of course, when I get a boat, but incredibly frustrating in the meantime. Always test floatation before launching!
Well, after 4 or 5 days of cloudy wet weather with a rain of 1.5" the Bloom has gone from 18" to 13" on 1/2 of the pond. This took place after the sky's cleared and the sun came out. I reduced the feeder amounts @ the one feeder where the bloom is a thicker pea green color. Cranked up the water well @ 52gpm, shooting for some dilution of this heavy bloom. I am continuing the work on getting the 1500' of 1.5" air line to the pond where I will reduce the airline size and put out 6 diffusers, 4 in the deeper water and 2 in the shallower water. I hope to get in all in by this time next week. Hoping it will not be too late for aeration. Lots of work here. A side note, I have seen a big reduction in numbers of large cnbg @ this same feeder where I have reduced the feed. lots of small 3 to 5" bg but the larger 7 to 8" ones have been missing from this feeder for a couple of weeks now. Not sure why, have seen no floaters on the pond and the two other feeders have seen no reduction of the larger cnbg.
Tracy, Am not catching ANY of my 7-9 inch cnbg way out where the feeder sprays but drop a bait right next to the pontoon dock and catch a big one almost every time. They do not seem to want to compete with the thousands of 2-6 inch fish. Maybe they are just a lot slower than the littler ones.
Had over a dozen people visit our place this weekend since it's blueberry pickin season... Kids like to ride around on the mule and feed the fish. visitors seem to find fish feeding feeding (nearly) as mesmorizing as me!
Surface water temp about 82-84 so went for a dip... Have to feed the fish first unless you like getting nipped by BG which Jodi (aka the "Mrs") truly despises.
I really see the fish taking to the optimal pellets. After discovering on Saturday that there are some RES in the pond I'm very curious to see if they can learn from the other fish how to take pellets. Once they get a taste of them, even sampling them off the bottom, I would hope they would take to them well. Hmm...
I see goldfish scooping them up and probably some perch that move too fast to see, zooming in from below and tail smacking on the way back down. But sometimes now as the water is clearing I can see the broad side of a fish that may be a sunfish.
The fish are more tolerant of me standing there while they feed and are also coming into shallow clear water with little fear. I figure in a night or 2 when they are going at it I hope to suddenly seine them in and then I can get a better count on what is truly showing up for a meal.
Anyone know water temps that RES make their beds at? We had cool days and nights so water temps dropped a bit. I know they tend to bed in a little deeper water so I hope the water is clear enough for me to spot the beds. Right now visibility is about 20-24".
Anyone know water temps that RES make their beds at? We had cool days and nights so water temps dropped a bit. I know they tend to bed in a little deeper water so I hope the water is clear enough for me to spot the beds. Right now visibility is about 20-24".
Not sure on the res, but our BG are usually well into the spawn here by now, but this year only very sporadic bedding taking place so far. Probably only about five percent of normal so far.
Just another piece of the pie for that slice of paradise you have there! Can't wait to see it in place!
Very cool!
What are your plans for the inside?
I found a flooring material that looks like cedar. I'm going to do the walls and ceilings in that with a wood floor to match the darker wood in the mix. Spray foam insulation, ceiling fan, gas fireplace, deck, some comfy furniture including most importantly a good card table... And... I'm done!
Hollywood, Nice little house. I really enjoy a place after I have picked out the design or materials used for a hideaway or a place I use for relaxation.
That's the problem Dono, if I google image search poison ivy I get hundreds of plants and all look different. Everyone posts what they think is poison ivy (or poison oak) and they all look so different. We need to find an objective way to identify, just like we struggle to find an objective, by sight features way to sex RES
I agree that my vines climbing up the tree look more like poison oak but it also looks like the stuff that when I clear it I get a horrible itchy rash!!
Sure looks like poison IVY to me.
You know there are different types of poison ivy, yes? Eastern poison ivy is a vine and Western poison ivy is a shrub.
Poison oak is typically in the West and the Southeast. You being in Michigan may not have that much in your state.
Check those leaflets up close - if you find hair on both sides you have poison oak, else it's ivy.
Poison ivy and I go way back. I once pulled the hairy vines from our pines only to coil them up and BURN THEM. Yes, burn them. As I stood 10 feet away tending the brush fire. Internal poison ivy is a treat.
Didn't learn.
Fast forward many years and while in the bush I had an opportunity to SELECT a leaf to use for wiping. Of all the leaves in the area I managed to pick poison ivy. And the proceeded to wipe with it. Then days later entered the dermatologist yet again to confirm I had poison ivy "down there".
Now I easily recognize it, suit up, remove it, bag it, and toss it.
You know how the saying goes right? Leaves of 3 let them be (another wards don't touch them) Leaves of 5 let them thrive!!
That helps me remember for the most part. A lot of stuff looks like PI but it's not....
It's an Amish built shed I had modified. Be glad to get you the info if you want. Guy was great to work with. Less than two weeks from design to delivery. I know he has a location in Seneca Falls.
Got things ready for Dads 84th celebration this afternoon. Rain in the forecast. Glad to have this to duck into now. Nice to have zero buyers remorse! Chicken and venison kabobs grilled on some hickory I hung up to dry last summer and a fish fry from my brothers last salt water trip. Planning a little fly fishing derby for the boys after dinner. Going to be a great day! This will be the first get together at this spot, look forward to having everyone here.
Well, I finished laying the air lines. 1500' of 1.5" rolled tubing, 400' of 1" rolled tubing and then 600' of 1" pvc. Added 6 T's and valves to the one inch pvc. All trenched in but not covered, YET ! The 500' 1.5" rolled tubing was a PITA and I had a few severe kinks in the line. Cut the kinks out and spliced the lines. Now I am waiting on the diffusers, weighted lines etc to show up. I am thinking that it will not be as easy as it sounds to lay the weighted line and all 6 diffusers out. This is based on laying out the above water lines. PS, Dave you R So Right, cant wate till some of the family comes to the pond for some trophy time.
Yep. Just got done with a downpour. Ponds will be a bit colored up, but the orchard and grass around the ponds needed it. Seven hours to party time and it looks like the rain is done, should be relatively dry by then. My Dad doesn't know about the cabin and most of people coming haven't seen the ponds yet. This area was a thicket you could barely crawl through last time most saw it. My Mom told me the general consensus was that I was nuts for selling my old house to go all in on "that brush choked hillside" Going to be a fun afternoon on the new homestead!
I stocked my pond 3 years ago and feed every day Have caught 4.5 lb bass and blue gill over a lb all in a 1/12 acre pond .my question is which and how many fish should I harvest
Pat W. and his wife came down from Oakwood to the farm yesterday for the day to visit Debbie and I. Pat and I wore the GSF and BG out in the pond. I've got way too many GSF as I did last year. I removed 300 to a neighbors forage poor pond last year. Looks like a couple hundred easily could go again this year. Pat caught an elusive LSL LMB (Leg)...I wasn't impressed with the size for being in the pond for a year. But, the water needs clearing up. Caught BC as well as some 8"+ BG all on artificial jigs. The fish are coming along slowly as the pond will be 2 years old in August. I just need to remove some more of the GSF. I'd say out of every 10 fish we caught, 7 were GSF. Not what I had planned for since I never stocked the species.
Dad's birthday party was just awesome this weekend. Showers cleared to beautiful blue skies by party time. A couple pics... My son in law nails a dive through the tube...
My nephew with a nice RBT from the fly fishing derby. This kid is so big he makes the fish look tiny!
Another nephew with a RBT in mid fumble. The fish hit the water and took off, apparently photo shy. It was about 3.5 pounds, I believe this one was from the original stock a couple years ago. Very nice fish.
Well tonight the goldfish win. I had the seine net across the shallows and they were getting bold enough to hang out between shore and the net. I hand feed and there are 40-50 of them slurping up pellets. I also see perch and can also recognize a few 'slaps' of the RES coming in for pellets.
My son on one end, me on the other end of this heavily weighted, 50 foot seine. We tug furiously to try to pull them in. I can see gold streaks going every which way and man can they swim fast if they need to. We get it up on shore and somehow we have about 10 perch, 1 RES, a bunch of perch minnows, a turtle egg, a few huge ghost shrimp and ZERO goldfish.
I'm thinking that since the seine is long that the middle section might have had the bottom balloon out and flip inside out as we were towing it rapidly. I may have to put a rope to the bottom strand of netting and have a 3rd person pull in the middle and pull that rope in to be sure the bottom part of the net in the middle of the 50 foot length comes in just ahead of the top part? Perhaps go in a little slower since speed isn't so important if both ends are up on shore and they have no where to go.
Of course they are probably going to be shy for a few days, but nothing to do but reposition the net and start feeding for a few days again. It is amazing how they do condition to the feeding. I've been pumping water into the pond and the water is really clear now. You can see swarms of orange in the shallows and they seemed to not mind us watching them eat.
I'm also thinking maybe the thing to do is to have a stake out in the water at the mid point of the net so that the far end is on shore, the middle is staked, and the part from near end to the middle can hinge on the middle stake. Then the near end and the far end which are on shore could be pinched towards the stationary stake in the middle (like the pages of a book closing towards the middle) and they at least would be trapped in the middle.
Other are pros with the seine nets, ideas? I did go and add more of those home made cement weights to the middle section of the net to help keep it down as we are pulling it.
Another seine, another fail. Had tons in the net, they seem to find a way out at the last minute. 3 more RES captured and this little guy was found in the grass. Never saw spines like this before. Could this be my first batch of YOY Lake Chubsuckers?
A seine needs to be pulled somewhat slowly....pulling the lead line low to the ground and slightly ahead of the buoyant line to create a pocket in the seine.
Note how the lead line is ahead of the float line in this seine video.
Rex, thanks for the ID on the minnow. I'm pretty sure that is what it is based on other pictures online. It is good to find out that the forage base was maybe more diverse than I thought in the first place. I wonder how he/she hitchhiked in? I wonder if they will successfully reproduce with some predator pressure from perch and RES?
Rex, also I will try to keep working on our seine technique. I agree, as the water got shallow and we got moving faster we may have lifted up the bottom line a bit or there may be natural indentations in the bottom of the pond where the goldfish sneak out. We will go low and slow next time.
SNRUB, at ice out I could readily get them to go in a trap with pellets. Now they must be too smart to go in the trap. I was searching for a smaller fyke trap (I don't need a 30 footer) to use as I think if it was a longer entry chute and a larger trap in general they probably would go in and stay in. The pyramid minnow traps they either don't go in or have found a way to get in and out freely. The metal minnow traps they won't go near.
The other option since they seem to huddle right at the same place at shore waiting for their pellet dinner, that I may be able to use progressively smaller enclosures. I could use my 25 foot seine and wrap it around 4 fence posts that enclose a smaller square with maybe one corner of the square opened so they can get in. I could just close of that corner, then go in with a net and try to net them out. It is just that netting them out may be tricky as they move fast. But I could probably scare them off to one side of the square, then divide the square in half again to make the netting of them easier.
Been dry here so I watered the new grass around the ponds. Floated in the tube after and watched the birds coming in to feed. Mourning doves, Baltimore Orioles, cardinals, bluejays, rose breasted grosbeak, gold finch, chickadee, grackle, redwing blackbird, cowbirds, and several types of flicker/ woodpeckers. Quite the show!
Yesterday I took my wife & some friends to the pond. Refilled two of the feeders, one was completely empty. Fish are still taking feed, but not as fast as they were before it got so darn hot. Fortunately, two of my three feeders are in the shade during the afternoon & evening.
Saw two crawfish holes at one end of the dam, so I guess that means no stocking will be necessary. Still very little vegetation, though visibility has cleared to a good three feet now with drier weather.
Hope to get liming and LMB stocking done soon. Aeration would be nice, too, though I'll have to do it carefully.
I took the family for a much appreciated vacation today to a lake about an hour north. The lake has been challenging to fish but it has a pretty nice pumpkinseed and BG population. I'm seeing schools of bass minnows in the shallows. The lake is shallow, weedy but has a few deeper holes that may produce some pike.
When we arrived of course the kids wanted to go swimming but we were met by warning signs staked on the shoreline indicating that chemicals would be sprayed today. I guess the chemicals are done every 2 weeks for 3 applications. The company does a route of several lakes in the area. For the first time the names on the sheet sound familiar
Here is what they are using: Adjuvant (cygnet Plus, PolyAn, AGridex) Chelated Copper (Cutrine Plus, Captain, Symmetry) Copper Sulfate (Old Bridge, Triangle Brand) Diquat Dibromide (Redwing, Reward, Solera, Tribune) Endothall (Hydrothol 191) Endothol (Aquathol K(
There was a check by each chemical category and a notice for no water contact for a full 24 hours.
They came around noon and there was a stiff wind with chop. They went around each property by the docks, in the coves but I have to believe most of the chemicals blew with the wind to the other side? Perhaps it sinks quickly but today was not an ideal day for a treatment.
Any idea if this concoction is typical? I see zero FA so maybe they are only treating rooted pond weeds?
The boat drove around the place we are staying and did not treat on our frontage as the kids were in the water all day prior to the boat coming to our side of the lake.
Will the chemicals cause skin problems? I assume the chemicals from the opposite shore on a round 200 acre lake would sink before blowing across but not sure. The wind was active.
Had a great night with family and friends! Some friends brought over 4 Rainbow Trout and 1 Brown Trout which I have never had, let alone cooked. So I did some research and decided to grill it. I also grilled up some Portabella mushrooms, corn on the cob, eggplant, asparagus, squash and zucchini, all doctored up with some fresh rosemary, italian parsley, Thyme and lemons.
Dinner was great, the conversation and time with family and friends even better.
Then after dinner it started sprinkling but I took dad and our friend Doug out to the pond where they both wrangled in 2 nice HSB and a couple dozen BG.
The fun my dad had fighting that HSB and the smiles that followed are just priceless!
Truly blessed!
Dad's HSB and that big smile!
Our friend, Doug's HSB
On the downside, I had my two ultra light rods, one rigged up with a panfish assassin, the other for a worm. When I laid down my ultra light with the panfish assassin, the lure was dangling over the edge of the dock, when something decided to hit on it taking the pole off the dock out into the pond. It happened so fast, all we could do was watch .
Keith, looks like you had a great day @ your pond. I also had a great day but it was a lot different from yours. I started my 24/7 air diffusers yesterday and met up with Walt and his grandson Brandon from Overton's Fishery. We added an additional 2500+ threadfins to the pond. I already had threadfins but I wanted to up the numbers. Also added a few RES and some Tilapia. The HSB were feeding on the TFS while we added them to the pond. If the TFS were slow movers, Splash!! BAM !! They became HSB food.
Drought here has gotten pretty bad. My smallest pond tends to lose water in August, then refill in October. It hasn't cost any lost fish yet. But it was before July and already down a foot. Ran 1,500 feet of water line uphill to a better flow. Seven hours in it is gaining... Slowly. Brookies are loving the oxygen though. Redneck engineering at its finest... Inlet box...
Oh, you'd be amazed. We got us some of the golldurnest fine rednecks in all of the good ol' U S of A. My neighbor has "Hillary for prison" in the back window of his pickup. Did it hisself with masking tape. This one here has spent over half a century in NY, without ever once having had to go to NYC. Upstate NY where I am has more cows than people. And we're all just fine with that.
Hollywood, I like it, the water line and your neighbor. I hoped there might be some good Yankee's up there. I still plan on a trip to Upstate NY for some fishing @ a place called thousand islands, of course, I plan on bypassing NYC I am pretty sure I know that lifestyle there and I'll pass.
I'm of the opinion there are country folks, there are hillbillies, and there are rednecks. I've always considered redneck to be a sometimes unfortunate state of mind more than anything else. I was born into a hillbilly family, but they most certainly weren't rednecks.
Just stopped down to check progress. Pond is back up a couple inches. 58 degrees here and I doubt the water coming out the pipe is that warm. Perfect brook trout water. The line runs mostly through the woods. It'll warm some ( maybe to 70) mid day but that will be more than off set by the amount of time it runs cold. Once it gets back to the overflow the warmest water will be taken off the top. Sprkplug... By your definition, I suppose we're country/hillbillie hybrids... Tracy, that's a great spot, an hour and a half or two North of here. Good seven hour trip to NYC... You'll be in good hands! Great Muskellunge fishing, but usually best in November. Decent northern pike, some walleye, excellent YP and SMB water. Take time to see Boldt castle and Singer island. If you get near the finger lakes area (I'd recommend it!) let me know.
Yep, the media has embraced "redneck", and I believe mistakenly categorized it in the same manner in which they have forever corrupted our vision of "reality".
I'm curious to see how the trout, (and your pond as a whole), fare with this setup. Please post a few updates!
The dewpoint here is the same as the morning low, 71 degrees. Felt hot and muggy even very early. The only places we have trout here is in the tail waters of four large COE reservoirs. The rules for fishing for them are so complicated that I don't even bother.
Summer cold front here Nebraska, 59 degrees this morning, we had 1.3" of rain yesterday with a high of 64 degrees. My water went from very green to very brown in a very short amount of time, secchi disk readings have jumped 4". Even with aeration running I have fish piping at the surface in places away from the aerator this morning. Yikes!
Sat at the dock and had my coffee this morning. There was some sort of film on the water. Didnt cover the whole pond, was pushed to one end of the pond by the dock. There were bubbles in it, with a brownish color to it. Was wondering what causes that. I took a pool test strip and tested the water. PH 6.4, Alkalinity 0, hardness 100. Not sure what that all means, but it didn't look good. Any thoughts?
I'm curious to see how the trout, (and your pond as a whole), fare with this setup. Please post a few updates!
Well, three days in and the pond is up five inches. Water looks better, fish are active again. So far, so good. My goal is to reach overflow again, skim the debris and warmest water off the top. 90's here this week with no rain again... Glad I got this in place.
Spring water to the pond is working great after a week of flow. Pond level has risen 9-10 inches, about four inches left to reach over flow. Water looks better and the brookies are MUCH more active than they've been at this point of summer in years past. Water from the 1,500 feet of line warms some throughout the day. Most of it is shaded but enough sees sun that it does get warmer than I'd prefer at mid day, 70-72 degrees. I've decided to just let it ride and run 24/7 though. It's adding oxygen at its warmest about five hours a day, a couple hours either side of that is acceptable temperature, leaving about 14-15 hours a day at 60 or less. I'll keep an eye on it and adjust as the fish activity suggests. The stagnant, low water I've had mid summer in the past has concerned me... Enough to have a plan ready if we got drought conditions. So glad to have this in place... Had rain in the area the past 24 hours but it danced all around here without a drop.
I'm watching my pond lower slow inch by slow inch as we have only had 0.82 inches of rain in the last 60 days. Church is taking a fair amount of water out to irrigate the church gardens to grow taters, pumpkins and corn. The corn looks pretty pathetic, and what comes up the deer stomp back down.
Not a good year for gardening for us, and I am starting to worry about our well as I overhear there is a problem with our area's water table which may be a result of recent gas wells drilled smack in the middle of our aquifer.
This is our first time on moderate drought since we moved here. First two years we had the pond was dry, but nothing like this.
Normally 16 inches of rain by now, we are sitting at 7.7.
I haven't been out to our place since Father's day weekend. The feed in the TH was very low at that time, so I thought I'd get it filled during the next week. I ended up getting ill and today was the first possible day to make it back. Didn't want to, but stopped in at the local TSC and picked up enough multi fish feed to carry us over until I can get up to Overtons and pick up some Cargill (Trident) 4512. No rain up that way for 3 weeks, so the water level dropped almost a foot.
Mowed, trimmed, graded drive, sprayed glyphosate and 2,4-D. Eight hours worth total. No drought thus far, thankful for that. Ponds are a nice green color, fish active and growing. Tired, but happy.
Late breaking: Discovered a tree had come down on the property fence between us and a neighbor. Cut it off the fence and hauled it away. Just got in.
Well we got busy with a nice little Kubota excavator and did some tree , some stump, and landscape work. Sure is nice when you can get equipment like this to help you do the job!!! Leveled off the front yard put in some grass seed. Gonna start looking good now!!!
MI was getting very dry and the forecast as of last night, no rain today. Low and behold we woke up to rumbling thunder and have had such a nice light rain all morning and now at noon another round of light thunder and nice rain. I hope it isn't just spotty here in W MI as the whole state really needs it. But to see how rain is provided when and where it is meant to be and the forecasters can do nothing about it and certainly had zero chance of rain today still comforts me that Power in nature still has the reins firmly in hand...
Took the seine nets out. Unless the bottom in the shallows is graded smooth as a road the goldfish either make a run under the net and pile through or make a hop over the floats and get out that.
They are really taking to the Optimal feed. They throw caution to the wind now. Whether I'm standing right there or not, they are gobbling food as fast as they can. The water is clear now and it is cool to see 2 goldfish have an unusual black and white pattern. I figure all is not lost if the goldfish stay in the pond, they are setting a strong example to my perch and RES to come and get it every time they create a ruckus on the feeding end of the pond.
Interesting that there is a second 'school' of goldfish that stay on the other end of the pond and will have nothing to do with the feeding end. If I walk all the way around they will ignore the food until I walk away and they they will carefully eat it. It as if they are in a different societal class than the main group and have to stay to the back of the line and on the other end of the pond
Working on trying to get my dad-in law's, dad's old Evinrude Fisherman model 5hp to run right, mostly to idle right. Thinking the carb needs cleaning as I can't get the fuel mixture right. Been doing very small circles in the pond trying to test it out.
I need to stop in the middle this week and pull up the aerators and clean off the heads again. Forgot to do that this spring and usually they have a sticky clay on them.
Also hope after this all day rain to have 'high water' and then can wait for a windless day to retreat my soilfloc.
I can't believe how there is this tight skin on the bottom due to the soilfloc. I do wonder if that is why I still have zero vegetation. I have clear water, plenty of sun but no weeds. Maybe seeds have a hard time seeding in the hard pan top layer? Or maybe the goldfish and crays are nipping everything off early?
I didn't put tilapia in this year and seeing just a hint of FA on the south side of the pond.
Seeing lots of schools of tiny minnows, despite my efforts to remove MOST of the perch egg ribbons...
Loretta, did you get any ribbons or perch this spring? I know you have tried hard for years....
My family is coming over for what we call Family Night on Thursday. I'll likely have 30 kids ringing my tiny pond with zebcos. I think I'm going to offer $2 per goldfish caught....
Caught about 20 more goldfish last night and 11 tonight. Finally got that elusive black goldfish. Picture isn't that clear but I think there is one more with black coloration on it left in the pond so may get another picture later.
I also was VERY excited to see one of the kids pull in my very first longear sunfish. 2 years ago I stocked 25 each RES and LES. Not seeing any the next year, I added 25 more RES. It looks like both made it through 2 winters!
I have never seen a long ear in person. The colors seem right (lots of turquoise dots) but the ear isn't that long (maybe immature LES yet?) and do all LES have the orange on the ear tab? I thought the ear tab on LES were all black?
Worked on our pond edge bulkhed project Made great progress trenching and running tie back cables to the dead mans Also capped off the ends of main bulkhed to hold back fill dirt
Just need one more good day to finish remaining tie back cables installation
Hotter than Hades today at the property. Murdered some FA in the pond. Gave the mules some oat cookies and had some delicious fresh watermelon from Ham Orchards.
I also was VERY excited to see one of the kids pull in my very first longear sunfish. 2 years ago I stocked 25 each RES and LES. Not seeing any the next year, I added 25 more RES. It looks like both made it through 2 winters!
I have never seen a long ear in person. The colors seem right (lots of turquoise dots) but the ear isn't that long (maybe immature LES yet?) and do all LES have the orange on the ear tab? I thought the ear tab on LES were all black?
I'm saying 9.8. Maybe it's just me, but looking at the side profile of the fish, not knowing it's weight, it would be one that I'd cull just by looking at the size of it's head.
But then again I might be putting my foot in my mouth!
Thanks guys. First, I DID NOT catch this fish. I was spraying coontail, and kept seeing something sticking out of the water. I finally figured out it was a LMB tail. That's not a good sign. I went and got a net and my wife, and we spent almost 2 hours trying to net her. I would see her upside down on the bottom, but she would swim away. I finally got her netted, but she felt soft in the belly to me. That's another bad sign.
I wanted to see why her stomach was so soft, so I checked. There was nothing there but a tumor/growth of some sort. Her liver was diseased also.
Short story long, she weighed 9.11#, but was 3/4" longer than the TX state record of 18#. RW was 87%. I do know she was in old age decline, but I sure would like to have seen her caught her in her prime.
But, I really try to save these larger fish for guests, so I hope she had been hooked at some point before. Whatever the reason for her demise, she probably gave me 9-10 years of her genetics. That ain't a bad thing at all.
Scott hit it pretty close. 3 oz off, but he hit the cull part right. Even though she was long, she was skinny. Tough decision ensues.
Would you keep her for recreation, or cull her based purely on performance? Even if healthy, she was way under RW when others here near her size aren't.
What I did at my pond today is watch the fish feeding -- still ravenous -- and put out stakes so the electric company can get us wired up.
One of the spots we'll need juice is for the aeration compressors, and it is HARD TO REACH in the summer with all the bushes, brambles, thorns, etc. Night was falling and we had quite a sweaty time getting there. As for making it back, suffice it to say that's the worst experience I've had in a long time.
Anyway, I measured water temp at 7:30pm, 84 F. My guess 88 or so during the middle of the day.
pH is still lousy, between 5.5 and 5.7. I'm gonna need A LOT of lime, and not just in the pond. Sigh.
Al, knowing the goals for your pond, and the history, even if she was healthy I would have recommended removing her. She doesn't fit the goals, and the biomass could be used by an upcoming LMB.
It sure would be interesting if you can get her aged.
I agree with esshup, with your goals in mind and only 87 percent RW you got to take that fish....
It would be kinda like having a 6 year old 130 class 10 point on your land that's full of 4 year old 155 class 10 points... Some just have to be culled..... that's part of it.
So I'd be interested on exactly why folks thinking a cross with RES.
And one I just caught w castnet, likely a breeding male, has the barest of white margins on the opercle. Aren't they just beauts?
Incorrect assumption on my part. I had never seen any pictures of LES with the red on the opercular. Also that there were only two species introduced, RES and LES, so the opportunity was there.
I also was VERY excited to see one of the kids pull in my very first longear sunfish. 2 years ago I stocked 25 each RES and LES. Not seeing any the next year, I added 25 more RES. It looks like both made it through 2 winters!
I have never seen a long ear in person. The colors seem right (lots of turquoise dots) but the ear isn't that long (maybe immature LES yet?) and do all LES have the orange on the ear tab? I thought the ear tab on LES were all black?
That looks like a hybrid LES/RES.
I wondered about hybrid too because the 'long ear' is not very long on this fish. The eyes are very red too. Perhaps this is a pure LES with red on opercular tab, red eyes and a mini-opercular tab rather than a big one. The LES posted above has the longer long-ear sized tab.
Also the chest/abdomen of this LES is very golden, more like the ones on my RES. A true LES usually has that beautiful color pattern all over the chest and abdomen too like in the picture just above this post?
The size and stocking date of these fish suggest that they have not spawned yet which also makes me wonder if no hybridization happened yet, why this one doesn't look like the 'typical' LES. However, northern pond growth characteristics may be different and I don't know the true genetic source of the 1.5" long LES I bought from Brian Zimmerman (meaning did they come from a southern source?)
On my pond this morning I watched something very amusing. It was only about 5 minutes before the first morning feeder went off so thousands of cnbg were ganged up and ready to eat....when a small moth about an inch long touched down on the water. A fish struck at it but missed and she flew off but only a couple inches off the surface and touching the water ever so often. It was almost as if it was toying with the fish!! It made about 3 circles around in the pond with what looked like something out of a JAWS movie following right on its tail wakeing and popping at it the whole time. It was hilarious!! Then it flew to shore and never saw it again but I can almost see it sticking its tongue out at the fish as it left. Smart or lucky? You make the call.
Thanks guys. First, I DID NOT catch this fish. I was spraying coontail, and kept seeing something sticking out of the water. I finally figured out it was a LMB tail. That's not a good sign. I went and got a net and my wife, and we spent almost 2 hours trying to net her. I would see her upside down on the bottom, but she would swim away. I finally got her netted, but she felt soft in the belly to me. That's another bad sign.
I wanted to see why her stomach was so soft, so I checked. There was nothing there but a tumor/growth of some sort. Her liver was diseased also.
Short story long, she weighed 9.11#, but was 3/4" longer than the TX state record of 18#. RW was 87%. I do know she was in old age decline, but I sure would like to have seen her caught her in her prime.
But, I really try to save these larger fish for guests, so I hope she had been hooked at some point before. Whatever the reason for her demise, she probably gave me 9-10 years of her genetics. That ain't a bad thing at all.
All's well.
This is the only scenario I can imagine being happy culling a trophy fish - you caught her on the definite decline and it's an easy call. Sorry to see her go, but there's more BG to feed the up and comers for sure. Fillets or the garden?
TJ, I actually froze her. I talked to DD1 about her, and he had some great suggestions. Yeah I know, right?
I'm gonna try to get the otolith out, and get Texas A&M to age her and do a stomach eval.
If she had been healthy, even though underweight, I most likely would have put her back. I've culled underweight LMB up to 5-6# before, and it's awfully hard to do. Not sure I'm mentally tough enough to do what's needed to get those few large fish over the top.
I hear you dude...I personally have a glaring deficiency in pond management - harvesting apex predators. My family isn't crazy about eating fish, and while I know I'm HSB heavy right now, hard to bring myself to pull any 20"+ fish.
Panko bread crumbs and small nugget pieces pan fried, deep fried, or baked if you are more health conscious. Panko gives it some crunch. Add in a little flavoring if you like (we like 1/4 cajun fish mix seasoning with the Panko).
Fish has always been fairly low on my preferred list also TJ, but I'm telling you, fixed right, it is good eating.
I fished the pond out of a boat for the first time yesterday. Surface water temp was 90 and a little lower around the diffusers but still pretty warm. Fly fishing for 21 month old cnbg. I mostly fished away from the 3 TH feeders because I was looking to see where else they might be hanging out. I had few bites unless I got close to the area where the feeders are. So, I am fishing with little luck and up pops a Beaver, right beside me. She dives under and pops up again maybe 50 yds away an then goes under again, never to be seen again. Where did that dadgum thing go? There are no visible signs of nesting spots in or around the pond. We did see a beaver about this same time last year, and only saw the thing once. I think the bayou some 300 yds away is very shallow right now with only pools of water, so she is coming from there, I have seen them there in the past. Two things came out of this fishing adventure, one was if you want to catch cnbg, fish the feeder area and two, carry the riffle next time.
Tracy, last few beavers we had never hutted up. They came in and out from the old creek bed behind the dam, and I just follow the trails in the grass to see where they're coming in.
Esshup got me schooled on wire snares, and I've never looked back. Lead and snares are my go to tools now. I have only had one in the last year, but I've still got older trees wrapped in welded wire from damage several years ago.
I have found that beaver dislike like lead and steel ! You only get 1 shot though and not easy to do. Find the narrow spot in the trail and put a trap. On either side of the trap stick sticks in the ground like a fence to funnel them into the trap placed across the trail.
Panko bread crumbs and small nugget pieces pan fried, deep fried, or baked if you are more health conscious. Panko gives it some crunch. Add in a little flavoring if you like (we like 1/4 cajun fish mix seasoning with the Panko).
Fish has always been fairly low on my preferred list also TJ, but I'm telling you, fixed right, it is good eating.
My family craves fish 1x annually, that's about it. I want to get them into fish tacos, might increase the demand around the house. I don't have a problem harvesting underperforming fish, but I'm blessed with a great problem where most of my fish are over 100 WR due to feeding program and good forage base. In the end, female BG are about the only fish I don't have a problem harvesting.
Added an Agri Drain inlet water level control structure to the YP/SMB pond. Bought it last year and will raise the water level 4" per year for 3 years.
This is the second one that I bought, and they used inline one's on each of two wetlands that were mitigated on my place. They have worked great for me, but I plan to cover this one, like the last, to keep most of the UV off the PVC. I am not sure how much that will extend their life, but it can't hurt. It also allows the pipe to carry more water under flood conditions by preventing a vortex.
Rah, is that a 2' tall model pictured? I see they make sizes 2' to 6' but can also make custom sizes.
I need to get one of those rat guards. I periodically have muskrats use the overflows to travel from creek to pond and from pond to pond. If they were prevented from using the protected pathways of the overflow tubes it would force them to get above ground and the red tail hawks have access to them. Which would save me having to trap them.
I raise a bit at a time to give marginal plants a chance to adapt and spread up the bank, and to avoid too much decaying matter from being submerged at a time. The rat guards cut down on muskrats, but plenty still find a way to the ponds and wetlands. My neighbor trapped out 21 last winter.
We'll because I was scared my 2-4 inch perch in mynhatcherynwoukd die due to the extremely high temperatures in Ohio...pond surface up to 92 degrees..we pulled up the hatchery escape and set them free!
Today was the first day that I've fished since surgery 6 weeks ago. My wife and I caught a few BG and GSF for fun (C&R). But, man it was hot. 104 degrees up in Leggett, TX.
We had an inch and a half of rain last week and 2 1/2" this past Thursday up there. The pond is back up to full level...for now.
Good news all around,, keep up the quick recovery. I was cleaning out my pm and came across one where you and Williamson threatened a road trip up to Bill Ds place if I could have Cecil try to take me over. Still possible? Don't worry about what Bill says, If we all just show up he can't do much.
I sure miss Cecil's input here on the forum!I found his projects interesting and informative.I may need to pick his brain sometime down the road.I may send him a friend request on Facebook.I don't want him to think I am a stalker though.I guess I can tell him that I know Bob-O! I am sure that would alleviate all of his fears!! No pond therapy today because I am on duty.Mowed around the pond and ran trimmed the island with a weedeater.Trapped a few minnows trying to catch some BG or RES minnows.
Had a friend over today for some BG culling and we caught 30 pretty decent ones in an hour.
After 4 years of raising them (as well as the HSB and LMB), there's no doubt it takes a certain mindset to put them under the knife, other than for the sake of fishery management, but given the circumstances, family and friends will be well fed!
Every one in my family loves fish and they either like the way I prepare it, or just happy I'm the one doing it (more likely). But with the downside of spending all my time breading and frying I decided to try and bread them before freezing and it works great. Now all I have to do is pull them out of the freezer and into the fryer or oven they go. Now I'm putting in the time before the fish-fry instead of during.
Snrub, I too use Panko bread crumbs and also crushed Corn Flakes (mom's favorite), and for a thinner style breading, Zaterain's Crispy Southern Fish Fri is very good as well, especially for smaller fillets.
Went to the farm yesterday and got to work on the brood ponds a little. Also, fishing is on hold for now as the surface temp is just under 90 degrees F.
Today, I worked on a new airlift system for Tilapitopia 4. The new airlift is about 20% better and can lift water an additional inch above the waterline. It has been a good weekend.
Those fillets look great Keith. Never thought of using corn flakes.
Wifes attempt at freezing already breaded we did not like as well. Must not have the process correct yet. Have to try it again sometime.
No pond for me for a while other than a very big pond called Caribbean doing one of my other passions watching fish and critters under the water. Boy are my BG going to be pissed at me. Grandson only feeds them a couple times a week while I'm gone instead of daily. Will be surprised if they even speak to me when I get home!
Beautiful spot, RAH. I admire what you've done there, but I'm glad it's you and not me. I would probably have a nervous breakdown thinking about the tractor and bushhog, walk behind brush cutter, hand held brushcutter, chainsaw, loppers, weed razor, landscape rake, and a tank car full of aquatic herbicide that I would deem necessary.
I'm betting that your vision is just as much work, if not more, than mine. Very nice work.
It actually takes less maintenance, but controlling invasives early is the key. We wiped some phragmites and willow this morning. I just got done digging a very small vernal wetland in the woods, and my wife is on the dozer as I type. She decided she would rather have me pick the tomatoes. She is better at it than me anyway. Update: Moved the dirt from the vernal pool to a low stretch in one of the woodland roads and spread it out. We are real dry right now, so its a good time to do dirt work.
I had left over soilfloc from my first episode of pond bottom sealing dating back to fall of 2015. My goal was to retreat in the early spring when water had warmed but before vegetation came in. Well, as you all know, life happens quickly and you blink and it is August 20 something!!
So I asked my dad to stop by again and now that we have the system down from last time, we made short work of treating the pond again. This time we didn't fuss with marking out the shoreline as we knew from experience last time that when we apply the product with a hand crank grass spreader that you get a very even plume on the water that spreads out to about 8' wide before settling. We just made sure that the men, one on each side of the pond with ropes, moved the boat into the leading edge of the plume to apply the next 'lane' of product and were sure to have a overlapping section.
I don't know if the product covers more area with a spreader verses tossing cups of products in one place, but I know we ordered enough product to 'treat' the pond according to TJs directions last fall and seemed to have about half of it left after the first treatment. We had overlapped the pond heavy and really treated it twice last fall. I treated the whole pond again last night and even went back and redid about 1/3 of it the 3rd time where we feel the leak might be. I still have a 5 gallon bucket of part A and B left (I think 1 unit)
Conditions were perfect, not a breath of wind. As before, the water cleared up very nicely. The aerator is off for a few days to let things settle.
We had a tornado come through Grand Rapids on Saturday and it brought an inch of rain. The pond is at record levels so we treated the edges heavily and the hydraulic pressure pushing the product down should be ideal as well.
Grand Rapids is not used to the prairie style tornados with a tornado on the ground on/off for 2 hours! Spending some scary moments in our basement on Saturday hearing the live street by street path of the tornado be broadcast over the local stations as it barreled toward us. Fortunately, very little structural damage to houses, just damage where big trees were pushed on to them. Mostly just tons of mature trees pushed over and lots of limbs torn off and debris. It had a direct hit at my work but the building weather it well with only a few aluminum roof panels loose or torn off. The crews were out yesterday with skid steers and tow straps tipping the young maple trees back straight and staking them back up in the upright position.
I took the chance while out in the pond in a boat to pull the diffuser and clean it. I thought it was producing a fair amount of bubbles, but the diffuser we completely caked with a clay-soilfloc mix from earlier this year. Clay usually just rubs off with a little water. This mixture however was like concrete and about 1/2" thick. How bubbles even got through that is amazing. I used my nails to gently scrape the rubber membrane and repeated washing attempts finally got it clean.
I'd like to run it right away to see how much better it works but better let the soilfloc seal and settle first. The aerator disks are on the standard vertex base and that base is screwed to a plastic tote that is 6" high. Yet it must still somehow stir up some sediment as everything down there was coated with clay/soilfloc mix. In the bottom of the picture you can make out my plastic coke bottle that also has a heavy layer of green/brown slime on it.
Fixed the Husqvarna mower to mow grass that hasn't been cut in 5-6 weeks (yikes!). Got about 1/4 through before belt broke. That's what I'll be doing next weekend.
I mowed around my pond again today. Week before last I seeded annual rye along the wet exposed banks from the water dropping. Today I saw a nice thick crop of seedlings. When or if the pond fills back up there will be a nice layer of grass for cover and plankton growth for the smallest fish. I did the same thing along the lower banks for erosion control as the pond first filled.
Didn't do much at the pond, but I did drive up to Overtons and picked up 300# of much needed Cargill 4512 in the 1/8" and 1/4" pellet size. I also picked up some Cargill 4818 (48% protein, 18% fat) in the 3/16" pellet size. Then, had coffee and breakfast with my podnuh, Pat W. in Buffalo, TX. Hope to load the feeder later this week when my helper from LA shows up.
Took the long weekend to paint the fish house and pull the aeration system out of the pond. I'll be moving within the next 6 months so I wanted to get it done before Fall.
Some pics:
My idea of pulling the weighted tubing through PVC to clean it as it came out of the pond seemed good in theory but didn't work. So I tied one end to the UTV and while my buddy pulled it out I used a soaked towel to wipe it clean, and that worked much better!
700' Cleaned and coiled up! (that stuff IS heavy!!!)
On the diffusers, I used a tack hook to grab the tubing near the diffuser and was able to pull each of them up, and they weren't as bad as I had expected. I cleaned 3 of them last year but even the deep one I haven't cleaned in 4 1/2 years wasn't too bad.
And clean!
Lastly I got the compressor cabinet cleaned up and repainted as well.
And even got to spend some time fishing with my brother and his Grandson who had a ball catching frogs and a lot of BG including this RES.
Capping off the weekend was frying up some fish for my folks, along with my niece and her family.
So all in all a productive weekend although, working with 700' of weighted tubing certainly tested the 'ol back!
Keith, Love your posts and your paint job on the shed! Looks great. Too bad you can't take that shed with you!
What size weighted tubing was that did you say? It looks heavy!
I see one of your diffusers has the 2 disks right on top of each other. That must be for a shallow water application? My diffuser is posted in a picture a few up from yours in this post. Mine had quite a thick layer of almost cemented grime on it, but it also endured some soil floc sealant. Yours cleaned up very nicely.
Your pond is beauteous, you will certainly have a hard time finding another place to live that is like this one!
On the shed, I don't know if you've seen the inside from previous posts, but I have a cleaning station inside (tapping into the on-demand well for water), cabinetry and wired with lights and outlets. Hence, the "fish house" . And it is NOT staying, it is for sure going with me! And I built it as such that the porch roof can be removed and the shed itself is on skids of sorts so it can be lifted onto a flatbed. No way it's staying here!
The tubing is Bottomline 5/8" ID weighted tubing, and yep it's heavy! IIRC it's 1/2 lb per foot, 50 lb per 100'.
On the diffusers I'm sure glad mine didn't look like yours and luckily mine cleaned up without any scraping. Of my 4, 3 of them are shallow which is why the disks are closer together, which appears to just be a matter of the length of PVC between them. I'm selling the system so if someone needs deep diffusers I'm guessing I could just lengthen the PVC on the shallow ones.
CC, it's beyond beautiful out here and I'm truly blessed to have had nearly 5 years to be here, learn what I've learned from the great folks on this forum (with the privilege of meeting several), and done what I've done. It was a new chapter when I moved here and it will be a new chapter when I leave. Yet someday I will again have a pond, one I can call my own!
I noticed way too many 8-12" actively feeding LMB while cutting grass around the pond. So, Jodi and I went down and caught a dozen in about an hour. Caught one nearly two pounds that normally would be released but was gill hooked. 5 pounds total... I've been lax since last summer keeping up with LMB harvest (at least) 10 more lbs this fall.
Wife and I fished for 4 hours to catch enough cnbg to get a good average relative weight idea. Have been noticing a reduction in size and a overpopulation of bluegill. Caught,weighed,and measured 55 fish from 4 and 1/2 inch to 7 1/2 inch. Average relative weight was 99.842% The last time was average 112%. We did catch 3 of the 50 florida lmb we just stocked and they were all approx. 10 inch long and right where they need to be. I guess soon enough the lmb will start lowering the numbers of the cnbg. I must have close to a ton of cnbg in a 2 acre pond and only 50 10 inch bass.We released everything we caught. Still see small fry bluegill all around the bank in certain areas.
Our last good rain was early August. I got the pond up to a little over a foot below full pool. (From 4' below full). No real rain since then, I'm back to 24" below full now. However, I did catch four of these guys last weekend!
Our last good rain was early August. I got the pond up to a little over a foot below full pool. (From 4' below full). No real rain since then, I'm back to 24" below full now. However, I did catch four of these guys last weekend!
Ah, Setter, one day I hope to see that in my pond too! Congrats! Looks like a jig? Was it tipped with anything?
JohnF, man we have hit the drought also, been a few weeks and nothing in site. I'm back down around 4' below full.
I agree with CMM, nice fish and hope to be seeing those soon!
setterguy, I love the color of your water...what all have you don e to get it there?
What did I do? I had 8 tons of lime spread yesterday...just fed fish today. It was a big spreader truck with floatation tires on the rear. He was able to get in the water a bit. Good south wind also so it spread pretty nice. Would have liked to have gotten more on the north end by the levee, but he could back down there of course and the south wind kept it from going down very far. Was pretty pleased with it though. With my pond down so much it was a great time to lime.
[quote=SetterGuy]Our last good rain was early August. I got the pond up to a little over a foot below full pool. (From 4' below full). No real rain since then, I'm back to 24" below full now. However, I did catch four of these guys last weekend!
Ah, Setter, one day I hope to see that in my pond too! Congrats! Looks like a jig? Was it tipped with anything?
I had a little yellow crappie bite on the hook. I found they fell off pretty quickly. Didn't seem to make much difference if it was on or not. I caught the one pictured slowly retrieving it along the bottom. Caught three others with a quicker retrieve. Usually I can't catch anything besides HBG, but all I caught the other morning were YP. Maybe it's because my feeder is broken.. Again..
last year I had tilapia that kept the pond pretty clear of algae. This year I decided to try without. I had no algae until mid August and over last 6 weeks it started as a thin rim on the very edge and grew gradually to about 2-3' around the edge. Since it stayed at about 10% or less of pond surface I left it alone.
This year the algae seemed to be different. It was massively tenacious, stringy and much more lime green than the typical darker green of algae from other years. In other years I could rake it with my landscape rake, then tip the rake, shake a bit and it would slide off, and then go at it again. This afternoon I decided to get to raking it. It was amazing, stringy, tenacious, every pull I had to pull it up on the bank (HEAVY) then bend over and lift big matts of stringy stuff over the end of the rake and pull it down off the tines and leave it in a mass on the ground. I don't wish this kind of FA on anyone! I was told that FA floats because it is dead and air traps under it. This stuff seems amazingly alive to me
After going around the pond once, I touched up the bottom on the 2nd go round. The black nasty stuff that was laying on the bottom under the green FA was raked out and left a nasty smell. There must have been an anoxic layer under the FA. Glad to get that on the shore to dry, and later to be raked and carted off.
Painful on the back, but one advantage I keep reminding myself of is that I'm removing hundreds of pounds of 'nutrients' from the pond which should be to my advantage at some point.
But the other advantage is that I could see all the critters in the algae. I caught a few 2-3" goldfish in their natural drab (nice fat bodies, almost like like golden shiners but much more fat bodied. They are going to be perfect snacks for the predators when they get in the pond next year!) A few baby RES and a few baby perch. Lots and lots of polywogs (see picture below, can someone identify are these bullfrog tadpoles?)
Still raking in a fair number of invasive chinese snails. A few adult frogs were hanging out in the algae and one turtle got raked out of his submerged home and looked at me like what in the world, where am I? Then went back to the pond again.
And also was very delighted to catch something I thought was long gone. See below....
At least ONE PK SHRIMP survived Another reason to keep a little algae around for a hiding place.
So, I would recommend to others that 10% or less coverage of FA is not so bad. Tons of refuge for tiny critters, tiny fish, frogs, turtles, young perch, etc. Surprised but even a 5" goldfish was right at shore and had to swim under about 2' of FA to get where I got to him.
Since tilapia weren't eating FA this year, and no sight of crayfish and I can't trap a single one, I'm wondering if maybe the goldfish are eating my algae or plants? I know my father in law wanted a few of my goldfish in his waterfall fountain. His fountain is only about 3' deep and he can watch them sucking algae off all the rocks in his fountain. (of course there is nothing else for them to eat either...)
Also this year lots of young LCS and shiners, didn't have that last year. Either my stocked fish are big enough this spring to finally have offspring, or the tilapia (absent this year) were eating the eggs since both LCS and shiners broadcast their eggs.
With clean edges the kids can now run their remote control boat in the pond without getting caught in the algae so they are happy too
Water level is down about 6" when the weather has been fairly wet. Still happy with results of my 2nd soil floc application but I haven't tracked the levels with a ruler so can't say exactly how it is faring. I just know that winter is coming and I'd like clean edges and will pump it full right before ice-in.
Handraking has its benefits. Just glad my pond isn't bigger than it is. I wouldn't want to rake a 1+ acre pond
Today a walked across the middle of my 1/2 acre pond. No I'm not the 2nd coming. The water has been resceding all summer. It's our 2nd summer with the property an this is the lowest the old pond has been. There's a ridge that runs down the middle and the water was only about 10" deep. On one side of the ridge there's a bowl about 4' deep right now and all of our bigger fish are there. On the other side most of it is 12" deep with a few spots 2-3' deep. This is a weekend home for us, but.this was a really sad sight to see. I need to figure out why we're losing water and what needs to be done to fix it. The pond is 40 hrs old and I don't think it's been cleaned out since. There are two tree stumps out on that ridge about 30" in diameter so they've been there a while. Hadn't seen them before. We've got a ton of trees in and around the pond. 30-40 yr old pines growing on our dam. I need to figure out the best and most affordable way to fix the water retention issue. Our property is near Cleveland Tx, does anyone have someone they can reccomend in our area? I'll try to attach some pictures.
Harvested three CC from the night before and had them in the holding pen. Sister-in-law was over helping the wife with some stuff so I cleaned them and gave her the fillets.
My wife and I caught some LSL LMB, CC, GSF, and BG all on artificial. I haven't seen any CC in a while. I did not expect them to hit a white curl tail jig. They are getting to be about 17" lg. I stocked them in July/2015 at 4" lg. I'll need to start removing fish soon.
I caught a number of CC on a curl tail jig last year. It is surprising how the CC will nail a moving bait. Will give quite a fight on a light rig for catching BG.
I rarely actually fish for CC. My wife does that (she can knit while the bait sits on the bottom). I'm always fishing for BG and still will catch the CC, especially if I let the jig get near the bottom. Caught one 2-3# tonight but got it up to the bank in 2" of water and it flipped the jig out (I mash the barbs down) and off it went. Caught a couple of 6-8" CC on that jig with the Gulp bait also.
We put away all of the swimming and playing gear for the Winter, but could not get the float raft out. It is down too deep, and I fear the pond will freeze before the water level comes up enough to pull it out. Wishing I had a tractor with a bucket!
It may be harvest time for the Koi, they are making a mess of the water quality and I worry about reproduction since I have a bass-free pond.
This past weekend me and a buddy hooked up a couple of video cameras that I can now watch from my i-phone. Simple cordless system for dummies like me..lol...does not need electricity...they state the new high tech chip that operates this camera allows two small AA Lithium batteries to last at least 6 months. I am still learning about what all it does as far as recording and motion detection. I started with two cameras to see how it works. Purchasing two cameras it came out to about $84 for each camera, less if you buy more. It may not be a perfect system, but a fun "easy to use and install" toy for me. I've got these first 2 cameras inside the cabin pointing outward so sometimes there is a slight glare, but I love being able to take a quick peek and watch live video at the property from my office or home in Dallas.
I didn't fish much, but had some people over on Saturday for hubby's 50th birthday. One guy wanted to fish. I left him my scale and told him to cull lm under 95%. He hollared up at me a few minutes later wanting to know how big a bluegill I had caught from the pond. He had one on the scale weighing 1lb 2oz. He released it with out a picture! It beat my record bg by 3oz. Happy for him, wish I had seen it.
I also replaced a trolling motor. The used one that was gifted to me shot craps. The speed control switch was all melted into a blob. With the other little things wrong with it, I just got another one.
But, I am off today (Bank jobs rock) so may get a chance to hit it later today. Maybe I can get a new bg record.
Repaired a John Deere 650J for a friend last week. A rat had eaten up the wiring harness. So after a lot of solder, tape, and wire we got it going again way cheaper than the John Deere tech. They get $125 an hour from the time they leave to when they get back. They are 45 mins from here. Serviced it also, so after we were done I told him all you owe me is a week or so of the dozer at my house. He said that sounds great! So I have been working on my levee, wanted to flatten the water side angle a bit. It was just to steep. Also worked on the road over the top of it some. Looks alot better. The west bank needed the same, few steep spots so I can bush hog them, so that bugs me. There a few terraces left in the field that hold back some of my water shed...not much, but every bit helps. Lastly I am going to dig out the spring that is on the south side. It runs when the weather is wet, but is probably 3-4 higher in elevation than the pond. Its 75-100 feet south of the pond, but right in line and in a low spot. My pond is really low right now, so I'm going to build a creek of sorts I guess. I'm going to dig an 8' wide trench from the spring to where the water level is now. That way when the spring is flowing it will flow for a lot longer as it will be deeper. Wish I had the money just to dig a well right there and pump it into the pond! lol
Stocked some HSB and feed trained LMB this weekend from Overtons and then did a little fishing on Saturday. The CNBG was one I stocked back in May at 2-3". I'd say the largest CNBG are 6-7" now.
We put away all of the swimming and playing gear for the Winter, but could not get the float raft out. It is down too deep, and I fear the pond will freeze before the water level comes up enough to pull it out. Wishing I had a tractor with a bucket!
It may be harvest time for the Koi, they are making a mess of the water quality and I worry about reproduction since I have a bass-free pond.
I will be draining a Church's pond and removing Koi that have spawned a few times now. I'd cleared it with Alum, and informed the powers that be, the Koi would likely stir it right back up. Sadly, I was right. Now the church (and the pond budget) doesn't like Koi quite so much!
Finished bush-hogging the 15 or so open acres we have. Taught Jodi to use the tractor to do the cutting in open areas, i.e. not around trees and steep slopes. That left me free to do the most physically challenging job and that is trimming the inside of the damn dam. I use a regular weed-eater to do the 2 feet closest to the water then a high-wheel trimmer to do the top of the dam... today, my back feels every push and pull of that thing but, at least, that job won't need to be done until June-July next year.
Jodi found time to catch 8 more LMB, mostly < 12" but one that was about 1.5 lbs. She like to catch the little guys and that's good by me. Now we've caught about 10 lbs this year in the 1 acre pond but I want to catch about 5 lbs more.
It's more like what I did this week @ the pond. I fished for LLB for the first time since last June and lost one when she jumped and landed another. I just wanted to get a look. I don't want to get them hook shy so I am trying to hold off fishing for them until they are in the 6 to 8# range. Fish looked to be in the 13" size and I could not believe how heavy she was. Did not weigh her but she felt like she had been eating lead. I would bet she was in the 150 rw range. I've been brush hoggin and planting winter wheat, elbon Rye and clover around the pond and hoping for some rain, the pond is down about two feet. I have been careful about running well water due to past experience's killing some nice cnbg earlier, most likely due to low DO. And have had no rain since early August. Learning diffusers increase evaporation. I need some fall rains. Almost forgot to mention, I picked up another 30-10" HSB from Todd Overton's and he checked the Alk. and water hardness from my ponds water sample. One last thing, I learned I can kill cnbg by overfeeding. Thanks Todd for your suggestion, no more dead cnbg.
Zep - the low cost, cordless remote view video cameras will be a big benefit to many members. Would you or someone start a new thread with this as the main topic?
A few weeks ago we moved the sludge and clay dug out of our pond last year, as it had dried enough. We hired a very small dozer with wide tracks that didn't sink into the still sticky parts underneath. Had the clay and sludge pushed up against the back slope of the new part of the dam and smoothed and tapered. The back slope there now has about a 5:1 slope on the SE end gradually tapering toward the spillway on the NE end to an excess of 10:1 slope. It makes the pond have the appearance of a totally dug out pond when approached from the east or NE. It is going to be very easy to mow next year compared to most of this year, and no danger of the new part of the dam blowing out.
Loaded the feeder with Cargill 1/8", 3/16", and 1/4" pellets. Then, backed the feed times down to 4 seconds twice daily. The fish seem to feed heavier around noon time in this cooler weather than earlier or later...
Them leaves are late but finally falling... I can't keep up with trying to net or rake them out. I'll have to think of an idea come spring to suction them off the bottom.. or maybe I can find a way to suck them up, run them through a chopping blade to 'mulch' them and let them sink again to improve surface area for bacteria to work on them?
Others say they have lots of leaves falling in the pond and just let them be? Doesn't that add to the muck layer quite quickly?
What about a rope and some pool noodles? Tie one end to a stake on the bank and pull it around from one side and loop around back to the stake. Net out the leaves floating near the bank. Just an idea.
Buy a 2' or 3' deep seine with 1"-1 1/2" mesh that is roughly 10' longer than your pond is wide. It'll take at least 2 people to pull it, but you can get all the leaves in one or two passes while they are floating.
great ideas. I have a 100' seine which with some extension ropes covers the width of the pond fairly closely while the operator stands on shore. The mesh is tighter though (3/8" maybe?) I need to get another strong adult over to help do this. You need to keep up on it almost every day!
I do wonder though how fast they degrade or why some don't worry about it like I do. Several posted about natural ponds deep in a forest that take direct leaf falls for years naturally and don't 'fill in'.
With a few windy days the floating leaves tend to congregate on one side of the other and then sink along that edge. if I could just get them to blow or seine into one side I don't mind raking out the edges in the spring. I tend to have to rake a lot of nasty stuff in the spring anyway. It is the ones in the middle that I wonder how fast they accumulate.
With the smaller mesh you will be picking out fish. Larger mesh will let smaller fish swim thru, maybe "gill" medium sized fish and retain larger fish.
I replaced the battery for the first time in my TH feeder. It was 18 months old. Cut the feeding back to near half what I was feeding. Also have been otter hunting. There are two in my pond!! Fish still feeding strong or normal for this time of year. Water temp is 54,clarity 20 inches. Saw my first duck of the year on the pond yesterday morning,but also saw otter and gbh!! Yug!! Weekender,how big is your pond and what visibility do you have with aeriation this time of year? How old are your fish? Is your pond low? We are still 2 foot low on my 2 acre BOW.
Zep, if ya can spear them things in the head or net em, have a good fry. It bums me every fall to see those nice fish go to the bottom of the pond instead of to the bottom of my belly.
very nice AL...(that's what I'd have to do too to get around the minimum for delivery...Tbar and I discussed splitting an order)...you may have to re-name your pond the "Hog Pen" after those trout are digested!
Mark, I didn't get enough to really pack pounds on my LMB, but I did get enough to evaluate the possibilities. I know I say it a lot, but with 11 ares of water, it always boils down to location, location, location. Whatever I can try to keep CNBG and LMB is areas I want, I'll do.
Most of the RBT went into the brood pound in my attempt to put 3-4" on them before March when their survivability gets iffy. We did release one 10" golden RBT at the dam feeder, and he/she made it 10' before the explosion hit. Our winter time fun just got amped up.
Al, I am glad you are posting about the trout and please continue to keep us in the loop. Todd and I discussed the trout, he asked if I was ready but I thought next year would be a better year for trout stocking. Right now my lmb mouth gape is small and I would need 4 to 6" trout. But next year.
Tracy, will do. I need to do a year end update for the brood pond anyway, so I'll post RBT updates there.
I'm pretty sure this won't be something we do every year, but the all the stars aligned for us this year for a big push. Coontail under control so a big jump in our CNBG recruitment, high tilapia stockings over the last 2 years to take pressure off those newly minted CNBG, and the golden months of January and February for LMB. IMHO, there's no better time of the year to catch that largest LMB of the year.
Because of all that, I like to think of the RBT addition as target forage. I don't want to feed all my LMB, just the larger lazy egg laden one's.
Today I made my annual Post Christmas cover run. My experience is that box stores are happy to get rid of them. Picked these up at Lowe's today, and they had to charge me for them. 50 cents a piece. I normally get 2-3 years out of them before they need to be replenished.
Heron love trout, I hate herons. I put up my barrier today after seeing a GBH fly away from the brood pond.
Neat idea on source of trees! I've had some in for a couple years now and they don't seem to be deteriorating very fast. Maybe it's the super high alkalinity of our pond water?
I like your heron fence as well. What did you use for posts? Why did you tilt them towards the water? Is that bird netting?
Al will know for sure but his posts look like the 1/4" diameter, 48" posts folks use to mark driveways for snowplowing. They have the reflective tape at the top which works great at night when trying to find your driveway in a snowstorm..
You can find 100 packs for about 75 cents a piece on ebay and if you get more than 100 they get cheaper yet. They come in blue, yellow, orange, green etc. I found my orange ones seemed to fade and deteriorate pretty quickly after a season in the sun. They also give nasty splinters when they split (fiberglass). I bought yellow ones for my driveway instead of orange this year just to see if they hold up better in the sun.
Usually they have a blunt bottom but the ones I got this year happened to have the bottoms tapered to a semi-point which helps me push them in by hand. I find they are very useful as a marker in the woods (the orange or yellow ones catch your eye from a distance) and are very helpful for putting up temporary fencing like above.
When they splinter (usually at the ground level from the snow pushing against them) I take a hacksaw to the splintered part and save the shorter ones for stakes in the garden when I plant my rows and before the seeds or tiny plants are easily visible.
very handy to have a few around. I store them in a section of 4" thin wall PVC cut at about 42" (with the bottom closed off with one of those caps that has the small holes in for drainage) that I had laying around as they don't tend to stay in one place when you try to stack 100 of them in the corner
I bet his idea will work fabulous for keeping the GBH out!
Bill, it may be. I don't like the Christmas trees as well as cedars, but it sure is nice to have twenty somethings helping you load the trailer. Much better than cutting cedars out of fence rows all day.
Thanks Bill. IIRC, Cecil Baird had posted something like this or very similar. I thought it had merit, so I've been doing it the last 3 years.
For the posts, I use the $2 orange roadway markers. They're fiberglass, and wont break unless you try to. I tilted them in so the heron won't stand on the bottom on the pond side. It also helps keep them working when the water fluctuates.
It's just the cheapest 4'X50' plastic fencing I could get. It's got a 1" mesh, so I keep the bottom out of the water. It's rare, but it can catch smaller fish by the gills. Oh, zero herons when these are out.
Also, if you stand the fencing straight up, it's great in the fall for catching leaves before they get in the pond.
EDIT: canyoncreek, I'd pay $75 for a hundred in a heart beat. We use a lot of them around here. Thanks for that info.
Thanks for the info guys. I use those stakes during the winter to mark the driveway for snow removal. I might just have to give it a try. I think that could be a good geese deterrent as well as GBH!
I should have gone and pick up some Christmas trees the past couple of days but a dr apt interrupted me from doing so. But I did sneak in a few hrs of cnbg fishing and let me tell you, the size of some of those bg were the largest I have ever caught.. Caught on a blue and white skirt crappie jig with a road runner head on ultra light tackle using braded line. Surface water temp was 62 degrees. Sorry no pics, I don't keep my phone in my pocket in the pond boat. the pond has one of my phones already
Bill, it may be. I don't like the Christmas trees as well as cedars, but it sure is nice to have twenty somethings helping you load the trailer. Much better than cutting cedars out of fence rows all day.
Thanks Bill. IIRC, Cecil Baird had posted something like this or very similar. I thought it had merit, so I've been doing it the last 3 years.
For the posts, I use the $2 orange roadway markers. They're fiberglass, and wont break unless you try to. I tilted them in so the heron won't stand on the bottom on the pond side. It also helps keep them working when the water fluctuates.
It's just the cheapest 4'X50' plastic fencing I could get. It's got a 1" mesh, so I keep the bottom out of the water. It's rare, but it can catch smaller fish by the gills. Oh, zero herons when these are out.
Also, if you stand the fencing straight up, it's great in the fall for catching leaves before they get in the pond.
EDIT: canyoncreek, I'd pay $75 for a hundred in a heart beat. We use a lot of them around here. Thanks for that info.
I'll attach a link to probably the biggest online seller. You can buy 50, 100, 200 or even 4000 at a time in any color or a multi-color pack. If you buy WITHOUT the reflective tape they are about 50 cents a piece when bought in bulk.
I have no connection to the seller but just know price is right when you buy them at volume discount. Like you, I find all kinds of uses for them
We're still low from the summer, so when the pond fills back up this spring these should be in 5-6' of water. They're very easy to reload from a boat. I try to set posts in fall or winter when the water's lower, so I can just walk out to drive them in. The posts are not particularly attractive to look at, but it's a very easy way to add and maintain natural cover.
I'm trying to understand the process. I think you drive posts into the pond bottom and then loosely tie the trees to the posts? What makes them sink, the weight of another tree on top?
What I do is drive the t posts down about 3', then just slide a piece of pipe over that. I want to make sure the ropes don't get cut by rubbing on the t posts. I'll cut them off if we hit the emergency spillway this spring. 6" over that level is about right.
I keep the rope loose, and I've found that when they sink, they lay on their side and hold the others above it up. When I quit seeing the smaller limbs, I just add to them. I'm effectively getting a 10' to 12' diameter chia pet.
Zep, you did great on trying to disguise the thermostat. A few other ideas. Behind that thermostat they installed a very wide trim plate. That plate is included for when they have to hide defects in the wall or a different color paint that is showing when they take an old thermostat out and put in a new one. You can easily remove that large trim ring and just use the actual thermostat itself. The smaller size of the thermostat might fit nicely in the recess in the state of texas map there if you lower the mounted location an inch or so too
Those thermostats come in a variety of colors. The silver or gold colored ones might look sharp!
Yeah snrub i think albino cats are unique...maybe something a kid has never seen before...and they would remember a long time.
Now that the project is mostly done I hope to see more of the firepit and albino cats.
canyoncreek...that trim-ring is actually my fault...I had them put it there to avoid fingerprints over time on the drywall, but you are correct it may fit better without it and I will take a look at the gold and silver versions...have never seen those. thanks
I grew up with the gold version everywhere. I see now you can get them on ebay but they are considered 'vintage' and command very high prices ($100 plus). It probably is easier to keep things as is or for about $5 you can get a rattle can of any kind of gold or silver paint, flat finish, metallic, hammered finish, sparkly, etc and make it any color you want. Or, perhaps just as easy to get a little throw away foam brush and take the left over wall paint and paint the thermostat the wall color and it will pretty much fade out of sight.
You might also consider a simple programmable digital thermostat too to save on energy when you don't need tight control of temperatures.
canyoncreek....I am old-school on thermostats...don't really like the fancy thermostats...give me a "Thermostat For Dummies" any day...lol. The cabins are so small they cool and heat quickly. I can't tell you how many guys have seen my new Honeywell simple digital thermostats and said "I wish mine was that simple". On Amazon I am not seeing the different colors for the digital model I have at home and the cabin.
Yep, the old school analog thermostats (was there a bubble of mercury or liquid silver in there?) came in the gold/silver variety. They probably were a hazard of some type.
The round digital version you have only comes in white. So, rattle can, or paint it with a foam brush to match your wall color or just leave it as is.
Technically yesterday...but with a couple inches of snow the kids did some sledding off the dam's hillside...pond is probably 4-5 ft deep right now, need to get the dock installed ASAP... Need to figure out how to post pictures in the post w/o link...Pond looks nice with snow all around and not mud and clay...
Technically yesterday...but with a couple inches of snow the kids did some sledding off the dam's hillside...pond is probably 4-5 ft deep right now, need to get the dock installed ASAP... Need to figure out how to post pictures in the post w/o link...Pond looks nice with snow all around and not mud and clay...
Even if you get the outtermost or as many of the posts set as you can, you will be way ahead of the game compared to building the whole thing in a full pond. I would at least try to get the post set while you have dry ground.
Haven't posted in a while, been busy with family/work and and having fun. Hope this isn't to long, but thought it was very interesting so I tried it today. One of the ladies my wife has worked with for years, told my wife the first of December that her boyfriend and her bought 2 cut Christmas trees at local Rural King. They put one in house and kept it watered. The other they planted in their front yard. She told my wife that her brother-in -law has done this in past with the trees he used for his Christmas tree (6 years worth). I drove by the ladies house and seen the new tree and it looks great in her yard(green as can be and healthy looking). So by accident I was tell the guys at work about it and no one ever heard of doing it except for one guy, and he said that's funny you mentioned this replanting of Christmas trees because when I took my kids to buy our tree this year at the tree farm where you buy already cut or cut your own trees he asked the owner what he did with the cut trees he didn't sell. His answer was (I replant them) so my mind got thinking and I told my son to save his tree I wanted to try it this year. So we are going to get about 5 days of rain here in Indiana next few days so I just planted the tree he gave me(it has been sitting in about 6 inches of water at ponds edge since week after Christmas. I think they look great around pond landscape since they put no leaves in pond in fall. Just thought this was very interesting, because if it works I can get all I want free after Christmas each year and already 5 to 7 feet tall. I will post about every couple months on how tree is doing. Worth a try to me. PO
I set out 4 body grip traps and 2 leg grip traps today in an attempt to catch another beaver. Had caught one last year, but I guess my troubles are not over with regards to beavers. I was standing near the bank the other day and a beaver surfaced about 4' from me. I don't know who jumped higher, the beaver or me....ha! Anyway, I can't afford having her dig holes in my levee.
Hand fed 3 different sizes of Triton (Cargill) fish pellets from the dock. It's very interesting that the 3 distinct sizes of fish will hit the 3 distinct sizes of pellets only, directly proportional in size.
Made a nice home made cedar gun rack in the cabin closet complete with ammo shelf and area for your binoculars.
Then we set a new platform for the new stationary dock we are going to build while the water is down so it can get nice and setup. The new dock is going to be 4x16 walkway with a 8x12 deck attached to the end of the walkway. Cant wait to get it done!!!
Thanks Stick it took 13 / 80lbs bags of concrete to make that slab and we had quite a bit of filler rocks... I forgot how much fun mixing 80 bags of concrete is. lol It wasn't easy but it will be well worth it. Were gonna make the entire dock out of 2x6 treated lumber. Course the posts will be galvanized posts with adjustable dock sleeves to raise and lower the dock as needed. I for sure will take pics as we go and post them...
This morning, on the ice, in the pouring rain! Minnesota 2/20/2017 and I had to wear rain gear. Weird weather.
As a neighborhood joke, when it stops raining, I may pull out the lawn tractor and make it look like I'm cutting the grass. That should confirm to my neighbors how nuts I am.
Thanks Stick it took 13 / 80lbs bags of concrete to make that slab and we had quite a bit of filler rocks... I forgot how much fun mixing 80 bags of concrete is. lol It wasn't easy but it will be well worth it. Were gonna make the entire dock out of 2x6 treated lumber. Course the posts will be galvanized posts with adjustable dock sleeves to raise and lower the dock as needed. I for sure will take pics as we go and post them...
RC
RC, I feel you...that's what it took (13) to pour the slab for the pump house (except mine were 50's not 80's). Yes, I mixed in a wheel barrow with a shovel and a garden rake. It came out decent, but man, that's some work by hand. Well, you did an impressive job. The dock is gonna be nice when completed. Hope you post some pics. stickem'
Overachievers, I just threw out some optimal jr to my 2-3 inch BG. This week however I would like to fill in 2 washouts from the last bad storm that dropped 8 in of rain in one afternoon.
Yes I will post pics for sure! We already have all the dock hardware we just have to start buying the wood. I would say we will start probably second week in March or so.
Too cold and windy today. Great time in Indy to visit the Deer, Turkey, and Waterfowl Expo, and the Boat, Sport, and Travel Show with the family. I am expecting it to be crowded though.
I think I've already lost my mountain man cred this morning.
My wife spotted an otter(first we've ever seen here) bolting across the hay meadow towards the big pond this morning. I'm sure I was quite the sight running across the pasture in my PJ's and house shoes, trying to cut him off with a shotgun we leave by the front door.
We've got the beavers handled around here, but I guess a new adventure starts today.
Checked my body grip and leg grip traps for my "other" beaver...no luck so far. I think I found the beaver den down a nearby creek in the wall of the bank downstream from my dam. Will move one of the body grip traps and cover the entry hole...force that rascal to go through it.
Tried to hand feed, but the fish wouldn't have it. The water was 56 degrees.
Measured the water depth and checked on the grass on the dam.
We've made tremendous progress over the last few months. Got the pond built/expanded and I now have 3' of water as of yesterday!! I ordered my forage fish and 2 TX Hunter feeders. Praying for more rain!!
In early Dec we planted cereal rye and unhulled bermuda seed. The objective was for the rye to come up early and the Bermuda once it warms up. We've had crazy weather with temps down to the low 20's not long after the rye came up and then temps in the upper 80's last week. I've got grass growing but not as thick as I expected.
Seeded the dam on the new pond with annual rye. Rolled it in with a lawn roller. We are predicted to get a little rain tomorrow. It's as dry as I have EVER seen it for this time of year. We haven't had a good rain in over seven months...only little ones now and then.
Hand fed some sinking pellets for the CC. Yesterday, stocked about 45-47 six to eight inch CC into the new pond.
I might have missed it. Why do you suspect you still have a beaver? Active dam building on the creek?
Bill, Other than the familiar grass clippings in the water and mashed down area at the waters edge, the beaver surfaced about 4' from me at the waters' edge earlier this year. Charlie
Went up to he farm today to check on the house, fix a flat on my tractor, and cut a driveway for the 40' conex container coming in this week. I made a pass around the pond to check the beaver traps.....no luck. I can watch at a distance and the ponds surface is perfectly calm. It's amazing how the fish will start breaking the waters' surface when the tractor drives up. Funny, how that is.
I took just a small amount of feed out just to see if there were any takers. Water too cold yet to really feed much, but just wanted to see if there was any activity. Did not really expect any.
For the most part there was not. But two areas around the pond had a number of nice, big BG give a fair amount of activity after the feed.
I think once it warms up in the next few days after this cold spell passes it will be "feed on" again for 2017.
Big day. Got my dock installed by the intrepid Overton team! Quite an undertaking, my wife and I got to watch. Thanks, guys.
Walt Overton noted that, unlike last year, the water has a greenish tinge. pH 6.5, hardness & alkalinity in the 40s, all decent though not great. Last year pH consistently around 5.5.
Anyway, should be able to fertilize in a couple of weeks of warm weather. I hope we can place some artificial & natural habitat in the lake by that time, but it depends on how many helpers I can recruit.
Pleasantly surprised to discover that my forage pond is about 80 percent full. Unlike the main BOW, it has no constant source of water, just the rain. Never been limed, so pH is only 6.0. Walt suggested I put some lime in it before stocking CNBG. Right now it is a frog & tadpole haven.
Next step: Pond King Pro boat. The stability (I have very active grandkids) was a big selling point, as is the fact it can be left out in the weather without harm. Hope they deliver soon!
PS I'm feeding two seconds a day, but haven't seen any takers yet. Hopefully that will change soon with warmer weather.
My fish are just starting to eat again after the flood. I had my brother sink the habitat and pull out some of the tree limbs that washed into the pond. The FA has vanished from the surface, but I know it will probably return with a vengeance.
This past few days I have been adding brush piles along the shorelines. My pond has zero vegetation and so I needed some thick cover along the shoreline, places where the newborn fish might hide to survive. I have been using 10 to 15' cedar trees, 7' bamboo tied in bundles and 7' willows tied in bundles. 10 brush pies so far with a few more to add this week. Plans are to mix and match them and build a thick places for them to hide for better lmb, cnbg and res recruitment this spring.
Yesterday evening I just sat and took in all the little sounds. Frogs, birds, fish popping the surface. Etc.
There is a family that lives 1/4 mile away and I could hear kids laughing and playing. I fell asleep in my adirondack chair only to have my wife tap me on the shoulder to tell me supper was ready.
That paints a pretty picture farmallsc! I just noticed the spring peeper frogs at my pond the other day even though there is only a foot or two of water in the pond, the frogs are showing up. Pretty peaceful indeed.
This past few days I have been adding brush piles along the shorelines. My pond has zero vegetation and so I needed some thick cover along the shoreline, places where the newborn fish might hide to survive. I have been using 10 to 15' cedar trees, 7' bamboo tied in bundles and 7' willows tied in bundles. 10 brush pies so far with a few more to add this week. Plans are to mix and match them and build a thick places for them to hide for better lmb, cnbg and res recruitment this spring.
Good for you, Tracy! I'm in the same boat (no pun intended) with my pond, zero submerged vegetation, so will try brushpiles & artificial structure.
Impressed that you are mixing cedars, bamboo and willows. My stuff will mostly be sweet gum with brush.
By the way, do you intend to use GPS to locate your brushpiles, or perhaps mark it some other way?
Really looking forward to fertilizing enough to get a bloom. Never came close to happening last year, too acidic. Will also try putting some lime in the main feeder creek.
Anthropic, I used duck decoys at every piece of structure I submerged. Works great ,don't look bad, and has brought a few live ducks in. Just a thought. Bought a big bag of them at a garage sale for less than $2 each.
Hay there Frank, to explain about the brush piles, they are along the shoreline where they can be seen so no need to mark them. This is to give cover for the fingerlings, giving them a better chance at survival as they cruise the shoreline. Now as far as other cover, its pretty much been added where there is some type of structure like underwater points, ledges and or where two different depths meet. And some more is set on a couple of flats. Ha ha, my son says I have to much cover, but if you go with 20 to 30 percent cover, it means something like an acre of cover in a 3 acre pond. that is a lot of cover if you think about it. Have some fun with you new ride and place some cover around to where it might concentrate some fish for easy fishing.
put 7 lbs of FHM in the pond today and hand sorted them all. only other thing I found in there a was a rosy red and it went in the pond. impressed with Shelby fish farm 100% no unwanted fish in the bunch. now to wait 2-3 weeks to get the rest of the fish and GSH. also put 4 pallets in for FHM spawning structure and some homemade floating structures with pieces of spouting.
After further investigation, I found the battery on my TH dock feeder was dead (I thought it would last more than 2 years being solar charged). That explains a few things. I hand fed yesterday and today...the fish were voracious. Pulled the battery for exchange. Water temperature was 66 degrees. It's spring time in SE Texas.
I sat in the glider most of the day visiting with my nephew. I fed several times today. I always try to keep the morning and evening meals at the same time, but the rest of the feeding is done at various times throughout the day. Handful here and there. They always seem hungry.
Changed out the battery in the TH dock feeder. Ran 2) test cycles at 4 secs each. BG fed hard until the LMB showed up and started blowing them out of the water...exciting stuff! Water was 68 degrees.
I checked for winter killed RES and didn't find any, yeah! It's been a long month in that regard. I also checked for YP ribbons and didn't see any, then fished for a little bit in a cold north breeze and caught a few large GSH. Still waiting on warmer water temps here.
I checked for winter killed RES and didn't find any, yeah! It's been a long month in that regard. I also checked for YP ribbons and didn't see any, then fished for a little bit in a cold north breeze and caught a few large GSH. Still waiting on warmer water temps here.
Good news Shorty. Did you have any winter kill other than RES? Do you think it was the temp or something else that got the RES?
Hooked a 5+ lb bass on topwater,ran under brush and jumped into brush and hung from above water limbs giving me a look at it. Fun!
Very cool Pat!
How's the BCP fishing? Up here, when the water temp hits 55 or so, it's game on!
Kinda slow on the BCP.... think the Anhinga is doing well on the BCP... the cormorants not doing too bad either. I think the BCP have only gotten one spawn off since the lake was dug... 8" is the only size that I can catch
Bill, just a few small GSH at ice out, everything else has been all winter killed RES. We had had a good stretch of abnormally warm weather back in February that took the ice off the pond very quickly, I am guessing that the rapid ice melt mixed the water column quickly and killed a significant number of my RES. Most of the dead RES I have picked up have been from a single extremely large year class in the 6" to 8" size range, smaller and larger RES are noticeable absent for some odd reason. In the last 4 weeks I have picked 116 dead RES over 6" with only four 9" RES and three over 10". The ones popping up over the last week are very decayed, they are missing skin, eyeballs, and cheeks. Water temps in the 40's have made this a very slow drawn out process.
Bill, just a few small GSH at ice out, everything else has been all winter killed RES. We had had a good stretch of abnormally warm weather back in February that took the ice off the pond very quickly, I am guessing that the rapid ice melt mixed the water column quickly and killed a significant number of my RES. Most of the dead RES I have picked up have been from a single extremely large year class in the 6" to 8" size range, smaller and larger RES are noticeable absent for some odd reason. In the last 4 weeks I have picked 116 dead RES over 6" with only four 9" RES and three over 10". The ones popping up over the last week are very decayed, they are missing skin, eyeballs, and cheeks. Water temps in the 40's have made this a very slow drawn out process.
That is pretty sickening Shorty. Sorry to hear that. I've been catching a few so hope mine are ok.
I took a drive to my pond with intentions of feeding (which I did) but threw a crankbait in first and a chunky 5lber snatched it up near the bank . Water levels are at full pool from the recent rains. Bass and bluegill were eating pellets pretty aggressively for being this early in the year. Usually pics are more clear but these were taken with my phone.
I started up my aeration system with a 30 min run yesterday and will bump it up to an hour today. Six Kasco diffusers in this 3.4 acre to 3 acre pond. Last year, I ran it 24-7 and in August the water temp was at or around 90 degrees , so now I am thinking I may just run the system at night only during the hot time of the year. I also added another brush pile along the ponds edge. Hoping to improve on lmb fingerling survival and improve the survival of cnbg fry. I have a lot of cnbg in the 4 to 10" size and have caught and released an 11" cnbg.
I moved the diffusers back to deeper water, after a winter spent in the shallows. Actually, never ran the system at all this past winter. Don't believe that's ever happened before. As I'm motoring them back out deep, the air line broke off at the diffuser manifold, so that necessitated a trip to the dock and a repair. While I had them high and dry I fired up the compressor and found a couple more annoyances, one being that the pump wouldn't start. A flip of the motor cured that issue, and it restarted several more times with no further issue. It appears sitting idle all winter didn't agree with it.
The second issue revolved around the membranes being severely plugged up. To the point that replacement is in order. I think I will move away from the high dollar membranes, and substitute replacement by less expensive diffusers every couple years. Ideally, I would replace them before placement, but I was counting on the aeration to help distribute the dye I also planned to add yesterday. So down they went, with the full knowledge that they will be coming back up in a week or two.
Cool picture RAH! Looks like a great white egret. We had one on our pond this morning as well. Two old sayings came to mind, "Wolf in sheep's clothing" and "a rose by any other name is still a rose." IIRC great white egrets are herons and IMO are just GBH in disguise, even if they are called egret! They are in my pond to stab my fish and frogs!
Think it is a snowy egret, but I am no bird expert. Not worried about what its eating. My guess is that the easy pickings are frogs, but expect it is finding the smaller YP tasty as well. 50 or so (some nice) BG came to be fed at the old pond this morning as well. Finished off a multiyear project cutting grapes a 20+ acre block of woods. The Asian honeysuckle will not be so easy.
Mom says we got 4" of rain. We caught a break in the rain and walked to the pond. Threw out the feed and the feast was on. Fed them 6 cups and it was eaten in less than 5 minutes. These sunfish can really eat. I have also started trying to feed the little fish in a different area. I can't tell if they are BG or not, they are very small though. Mom diverts the big fish by feeding them as I'm on around the corner feeding the small ones.
Luckily, my water hasn't turned muddy from the rain. I'm not sure why because it sure did on the last flood we had.
I also have one of those snowy white herons everyday and shows up around feeding time making the cnbg an easier target. And I hope I get 4" of rain today at the farm, I could use it, pond is still down from full pool.
Scattered some more annual rye seed on the top and sides of the dam at the new pond. It's supposed to rain in an hour or so. I have a sparse stand already from the first seeding five weeks or so ago but it needs to be thicker.
Walked the flooded area down stream of my pond looking for stranded fish. Water is too muddy to see anything. Found one dead Bluegill in the weeds. Other than that I haven't seen anything else.
Best way to cull them is into grease, after cleaning.
Or now my wife likes her new air fryer that uses minimal grease.
I know, I know, your family does not like fish that well.
Cut them into thin strips like fish sticks or small bite size chunks, coat with a good fish coating mix with the flavors you like, and even non-fish eaters will think they are pretty tasty.
I'm not a big fish eater myself. But pond raised and artificial feed fed and the right flavored coating and we now eat quite a bit of fish and like it a lot.
RAH, your white colored heron type is a Great Egret, Ardea alba. Several of the larger wading birds (herons, egrets, others) come in white. The GBH, Ardea herodias, as a white morph is called a Great White Heron; it's only a color phase of the more common blue variety. Then there is the Snowy Egret. It has yellow feet. There are cattle egrets, commonly seen in groups feeding in pastures with cows. The Reddish Egret has a white morph; the Little Blue Heron also. What indicates your bird as the Great Egret is its black legs and feet, longish thin slightly downcurved bill, and relatively large mass. Hope this helps.
RAH The beak color is only partially diagnostic in that some of the smaller heron/egrets may have dark bills or light bills or a combination of dark and light at different times of their lives. The white morph of the GBH has a yellow bill which is much heavier, thicker, straighter, and appears two toned in good light. Adult GWHs, ie. white phase GBH, in spring have plumes on the back of their heads; the Great Egrets do not. The GWHs also have short plumes on their lower backs, sometimes hard to see, and the egrets have longer plumes there. These plume features are more readily apparent when the birds are on the ground rather than in the air. Two guides I'd recommend are The Sibley Guide to Birds, a National Audubon book, and Complete Birds of North America from National Geographic. Enjoy! This reminds me of our trip down the Rio Lagartos (alligator river), on the northern shore of the Yucatan many years ago. One of our party jokingly would query our panga operator/guide about the flavor of each of the different bird species he was pointing out to us. "!Muy sabroso!" was his reply for every one. When he even answered that way for the roseate spoonbill, a bird that filter feeds in the muck, we KNEW he was full of it!
John, We eat a lot of fish and the CC are headed to the grease! I think there is a list of friends that are always interested in our CC for grease releases!
We ended up pan frying a few of the larger (8"+) BG this past weekend as well. Quite tasty...We've released a few CC and BC to the grease a couple months back, but this is a first for the BG. What a treat. I've been needing to remove some fish and we haven't even put a dent in it. It'll be easier when the house is completed and we move out there.
We ended up pan frying a few of the larger (8"+) BG this past weekend as well. Quite tasty...We've released a few CC and BC to the grease a couple months back, but this is a first for the BG. What a treat. I've been needing to remove some fish and we haven't even put a dent in it. It'll be easier when the house is completed and we move out there.
I've been bird crazy since I hand caught a common redpoll in a snowstorm when I was 5 (back in the 50's). All birds, big or little, interest me.
Apparently that energy has been picked up by my Australian shepherd/border collie girl. She'll be at my side this coming Saturday when a big old tom turkey comes strutting in to my calls. At the shot, she'll be on him on a flash, administering the coup de' grace and starting the plucking process. This year I have a smart phone, so I'll attempt a video.
I really think her philosophy is that birds have wings, so they need to be using them. No GBHs or Canada geese stay on our pond once she spots them!
Our younger German Shepherd thinks that geese are not allowed and swims after them. I have had GS dogs all my life and this is the first one that does this trick. They all love to swim, but chasing geese in the water is new. Still not enough turkeys on my place to hunt, but they are building. Coyotes are thick, so they have a challenge. Both GS dogs think that the yotes have no right to be on our place and I am OK with that! We have a third GS dog on the way. My wife wants a pack, but I have only agreed to 4, and these need to be spread out over time so they don't all die together. We had 4 dogs die at 14 to 15 years old over the course of a year or so, and that was hard. Training is also easier when older trained dogs are around to set an example.
Best way to cull them is into grease, after cleaning.
Or now my wife likes her new air fryer that uses minimal grease.
I know, I know, your family does not like fish that well.
Cut them into thin strips like fish sticks or small bite size chunks, coat with a good fish coating mix with the flavors you like, and even non-fish eaters will think they are pretty tasty.
I'm not a big fish eater myself. But pond raised and artificial feed fed and the right flavored coating and we now eat quite a bit of fish and like it a lot.
I'm starting to like our new air fryer as well...so called healthier foods worry me, since I've done pretty well for 56 years on sugar, caffeine and nicotine....Last thing I want, is to die healthy!
Got out to the pond just in time to watch them feed. Lots of smaller fish it seems. The pellets were consumed in less than 5 minutes. I may increase the feed times by another 25% tomorrow. Water temp was 75 degrees....a little elevated for this time of year normally.
Got out to the pond just in time to watch them feed. Lots of smaller fish it seems. The pellets were consumed in less than 5 minutes. I may increase the feed times by another 25% tomorrow. Water temp was 75 degrees....a little elevated for this time of year normally.
I know right! I keep increasing daily! Those GSF and CC are eating machines. If they keep eating like this, they're gonna eat me out of house and home!
Got out to the pond just in time to watch them feed. Lots of smaller fish it seems. The pellets were consumed in less than 5 minutes. I may increase the feed times by another 25% tomorrow. Water temp was 75 degrees....a little elevated for this time of year normally.
I know right! I keep increasing daily! Those GSF and CC are eating machines. If they keep eating like this, they're gonna eat me out of house and home!
My GSF came in with a flood that filled the pond overnight. They were so prolific the first year...I would catch 4-5 distinct sizes. I culled out 350 of them and gave them to a neighbor whose pond had "turned over" and had killed all his large BG breeders. His LMB were living by canibalizing their own spawn. Once I got some predators (LMB, BC, and CC) stocked (after about a year) I very seldom catch a GSF. Given time, your predators should take care of your GSF issue.
Took friends on a boat trip around the pond, particularly the island. We saw two areas where CNBG were bedding, a third area almost certainly but too windy to see clearly. Great time, exactly what I wanted the pond to be, along with fun place for kids to catch lots of fish.
Tested feeders for 3 seconds, and all feed gone within 3-5 minutes. Now feeding twice a day, 6 seconds each time, from three feeders. That's only 3 pounds of Optimal per day, think I'll double it in a few days.
Look forward to some TP and GSH stocking this week, along with a small number of breeding size CNBG for the forage pond. No aerator yet because no electricity, so will wait until next year for TP in forage pond.
I increased the morning and afternoon feed times from 4 to 6 sec on the TH dock feeder (the fish had been cleaning the pellets up in about 3 minutes previously)...then filled the feeder up with Triton (Cargill) pellets...a mix of 1/8", 3/16, and 1/4" size...fish were lively and fed well. Water was 68 degrees. Man, I have a heck of a bunch of red-ear slider turtles from the size of a hard hat down to a golf ball that need thinning out. Knocked down some dead trees with my FEL and drug them to where I normally burn brush. I also set up 2 tripod corn feeders near the pond (no batteries or corn loaded yet). We hope to be moving into our retirement home (there) in about 3 or so weeks.
also set up 2 tripod corn feeders near the pond (no batteries or corn loaded yet). We hope to be moving into our retirement home (there) in about 3 or so weeks.
What are you feeding the corn to? Sounds like a nice adventure in your future.
Threw out the minnow traps this morning hoping to sample some small perch. Baited with optimal fish food and a little dog food (kids thought it would be funny to mix dog food with the fish food....)
First pull in, nothing
2nd time, a little deeper, kept it out longer, 2 GSH, one about 4", one about 2". Looked healthy. Very happy to see that they continue to do OK in a pond with close to zero vegetation. But no predators yet either..
Third time kept overnight, next morning 5 big fat crayfish in it!! I have stocked crayfish 2 summers in a row, no predators, never see crayfish, thought they all walked off and couldn't understand why never saw them at night or in traps. Well, at least 5 of them survived.
When traps are overflowing it will be time to stock predators. I suspect the adult YP are probably going to feast on the young crayfish if we can get some offspring going.
also set up 2 tripod corn feeders near the pond (no batteries or corn loaded yet). We hope to be moving into our retirement home (there) in about 3 or so weeks.
What are you feeding the corn to? Sounds like a nice adventure in your future.
We deer and hog hunt on our place as well...deer hunt by choice and hog hunt in self defense. I like to keep the animals (deer) close year around. There are even some axis running loose. About 7-8 years ago someone bought a 5000 acre tract of high fence property a few miles north of us and they tore the fences down. I've had axis on camera at the game feeders on several occasions.
also set up 2 tripod corn feeders near the pond (no batteries or corn loaded yet). We hope to be moving into our retirement home (there) in about 3 or so weeks.
What are you feeding the corn to? Sounds like a nice adventure in your future.
We deer and hog hunt on our place as well...deer hunt by choice and hog hunt in self defense. I like to keep the animals (deer) close year around. There are even some axis running loose. About 7-8 years ago someone bought a 5000 acre tract of high fence property a few miles north of us and they tore the fences down. I've had axis on camera at the game feeders on several occasions.
Nothing going on here. Water still muddy from flood. Fish won't eat for the next few days. Brother bought me a glider so I can sit by the pond. I really like it!
Got my dozer back from the highly competent young neighbor mechanic and he started up my backhoe and got it out of the barn. Now I need to plan a 2 week vacation during the summer to dig the next pond... First I get the artesian fen going and level the pad for the new barn. I have 300 years of plans to get started on!
Been catching re, bg, and lm. At my place the re are spawning and are hitting minnow pattern flies like crazy. Also have put in some artificial Christmas trees and a couple of cedars. No mushrooms, but a little asparagus.
Sounds fun CMM! +1 on the asparagus starting to come thru.
I went out this afternoon and put Bayer Tree and Shrub granules around several of the trees we had Japanese Beetle problems with last year. Took a break and walked around the pond and was happy to see, now that the water is warming a bit, thousands and thousands of small fish and large tadpoles in the shallows. Started watching a Belted Kingfisher and he successfully caught and consumed 3 BG in the 2 inch+ size in about 30 minutes! I was amazed he could still fly away! Definitely entertaining to watch! Started doing the math and was surprised at the numbers. If that guy catches 3 BG a day from April thru October, he eats over 600 BG!
...went out to check on the house and walked down to the pond right as the feeder was going off. Watched the fish feed, then threw a couple handfuls more of pellets. The fish were voracious today.
Walt Overton came out and stocked small GSH and large TP. Also put 50 breeding size CNBG in the forage pond.
And he helped us set up feeder on dock. For some reason we never got the legs for the Texas Hunter feeder, so we did without. The fish didn't respond for about ten seconds, then went crazy. All food eaten in less than 5 minutes.
Neat to see BG bedding just to the right of the dock, in the "fish" area. The left side of the dock is the swim area. Some of the Mozambique TP were a beautiful golden color, easy to spot them. A few of the CNBG were really nice, in the 7 to 8 inch zone.
Still have to reload other feeders, plus set timers on 9am/7:30pm schedule. And need to fertilize, which I intend to do this weekend.
Got my dozer back from the highly competent young neighbor mechanic and he started up my backhoe and got it out of the barn. Now I need to plan a 2 week vacation during the summer to dig the next pond... First I get the artesian fen going and level the pad for the new barn. I have 300 years of plans to get started on!
Rah, Your itinerary sounds much like mine....I wish I was 20 yrs younger. Time to start the Aleve IV drip on my end...
I just shot the pad for the future barn and most of it is 10" high. That is OK, but it ain't flat. Can add a couple days to the work plan. A good operator that can see grade could probably do it in an hour.
Watched the fish feed at 5:00, then fed them again at 6:30. They wiped it out quickly. Tried to film some fish feeding in slow motion mode on my camera. Water was 75 degrees. Will probably increase feeder time another 25%.
81 here today so I thought I'd see if the fish were ready to start hitting pellets yet for this year. Threw a couple handfuls and was really surprised at the response. It was all hands on deck! 8 to 9 inch YP (last years recruits), all different sizes of BG, a SMB and a couple LMB cruisers and, of course, half a dozen CC.
Also found a dead bullfrog on the shore. Maybe 7 or 8 inch. No idea the cause of death and smelled too bad to examine it closely.
Bass are on nests, saw a male guarding visible eggs. Redear and RES/BG hybrids are staging right off nesting sites. Almost showtime, provided the weather holds up.
A bunch of eater size CC came up for food in my 19 month old pond, and were aggressively taking food.
Still no CC feeding in my 4 month old pond, (nearly full now) and I put 13 more 8" CC in yesterday right by the feeding ring.
Sold my 2" HF water pump Friday and bought a 2" Honda pump. Tried it out on a long run today. As far as I can figure, it pumps about 8% more water on only 55% of the gas that the HF pump used, so about 60% more water per gallon of gas.
Very good day! Saw multiple bedding sites around the pond, the CNBG are definitely in the mood for romance. In fact, they are so naive that they swarm around the dock when we walk out on it.
Now have four working feeders. All pellets eaten quickly, within about 5 minutes. May have to increase feeding once I get more feed, now about 1 pound (12 seconds of Optimal) per day per feeder.
We saw one BIG (well, for a 10 month old) LMB, a good 15-16 inches and very well fed. Appeared to be sizing up dinner near the dock, there are a ton of CNBG there. Also we saw a couple of tilapia, though they weren't actively feeding.
Fertilized 50 pounds in the pond, the first time we've done this. Last year the pH & alkalinity were too low for a bloom, but this year is better.
Saw great blue heron and some cormorants. Unfortunately, the word is getting out about the fish. The GBH doesn't bother me much, but the cormorants are another matter. May have to get a license to discourage them from eating all the fish. We'll see.
Beautiful evening among the pines, wife & I listened to the frogs & occasional splash of a fish. When we left we saw two deer, a doe and nearly fully grown fawn.
We aren't there yet, but I'm thankful at how far we've come!
Over the past week, I have been watching an osprey enjoy our pond and a few fish. On Sunday, she(?) caught one the same time I did. She splashed down about 15' from the boat. Today I watched her dive 5 times. She only came up with 2 fish.
I love watching, but if I see her with a 3lb lm, I might cry.
A buddy was fishing in Wi. last year in a boat. He deep hooked a BG, and it didn't make it, but a Bald Eagle came down and grabbed it very close to the boat. Hmmmmmmmmm..... he thought.
He fed the eagle for an hour with small BG. They'd fly off, then be right back. He guessed they were feeding eaglets in the nest.
Had a troop of Boy Scouts fish the pond today. Think there was 8 of them and they caught 7 CC about 3# each. Couple of the boys had fished before but until today had never caught anything. Also one kid caught a 1# CNBG as his first fish! They had a good time and actually thanked me for inviting them .... there is hope yet. It was a good day to be repeated.
Had a troop of Boy Scouts fish the pond today. Think there was 8 of them and they caught 7 CC about 3# each. Couple of the boys had fished before but until today had never caught anything. Also one kid caught a 1# CNBG as his first fish! They had a good time and actually thanked me for inviting them .... there is hope yet. It was a good day to be repeated.
That's awesome Pat...a great organization for kids. Hopefully, you helped hook some new anglers for life.
My pond cooled and turned over from the 3.4 inches of rain Friday. The water running in looked clear, but visibility went from about 18 inches to 2 inches. Bluegill still feeding, but not CC.
Was paddling around in the pond and another otter surfaced close enough to try to cast a topwater pop-R at it ..... it exploded under and surfaced about 100' feet away and went into the jungle of flooded timber.... dang wher is a gun when ya need it
Walked down to the pond to watch the fish feed. Threw a couple of handfuls of pellets before the dock feeder went off. I seem to have quite a few Fingerling LMB about 5" long that I have not previously noticed. Looks like the LMB got a spawn off last year after all. Water was 75 despite the cooler weather. The temp should be in the high 40's here in the morning.
Despite cooler weather, fish still swarming around feeders & dock. In fact, when a friend and I took the boat out, about fifty CNBG followed us halfway across the lake, hoping for a handout! I felt like the Pied Piper of Panfish...
Friend caught loads of fish despite outdated equipment (20 year old line???). Mostly CNBG, but when he put on a small crankbait the LMB were all over it.
Good news re LMB recruitment: Plenty of YOY fish, under 4 inches. Biggest we caught only 8 inches, but we have seen much larger ones in the lake, usually when the feeders go off.
Good news: Wild blackberries are in season! We ate a bunch, but there are plenty more. Hope to get grandkids there in time to harvest some, it will be good for them to see that food doesn't come from a plastic box in the store.
Bad news: We went to Canada goose nest intending to addle eggs, but too late! Mom & Dad Goose now have four goslings.
Oh, well, I'll put in Away with Geese lights after goslings depart. Before then there will be no point, parents won't leave them.
Nasty (and pretty large) black snake hanging around dock area, I guess because there are plenty of fish there. Snakes don't bother me much, except I've got four little grandkids who visit & fish from the dock. May have to show the snake that this is not a good spot for it to stay, despite all the food.
Brought a chair, a Yuengling Light, and a bucket of Aquamax LMB to the floating pier and watched the HSB explode. They are so active and fast that they frequently will take the LMB pellet before it floats back to the surface which is quite a feat considering the pellet sinks less than an inch.
Also, Weedeated around the pond edge to cut back some dark-green, thick leaved weed that will eventually grow prickly seedpods if left to grow. It makes it a 500% harder job once those seepods grow cause they make everthing stick together. I take a pic after some grows a bit and see if ya'll know what it is.
My 11 yr old grandson had one of his baseball teammates spend the weekend with us at the tail end of their spring break. They had a blast fishing swimming,peddling around in the little boat, feeding the fish,cruising our trails on 22 acres in a golf cart. Then inside they shot pool,played pinball machine, played ping pong, ate a ton of pizza and then played a few video games!!! The other little boy wanted to move in with us!! Making memories. Lots of fun.
Over the past week, I have been watching an osprey enjoy our pond and a few fish. On Sunday, she(?) caught one the same time I did. She splashed down about 15' from the boat. Today I watched her dive 5 times. She only came up with 2 fish.
I love watching, but if I see her with a 3lb lm, I might cry.
Awesome! I've seen lots of osprey, but never in Mo. Almost every time out west or in FL we see them. They do eat some fish though. Kind of a mixed blessing. Watched one in Utah hit and try to lift a big trout. He just couldn't fly off with it though. I sure didn't know they hung out in Missouri. Do they nest around your place?
Eric, I cannot view the video you posted... I can see all the photos in the album, however. Perhaps I've got some security setting stopping me from seeing the vids???
Over the past week, I have been watching an osprey enjoy our pond and a few fish. On Sunday, she(?) caught one the same time I did. She splashed down about 15' from the boat. Today I watched her dive 5 times. She only came up with 2 fish.
I love watching, but if I see her with a 3lb lm, I might cry.
Awesome! I've seen lots of osprey, but never in Mo. Almost every time out west or in FL we see them. They do eat some fish though. Kind of a mixed blessing. Watched one in Utah hit and try to lift a big trout. He just couldn't fly off with it though. I sure didn't know they hung out in Missouri. Do they nest around your place?
SetterGuy, I haven't seen the nest, but as often as I have seen the bird, I do think it is somewhere close. We have many more bald eagles in MO than osprey. I have only seen an osprey here occasionally before this year. It is exciting, like so many on the forum, I am old enough to remember when all birds of prey were quite rare and to see the comeback of Eagles, osprey and other big birds does my heart good.
Had a company get together around the pond and back yard. About fifteen people total, some employees and their families.
Had quarter pound Nathan hot dogs, brats and smoked chicken wings/legs smoked on a big green egg knock off along with other home made fixins with Texas cocoa cake and apple crisp to top it all off.
Shot up a couple boxes of clay pigeons and half a dozen of us fished. Most of my pigeons lived but had some crack shots in the bunch and a lot were killed. Lots of BG, a few hybrids and GSF, but no LMB or CC. With all the rain and unsettled weather bite was a little slow till about a half hour before sundown, then the BG could not get enough of the various lures.
Watched the fish feed when the afternoon time approached. Again, had 3 large explosions amongst the forage fish feeding. Third day straight that this has happened. I think the LMB are starting to take advantage. Exciting stuff...
Just think Charlie one day soon you will have one of those bad boys on the end of a fishing pole. Now that will be fun and make all the hard work and worry worthwhile! Good job
Well my old bait / fish cage finally fell apart. So we had a 30 gallon blue barrel left over from the old dock we decided to make into a bait cage. My Dad cut it down drilled the holes in and put the handles on and now we got a plastic cage that should last us a while.
We also restored a old iron bench I had that was falling apart and painted and put new wood in it for sitting around the fire outside.
RC, I love the bait cage. I think I will be making one before next year when I need to check my fish stocking so that no unwanted fish get put in the pond. Maybe I'll add some floatation to it so that doesn't get out of hand while sorting fish. Thanks for the ideas.
This weekend I waded out into my pond for the first time. I needed to relocate some FHM pallets that I underestimated the needed weight to hold them down. For a job that should have been done right the first time I still enjoyed the time at the pond. I wore chest waders and managed to keep my socks dry, they were the only dry garments, but at least I did not fumble and fill the waders completely.
No problem Quarter, ideas is what this site is all about. The bait cage stayed in place but felt a little light so I just took and put a flat 6 or 7 inch by 2 inch round rock in the bottom and bingo no problems. It was staying put without the rock but the little extra weight just insured it stayed put.
I had thought about using a plastic barrel like that for structural strength but make the holes very big with basically a skeleten of the barrel left then cover it with half inch plastic mesh.
I was very happy to see the eastern box turtles coming out of the woods and heading to somewhere maybe to lay eggs? This time of year we see them crossing the roads near our house and we work hard to save them from getting hit. The bus driver alerted me to a nice big one up the road a ways and I was able to save that one. I saw another one heading across the road this morning.
They are threatened species here. The only turtle around here that has a hinge in the hard surface on the bottom shell that allows it to completely seal off the area between the shells at the head and the tail. I understand they live for years often right in the same geographical area. Hopefully we can keep that pattern going.
I've helped many box turtles cross the road around where I live. I once thought that I would relocate some of them into the middle of my CRP forest to protect them, but I have read not to relocate them, it seems they get very familiar with the limited area where they live and moving them often confuses them and they do not survive.
beastman....it's a tree by tree decision...but we are not talking about that many trees. I keep most of my trees near the pond trimmed up at least 6-8 feet which allows the tree trunk to get direct sun....so before placing the solar light I watch how much sun a tree gets. I also have a few in the ground with the stake that comes with it, but the ones in the ground can be hit by mowers and weed-eaters. it's all good
Was walking in the back yard and heard a bubbling noise coming from not far away. Went over to check and saw air bubbles and water coming up through the grass. oh no? underground sprinkling leak? the system was off! Maybe the main energized loop was leaking but no digging in this area and the main loop was not there either...
Did some digging. Found I have a long run of 4" pvc drain tile from house gutters passes through that area. There is plenty of slope to allow the pvc to drain in the woods about 40 feet away. The connections on the pvc are not glued, just pressed together. I figure there must be an obstruction.
Sure enough, went and took the PVC screen/cap off the end and a lot of water was backing up along with leaves/debris. cleared that out..
Now, if I put the pvc green cover back on I'm in the same boat again. if I keep it open then maybe critters will climb up it? It is a long run, uphill, about 150 feet of pipe back to the house. I'm not so good about scheduling routine cleanout of the pvc year around, so is there a solution?
Is there a different cap I can put on that lets most of the debris out but not rodents in?
I guess for now I'll leave the end open and hope our dog keeps anything on 4 legs that fits up that pipe away. Since he has learned how to 'stalk' squirrels and birds instead of barking furiously and charging at them he has been much more effective at keeping anything on 4 legs away!
If you go to that pond piping place that has been linked to several times before theymake a thing called a rat guard. I know they make it for bigger pond overflow pipes like 8", but don't know if they make them for smaller pipes.
Many thanks for the help. I have something like the green flat top one in the attached picture. Probably the rat guard with spikes is the thing I'll try next but I was thinking of something easy to push in and pull out without requiring my drill and screws. Maybe one of those aluminum mesh that they would wad up and put in the downspout of your gutter to prevent leaves going down that you push in and pull out?
CCreek....I had to get the 18 incher for our overflow pipe as I was advised grass carp would follow moving water and I didn't want to lose any of the ones just stocked with all the rain we had here this spring. Going to buy one for an 8 inch overflow at another pond we are trying to manage as well.
It works well so far, is built sturdy and hasn't had a problem getting clogged with trash. I am sure I will need to pull it and clean it from time to time, especially in the spring, but doesn't seem like it will be too much of a hassle. It pops in and out easily. BM61.
Thanks Tbar....like everyone on PondBoss knows well, our properties are a labor of love. It was great having you and your wife stop by. Next time ya gotta stay for a Hebrew National Hotdog! The solar lights do look cool at night. I could even see them a little on my Blink camera last night for the first time.
Zep.....exactly the one we have.....except ours is in yellow. I like the way it works and easy to handle. Looks like yours is an 18 incher as well or close to it. Really makes my life easier. Quality product. Thanks. BM61.
Haven't been home since Sunday...getting a house ready to sell in NE Houston. Walked down to the pond at feeding time to watch them feed (and make a few casts). The fish fed hard. Water is 82 degrees today. A bit cooler than a couple of weeks ago here in SE Texas. It was 88 degrees then. Summer is about here.
Put in about 5 hours of dozer time (JD 550G) this past week on a new wetland or pond, depending on how my timing goes with rain this summer. Just trying to remove a deep layer of topsoil over the field tiles now to speed things up later and to get some more dozer experience. Rain has stopped work for now. We built this quarter acre wetland last summer to get fill for a future pond pad. It has very little watershed but is as tight as a drum. Will move in plants once the water is a little warmer.
Had a bunch of nieces and nephews over and the kids had fun catching goldfish. Harvested about 40 last night. I emptied the live well (front loader stainless steel drum). The GBH has been making 2 or 3 calls a day now and boldly selecting a choice goldfish out of the drum. I emptied the drum in the woods so the raccoons are going to eat well tonight. The GBH was bummed that it was back to wading and stalking and striking now.
Now that my goldfish are pellet trained we just 'chum' the water and catch them easily on frozen corn.
Well not at my pond but the big pond called the Caribbean sea.
At about 50' depth came across a parrotfish about a foot long hooked in the mouth, fishing line snapped and wrapped around a gorgonian. Fish looks dead laying there.
Grab ahold of the hook and fish comes to life. I'm holding fish while closely watching that parrot shaped beak lest the fish decides I'm the enemy and goes into attack mode. Work with the hook for 30 seconds having zero luck getting the barb back through when I realize the fish is snagged just above the mouth instead of through the mouth. Take my knife off my BC (bouyancy compensator, not black crappie), insert the tip and cut the quarter inch of skin holding the fish (parrotfish appear to have increddibly tough skin).
Let the fish go, it lists momentarily in the water collumn, then is off like a rocket. Took the two hooks sinkers and line back with me out of the water.
So one more parrot fish is out grazing algae off coral reefs today than otherwise would have been. Now when I dive the area will be watching for a parrot fish with a scar on the left above its mouth.
Good job snrub, saving wildlife is cool thing to do. I have an HSB in the pond that may have a fly and some tippet line in it's mouth. Maybe sometime when you r down this way, I have a pond you can dive in and look for another fish to help out.
I am considering buying a used tank and bc(if I can find one) for pond diving at the pond. I would like to improve a few things on the pond bottom, like diffusers and woody cover.
Tbar I think the fish had already worn itself out by the time I got there, fortunately for me.
Tracy get certified to dive if you are not already before you use any gear. The course is pretty easy and is not that expensive. Way lot cheaper than an ambulance trip to the hospital or morgue for air embolism. One of the safest active sports around, but there are definitely some do's and don't's that need to be adhered to.
snrub, I have been certified Padi(I think that is what it was called) it was in or around 1980 when I got my certificate, and I've been diving a lot of places but not so much in the last 12 yrs or so. But I am glad u posted up here for others that might not be certified and want to dive their pond.
Watched the fish feed hard....they cleaned up the feed inside of 3 minutes. I checked water temperature...it is 80 degrees at about 8" depth. Filled the dock feeder with Triton (Cargill) 1/8", 3/16", and 1/4" pellets.
Were they holding up signs that said "Eat more Chiken?"
probably...lol
a bit odd...the guy who owns them was kind of jerk when I called him almost like I was bothering him to let him know "well what kind are they?" "how do you know they are mine"? "how'd they get over there?"
no other neighbors have cows he is dairy farmer right next door have never met him
Were they holding up signs that said "Eat more Chiken?"
probably...lol
a bit odd...the guy who owns them was kind of jerk when I called him almost like I was bothering him to let him know "well what kind are they?" "how do you know they are mine"? "how'd they get over there?"
no other neighbors have cows he is dairy farmer right next door have never met him
Perfect opportunity to say, "Oh, sorry. Guess they are rare spotted deer. So ok with you if I catch and sell them?"
Put in 170 lb of feed in five feeders. Fish still eating like crazy, good to see it isn't too hot yet. Some of those CNBG are looking really big for just two years old! Current pond record is 8 3/8 inches, but I'm thinking 9 by this fall. Hope for a 10 next year.
Sprayed for ants at base of one TH feeder, somehow they managed to invade. We saw tracks of other critters trying to get to the goodies, raccoons and field mice, but they failed.
The four geese have left. Not crying about it, but my wife misses them. GBH isn't going anywhere, however.
Mark, do they have any ear tags? Sale barns and most cattle guys around here will use one color tag.
We had 5 beautiful Red Angus calves on our place week before last. I shut the gate to keep them in, and stated making phone calls. Ultimately it took about 30-45 minutes to get the owner notified, and he rode off with his calves trailing without even a thanks to the several of us that helped find him. Next time, his cows will be on the road, and he can worry about it. His cows have green tags, so I know who they belong to now.
I had a neighbor a whose cows were getting out onto our place and another neighbor's a few years ago. They were also getting onto the state highway and being an extreme hazard. He didn't fix the fence or move the cows until the state troopers had a couple of conversations with him.
Contact the local sheriff office. In Texas, loose or stray cattle fall under their jurisdiction and the sheriff will come get the cows. On different occasions I had cows show up in the middle of my wildlife food plots and neither time were the cows from my bordering neighbors. Once was an older black man's cows and he was quick to come get them with my assistance. He told me Black men don't tag or brand their cows in E Texas, I did not now that. His cows have not been back on my place since. But I did have some other cows show up and after tracking them back to the owners through phone calls all around the area, an old woman and her old son was determined to be the owners of these cows and I approached this situation as any good or nice neighbor should. She may have had a tough day but I was glad she was not a bordering neighbor. I offered to help repair the fence but she and her son said no thanks and they came and gathered up the cows. A month or so later their cows showed back up and right back in the wildlife food plots. I went back to her place and told her about the cows destroying the food plots again and she said I was the reason she did not see deer on her place any more, because of the soy beans and peas I had planted. Their place is aa couple of miles away from my place. I then informed her, next time they showed up on my place I would contact the sheriff and they will come get the cows. The cows have not been back since and that was three years ago. Thank goodness she is not a bordering neighbor.
Thanks Tracy. The saga continued today. The dairy farmer that denied they were his cows called back and said unbeknownst to him his brother had allowed one of their workers to put 9 cows in a small pasture they don't normally use.
BINGO! That's where the stray cows came from.
He apologized.
Late this afternoon all the cattle were rounded up and are now off my property.
However I am not pleased because my flagstone guy said the cows got up near the log cabins and pooped all over the sidewalks and stomped on zoysia sod that was just planted last week. He said it's not horrible, but still.
This newer neighbor has 900 acres surrounding most of my property, I don't wanna go to war, so I will not make a stink this time....but if it happens again I will follow your advice and call the sheriff. and I will see what it will take to fix the fence!
This scene was caught on my front porch security cam this morning...look at those dang cows up in the front yard of my cabin today.
My grand dad always said there are 2 reasons to put a fence up. To keep your animals in and to keep others out. You should always call a sheriff because if you show a pattern of them being out then the owner will be liable for their damage, more so if you would hit them with a car at night.
Grandson and I built a 4 foot cube to cover my aeriation pump with. Put a white roof on it and insulated the top. It has dropped my pump temps 35-40 degrees in the heat of the day!!!! Boy was it hot and humid today!! Time for a huge glass of sweet tea!!
Flame, I'd love to see pictures. How did you design the sides and top and how did you insulate?
I'm really interested in making some structure for my aeration system but the Vertex people don't want me to cover it or I'll void the warranty. I have it in the shade but the metal cabinet takes a beating out in the elements.
Went to Overton's for a couple bags of food. We sure do enjoy the people there. They are always so helpful and friendly. I could talk to Shannon all day long.
Transplanted some more eelgrass in the new wetland/duck=pond. This time it is surrounded and covered with honey locust branches. The only thing that may get through are crayfish.
Kept my first SMB. I've been letting them go for the last year or so. My grandson caught a nice one yesterday, he was so excited, I decided to let him keep it. Having it for lunch today. My grandson was in the water for four or five hours. He'd sit in the boat for ten minutes, then just have to jump in.. Back at it again today.
He was used to HBG and YP, the SMB was easily twice the fish, and 10 times the fight. He's seven. Kept yelling, "help me Pops!" Ha. He got it in by himself. YP from this morning. The pics of the SMB are on my wife's phone..
The water in the pond (8" depth) was 90 degrees today before the rain started. I increased my feeder times to 10 seconds twice daily about a week ago. The fish still manage to clean up the pellets in a couple of minutes. Caught a Lonestar Legacy LMB right as the rain was starting. She was 16" fat and thick. I hadn't hooked one in some time. Living up here sure gives me more opportunities to fish.
We raked out more FA. It is now getting to the point of diminishing returns. Guess it might come back, but I think we are removing a lot of nutrients with it. The garden is mulched with it, and there is a big compost pile of it now too.
Sad to say my partner in crime is retiring. This little tin boat has had an extremely hard life, and is about to become East TX yard art. Acres of lotus, coontail, and waterleaf met their final fate from this boat. Hundreds of pounds of CNBG and LMB were caught out of this boat. Countless brush piles were placed out of this boat.
Ultimately, she died via cutrine. And no, Flex Seal won't fix a hundred little pin holes. I'm sad, but I bet I get over it.
Went next door to a neighbors pond with my daughter to fish. She smoked me on catching for a while till I moved spots.... I was using a pop-R color of a peacock bass and nailed my lifetime bob best bass, she jumped three times and ripped out drag. We had taken no phones so couldn't take any pix other than in our mind. This fish went from 8-10# easily.... daughter said 10#+ a real hoss for sure. Couldn't wait to run home for a camera so we revived her and let her go.... hope she makes it... a fine fish..no pix but a memory for me and my daughter that will last
Pat, it's great to hear about your day of fishing with your daughter. Did you revive that xtra large lmb in neighbors pond or your pond? I was thinking this thread is about what u did at your pond so I was thinking about where the trophy was revived. you know she(lmb) would put a hurt on your crappie
As hot as it was I didn't want to chance loosing it to heat so.... revived in her own home. I have at least a few 5-7# bassies in my pond that already put the hurt on the BCP. Not catching hardly any BCP so not sure what's going on.......
I moved my feeder from the shallow end of the pond to around the point of transition or a drop off. They were slow starting..hope they will pick up in the new spot in the next few days.
Apparently I was unaware we were hosting a goose party. My brother in law took his kids out to fish in the pond. Instead he found around 16 geese....??
I built a herbicide spray boom for the new tin boat. First test run was to look for leaks, and that part went well. 2 outside nozzles do the work, and the shorter center nozzle just fills out the middle. Removable drop hoses so that precut hoses can be quickly changed to allow for whatever the target depth of the day is. I think the center drop is 4', and the 2 outside ones are 6' in this video. I'm testing with a cheap 2 cycle 1" water pump that's been sitting around here for years. When it dies, I'll replace it with a 1" Honda 4 cycle pump.
First video is with the siphon off, second video is with the adjustable siphon on, and pulling diluted pasture dye from a 2 1/2 gallon jug. I waited until my wife went back to town to paint the driveway blue.
I needed to put a coupling in the pvc pipe because of the size of the system. Being able to separate the pump from the hose will make it much easier to transport.
The sprayer gets an honorable mention but the driveway painted blue is priceless. Did the same thing to my weed chocked gravel drive and the grandkids thought that I did paint it.
I like it, you may have started a new trend having the drive that Caribbean ocean blue. I am thinking my wife would give me a dirty look or maybe even a dirty word or two when she arrived back from shopping kinda of like a Homer Simpson moment
Guys, the driveway's not gonna be a problem. That fact that I'm blue from the knees down may be though. I really thought this project out before I built and tested it. I should have given the same effort to figuring out how to turn the pump off once it started pumping dye. How I also got dye on my forehead, I'll never know. PaPa Smurf comes to mind.
Thanks Tony. I made a few adjustments while in the boat, but that wasn't unexpected. Very simple and cheap to make, but a big time saver for me. The best part is not ever having to worry about 12 volt pump failure and Cutrine again. The only part of this whole rig the herbicides touch is the hose to the boom. I should have done this years ago.
The only part of this whole rig the herbicides touch is the hose to the boom. I should have done this years ago.
You say that now, but wait until you miss hitting the mouth of the tank while pouring Cutrine.................
If anyone uses concentrated dye while spraying they will find out just how sloppy they really are. There is a reason why the PPE is recommended/required for applicators.
The only part of this whole rig the herbicides touch is the hose to the boom. I should have done this years ago.
You say that now, but wait until you miss hitting the mouth of the tank while pouring Cutrine.................
No pouring in the tin boat, and all the fluids and jugs are in a 27 gallon tote while in the boat. Chems were premixed in the shed.
I ordered a 5 gallon flat bottom tank today. Viscosity was an issue, and the siphon pulled smoother with a mix diluted with water. The larger tank should give me more options.
Throw something hard at me. I killed one boat, I don't want to kill another one.
Scott, I feel comfortable saying Jacques Cousteau could have found a penny 6 feet under the water, while blindfolded and standing on the bank if here. Don't think alum will ever see my pond. An occasional bloom would be nice though.
Guys, the driveway's not gonna be a problem. That fact that I'm blue from the knees down may be though. I really thought this project out before I built and tested it. I should have given the same effort to figuring out how to turn the pump off once it started pumping dye. How I also got dye on my forehead, I'll never know. PaPa Smurf comes to mind.
Nice set up! A picture of you dyed blue would have been priceless.
I like it a lot...it stays close to the water..low profile which I love...seems really well made. The cons: floating dock instability is something to get used to..but the instability I would describe as very minor. Also the alum or metal gets extremely hot in summer, so bare feet are a big no-no...even bending down to grab a minnow bucket can be like putting your hands on a stove...8 months a year that shouldn't be an issue....but during the day it is right now! Ha Ha
Actually the day before yesterday, but rarely do I even know what day of the week it is anymore.
The only stipulation I had was to build a floating dock that allowed my wife to cane pole fish for CNBG with her feet in the water. She'll probably drop a few more parameters on me next time she oks something.
Nice Floating doc Al. Why don't you ride over with Brian next week for some Tp catching? Bring your saw and hammer we can start up on a new floating pier like yours It was not on my next project list but while plans are fresh in your mind
Thanks Keith. Not sure you would even recognize the pond right now. With almost all of the coontail and lotus gone, I'm actually getting blooms again.
The goats would be Merle and June, and we got them August of last year, on they day after they got their colostrum. Our chickens dive under their pen gate the second we let them out every morning. They get along very well. I've come to love those little Nigerian babies.
Tracy, sorry I missed your post, but you're on your own with a new dock. This one almost killed me, and I'm comfortable with my DIY limit now. I'm gonna have to pass on the trip to your place, but thank you very much for the invite. Hay guy's done for the year, and it's shredder time. Brian's stopping by here on the way to your place to pick up my haul tank, and that should get those babies back to Hooterville in good shape.
I cut down some dead cedars on the back side of the dam and piled them for quail. Then I cut down some hedge and live cedars and drug them into the pond for fish habitat. Cut down a big elm on the ditch feeding the pond and piled it in a teepee shape for the quail. Praying for some good heavy road strangling rain to fill the pond.
You may well get your rain tonight. Not very often does the forecast call for 100% chance of rain over a several hour period. We still have most of our soybeans to harvest so I hope your toad strangling rain holds off about a month or six weeks.
I saw a quail as I was feeding fish last night. Have not seen any in a while.
I'll second that. We have had wonderful weather lately.
But a front comes through tonighte and temperatures drop significantly. I'm afraid our Indian summer (or is it now Native North American indigenous summer?..... Just does not have the same ring) is over and fall has arrived.
I turned loose the RES in my pellet training project that have been in my aquaculture tank since early May. Pond temp is currently sitting at 62 degrees and will likely drop next week and it was time. I also ran the seine net and got some 2" RES to put aquarium for the winter just for fun. I was a little surprised to find 2 FHM in the haul, it's been six years since stocking FHM and I thought they were all gone by now.
It was only the first day that almost did us in. Digging the holes/setting the posts in 95F/102F heat index temps wasn't fun. The rest was pretty easy since you had it all framed out.
What'd we use, around 1,300 stainless deck screws??
Just joined the web site this morning. I have a question regarding the benefits or detriment of trees planted around a pond. We just moved to a farm with an existing spring fed pond. Lots of black walnuts on one side. A pond guy told us they all have to go - something about sending roots towards the water and messing up the bank. Is this true? and are there any trees we could pant where this would not be a concern. I believe there are some maples too. anyway - seems a shame to slash and burn it all. Thanks!
I am no expert on this, but other than the dam, I do not stress about trees on the banks. Trees on the dam can cause leaks. I do take out the willows as they are invasive. Its easier to take out trees later than it is to replace nice size trees. Heck, I planted bald cypress right in the water around the non-dam areas of two of my ponds. If too many leaves fall in, there could be a nutrient overload in fall, but there are many nice ponds in the woods. I know others do not share my thoughts on this. What are your goals for the pond? My ponds are for wildlife, fishing, swimming, and just enjoying the scenery.
Just joined the web site this morning. I have a question regarding the benefits or detriment of trees planted around a pond. A pond guy told us they all have to go - something about sending roots towards the water and messing up the bank.
Welcome toadhill. I really like the trees around my pond...in fact I am planting more. I suppose most of my trees are not right at the shoreline....most are back 10-50+ feet from the shoreline....but I love the way they "frame" the pond. Like RAH stated...some might worry about a "possible" horrible effect "if" too many Fall leaves set off some kind of chemical imbalance or attracting herons....hey it happens in nature....all I can say is my trees are staying....but each pond and each pond owner has different goals/likes/dislikes. Here's pics of mine this morning:
Got out on the boat and fished some of the structure I had put in before the pond had filled. Most of the time I am lazy and just fish from the bank. Had pretty good luck catching BG and CC. Caught almost all of them right on the bottom in 8-9' of water. Could hardly get a bite at the shallower levels. But then we had a 1.6" rain last night and a front went through. So I suppose that caused the fish to go deep.
Although we did not need the rain delaying soybean harvest, I was happy to see a little flow through in the main pond. Got some water exchange.
RAH, although we have very different properties, it seems as though our aquatic plant goals are very similar. Randomly placed hybrid lilies, reeds, smartweed, and American pondweed all play an important part in my overall pond health, and also give it a more natural look. Iris and taro are next on our list for the more problematic boggy areas.
I'm somewhat amazed how hard it is to find people (contractors) to do anything out in the country. In Dallas if a plumber, HVAC, electrician, whatever, doesn't show up, there are a 1000 other choices all with Yelp/Angie's List ratings. Out at the property it's a really different story. You're lucky to get a return phone call...lol
I like your "friendly" aquatic plant life ideas...
Just added the second and last (for me) board to the water control structure in the 1-acre FHM/GSH/LCS/RES/YP/SMB pond. This should bring the water up another 7" for a total of 14" of extra depth. We are dry here so that makes things easier. This should put the young bald cypress in the water, and the rip rap jetty under water (and help the papershell crayfish even more). Will need to gauge the size of the SMB this summer for growth. Neighbor was happy to harvest a nice YP early this year. He is an experienced BG fisherman (harvested over 30 from another of my ponds a couple weeks ago), but has never fished for YP before now.
My forage pond was looking scummy, and the creek is still flowing plenty of clear spring water, so decided to pump a while, and do a water change. I have made a new spot on the creek to pump that is about 140 feet closer and 4 feet less lift than times before for my 2" Honda pump. I had my wife there today with a stopwatch and we timed filling a 5 gallon bucket. The average of three tries was 2.6 seconds. That's with 350 feet of 2" pipe with a 12 foot total lift. The pipe is some utility grade with a teflon coating on the inside so it is very very slick so friction is very little. I get about 30% more water than I would through uncoated pipe, according to pump calculations. Pleasant surprise. Pump calcs showed about 81 GPM. Measured 115 GPM.
Trimmed up a few blue spruce. The few are planted in a bit of a wet hole and they do not like having wet feet. So I trimmed the lower branches that were on the ground or near the ground to let some air flow under them. In the past this has helped the spruce with wet feet. It also keeps the bug down.
Fed the catfish their large pellets...quite a commotion! Moved over to the BG spawning grounds and fed them small pellets. I'm getting tons of little BG, and, what looks like baby LMBs or maybe I had a successful spawn of fatheads. My two best LMBs, about 13", eat the BG feed. Standing there throwing pellets to the BG on their beds and in comes a rocket (LMB) shooting for baby BG. Hope he got one, but two jumped out of the pond and were rescued. Scared my dog...Buttercup started barking at the water.
Question: Is it possible for one year old bass (stocked at 4 to 5 inches last July) to spawn?
Wish we could post videos! I'll try to link some FB video posts.
I also wish I could move my big smoker down to the pond (and back up fifty feet)...we are smoking cured pork belly (bacon) and cured brisket (pastrami). It is a beautiful but brutally hot and muggy day in Texas! We remember the lost and fallen today!
I decided it was time to knock down the plant growth I had allowed to grow around the pond. I had let it grow about 2 feet back from full pool line to help with runoff sediment control, but it was getting a bit unsightly, and with no rain, the plant growth is just pulling from the pond. Looks like I've got some water willow starting to take hold at water's edge in a few places. Gonna have to keep an eye on it.
Most definitely thinking about those who gave all.
Yesterday I put my diffuser in the pond and and let the aerator run for 15 minutes, then set the timer to begin a start up procedure this week. I did fish a little bit and caught a few RES. Record high yesterday of 97 degrees.
I decided it was time to knock down the plant growth I had allowed to grow around the pond. I had let it grow about 2 feet back from full pool line to help with runoff sediment control, but it was getting a bit unsightly, and with no rain, the plant growth is just pulling from the pond. Looks like I've got some water willow starting to take hold at water's edge in a few places. Gonna have to keep an eye on it.
Most definitely thinking about those who gave all.
Amen to that last sentence.
As for the plant growth, it may well have benefited your fry and YOY fish, especially BG. In my inexpert opinion, you were smart to let it be during heavy spawning period.
I would agree with you Anthropic, had any of it actually been in the water...lol. The only thing spawning up shallow are the GSF, and they've had to keep moving their beds due to the water dropping with no rain. All my BG are apparently using deeper water, as I haven't seen a single BG bed shallow. Looks like the GSF are about done anyway.
I had an "interesting" Memorial Day weekend....a bit of a learning experience.
The guy that built the log cabins told me he would be in the area and asked if he could spend one night in a cabin he built at our property. He did a great job on the project so I gladly said "yes". He is rarely up this way and they are super nice folks.
After Fri night he approached me Sat morning and stated his wife and family were having such a good time "was it ok if they stayed a second night"? I agreed it would be ok, but was slightly concerned about the level of fishing they were doing.
These 6 folks had 5 VERY PASSIONATE fisherman among them and they were very skilled fishermen. They were there Fri, Sat, and left Sunday about noon. They fished and fished and fished and fished....they were out there Sat night at 10PM with spotlights in the dark fishing and catching.
They fished right up until the moment they left Sunday about noon. They reported they had caught over 100 fish. They released most of the fish. I had them keep catfish and few bass.
I love to have guests come out for a few hours and fish...that's really what the place is for...relaxing and catch a few fish...but I don't want people coming out and spending multiple days on a frantic pace of non-stop fishing. I just think there is some truth about fish becoming hook-shy.
I had no idea these folks were such passionate/skilled fisherman, so it really caught me by surprise. I knew the builder liked to fish, but his relatives were fishing fanatics! If they ask to come back (and I am sure they will after being so thrilled) I will have to either decline or inform them my pond is not meant to get that kind of non-stop multi-day marathon fishing pressure.
Like all of us on Pond Boss I've invested a lot of time, money, sweat, tears and will not allow a repeat of this type of event. I had never really thought about this but it is a bit of an unknown when you invite someone that brings a few family members as to what level of fanatic fishermen are in the group. I guess odds are that this was a rare circumstance. I sure hope so....
Wow! I can relate to the love of fishing, as I used to fish at night during the summer, but this is pushing it on a private pond. You put in the time, money, and sweat to make something special, and they should respect that.
The one person other than grandkids that I've allowed to fish at my place had to abide by some pretty strict rules, including no fishing around the feeders nor the dock. She's a great neighbor and has done lots of free bush hogging for me, so wanted to reward her. But if she did what your guests did, that would be the last time. Too much investment to let someone just abuse it!
Fishermen, I feel, could never do the level of damage to my ponds as otters did this past winter. I am close to just quitting, with otters and the leaks.
Zep, I understand completely. Our pond isnt near what most of you have, but I still find myself being very finicky about the fish, number, how they are handled, where they fish...people always wanting to be around the feeder. Lol. People do not really get it. To most it's a pond...plane and simple, nothing more, nothing less. But to us, it's the Chevelle that we did a frame off resto on... countless hours...untold dollars...then your buddy wants to take a spin in it and decides it would be cool to floor it and drift around some curves. There should be an unspoken rule for things like that...a respect. There used to be that. At least you know to be more aware next time. Sorry to hear that.
lol that's funny...my wife an I were looking at colorado get aways yesterday after it was 97+ outside. I can't wait to buy some land out that way and prep for retirement!
I'm going to start heading down to my pond nightly and start feeding - lots of work to do, lots of heat, and I'm starting to get back to normal feeling after surgery
Saturday before memorial day I got the turtle 'floats' back out in the pond. It was steamy and over 90 all weekend so it felt good to wade around deploying them. I'm a little late this year and the turtles were anxious to get back on these safe havens. Used to have 10-12 painted turtles but only 3 little ones this year. I have one 4x4 float topped in green grass carpet in the SE and one in the NW corner so the turtles can take their pick on which one is sunny as the sun goes across the sky.
Not pond related, but saw this neat news article and video about the power of a deer who is determined to get to something. This is in the local workout facility caught on their security camera. The slow-mo part is amazing!
Water temp is up to 65 so we added dye for the first time this year and turned the aerators timer to run at night 12 hours only. It helps keep our water temp down all summer and the alga. The perch like to feed all summer running it this way.
Went out and hand fed my fish (usually every afternoon after work). I am really amazed at how big some of these sunfish are starting to get. Couldn't tell if they were GSF or BG, but some of them were really broad across the side which makes me think BG, but even those that I know were GSF looked to be 7-8". Actually saw a few BHC feeding underneath. First time for that. I kept waiting to see one of my 3 LMB come screaming thru for an easy meal, but alas, they were a no show. My fish dont seem to feed like I've read others describe. They're fairly energetic for the first few seconds, breaking water and knocking each other around, then settle down quickly and feed mostly subsurface. The bigger fish seem to get their fill and disappear.
My bride & I replenished all the TH feeders at our BOW. Good thing we did, as two of them had run out of food, and one was jammed!
Visibility good, about 30 inches. Fair amount of algae, so the recently stocked TP should do well. Fish still respond to feed eagerly, but if the temps stay elevated this will likely change.
Still no bird sign, a welcome change from the GBH, cormorants, and geese earlier this spring!
Hey all sorry it's been a minute I been busy needless to say. Hope everyone is doing good. Thought I would post what we did at the pond this last weekend.
It's a 16x21 pole barn not quite done just yet but gonna be for fire wood and 4 wheelers. Plus I have an extension on the side of it for my bass tracker once it's all done. I will have a few more pics coming once we get it all done this next weekend.
Thanks QA it would have been real tuff but our great next door neighbor sure helped us out by digging the post holes!! He's just one of those great guys you don't find anymore. Wouldn't take any money for helping us and said you never know I may need your help one day! That's a true neighbor right there!! Gonna do other half of roof and front this weekend and maybe do the bass boat section not sure if we will have time. Plus it's fricken hot here now!! I don't want my dad to push it to hard in this heat cause he wont stop unless I make him... dang guy! He doesn't have a quit button...
This morning I transplanted about a ton of northern Ark river stone around the spawning area of my pond. Some of these suckers were close to 50 lb stones. Unfortunately, a couple of them decided they wanted to be deeper than I planned and took a walk right off the ledge and didn't stop till they were out in the middle.
Then I soaked a couple of traps and caught some pretty little shellcrackers to add to my mix of mutts.
Fed again this afternoon and am seeing loads of fry of one sort or another. I've got FHM, GSF and BG all spawning now. Fry ranging from 1/4" to 1 1/2". Too small to identify species, but it's good to see them.
Hey CMM, What kind of grass is that growing in your pond? I need sumadat!! I'm virtually nill in the cover area. Want something that'll stay shallow. That stuff would work well.
Those trees should make good cover, too. How deep did you set them?
Hey CMM, What kind of grass is that growing in your pond? I need sumadat!! I'm virtually nill in the cover area. Want something that'll stay shallow. That stuff would work well.
Looks like American Pondweed to my untutored eye. I have some at my pond, too, though not as dense as CMM.
Yup....according to Wikipedia anyway. From what I gather, it can grow to depths of 5-6 feet? Does that sound right? If so, I'll have to pass on APW. I need something that'll grow to about 3 feet deep. Probably not gonna find that.
The pond on my old duck lease was full of some kind of lilly. My brother said it was banana lilly, IDK. It sure did draw in the ducks tho, and the fish seemed to love being in it.
I attempted to find an air leak in the line which feeds my aeration system. 5 out of 6 diffusers are doing pretty good but that six one is getting little air and naturally it is the one line that travels the farthest. If it was leaking in the water I would see it bubbling but it's not. So, now I will have to back track about 2,000' of line and connections. Not sure if there is a large spot leaking or a little at every connection. There is a little air leaking at or near the connections as it comes off the compressor, but not enough to really cause a problem. I added a little soapy water and found bubbles but I don't think it is enough to stop that 6th diffuser from working. Will Darn it, another task that was not in my plans.
MIke, I am not sure what kind of grass it is, but if you want some, come on over, I'll let you have a start of it. There is probably at least two kinds, one I am sure is a type of burr reed. It gets about 2' tall, does well in an inch of water and at wet shore line and can be fully submerged for several days without dying.
The trees are artificial Christmas tree sections. I get them at auctions for a buck or two. I set them anywhere from 6' to 2'. I have even bunched branches together and staked them into the mud in 1' of water.
Hey CMM, What kind of grass is that growing in your pond? I need sumadat!! I'm virtually nill in the cover area. Want something that'll stay shallow. That stuff would work well.
Looks like American Pondweed to my untutored eye. I have some at my pond, too, though not as dense as CMM.
Ah, I thought he was talking about the taller stuff right at the shore. Yes, the floating plant is APW. I love it and don't find that it grows too deep at my place, maybe 2' or so. Maybe in very clear water it would grow deeper?
My bass and bluegill both stage under that stuff; drop a popper in or a weedless fly, wiggle it a time or two and if something doesn't hit it through the weeds, it will almost surely hit it when you get to the edge!
MIke, I am not sure what kind of grass it is, but if you want some, come on over, I'll let you have a start of it. There is probably at least two kinds, one I am sure is a type of burr reed. It gets about 2' tall, does well in an inch of water and at wet shore line and can be fully submerged for several days without dying.
The trees are artificial Christmas tree sections. I get them at auctions for a buck or two. I set them anywhere from 6' to 2'. I have even bunched branches together and staked them into the mud in 1' of water.
What's been your experience with artificial trees? Do fish use them as well as natural brush? How long do they last in the water?
MIke, I am not sure what kind of grass it is, but if you want some, come on over, I'll let you have a start of it. There is probably at least two kinds, one I am sure is a type of burr reed. It gets about 2' tall, does well in an inch of water and at wet shore line and can be fully submerged for several days without dying.
The trees are artificial Christmas tree sections. I get them at auctions for a buck or two. I set them anywhere from 6' to 2'. I have even bunched branches together and staked them into the mud in 1' of water.
What's been your experience with artificial trees? Do fish use them as well as natural brush? How long do they last in the water?
Anthropic,
Like any other structure, it depends on where I put it as to how quickly it is used and by what species. I like the artificial trees due to the dense structure that can shelter lots of small fry. I fished one of the artificial trees I placed on Sunday last night, I got 3 bg around 7 inches, 1 bg 9" and an 18" LM (on a tiny little nymph!). That one is about 8' from shore, but in only about 3' of water and is very close to my main feeding area. Another set of 3 sections I placed 3 weeks ago I haven't been able to catch anything off of yet. It's in deeper water, on the other side of the pond near a drop off between a spawning area and deep water. I thought it would attract fish.
As for how long they last, I don't have an answer for that. They certainly last longer than the cedar trees I put in. I have branches in shallow water that I placed over 2 years ago that have no deterioration I can see. They get lots of "stuff" on them, bugs, snails, algae and whatnot, but don't drop needles. I suppose the metal frame will rust at some point.
Had my Ohio friend over for some fishing at my BOW. He just about melted in the heat, but had a blast catching LMB on a spinnerbait.
Despite high temps, fish still take feed eagerly. Sadly, Big CNBG got mostly wiped out by fungus last fall. I haven't seen one exceed 7 inches this year, while last year the bigguns were over 8 inches
On the plus side, population of small CNBG has exploded & YOY are everywhere. Last year smaller CNBG were very scarce due to poor recruitment.
LMB are naive about lures & extremely aggressive. Noticed that the side with 3 feeders was MUCH better than side with only 1, and I don't think it is just that LMB take feed. They are also targeting the CNBG that come to be fed!
Bass were heavy. Most seemed to be in the 15 to 18 inch range, around 2.5 to 4 lb. Very stocky, husky, hard fighters. No sign of parasites or fungus. Most of what we caught were feed trained N LMB, I'm sure. The overpopulation of small LMB has been cut sharply since last fall, likely by the N LMB stocked back then.
The good side of the lake not only has more feeders, it also gets evening shade from the pine trees. The other side gets shade in the morning, but not after. That could be a factor, especially when fishing in the evening.
PS I'm gonna mostly shut down LMB fishing for a few months, water is getting too hot & they fight HARD. Also, of course, I don't want them to get lure shy! But I do have an idea: Take the hooks off a topwater Jitterbug & cast that. I caught several nice LMB on topwaters, awesome to see the blowups, but the double trebles were tough to get out quickly. Going hookless means having the fun of seeing the hits without harming LMB nor teaching them (and their progeny) to be passive.
Hmmmmm.....just where in our great state are you?? I just may have to take a trip and take you up on the APW offer!!
Someone told me a few weeks ago about driving a pipe in the ground at water's edge and to tap on it before I started feeding. Well I finally decided to give it a try. Put it in earlier this week. It's absolutely crazy!!! I tap on it with a small rock and fish come from EVERYWHERE!! Even my three LMB! But they aren't there for the pellets!!
I've definitely got to get some cover down, but it's hard to deploy with such steep sides on the pond. And I don't want to put too much. Those 3 LMB got a lot of eating to do!!! Two of them have apparently become buddies as they're always together now.
Hey, Mike. I live in the Shreveport area, but my BOW is near Marshall, Texas. Which means I get to stock TP!
You'd be welcome to drop by & fish when temps aren't quite so hot. I like to hear other people's perspective on ponds & fishing, it is quite educational to a newbie like myself.
Sounds like your pond is doing better, I remember you were concerned when the fish stopped feeding for a bit. Good to hear things have improved!
That sounds like a plan in the making!! I'll try to talk the wife into taking a little road trip up your way sometime soon.
I guess my initial concern with the high surface temps were partially unfounded. Apparently these fish don't mind the warm water. The banks are littered with small fish in inches of water when I get home and they're ganged up waiting where I feed them. If i walk the bank theres a big wad of puppies following me.
I need to figure out a way to measure temps at different depths. I'm guessing that they must have a sufficient sanctuary out in deeper water. Still find one floating occasionally but I guess that's to be expected as well.
From this point on I'll let the fish tell me what's happening and hope I can get it resolved before it's too late. Hopefully I'll be securing an aeration system before too long.
I stopped by the local co-op and picked a sack of Aquamax 500. Decided I wanted to use it instead of the Game Fish Chow. They ate it pretty well, but the smaller fish had a tough time due to the consistent size of the pellets, where GFC has mixed sizes...disappointment #1.
Then I mowed my grass and ran the weed eater around the pond, wanting to get it done before it started raining....sweated my hind end off....disappointment #2.
After dinner I decided to bait my two clover leafs with some of the GFC and set them out while I dunked a night crawler to try to catch a few BHC. Caught two right off the bat then the bite just quit....#3
So I pull up my first trap only to find a dang crappie in it. Now I've got a real mutt pond!
After 6 or 7 sets, this is the first crappie I've caught. About 4.5" long. I was hoping the Harvey flood had spared me of those fish, but my luck ain't that good. It went in the tank with the 2 BHC to be released into the bayou down the road. Here's the list of known species now...GSF, BG, RES, Warmouth, Pumpkinseed, LMB, BHC and now Crappie. Doubt seriously it's a black and what's the odds it was all by it's lonesome.
I stopped by the local co-op and picked a sack of Aquamax 500. Decided I wanted to use it instead of the Game Fish Chow. They ate it pretty well, but the smaller fish had a tough time due to the consistent size of the pellets, where GFC has mixed sizes...disappointment #1.
Then I mowed my grass and ran the weed eater around the pond, wanting to get it done before it started raining....sweated my hind end off....disappointment #2.
After dinner I decided to bait my two clover leafs with some of the GFC and set them out while I dunked a night crawler to try to catch a few BHC. Caught two right off the bat then the bite just quit....#3
So I pull up my first trap only to find a dang crappie in it. Now I've got a real mutt pond!
After 6 or 7 sets, this is the first crappie I've caught. About 4.5" long. I was hoping the Harvey flood had spared me of those fish, but my luck ain't that good. It went in the tank with the 2 BHC to be released into the bayou down the road. Here's the list of known species now...GSF, BG, RES, Warmouth, Pumpkinseed, LMB, BHC and now Crappie. Doubt seriously it's a black and what's the odds it was all by it's lonesome.
Harvey messed with a LOT of ponds all across southeast Tx and southwest LA, Mike. Sorry to hear that you got some unwanted guests.
I didn't realize that pumpkinseed live that far south, always thought they were Yankee fish. Now that you have some LMB, maybe your intruders will end up feeding them. BG outbreed almost all other sunfish with the exception of CNBG.
My "fun" time at the pond was trying to get my generator started. No matter how hard I pulled, no matter how many times I pulled, nothing doing. Sweated like a pig, extremely irritated... And then I realized that it was switched to the OFF position.
That sounds like something I would do!! Lol. Thanks for the chuckle. I needed that.
I call them pumpkinseed, but that may not be their real name. Body like a BG (broad sided) lots of bright green, almost flourescent coloring and a thin white stripe at the end of the earlobe, like a RES would have, but white. Watched two of them this evening dancing around in circles like they wanted to mate. Biggest I've seen is maybe 3".
The LMB are trying their hardest to make life rough for anything shorter than 3 inches. My biggest, maybe just over 12", made several passes through the feeding fish, then I saw other commotion in the main bedding area that had to be bass. Busting heads in inches of water. They keep at it like this and I may have a lunker in no time. They look pretty healthy from what I can see in a split second. I hope they're treating the BHC just as harshly and eat every crappie they come across.
Ive been watching this BG tending a nest on and off for a while and I hate to admit it, but curiousity just got the better of me. I rigged a small piece of gulp worm on a lite wire hook, no weigh, no bobber and used my crappie rod to swing about 10 feet of line out. After about three tries to get it to fall in the nest he finally bit. I've personally stocked maybe 25 BG from 3-5" maybe two months ago. The biggest being a nice looking male. If this is that same fish, he's done very well for himself, being every bit of 7". If he is one of my miracle fish, I'm wondering now how many others are in there with him. Haven't seen anything like him while feeding, tho. He was a bit thin, but I attribute that to him being on the bed. Put him right back.
Great progress, Mike! If the LMB keep BG numbers under control, you will have some real beauties soon.
My bride & I replenished the feeders today. Incredibly hot, 98 to 100 all the way to the pond. On the positive side, they still ate pretty eagerly, though not quite as voraciously as a month ago when water temps were 5 to 10 F lower.
Have yet to see a HSB or TP around the feeders, but neither have I seen any floaters. Viz still around 3 feet, a little murky for my BOW. Nice weed growth around the edges, but it's good that most of the pond drops off sharply! Observed plenty of small fish in the shallow weeds, mostly BG/CNBG, which is encouraging after the recruitment problems I've had the last couple of years.
Only negative: GBH population has doubled from one to two. They don't get along very well, big one chased the smaller one to the other side of water.
Raccoon marks all over the feeders, desperate to get in. Ants have succeeded in doing so in a couple of places, will have to take steps.
What kind of grease? No ants in my feeder but have been a bunch under the feeder. Feeder does set out in the rain so don't want any chemical being washed into the pond. What is recommended?? I have actually watched GBH fight each other for territory on Lake Sam Rayburn. They can get brutal!! My GBH actually ran a commorant off my pond awhile back!!
I went out this morning using the same rig as last evening while the wife was starting breakfast. Just walking the edge all around the pond. No significant bites, but I did see a very diverse mix.
Naturally, more GSF than anything, but not much more. Also caught BG, one small WMS, and one small RES. Mostly in the 2.5-4" range. The BG, even at that size, are already sporting that humped forehead, so I'm assuming they're growing well. GSF all had bloated bellies so there's no doubt they're feeding well. Probably around 25 fish in both outings.
I have to finish the roof on my outside kitchen today so may try again later after it gets warmer and too hot to swing a framing gun.
I'm liking that I haven't spent a dime on fish and have what looks like a good mix. I may invest in a few larger RES to help them out tho.
As a side note, Ive numbered my three LMB, the smallest being #1 @ 10.5" largest (last one I stocked) is #3 @ just under 13 when they were introduced. I know water magnifies everything you see swimming but I swear #3 looks like it's grown 2" already. It's claimed the spawning ground as it's regular haunt and I see it daily.
As a side note, Ive numbered my three LMB, the smallest being #1 @ 10.5" largest (last one I stocked) is #3 @ just under 13 when they were introduced. I know water magnifies everything you see swimming but I swear #3 looks like it's grown 2" already. It's claimed the spawning ground as it's regular haunt and I see it daily.
Funny how LMB will do that, Mike. I have one in my pond that has established its own particular kill zone under the weeds next to the dock. We regularly see & hear an explosion there as it nails a BG.
What's really cool is being able to sit at my dining table, looking out at the pond, seeing all the bulls circling their nests and watch it pull up like a dragster on the starting line and then explode over 10 feet in just a nanosecond to claim another victim. Amazing
Since I have finally brought my little pond king paddle wheel boat to its new home, I took the opportunity to get out in the middle this morning and get a more accurate depth reading.
Looks like my dirt guy underestimated the depth. All this time I was going by his info that the pond was 12 foot deep, but it's only 10.5, which also reduces my average depth to about 8 feet. Luckily it's at full pool so it's an accurate reading.
Unfortunately, I've lost a quarter acre foot of water instantly. But the brighter side is now I know exactly how deep my diffuser will be and what kind of psi I'll truly need to get optimum output. Gonna really have to keep an eye on my biomass since that capacity has now been reduced as well.
Similar story here, Mike. My BOW is supposed to be max 24 - 25 feet deep at full pool, but Justin Stane mapped it out to be around 18 - 19 feet. Even correcting a couple of feet for summer drought, that's several feet less than estimated.
Similar story here, Mike. My BOW is supposed to be max 24 - 25 feet deep at full pool, but Justin Stane mapped it out to be around 18 - 19 feet. Even correcting a couple of feet for summer drought, that's several feet less than estimated.
Good thing about it....the smaller it gets, the easier it is to take care of!!
I'm wondering how much a quarter acre foot of water reduction affects carrying capacity. Can't be by too much with aeration (when I get put in) and feeding.
Fantastic Tommy! A pumphouse after my own heart. Here's mine recently installed for the air pump. I have not figured out how to incorporate the "moon" yet...
Justin Stane came over to put together and deploy artificial habitat. Good guy, good attitude, my wife remarked afterward how much she liked him.
We created two shoreline fishing spots for the grandkids, plus enhanced a point on the island, plus sunk a rootball and an artificial Christmas tree near CNBG spawning beds. Very productive morning.
Mowed and spruced up around the pond getting ready for my wifes family reunion at our place tomorrow. Got the cane poles ready and tomorrow after lunch I will be helping around a dozen kids with catching BG. I'll be busy.
Did the same thing two years ago and for most of the kids it was the first time they had ever went fishing. BG were biting and it was one right after another.
We had a thought that our pond was leaking down but with so much water around and a pump it has never been a problem....until.
The wheat came off the farm and the chaff blew into the pond. I know from the past that if I do not dose dye heavy right away the alga will get out of hand.
Double the dye and it is super blue I mean the crayfish are blue for a few days after molting. I happen to stop on the road and look into the creek that passes our farm and what the he!! the creek its blue.....doe.
I grab a white bucket and fill it with the water that is coming out of a 10" drain that passes our frontage and drains into the creek. Yep the bucket water was blue.
Call up my golfing buddy that is a plumber and ask about a camera. Found these guys to come and scope the 10" drain. $400 later we found an old clay 4" that looks to have run right through our pond. Marked it with GPS. The only water coming down the 10" at the time of the scope was from this 4" tile.
Today we dug up this 4" and it was running over half full from our pond into the creek. We dug up 20 feet of tile with a mini EX, and hand dug up the end heading to the pond to get out a full tile then rubber test plugged off the tile. Plugged it off where it entered the 10" so we don't get any back ups.
Long story long I will have an extra burshless 5500 gallon per hour pump to put on the water fall next spring.
That is great news you found a leak and plugged it DonnoBBD. With all the things we do purposely for management, sometimes it still boils down to being lucky to get something fixed. Lucky you put so much dye in caused you to find a leak.
I trapped approx 50 3" BG from the neighbors pond. I carried them back to my pond, clipped tails and fed them to my bass. I absolutely love that cloverleaf trap. It wasn't cheap but dang it works great!
Sipping a cold beer and tossing bluegill to hungry LMB may very well be my second favorite thing to do.
I trapped approx 50 3" BG from the neighbors pond. I carried them back to my pond, clipped tails and fed them to my bass. I absolutely love that cloverleaf trap. It wasn't cheap but dang it works great!
Sipping a cold beer and tossing bluegill to hungry LMB may very well be my second favorite thing to do.
I sure hope your neighbor "volunteered" his BG as fish food!!! LOL
I mowed most of the heavy grass around the old pond, down to about 30 inches below full pool. Right now, it's about 33.5 inches low, and not visibly leaking at that level. The new pond is about 10.5 inches low.
I trapped approx 50 3" BG from the neighbors pond. I carried them back to my pond, clipped tails and fed them to my bass. I absolutely love that cloverleaf trap. It wasn't cheap but dang it works great!
Sipping a cold beer and tossing bluegill to hungry LMB may very well be my second favorite thing to do.
I sure hope your neighbor "volunteered" his BG as fish food!!! LOL
His pond has been poorly managed for many years. Bluegill are thick as thieves. Huge bass, but not many of them. Typical non managed southern farm pond. He had catfish and 2 grass carp but they died of old age (15 years +/- for the record) He is fine with me taking all the bluegill i can carry.
Truth be told, I was so jealous of his pond, I bought my own. I have a lot of nice toys but my pond is by far my favorite.
I did not do a darn thing yesterday, had a birthday party to attend. I did kill off a red wasp nest from under my floating pier the day before yesterday. They will build a nest under the boards just above the water and between the floats. But only after two of use were stung. Dam red wasp are mean! Plans are for today to remove (cut and spray) some more willows from the shoreline. Looks like Labor day (today) is a labor day
It's been cloudy and raining here on and off all weekend. Started again sometime last night and hasn't stopped. Not hard, but constant. Haven't seen much rise in elevation, still about 6 inches low. The areator shut off just before 8 (runs 6 hours)this morning, so I gave it a little while and grabbed my pool thermometer and checked the surface temp. Still measuring 84 degrees on top. Didn't check it lower (still raining), but if I'm maintaining that 3 degree variance top to bottom, should be around 80 at depth. That's a drop of 8 degrees in four days. Nice and slow drop!!
Think I'm ok temp wise. Wasn't too sure how cool this rain was and with temps dropping, the DO level should be getting higher.
Calling for rain all week, and now we have TS Gordon to keep an eye on, almost one year to the day after Harvey.
Not gonna let it get me down tho, I got ribs to bbq in a bit!! Glad my deck is covered!!
Removed fish from kids hooks and removed deep hooks. I'll have to say that the kids did darn good though handling the fish compared to last year(edit: it was two years ago - senior moment). I had it easy this year compared to last.
They seemed to have a great time and stayed with it a lot longer than I would have imagined.
Recuperating today. Maybe catch a few small smallies to transfer to other ponds later today.
I thought it very strange that yesterday morning about 9am ahead of a little shower a flock of about 25 martins were flying everywhere around the pond. I don't have martin houses and no neighbors within a 1/2 mile of the pond that might. Around noon I was back down at the pond and not a bird in sight. I must say about a week ago I did see about 100 large dragon flies flying around the pond and don't see any now.I know martins eat dragonflies and I don't like that because dragonflies eat mosquitos but while all the martins were flying I saw no dragonflies anywhere. Just an observation.
Yesterday at the pond around 6pm it has been overcast for 2 days and water temps are down. Had the wife go ahead and cast a little beetlespin type bait with a soft plastic "icycle" as a trailer and she caught her FIRST lmb from the pond. For fun she was fishing with a Pink Barbie Zebco 202 extremely light action set up. I had respooled it with 12 pound line thank goodness. She caught a 17 inch Florida lmb that weighed near 3 pounds on that tiny set up. She had fun and I had a blast watching her fight that thing in!!!
I built a 4' X 10' dock using a hardware kit as a starting point and the entire thing happened over the course of 2 days. The first day was getting the frame built and mounted on the poles. The 2nd day was the decking and bracing. All in 90 degree weather so it was slow going.
I do need a more permanent solution for the step but that will wait until the water level comes back up. The dock is high enough that it should be above the normal level except for when it floods during the Spring rains.
The container holds the aeration pump and connections to the fountain, etc. and will likely build a shelf on the pole for it to reside a bit higher and more out of the way.
A permanent power run needs to be installed but the extension cord has worked for a number of years and is GFCI protected so I'm in no rush at this time.
I'm told that if you put your compressor in a tote that you will kill it shortly (or shorten its life significantly) due to build up of heat and possibly moisture.
I have a commercial kit with a aluminum housing to keep water away but I was told if you even change the color of the housing it will void any warranty. I've had 2 high water events and nearly got water in the system as it sets on the ground on the bank.
I was tempted to put it in a tote or something that would protect it better, but worried about any type of enclosure that would add heat or limit air flow. Your experience having it in a tote?
I'm told that if you put your compressor in a tote that you will kill it shortly (or shorten its life significantly) due to build up of heat and possibly moisture.
I actually have a fan installed and ran thermal tests with the compressor running. The cooling fan, which runs all the time, blows directly on the compressor and exits out the other side via a pair of vents. Testing shows about a 15 degree increase over the ambient temperature so I believe I should be good. However I do need to run another test with it out in the sun to confirm.
I'm also only running it for 4 hours in the early morning hours (3am-7am) as the daytime pond temps at the surface get into the high 80's to low 90's. While I'm pretty sure things are OK I'll double check the static temps to make sure.
I built my own large plastic box even with screens for heat to exit and a fan blowing on it and it still ran 150 Degrees!!!! manufacturer said pump should not exceed around 120 max. I ended up building a 4 foot square cube wood frame box with window screen all the way around on removable panels for access to everything. I insulated the roof and put white metal on top. It runs 24 hours a day in this east Texas hot climate. On a 100 degree day the pump still only ran 102degree. Overcast today and pump is 87 degrees. From experience in your case I would at least..paint the box gloss white and make sure it has a white top!!! Will make a huge difference. I notice you are running a smaller pump than me and only 4 hrs a day so my setup may be a huge overkill for you but....think air flow,air flow, air flow is key....And keep it dry. Good luck
As is my norm, I fed the fish when I got home. Nothing unusual. Didn't notice anything out of the ordinary at the time, and did a quick check of the surface temp (88*). After I ate dinner, maybe an hour later, I looked out at the pond and noticed a very dark, almost tannic colored area of water right in the middle of the pond, over the deepest area. Upon closer inspection, the darkness was an area of what looked like water turning over(that brown scum that comes up when a BOW flips. It also had a field of bubbles all through it. All in a matter of an hour. And it covered over half of the pond.
I started mildly freaking out!! "The water's too warm to turn over!" Im thinking. What the crap!!
After I think some more (a sometimes dangerous prospect) I deduce it may be a dieing algae plum (considering we've had several days of heavy cloud cover) and that means DO is most likely being rapidly consumed.....so on came the aerator!
Sure am glad I've got one now. I hate to think what the outcome may have been had the pond been off site and I weren't around to catch it. That's both a blessing and a plague sometimes, tho.
No expert here but I read here that the carnivorous animal plankton are brown and that they succeed the green planktonic algae by eating them. I too have seen brown streaks late in the day.
I haven't had red wasps move in under my pier yet. They have explored. I fear that as the deck boards shrink, the wasps could ambush. They do hurt, for days.
I have heard if you have dirt daubers or mud daubers they will keep wasps away. I let all the mud daubers hang around on anything not too important to keep clean. In 4 years now I have never had a wasp nest on my dock. Did have one in a small fiberglass bass boat I keep near by.
I'm not so sure about that, Flame. At our old place, which was right on the Sabine River, we were infested with mud daubers, and those nasty red river wasps that will run you out of a boat if you mess with them. The kind that build plate sized nests in cypress branches right where you want to cast a bait. I was going thru a couple cans of wasp spray every summer keeping them off and out from under the porches.
Today was "Rake FA Day". Took my oversized yard rake, turned upside down, and combed thru the emergent grasses and water willow to gently lift as much FA off the perimeter of the pond as I could reach. Only took about 30 minutes and I removed about 30 pounds of scum. Still some floating around, but I'll get it once the aerator pushes it to the banks again.
I still get wasp nests around my house. Just not down by the pond on the boat dock 200 ft. away. For whatever the reason...I'm just glad wasps don't bother me on the dock while fishing!!
I'll be removing the perforated board at the top of my water control box in the big pond and putting the plastic storage boxes that are on the fixed dock up on the dam in preparation for the 5+ inches of rain predicted through the weekend. That should flush out the ponds, wetlands, and streams around here!
Wow, do you need the rain? Last week in total we got 9-10" of rain, with a big plunge during a bad storm on Tuesday night (lots of straight line winds, 5 tornados in mid MI but fortunately category 0 or 1) and then a little more on some subsequent fronts that came through.
Pond overflowed significantly (seems like these 100 year rains are happening about every year lately) The woods fills with water during overflow. No issue but I'm thinking having an overflow conduit would be nice just to direct it more quickly into the woods and where I want it. As it comes up it also flows into my front yard and due to the additional daily rain for a week the grass is dead by the time the water finds its way down into the soil.
Knowing what we have been talking about today about fish finding a way to swim out of ponds I looked in the puddles in the woods for any small fish and didn't see any. My small fish are mostly GSH minnows and they would have been pretty easy to spot due to the fact that they never sit still. No perch and no RES seen, perhaps because they prefer the bottom?
Since the rain is going to be nonstop for a few days and the pond is likely to rise 5+ feet and overflow I went out and pulled the larger weeds which were beginning to be submerged. A royal PITA to hand pull but no real other choice as the water already came up a few feet and has 2 more to go to reach normal level.
Water is literally pouring in on the side with the the drain tile for the fields along with the other field runoff we get through the yard. I'm guessing we're getting 60-80 GPM if not more and since the ground is saturated I expect to have a the other 2 feet filled before evening.
On the plus side, when the pond overflows into the yard it pushes most of the loose material onto the grass and leaves it there.
I figured some of this might slide up thru y'all.... guess not.
Since everything I do out in the yard is literally out by the pond I guess this qualifies. I've been converting a single car 1220 metal awning into an enclosed building. Been working on it several weekends now. Sides are done, elevated floor is done and framed in one end with double 4 foot doors today....all between rain showers....sorry guys. Pond is full again.
I started the day with hand feeding Aquamax lmb to the HSB and LMB. And there will be some larger sized CNBG that join in. Then I disked up a one acre food plot next to the pond and planted some winter wheat, oats and peas. This one acre spot has been a food plot for years and is well used by the deer and rabbits. We got a good rain yesterday afternoon so the food plot should be popping up in a few days. We don't hunt this food plot, it's just a place that gets a lot of deer activity year round and is a nice place to view next to the pond.
Year before last or maybe last year lol, I sat on the hill top which is about 100 yds away from that food plot and watched a nice 8pt feeding in the corner of the plot as I watched 50 or so ducks come into the pond. They came in groups of 10 or so. I was a nice picture all in all. I have several food plots I am working on right now. Have about 6 more to get disked up and seeded in the next few weeks. After years of experimenting on what seeds to plant I have narrowed it down to Elbon Rye, Winter wheat and a few oats. I add the peas I have left over from spring plots. They like new pea sprouts but they don't last very long.
I'll be removing the perforated board at the top of my water control box in the big pond and putting the plastic storage boxes that are on the fixed dock up on the dam in preparation for the 5+ inches of rain predicted through the weekend. That should flush out the ponds, wetlands, and streams around here!
Got at least 4" but my rain gauge is now under a tree (put it up a long time ago). All the ponds are full. It came mostly slow and steady and most of my bodies of water are not all that muddy. Settling ponds/wetlands are working and the plant cover growing in most of the watersheds is thick despite the previous dry spell. I will get a more accurate rain total when I speak with a couple neighbors that have their rain gauges in better locations. Streams and creeks are running good!
First time in a long time we actually got enough to cause runoff from the next door neighbor's property. Water has now reached the overflow so I'm getting a little flush in the pond.
Still looking at around 18-24" visibility with the new water. Feeding was a little off, but I expected it would be.
Holding my breath and praying this isn't a sign of things to come. Three storms in the Atlantic, another building in the gulf. Two floods in two years is quite enough. My heart goes out to all those folks in the Carolinas. They're about to catch hell.
Are those too big for yourr SMB Shorty? If so, I may face the same problem some day.
What about adding a half dozen HSB? I happen to know someone near you raising some.
Some of the GSH Ive been catching must be too large for my SMB. They must be too large for my HSB too. Although my HSB are only rumored to be in my pond, as I actually havent seen one since they were stocked in October of 2015.. Ive got millions of GSH..
Are those too big for yourr SMB Shorty? If so, I may face the same problem some day.
What about adding a half dozen HSB? I happen to know someone near you raising some.
Probably not but the minor SMB kill I had in July has left me short on bigger SMB. Also, my large GSH have kept SMB recruitment on the very low side, I need more predators.
If you have a cast net you might try feeding them and cast the net when they are in a feeding frenzy. I get some larger sizes when I do this in my forage pond.
Wow Shorty that is a textbook specimen for GSH! If you could catch or net them say a dozen at a time couldn't you sell them for bait for large fish anglers (like NP or lunker LMB?)
I have caught a few nice RES in the last couple of weeks and a bunch of smaller ones, nothing over 10" yet.
In the last two weeks I have removed 101 GSH out my 1/4 acre pond, most of them in the 7-8" size range with a few bigger and a few smaller. It is starting to have an impact when I feed pellets, I am seeing more RES eat now and it's taking longer for the pellets to get cleaned up. Two weeks ago all of the pellets would be cleaned up in a few minutes, now it's taking twice as long. I still saw lots of big GSH eating pellets tonight so I am going to keep thinning them down.
I should mention that I had a huge GSH hatch this year, the early hatched GSH are 2"+ now, 4-6" GSH from last year are also very numerous. My SMB numbers are too low to keep up with them.
Don't get me wrong, I'm loving the fact that my surface temp has gone down to 82*, but enough is enough with this rain already. I know there's a plethora of ponds out there that can use more water. The mosquitos are so bad now they will absolutely try to carry you off. The parish is flying planes to spray every night. It's rained every day for the last 9 days. Probably in excess of 6 inches here at the house.
Shorty, how do you get the GSH to bite? I'm curious also how you gauge the population of hatch, 2" size or 4-6" size, do you net occasionally?
I am seeing a summer 'hatch' now with a few schools of 1/2" - 1" shiners. I can't tell if they are GSH or spotfins. I see the schools hang out around the crevice structures that I set out in the pond so I'm hoping they are spotfins staying close to the place where they hatched since they most likely had a recent warm weather spawn hatch?
I was hoping to have side by side healthy populations of both SFS and GSH. I didn't think the large GSH would be able to eat the eggs of the SFS since they are in the tiny crevices in my artificial structures. I think the GSH are helping control the FA and are probably helping control my very small YP fish population.
I don't have a way to gauge size or quantity of large GSH but I know there are some as the kids have caught a few in the 5-6" range while using corn to catch goldfish.
I think the YP are filling up on pellets, then shiner minnows of one type or the other but I was also hoping to get a huge number of shiners before putting in my predator fish.
Others talk of clouds of minnows all around the pond and I rarely see that. Of course with GSH they need vegetation to lay their eggs into and I still have none.
Micro jigs (Wapsi 1/80th oz #10) on a weighted bobber with a small pellet size piece of nightcrawler. Same rig I use for RES except I fish it shallow off the bank over deeper water. For RES I set the jig and fish it so it is on or near the bottom closer to the bank and use a bigger piece of nightcrawler.
I put a few early hatch GSH in my aquarium just to see if they would survive and to see what kind of fish they were, I was hoping they were RES fry. Surprisingly they did survive and are in the 2 to 2-1/2" size range now. I have also been watching the fry all summer next to the dock, they started hatching in late June, they have out performed my aquarium GSH in growth.
If Bill Cody is reading this then I'm curious if he or anyone knows what typically can be expected when GSH and spotfins are living side by side. Does one outcompete the other or because they lay eggs in different places at different times do they coexist.
I know GSH dart around erratically and swim very fast, I wonder if both shiners species can about equally avoid being eaten by RES and YP?
Shorty have you thought of adding other shiner types or FHM in with your RES?
I still have FHM from my original stocking 7 years ago, as the fry in my aquarium got bigger I thought they might actually be FHM. I watched a large male FHM darting in and out of the rocks next to my dock earlier this summer claiming a spawning area.
I catch my rosies darting into the cracks of my broken brick piles in shallow water too. Don't know if they use the deeper stuff (3-5' deep) tho. My small GSF use the same areas too...until they outgrow the space, anyway.
I catch my rosies darting into the cracks of my broken brick piles in shallow water too. Don't know if they use the deeper stuff (3-5' deep) tho. My small GSF use the same areas too...until they outgrow the space, anyway.
So this morning I went out and did some water testing. After over a week of daily rainfall, I'm concerned what all this rain and runoff is doing to the chemistry of the pond.
While the Alk reading hasn't changed much (80ppm), my Ph has skyrocketed. My wide range tester indicates a ph over 9.0, where its been staying no higher than 8. I also noticed on one occassion, the runoff coming in from next door had a milky color to it. Today, I saw he has a burn pile in his back yard and all that ash is being flooded into my pond.
Is this ash causing my ph swing, and if so, will throwing more aglime into the pond help stabilize the problem?
I did something that I now regret: Allowed a guy & his 5 year old son to fish my BOW in my absence. They caught a bunch of nice LMB, including two good ones by the son, which pleased me.
However, when I saw the pic, I realized that the guy did not just fish from the dam as I'd asked. He did avoid the feeders, or so he says, but he admitted fishing away from the dam.
He seems to think that he did nothing wrong, and is probably sincere as otherwise it makes no sense for him to send me of pic which is clearly not on the dam. But I did ask him to stay on dam area and away from feeders, which he only partly did.
I'm thinking maybe best thing I could do is to ask him to fish only when I'm present in the future. May have to change lock combo just to make sure, he lives near me and could easily get in.
Anthro, absoletely say no fishin without me. It's your pond and your $ and effort. I find it's hard ta trust myself. If he lives near and just happens ta show up without callin, might be a good time for settin up a practice target very near the pond.
Anthro, absoletely say no fishin without me. It's your pond and your $ and effort. I find it's hard ta trust myself. If he lives near and just happens ta show up without callin, might be a good time for settin up a practice target very near the pond.
After the aerator shut down this morning, I took my cup of coffee out for a little stroll around the pond and I noticed something really strange. All of the clumps of FA around the edges looked as tho someone had sprinkled tiny pieces of tan colored grass clippings on top of them. The coating looked dry, but dispersed when you touched it.
It looks like some critter made those clippings. Any muskrats or otters around?
Living in close proximity to a large swamp bottom, thats a possibility, but I've not seen any sign of anything. Tho I have found my small patch of lanceleaf arrowhead appears to have had most of its stems broken off right at the waterline. Not eaten, mind you, just broken off. I put that off as possible wind damage with the high water or maybe turtles.
The "clippings", IMO, are way too small for any kind of rodent to have created. I was thinking maybe some kind of insect cutting, or maybe it drifted in with the breeze from the trees around my property. I haven't been able to mow around the pond in a couple of weeks, so it's not my doing.
We fished this weekend. Well, the grandkids and daughter and Son in Law fished. Found out my SMB have pullled off a spawn! Not sure how old this one is. Then my granddaughter caught one of our original stockers from 4/15, so we have now kept three of the original 60.
Shes a twin. Her brother likes catching them too, but hes not so happy to hold them. Has to get used to slime.. Ha! They both like eating them, thats for sure. YP especially.
It's amazing how fast things change in a small pond. Just three days ago, the water was nice and green with a visibility of about 16". Today it's much clearer, close to 30", and has turned tannic brown. Fish fed well and seem to be doing fine tho. As much as we needed the rain, sometimes I wish we could get a happy medium. Hopefully we're in a bit drier cycle now and the pond will return to its former green self.
Today I cleaned out my wood duck house to prepare it for Fall. I counted 12 half membranes so I had at least 6 hatched and left the nest. I had 4 others that were in various stages of hatching but did not survive.2 complete eggs and 2 with baby birds in broken shells. sooo...I had a clutch of at least 10. I am happy with that. This is the second year in a row to have ducks in my homemade box!!
Flame, I'm not handy with wood so can you suggest a good online source to get a box that hopefully the wood ducks will like? I'm eager to try it this season.
We had a pair for a few days at our pond this spring, and then it looked like this past Sunday a female wood duck was paddling around for an hour in the morning and then took off.
What steps do you take in the fall or is it too late and the wood ducks already scouted my pond and decided there were no boxes up yet and we should move on?
Canyon, I live on my property and pond is only 150 ft from my back porch. I visit the pond at least twice a day during feeding times and I keep a written log of everything including dates I clean the duck house and get ready for fall. Last year was October 1st and this year was Sept. 18th. You have time to get your duck house up for this year. Just get one on the way asap.There are plenty online sources and most run about $40-$50 each. I would purchase wood. I have heard negative results from the plastic ones on the market but I have no personell experience with them. Go to Ducks Unlimited website for proper size and location of your house. I believe that is where I got the dimensions to build mine. Make sure it is some type of solid wood and not any type of plywood. My first I built out of very good waterproof plywood decking and it came apart in one year. I believe cedar may be the best. Also I chose to use Aspen wood shaving for nesting material. DO NOT use saw dust. It is bad for the birds. Also you must install some type of predator guard on your pole below your box to keep snakes and racoons out of nest. I made a sheet metal "cone" below mine. I placed mine at the ponds edge and about 6 ft. high to the hole opening in the box.Hope this helps
Canyon, I just researched a few houses on the web and it appears they are going up in price!! Most are showing around $75. I found one for $62 and free shipping on Amazon. Wow...I need to start mass producing those things!!
Yup, I noticed prices mostly north of $60! I have a 12" diameter smooth fiberglass light pole by my pond that I'm thinking of using as the mount for the wood duck box. No predator can shimmy up it unless it is one of those anaconda/boa constrictors. I don't want to screw into the pole so I'll be using some large zip ties to hold it in place.
I certainly want a solid cedar one.
Do the ducks pick their nest in the fall or in the spring?
They will check them out in the fall. Build nest in the spring. RAH it is a pretty simple project. 3 main points... make entrance hole 4 inch wide and 3 inch tall oval shape. Make a "door" of somekind for easy access to clean and refill with shavings. Install screen on inside of front for baby birds to get traction to climb out.
Sat for 2 hours last night, in the dark with a flashlight and dog, and watched "steamnadoes" come up off the water in the cold. It is mesmerizing and relaxing!
Went out to feed the BG the other day and had this green film after heavy rains and corn field runoff - which tends to act as natural fertilizer. The pond was overflowing a week earlier and the bottom of the dock was in the water. It's currently down 30" from that level in 10 days and will drop another 2+ feet to the water table if we don't get more rain.
Went from 18" visibility after the rain to 10" or less once everything bloomed. Had this on the surface a couple of days ago and now the FA is growing like mad on the weeds that are under water. Will have to rake things out once the weekend hits.
Other than knowing what's coming in the way of a FA outbreak it actually looks nice in the right light.
With the hot weather the aeration system is running for 6 hours from 1 am to 7 am.
Disassembled a TH fish feeder that took an extended bath several years ago. Time for a new motor...and then I sat...and sat...and sat some more. Isn't that what you are supposed to do at the pond?
Fed the fish a couple times. Watched the SMB hit pellets for a while but mainly mowed the pond dam and did a little weed eating around the pond getting ready for this Saturday. Pond Boss Forum SE Kansas informal get together. Bob Lusk will be in attendance so any PBF members within driving distance come spend a day getting to know other PBF members, talk some pond stuff, do some fishing and just have a good time around our ponds. Everything is prepared, the ponds are in good shape and the weather forecast looks good. Come join the fun.
The last few nights I've been stepping out with my spotlight and shining the pond, just to see if there are any "univited" guests. Last night, no sooner as I turned the lamp on, a GBH swoops in from the side of the house and lites on the edge of the pond with what looked like a small snake in his beak. He casually swallowed it and flew off. I had no idea herons hunted at night.
Yesterday afternoon I went out to feed. As soon as the first handful of pellets hit the water and the gills started their frenzy, my biggest of 3 LMB busted somebody's hind end, right in the middle of the spread. Needless to say, the frenzy was knocked back a notch or two.
I watched a 3 to 4" fish knocked out of the water yesterday when I was feeding the HSB/LMB the Aquamax lmb food. I think he might have been lucky but maybe not.
The last few nights I've been stepping out with my spotlight and shining the pond, just to see if there are any "univited" guests. Last night, no sooner as I turned the lamp on, a GBH swoops in from the side of the house and lites on the edge of the pond with what looked like a small snake in his beak. He casually swallowed it and flew off. I had no idea herons hunted at night.
I can look out our bedroom window and see the pond. I see the GBH sometimes on a moonlit night fishing.
The last few nights I've been stepping out with my spotlight and shining the pond, just to see if there are any "univited" guests. Last night, no sooner as I turned the lamp on, a GBH swoops in from the side of the house and lites on the edge of the pond with what looked like a small snake in his beak. He casually swallowed it and flew off. I had no idea herons hunted at night.
I can look out our bedroom window and see the pond. I see the GBH sometimes on a moonlit night fishing.
I've seen GBH decoys but dont know how effective they are at deterring other birds.
I occasionally also have a great white heron and a small stork visit during the day, along with a couple egrets. I've watched them closely to see how successful they are. So far I've only seen them catch minnows or grass hoppers. up But when the BG/GSF get on beds right against the bank, they could be easy prey. Haven't noticed any spear marks tho.
We get a Great White egret on occasion also but it seems to come for a few days and then gone. Then might be back later. We have had white herons also. The GBH have rookeries around Cow Creek which runs through our place. One or two of them are regulars. Some years they will bring the young-uns. The first couple years we just marveled at them. But then one got to being way too friendly to the point I could hardly run it off. Plus about three were showing up. So I set up a "discouragement" program and now any time they see me they leave.
I really do not mind them getting a few fish if they would stick with the BG or GSF. Got plenty they can have. But then I find a nice LMB with a poke hole in it floating along the bank (of which I have not enough) and they are no longer endeared to me.
I get Green Herons every year but they can only get the small fish and I leave them pretty much alone. They are kind of funny and squawk in defiance of me when I approach as if to tell me it is their pond. Lots of killdeers which get tiny fish that I also leave alone. About accidentally run over a newly hatched clutch once by the edge of the pond. The tiny little hairballs jumped into the water, swam a few feet out from the bank, then promptly back out of the water and ran off. Did not know the little things could even swim. Always end up with at least one new family each year. Sometimes several.
Have seen some sort of sandpiper several times. Small bird with long curved beak that loves to pick off small shiners or tiny BG (I assume that is what they ear) along the edge of ponds.
I really like all the wildlife unless it gets to the point they are a nuisance. That happens really fast with cormorants and geese. Snow geese in the winter and Canadas in the spring and fall.
I'm surprised we don't have more visitors than we do. My place is just off gum slough and swamp bottom of pine ridge on the Sabine. Every morning and evening there are literally hundreds of different species of waders flying over the house. An occasional mottled duck, squealer or wood duck.
Being in a residential area, most don't dare take a chance I guess. Geese definitely won't.
Depending on the exact time of the year we have a GBH that's a regular visitor but it'll leave pretty much as soon as we step outside. We're about 75'-100' away at that point.
We also get a Green Heron once in a great while. Had one stop by a few weeks back and when I went outside it simply walked over to the far side of the pond.
Finally, had a snowy egret a while back too. I got some pics but was pretty far away since I didn't think it'd stick around. It went to the other side of the pond while I put the inflatable boat in the water to do some maintenance but I was able to get within 10'-15' a couple of times before it got tired of the intrusion and left.
We too have killdeer depending on the time of year but I didn't realize they would go fishing. I figured they were just out there for the water.
I could be wrong on that. Maybe the killdeer do not fish but they sure do spend a lot of time along the bank if they don't. They may just be eating bugs.
Edit: I looked it up. They are shore birds but this information does not say they eat fish. Crayfish and snails though. killdeer
Finally, had a snowy egret a while back too. I got some pics but was pretty far away since I didn't think it'd stick around. It went to the other side of the pond while I put the inflatable boat in the water to do some maintenance but I was able to get within 10'-15' a couple of times before it got tired of the intrusion and left.
It's important to drive these birds off before you run an errand. We should always leave with no egrets!
On a serious note, finally got water line set up to mobile home on our pond. Septic tank done, too. Now for electric hookup!
Cool weather felt great, fish were very active around feeders. Still no sign of HSB, but did see two Tilapia take sinking pellets. Seemed more skittish about surface feeding than LMB and CNBG, don't know if this is species characteristic.
I normally hydrate my feed before going out to feed, but yesterday I decided to throw it dry. I've noticed my BG are very enthusiastic the first few seconds then tend to feed more subsurface after that, as the pellets sink faster.
Since the feed was dry yesterday, they didn't feed as hard as they were waiting for sinkers. What I did find out is that I have a few more BH than I thought. Where I normally only see 4 or 5 between 10-12 inches, yesterday they were forced to come up to get the pellets. I saw around a dozen ranging from 6 to 12 inches. They are virtual vacuum cleaners. Scarfing up 3 or 4 pellets at a time.
All I did today was watch from my front door as a thunderstorm reminiscent of hurricane Harvey completely inundated the pond. The banks are overflowing into the yard and as it drains off I'm watching thousands of GAMs, FHM and small panfish swim out with it.
Sure am glad I don't have a ton of money tied up in stocked fish.
Wish you could send some of that excess rain up here, Mike. My pond level has risen some, but still about 16-18 inches lower than full pool.
Interestingly, I'm seeing the same thing Bob Lusk mentioned in the electroshocking video tonight: recently spawned LMB in the 3 to 6 inch range. Don't usually find that happening in the fall, wonder what the trigger was?
Of course, we all remember the abrupt shift from winter to summer earlier this year, with a very brief in between spring. Perhaps female bass didn't have the opportunity to spawn they normally get during the spring, as temps went from too cold to too hot abruptly, so more eggs available now.
That is weird because I have lots of 3.5-4" SMB that I have no other explanation other than a late spawn. They are not starving and look to be in good health.
If I could send it to you I surely would. We need to dry out some as it's rained almost every day and forecast for 60% chance till probably Monday. Luckily it drains off pretty fast. Have to keep an eye on Toledo Bend. I'm sure you've heard their reputation for flooding everyone out downstream.
I've heard that LMB can have late season spawns even into fall. But it's usually after unseasonably cool weather that drops water temps early on then warms back up.
It was a crazy winter, spring this past year. I had lmb on the nest in May, where it is usually late Feb or early March. A may spawn might give up some 4" lmb in early fall. I think. Another thing is the rain at my place this year has been scattered out but I have seen more this year than the past two yrs where I was in a drought at the farm. Pond is pretty much full right now.
After that deluge of rain yesterday I was interested in what changes it made to the pond. Visibly has been reduced to about 16". The surface temp at 3:30pm (still cloudy and threatening rain) is 83*. Ph reading is 8.0.
I walked the ditches along the property where the pond drains and saw a lot of tiny minnows scurrying around, but no evidence of anything substantial in the ditch. There still appears to be a lot of GAMS and FHM in the pond, tho. Feeding today was also on track. While I was out also cleaned off the grate covering the overflow pipe. It was completely clogged with FA.
Trying to make lemonade from lemons. Have had a beaver trying to clog my exit pipe by throwing pickerel weed plants into the water control box. have been using the plants in my newest wetlands and pond to get some cover established. The beaver has saved me a lot of digging.
The 4"-6" CC I stocked this May are taking feed already. That is a record. Usually it's the following spring before I see them again. That really bumps up my harvest schedule. I'll be having CC fishing parties this time next year. I need to clean my feeders with bleach water. They are getting stinky.
I'm losing the battle with invasive giant (mutant ninja) snails. Actually they don't seem to cause any problem but just seem to coat the bottom in the shallows. I'm guessing they came in when the neighbor 'kindly' bucket stocked my pond with the remnants of his aquarium which included adult snails. Every year I have taken out a few 5 gallon bucket loads of adult snails by hand.
Now they tend to stay in about a foot of water, not many out deeper than that, and as we get high water after a rain they go into the shallows more. I had 2 overflows of my pond with heavy rains this month and many of the adults stayed stranded up in the grass when the water receded.
I figured as my YP (and RES the few I have) got larger they would eat the tiny snails (they bear live young, so the babies got to be small enough for a large YP to eat?) But this year apparently the YP didn't get the memo because my shallows are must loaded with 1/2" to 3/4" diameter tiny snails. The adults by comparison are about 2" or more.
The tiny snails have very soft thin shells so I'm sure the RES could eat them. Once in the shallows you would think the coons would wade in and feast on them, but no. Do owls or raptors eat these things?
If I new a way to get them to crawl out of their shells or soften their shells I would throw the snails (minus the shell) back in and they would be quick treats for my larger YP
So I raked and raked yesterday and the shore looks like it hailed snails. When they die off it stinks and we get flies...
Oh well, there are at least 10,000 less snails in the pond now.
Is there such a thing as a selective 'snail.i.cide'?
The LMB fingerlings I saw were in my old refurbished pond, not in the RES/SMB pond. The ponds are close to each other, about a hundred feet apart. But they are separated by a tall enough terrace the waters should never allow fish to transfer from one BOW to another. I have 5 different ponds so I differentiate them with names. Main, sediment, forage, old and RES/SMB.
To me the LMB fingerlings look just about like the SMB fingerlings from the shore. At 4" I sure could not tell the difference between them looking at them when they are swimming in the water. I tried just a little to catch one of the small LMB to look at it but no luck. I can easily catch the 4" SMB fingerlings on a small jig but I have lots of them so it is easier. I have seen much smaller numbers of the 4" LMB in the old pond. Saw some earlier in the year during summer and again just recently. Not sure what to think of the spawns. Either they were spread out or the fish just did not grow for a couple months.
This afternoon I am headed up to my land (1.5 hr drive) and will set four cloverleafs to continue work on thinning out the bullhead it got infected with, and also set some minnow traps in the minnow pond to toss them into the big pond for grins. Also toss in a few handfulls of fish chow. Then I am headed to a deer stand for the evening. Going to work on pond, deer stands, duck blinds, decoys, etc all weekend.
Scared away a GB Heron and two cormorants. Getting increasingly discouraged about these two small ponds.
I just got back from chasing off a cormorant scout, a flock of geese and a white colored young GBH. It looked like bird city out there this morning with the addition of a flock of killdeers and an eagle circling overhead, which I left alone (saw the eagle get a fish a few days ago).
It must be migratory season again. Guess if I was into birds it would be wonderful.
I don't know if I am going to continue to feed after this season. With the extreme depredation, cost of feed, and difficulty of obtaining good feed, I think I will just keep the pond areas cleaned up for their aesthetics, and an area to get a good walk and to sit a bit and see nature. I still haven't found anyone to stop the first pond from leaking down to about 30" from full. No one seems to want a small job like that with the huge amount of construction of all kinds going on in NW Arkansas at this time.
This morning I went out and checked surface temps while the aerator was still running. With night-time temps starting to cool (72*F this morning) I want to keep an eye on temps so I can make an uneducated guess at when to switch to a daytime schedule. Surface temps inside the diffuser current was still 80*F at 7am, so I'm thinking I can wait a bit longer.
Afterwards I decided to give my refurbished 8' flyrod a go (equipped with a small closed faced spinning reel). Rigged with the body of a baby beetlespin (no blade attached) in black/chartreuse under a small float. Second cast resulted in what I think was a 6" Warmouth. I say "think" because it didn't have the typical GSF markings, but was much lighter in color than the usual dark brown mottled colors. Unfortunately, my phone was inside so no pic.
Now the interesting part.
Second fish is what I believe to be a HBG. Next was a 6" GSF, followed shortly after by a 6" BG.
Links to pics below for comparison and evaluation. Your input on the first pic is greatly appreciated. If this is indeed HBG, it's a naturally occurring specimen. The bobber used as reference is 1" on the spring button top to bottom.
A morning dedicated to RES fishing. I have only caught one prior to this trip on the pond and it was a 5"er. Four years ago next month I added a thousand 3" res to the pond and followed up with another 850 the following February. I have seen only a few when we shocked the pond and I have caught a couple when throwing a cast net, so for the most part I seem to have low numbers of res. Or maybe they just like to hang out in deeper water where a shock boat and cast nets don't work all that well, really not sure. Anyway, I rigged up my 3 wt fly rod with an olive colored feathered fly with a beaded head. A minnow looking or a worm looking fly about an inch and a half in size. Fishing in about 4' of water I caught an res that was 10" and really fat, and looked like she was full of eggs. And the weighing scales were not with me at the time so I did not get a weight on her. When I first saw her on the line I saw a lot of yellow color and first thought it was a large Tilapia. But as I inspected her in the boat I discovered she had the red outline on her ear tabs It was not a bright or strong red color but more of a faded red coloring around the ear tab. I then new she was an res. She did have a lot of yellow coloring on her belly and below her gills. She is the second largest RES I have ever caught. Well as it turned out she was the only one I caught, maybe because it was a late morning fishing trip when I started up around 9:30. I also wound up catching a few 10" cnbg measured but not weighed. They were some really nice cnbg. Some of the nicest ones I have ever caught in the pond. And I also hooked into a really nice lmb that came off when I bent over to pick her up.. I am guessing 17" and about 3.5 lbs. I was a great morning of fly fishing, but it would be nice to have caught some more of the elusive RES like the one I caught. I wished I would have had the camera with me.
This morning I went out and checked surface temps while the aerator was still running. With night-time temps starting to cool (72*F this morning) I want to keep an eye on temps so I can make an uneducated guess at when to switch to a daytime schedule. Surface temps inside the diffuser current was still 80*F at 7am, so I'm thinking I can wait a bit longer.
Afterwards I decided to give my refurbished 8' flyrod a go (equipped with a small closed faced spinning reel). Rigged with the body of a baby beetlespin (no blade attached) in black/chartreuse under a small float. Second cast resulted in what I think was a 6" Warmouth. I say "think" because it didn't have the typical GSF markings, but was much lighter in color than the usual dark brown mottled colors. Unfortunately, my phone was inside so no pic.
Now the interesting part.
Second fish is what I believe to be a HBG. Next was a 6" GSF, followed shortly after by a 6" BG.
Links to pics below for comparison and evaluation. Your input on the first pic is greatly appreciated. If this is indeed HBG, it's a naturally occurring specimen. The bobber used as reference is 1" on the spring button top to bottom.
I posted that 1st pic in a separate thread. The possibility of a BGxWM has been suggested. Quite possible with my small population of WM and their need to reproduce....with something!!
Getting frustrated at how there is just enough rain to keep things wet, but not enough for runoff to bring up the pond. Getting the float raft out of a half-flushed toilet bowl with a 4-wheeler is a ton of work. Anything stronger would pull the float raft apart.
Since getting my new rain gage this past Saturday, we've received a total of 1/2" of rain. Not that we need any more for a while.
Today was an absolutely beautiful day after the first serious cold front of the season. Overnight temps are going to drop into the mid 60s (f) tonight.
Surface temps today were 90* at 3p, after a full day of cloudless sunshine (so nice to see the sun again). With air temps dropping overnight and a trend of even cooler nights out thru next week, I decided it's time to switch my aeration schedule to a daytime shift. Starting tomorrow it'll be running from 8am-2pm.
Turned the aerator off today as we have our first freeze warning tonight. Surface temps are sitting at 55 degrees which was warmer than today's high. A week ago surface temps were 72.
After last night's cool snap and today's aeration run, surface temps dropped from 90(f) to 84(f) at the same time of day. Made another adjustment to the run time. Tomorrow will start a 10a-4p cycle. Daily highs are predicted to be in the low 80s for the next few days, so this change should help maintain a more subtle drop in water temps for now.
Snrub came to visit and we fished in my two ponds. Found I have more RES than I thought. He caught three that appeared to be this year's spawn. Also, two pound plus CC really put up a fight on limber 12 foot crappie rods.
Yesterday I moved the aeration from the deeper ends of the pond to the shallows nearest the deck, this will keep the ice from forming around the deck this winter. Water temperature is now at 55 degrees and our air temps are getting into the low 40's maybe in the 30's tonight, highs only in the low 50's, so we are on our way to late fall type weather soon to be in winter. It has been a good summer and I look forward to a little ice fishing once we get enough ice.
A big thank you to all of you on this forum, for all the great info you have shared this season ! I really love this group, the site and the magazine, and yes the videos are great too!!
Snrub came to visit and we fished in my two ponds. Found I have more RES than I thought. He caught three that appeared to be this year's spawn. Also, two pound plus CC really put up a fight on limber 12 foot crappie rods.
What!? No pictures? No pictures, or it just didnt happen. Ha! Just kidding. Im still ticked off I didnt get down to the get together at Snrubs. Sounds like you had a good day.
Snrub came to visit and we fished in my two ponds. Found I have more RES than I thought. He caught three that appeared to be this year's spawn. Also, two pound plus CC really put up a fight on limber 12 foot crappie rods.
What!? No pictures? No pictures, or it just didnt happen. Ha! Just kidding. Im still ticked off I didnt get down to the get together at Snrubs. Sounds like you had a good day.
Sorry, no pictures. The action was fast and fish slime isn't very compatible with taking pictures. LOL
An interesting observation....today was the first time I've fed while the aeration was running. Activity was nonexistent until I turned it off. After a few minutes, activity increased, but nowhere near what it should have been. High for today was 78ish and surface temp was 82(f) after 5 hours of daytime running. Visibility has reduced to around 16" due to an algae bloom. I didn't see a single BH either.
I started draining my forage pond into the old pond by siphon. I think I will start the forage pond anew next spring. It has BG and LMB in it from past flooding.
I fed a small amount of pellets this evening and checked the surface temp after the 4" of snow we had yesterday. Surprisingly the surface temp was 52 degrees and the fish fed well. I did catch two nice RES on soft plastic baits while the fish fed, one 9-1/2" female and one 9-3/4" male.
temps dropping fast, near freezing tonight. Sunday was warm in the afternoon. It was strange, I tossed pellets into the sunny areas and not even a nibble. The sun is low in the west sky and you would think the fish would stay in the warm sunny spots. But as soon as the pellets drifted in the shaded areas it was game on. However, my water has cleared for some reason so maybe they are just aware that they are targets in the sunny clear water.
I finished draining the forage pond down to a small puddle, netted out and transferred the 5 Koi I put in back in May, all the BG and LMB I wanted to keep, and then scattered 10 pounds of hydrated lime into the puddle. Those Koi were only about 4-5" when stocked on May 10. I was amazed at the growth. 11-13" and some over a pound.
I originally stocked FHM in the forage pond, but LMB and BG got in during a flood. I didn't find a single FHM. I decided this past spring to grow out those 5 Koi to big enough size the LMB couldn't eat them, then restart the forage pond. FHM to be stocked next spring.
Same here with the temp drop, it dropped around 20-25 degrees along with about a 4" rain so I shut the diffusers off around lunch today. Water temp was at or around 72 degrees @ 4' day before yesterday and so I saw no reason to mix up the cold rain water even though it rained all night and morning with the diffusers running at 4am till lunch before I shut things down. So really not sure if I reduced my chances of any quick temp drop in the pond.
Air temp lows around 30 and highs in the 50s so I shut down the aeration and rigged for winter running with only the shallow water diffuser. I will only run the aeration this winter if we have thick opaque ice or heavy snow cover. I have it setup so I can just flip a switch in the house to engage the compressor.
We've had about the same change in temps down here in SW LA. Down 20 degrees from yesterday with a high of 63 today. Surface temps yesterday were 80*. I called the wife from work and had her unplug the pump so it wouldn't run its cycle today. Even with the cold rain and temps, without the aeration, surface temps today only dropped to 74.
My visibility has been slowly getting less and less over the past week or so, which I believe has been due to a late season bloom. Without the aeration today, I'm seeing a green scum starting to surface and I noticed that "smell" that usually accompanies algae on my hands when I retrieved the thermometer. Hoping its not BGA, but my luck aint that good.
One more thing...I discovered painted turtles will eat lanceleaf arrowhead. I've got one plant which is now in about 2 foot of water with full pool. I kept seeing the stalks moving around oddly so I just stood by it, watching to see if I could see what was causing it. Sure enough, up comes a painted turtle. About half the plant is now gone. Broken stalks floating where they'd been chewed off.
I finished draining the forage pond down to a small puddle, netted out and transferred the 5 Koi I put in back in May, all the BG and LMB I wanted to keep, and then scattered 10 pounds of quicklime into the puddle. Those Koi were only about 4-5" when stocked on May 10. I was amazed at the growth. 11-13" and some over a pound.
I originally stocked FHM in the forage pond, but LMB and BG got in during a flood. I didn't find a single FHM. I decided this past spring to grow out those 5 Koi to big enough size the LMB couldn't eat them, then restart the forage pond. FHM to be stocked next spring.
Here's a picture after I finished.
Guess you willl get to see if the water clears up without the fish in there. When I was at John's place his two other ponds were reasonably clear. But this very small forage pond he drained was the nastiest water in a pond I think I ever saw. It was worse than chocolate milk.
Amazing the Koi did that well in that water. John had ask me if I thought the Koi were causing the turbidity but I had no experience with Koi so could not offer any help.
I hope 10 pounds of hydrated lime in that puddle was enough to ensure a kill. There were a lot of BG under 2-3" still in there that I didn't net out. I just threw the powder all over the top, and then stirred it with a landscape rake. There was only 200-300 gallons left, and it was super clear after a couple of hours.
Anyway, I put the five Koi in my renovated pond. I don't think they will reproduce because of the LMB.
With the recent switch to near freezing nights the water temp has dropped to 58 degrees and the BG have basically stopped feeding so I've turned off the aeration until Spring. I will leave the fountain running in order to keep a hole in the ice when it forms.
Who knows, maybe we'll see another ice volcano if the predictions for a cold Winter hold up.
Fished seriously for about 2 1/2 hours with a friend. Took out 13 LMB in 8 to 13 inch range, released 5 others that were too big to keep. Just like the electroshock survey showed, LMB below 14 inches tend to be somewhat skinny, while starting around 15 inches they are very heavy for their length.
Also caught a 13 inch HSB and several CNBG. One of them was probably the second heaviest I've ever caught, around 9.5 inches and extremely thick. Progress!
Forage pond only a quarter full, but that will change after heavy rains tomorrow. Need to stock it with CNBG and get feeding. Maybe investigate PK shrimp too.
I cut and split cook stove wood for my MIL so all I got done at the pond was feed fish.
But an odd thing happened. My CC have been pretty much AWOL the last few weeks since the water cooled down. Might see one once in a while but nothing like this summer. Ok, just the season I reasoned.
But today I think I must have seen every CC in the pond because CC were everywhere feeding all around the pond. It warmed up the last few days and a cold front was scheduled to come through tonight with rain and I guess the fish watched the forecast. Cause not only the CC were out to feed, the BG were tearing it up like they were a month ago.
Everything was so hungry I went back later with another half feeding.
I've not ran my aerator the last two days and with the warm spell, my fish fed better yesterday than they have in a long time as well. Supposed to rain here this afternoon.
I noticed my aerator seems to run a little more loudly lately and the boil seems to be not as good as before. I have done the necessary cleaning and I store it inside in the winter, I don't run much in spring and fall and mostly nights (12 hrs or less) once weather is hot during the day.
I contacted Vertex where I bought it to see what could be up. They said check PSI, they recommend 4PSI on my single cylinder 1/4hp compressor. I had 4PSI.
They then looked up when I bought it (May 2013) and then the helpful technician told me this:
"Now with the system being that old and the fact that you let it sit during the winter and off at night. The Piston cup being Teflon coated and the sleeve being aluminum; after running and getting hot then cooling and sitting. The cup tends to stick to the sleeve and it takes a tiny piece each time it starts up. Over time it wears down and sticks to the sleeve. And the piston head starts to rub against the sleeve and that would create a louder sound and less air (blowby). The new replacement maintenance kits and replacement compressor are now coming with Teflon coated cups and sleeves to stop that sticking. That does sound like that is going to be the issue at hand."
He is quoting an upgrade kit for me and will give me instructions on how to do this myself. I also noted the rubber boot on my big capacitor is shredding/tearing and coming off. I should get one of those too.
I should have 'low hours' compared to those who run their compressors 24/7. Should I just plan to do the rebuild every 5 years?
Since it still gives 4PSI and some boil I may or may not tear into it this winter unless others tell me that I should. I may just see how much louder it gets?
Anyone do this and note a big change in boil performance or reduction in compressor noise?
This didn't happen today. But, nevertheless thought it was too good not to share.
About two weeks ago I was on my dock looking at my strip pit feeding the fish when I seen a snake about a foot and a half long swimming across the pit. As I was watching it almost get to shore on the other side, a LMB jumps out of the water and eats the snake. Definitely the coolest thing I've ever seen while at my pond.
I've been waiting for that to happen in my pond but never seen it.
We do have every year a new batch of diamond back water snake babies though and I have noticed I rarely ever see any of the small ones in the main pond where the LMB are. I had three of them watching them grow up in my forage pond.
One big adult likes to lay half way out the overflow pipe from my sediment pond to the main pond. It lays in there when the water is overflowing and catches 2" fish as they either come down the pipe or swim up it from the main pond trying to get into the sediment pond. I just could not resist one day and reached down and touched its tail. I never saw a snake shoot out the other end of a pipe so fast in my life. Probably not a recommended procedure.
My wife graciously chose to go with me today, and I really appreciated her help with the net. Biggest HSB I've ever caught by far, around 5 pounds! What a fighter, so glad I didn't hook them during summer when water temps were 20 degrees higher.
LMB still coming to feeders, but CNBG have vanished. Water is flowing over the standpipe for the first time since May.
Frank, I have a few HSB like u describe in the pond. A couple of them have a fly from fly fishing and a beetle spin with them from their fight where they won.
That's cool that the snake is smart enough to know to sit there and get fed. I'm glad the snake didn't reach around and bite you! The snake that I seen get eaten was either a ribbon snake or garter snake. They're real skinny so it was probably an easy meal.
Caught about a dozen GSF along with a few I had in the holding pen and filleted them. Not very big fillets but we ate some and they were tasty tonight. BG are pretty slow to bite although I did catch one really nice one last night. But the GSF were biting pretty good. Gave me a chance to clean a few of them out before winter to reduce some biomass in the pond.
Also threw the cast net a number of times in my forage pond and moved twenty or so 3-5" RES out of it and into the main pond. I keep trying to get the RES numbers up in my main pond to up the catch rate.
When I catch small fish BG etc..I'll fillet them and get a pot of rolling boil water and drop them in one at a time till their white. I'll take them out and chill them in the fridge. Then mix up some cocktail sauce ketchup horseradish...and eat it like shrimp...we call it Poor Mans Shrimp
Yesterday afternoon I sprayed some flex seal around the view plate on one of the TH Feeders in an attempt to stop a leak during heavy rain events. Also worked on clearing out a food jam on a second TH feeder. And then hand feed the HSB and LMB Aquamax lmb. The BG, Hsb an Lmb all feed well and aggressive even after a 10 degree water temp drop this week due to rain along with the cold front. This put water temps at 60 degrees at surface to 4'.
60 degree waters temps sound great, the low overnight here was 8 degrees and I suspect my pond froze over last night. I will go check once it warms up a bit this afternoon but it has only warmed up to 22 now.
Fish were on full feed here Friday, then it turned cold. Gave them about 1/3 feed yesterday with moderate activity figuring they would go without today since it got down in lower 20's last night.
Drove around pond today but didn't bother to take any feed with me. Not a single one came to greet me.
May feed a little lightly next week when it warms back up if they are hungry again.
Stocked 1,000 PK shrimp today, they made it to the pond just fine. Also observed surface feeding activity & splashes, either LMB or HSB, not related to shrimp.
Stocked 300+/- 3-4" Golden shiners from Anderson's.. Had to bust a hole in the ice to get'em in but they seem to acclimate fine! Would have been nice to have done it a bit earlier but there in!
Cleaned the fountain pump to remove, hopefully, the last of the FA for this season and measured the water temp @ 46 degrees. It's dropping fast now that the overnight temps are getting into the teens with a thin layer of ice covering the surface this morning except where the fountain is.
Yesterday I was able to finish construction of my 8x12 well house and as soon as it was finished, I disconnected the aeration pump from the air line, plugged the end to prevent trash getting into the line and stored the pump in the well house. Next spring, the plan is to extend the air line to the well house and keep the pump housed in there.
Good news on the SMB making it Shorty. That is a nice size to stock.
Gave my main pond fish about half normal amount of feed today. Drove around the pond in the UTV and saw some wakes coming toward me so figured they were hungry. Ate all I threw to them.
At my get together Highflyer brought me a laser temperature gun so I checked the surface temperature and it was 47. Was surprised to see the fish feeding with the temperature that low but I suspect it is warmer deeper because the fish came from the deep.
When the surface temperature was 50 the fish were still very actively feeding.
I usually cut back on the rate sometime in early November and quit feeding altogether around the first of December. Around then the deeper water has gotten to about 50 degrees and the fish no longer act very interested. I only feed now as long as the fish act interested and eat well. That means I skip some days.
Snrub, I was down in your neighborhood to pick up my fish in south central KS, almost a 5 hour drive back to my place. My pond is half covered with ice right now with surface temps sitting at 40 degrees. I did see GSH hitting the surface while releasing the SMB.
Hartley's just west of Wichita, I had to wait a week or two for them to run a seine. I was originally going to run down on Thursday but had to reschedule, North Central KS had a winter weather advisory in effect that afternoon.
found this snake-skin today...measures just over 6 feet...i assume a rat snake
Reminds me of a time years ago, when my girlfriend and I were staying overnight at a friend's hunting cabin. During the night, she was rudely awakened by screams (similar to that of a little girl) after I had semi-consciously reached under the bed with my foot to retrieve one of my flip flops and inadvertently pulled out a long snakeskin which had been shed.
Had a friend unfold the mattress on the top bunks at camp. About the third one a big rat snake flipped out around his neck. Snake was ok but the guy almost had the big one. Fifteen mins later he still had a very high heart rate.
That would be it for me. I'd still be there on the floor. lol
Originally Posted By: ewest
Had a friend unfold the mattress on the top bunks at camp. About the third one a big rat snake flipped out around his neck. Snake was ok but the guy almost had the big one. Fifteen mins later he still had a very high heart rate.
A family get together at FIL lake home when we saw a snake go down the hallway toward the three bedrooms. The women put us to work looking for that snake. never did find it. Another time same place we entered the place and I went to turn on the tv. I saw what I thought was a fake toy snake on top of the tv until I saw it flick it tongue. I'm gone
Removed ten small LMB today, also caught three too big to keep. Largest around 3.5 to 4 lbs.
Saw repeated big topwater explosions near the dock. Tossed in my lure & nearly had the rod ripped out of my hands by a berserk HSB. Couldn't believe my eyes when I got him in & he was just 15 inches!!!
I had been wanting to do another trap survey so I loaded some dry dog food in a bottle and did three separate soaks of my cloverleaf trap in different spots. Each run was only about 15 minutes at approximately 5 foot deep. The first sample resulted in nine 1.5" BG, the second only one about the same size and the third had one 2" GSF, one BG around 3" and seven more 1.5" BG. I guess all my bigger fish are hanging out in deeper water or suspended out in the middle. Feeding has been way off since this last cold snap, even tho the surface temp is still 66*.
Fed a little today because it was warm and sunny and saw some fish coming toward me. Fish went after the feed well considering how cold the water is. Even saw one 12" CC come to the surface for pellets.
Water is exceptionally clear and I was amazed to see so many 1.5-2" BG. I had no idea there would be so many late spawn that size.
Pulled the paddle boat out of the water before it gets frozen in.
I had the same thought about all the 1.5" BG I've seen and trapped. I did notice a couple of males tending nests toward the end of Sept but had no idea there would be that many survive that spawn.
I honestly believe that why my bigger fish have quit coming to the pellets. There's so much forage for everyone they've pretty much quit the feed all together. Between the yoy and minnows there's plenty protein to go around right now.
Caught three fish. In about an hours time in freezing weather. I don't have much experience cold water fishing so thought I would try a little. Bite was extremely slow but at least I didn't get skunked.
Fishing started very slowly with air temps in upper 40s & overcast conditions. After an hour of nothing, the sun came out, air temps warmed into the lower 50s, and the fish turned on!
Culled 20 LMB, threw back five too big to keep. Largest near 4 lbs, great fun to catch! Eight year old son of a friend was in the boat and caught several LMB, including one of the bigguns.
Headed in around 4:15pm when we saw schooling fish near the dock exploding on something, likely small BG. A few casts later, we identified the fish as HSB. Adult angler caught two nice ones, then the kid hung a big one on his little rod & reel and the fight was on!
Amazingly, the line didn't break, the reel didn't jam, and the rod (barely) withstood immense pressure. Got a few pics of him next to the 5 lb fish, he & his parents are delighted!
I'll try to download a couple of the pics here. This is the best reason for all the work & investment: To thrill a child and give them a lasting appreciation of creation.
PS Bald eagle sighting, too. Three Canada geese and three unwanted water turkeys.
Fishing started very slowly with air temps in upper 40s & overcast conditions. After an hour of nothing, the sun came out, air temps warmed into the lower 50s, and the fish turned on!
Culled 20 LMB, threw back five too big to keep. Largest near 4 lbs, great fun to catch! Eight year old son of a friend was in the boat and caught several LMB, including one of the bigguns.
Headed in around 4:15pm when we saw schooling fish near the dock exploding on something, likely small BG. A few casts later, we identified the fish as HSB. Adult angler caught two nice ones, then the kid hung a big one on his little rod & reel and the fight was on!
Amazingly, the line didn't break, the reel didn't jam, and the rod (barely) withstood immense pressure. Got a few pics of him next to the 5 lb fish, he & his parents are delighted!
I'll try to download a couple of the pics here. This is the best reason for all the work & investment: To thrill a child and give them a lasting appreciation of creation.
PS Bald eagle sighting, too. Three Canada geese and three unwanted water turkeys.
You did have a great day Ant!! I will do what mowing and weedeating I can do on the wet ground today . Thanksgiving I am getting a real treat. My son will be home with my 4 year old grandson this year. I have the opportunity to watch him catch his first fish!!!! I am soooo excited. First time in 13 years that I will have a true big family Thanksgiving!! There will be 4 grandkids all together this year.
The grandson and I spent a little time on the pond earlier today, drowning cold worms under a bobber. Took a little while to find the right depth but when we got to six foot, we caught three fish in a matter of just a few minutes. One 4.5" bluegill, one 12" BH and one 6" GSF. By then he'd lost interest but had a good time kicking up grasshoppers. Still a good time, tho!
I watched an Osprey circle the pond yesterday afternoon. It was a first time sighting for me at the pond. Guessing he is/was feeding on the slow moving Tp. Hoping he was not feeding on the lmb/hsb or the nice sized cnbg. Ponds are amazing when it comes to all the birds and animals that show up every year.
Measured the ice on the pond this morning at 1 inch, our temps have been fairly cold early this year, down to 12 last night and not going above 28 today. So it is a great day to enjoy Thanks Giving and the family and the three football games!! Happy Thanks Giving to all!
This was actually yesterday and the day before. Been doing some end of the season transferring of RES fingerlings from my forage pond to the main pond. Some pictures below.
Was surprised that CC are still coming up for feed. Water at 44 degrees on the surface. It takes a bit for the fish to show up and I can tell they are a bit sluggish, but even at the cold temps on a warm sunny day they act hungry. The BG I expect but was surprised to see the CC. I do not feed a lot in these cold water temperatures. Only on warm sunny days and I only feed about a third of what I would feed in the spring or fall. Will cut the feed off completely in the next week. Have only been feeding lightly two or three times a week when the fish act hungry.
Today I opened up the December issue of Pond Boss Magazine to find my wife's CC dip recipe in the back on page 66. I had totally forgotten Bob was going to do that.
Description: Some cast net caught RES fingerlings transferring to main pond. One hybrid RESxGSF in the middle of the bucket.
Description: One of the RES fingerlings
Description: CC coming up for feed in 44 degree water
The few CC I have left are very slow to come up the last several times I have fed, and I am well south of "Snrub". I have been feeding less and only on the warmer afternoons. We cleaned and ate six of the larger BG a couple of weeks ago, and they were still full of undigested pellets from the day before, so I slowed way down on the quantity and frequency of feeding. The water has become very clear in the older pond, and I can sometimes see a CC swimming very very slowly on the bottom, not even stirring up silt.
I have not seen any of the larger CC come up for feed in this cold water. Only the ones about a foot long. Sunny and nice out today. Supposed to get up to 66 degrees so the BG for sure will be out and about. May even do a little fishing.
Its warmed up pretty nicely today and when I got back from the airport, I noticed quite a bit of activity in the pond, so I threw a few handfuls of pellets. They weren't ravenous by any means, but did have several gills and GSF rise to the occassion.
Was really nice outside here today. Long sleeve shirt nice mid day.
Fish fed modestly and I fished a while. In the amount of time it took me to catch five fish I could have caught 30 in spring or fall. But at least I did not get skunked.
It was a nice day, guessing around 70. I started with getting my Polaris 900 out of the woods. The steering stopped working leaving me stranded the other day. I'm not sure if I will attempt to repair it or have it repaired. After all that, I went to repair the timer on one of my TH feeders. I was not able to fix it so I will be ordering a new timer. While I was at the feeder I had feed the fish and they were very active, hadn't been feed for about a week. I watched the pond and the fish were very active with the aquamax mvp that was thrown from the other feeders. I watched the hsb feed on the TFS, lots and lots of TFS in the pond and the hsb were all over them all around the pond. There may have been a few lmb feeding on them as well. Well, that activity made me grab a fishing rod and on the first cast I caught an hsb that was fat and sassy, guessing it was in the 3.5lb range. Caught it on a white sparkly tube jig while dragging it on the bottom. So, I decided to change up and grabbed another rod with a drop shot and a plastic worm. Caught a nice Florida lmb, guessing it was in or around 4lbs. Looked really healthy but I was surprised that the lmb was not so fat. I know its weight is over on the RW charts but still, I expected to see a fat belly but instead I saw a fish that was healthy but not fat. Now I am thinking about what I might do to increase the weight on these 4 lb Florida bass. I not quite ready to thin the herd so to speak because the last 3 I have caught looked like this one. I caught two last August/September. I did check the RW on those and they were in the 100% + range. So where to go from here?
Love this time of year....really the next 6 months when the Texas heat is in time-out. Had some friends out last night for Hebrew National's and beer brats on the grill. Good times...
Also decided this weekend to sell our Deere skid steer that sits 95% of the time and use the money for a mini-pontoon boat and/or a electric side by side.
Looks awesome Zep! If you get an electric SxS I'd love to hear your review!
Thanks wbuffetjr. I actually bought a tricked out "hunting golf cart" but quickly realized I had made a mistake. It was loud/creaky and rode extremely rough. I returned it for a 90% refund.
After some investigation I found out hunting golf carts are still golf carts made for smooth terrain golf courses.
So I am considering the Textron Prowler EV-IS which is a real ATV type frame. I like electric because I want super quiet to better sneak up on wildlife to watch and I'm hardly ever on mine long enough to drain the battery. I'll let ya know....
Zep I am with you 100%! I would love to have an electric SxS for many reasons. The benefit of silence for hunting is top of the list. Now with the ability to charge one off the solar it makes them even more enticing. What makes you choose the Textron over the Ranger?
I haven't really decided what brand. I think the Textron is cheaper than the Polaris Ranger..and a dealer I like close-by carries the Textron...but I am open-minded on brand. One thing I really like about the Textron is the 2 man unit has a back area for cargo or you can flip up the cargo area and there are two additional seats there. Mine would mainly just have two riders, but it would be nice to have the option of adding two additional passengers when needed without buying the big "crew" models.
A friend told me to look at the electric Intimidator line as well.(see below)
Electric Textron: 2 Man with cargo that has optional flip up seat for extra passenger:
It was a nice day, guessing around 70. I started with getting my Polaris 900 out of the woods. The steering stopped working leaving me stranded the other day. I'm not sure if I will attempt to repair it or have it repaired. After all that, I went to repair the timer on one of my TH feeders. I was not able to fix it so I will be ordering a new timer. While I was at the feeder I had feed the fish and they were very active, hadn't been feed for about a week. I watched the pond and the fish were very active with the aquamax mvp that was thrown from the other feeders. I watched the hsb feed on the TFS, lots and lots of TFS in the pond and the hsb were all over them all around the pond. There may have been a few lmb feeding on them as well. Well, that activity made me grab a fishing rod and on the first cast I caught an hsb that was fat and sassy, guessing it was in the 3.5lb range. Caught it on a white sparkly tube jig while dragging it on the bottom. So, I decided to change up and grabbed another rod with a drop shot and a plastic worm. Caught a nice Florida lmb, guessing it was in or around 4lbs. Looked really healthy but I was surprised that the lmb was not so fat. I know its weight is over on the RW charts but still, I expected to see a fat belly but instead I saw a fish that was healthy but not fat. Now I am thinking about what I might do to increase the weight on these 4 lb Florida bass. I not quite ready to thin the herd so to speak because the last 3 I have caught looked like this one. I caught two last August/September. I did check the RW on those and they were in the 100% + range. So where to go from here?
Tracy, what has been your experience with TFS? How many did you stock? They are recommended for my BOW, as my LMB are only about 90% RW until they hit 14 or 15 inches.
Do TFS spawn on wood? Weeds? I have some fairly deep water near the dam, around 20 feet, so maybe they'd survive a normal winter.
Frank, I understand the TFS spawn on vegetation but my pond has very little vegetation. I did add some Christmas trees and some Cedars along the shoreline making 9 brush piles in 1 to 3' of water. A place where I could get some survival of the cnbg fry. But I am guessing the TFS used them for spawning as well. I can most always find them around the brush piles during the fall. Spawning I think. I added TFS the first time in late November 4 yrs ago. I added around 300 4 to 5" at that time. I then added 10,000 2 to 3" size the following spring. For what ever reason the TFS have really liked my pond and I have always had a lot of them in my pond. A side note, I seem to always have low numbers of 2 to 3" cnbg every time I e shocked the pond in the spring. But the TFS seem to make up for it, in that size, in the forage numbers. As per Todd Overton's comments to me after the first or second e survey. I was sure I lost my TFS last winter because of 42 degree water temps I had in last years long cold winter. Guess they found warmer water in my 12' depths. I found survival with 3 to 5" caught during a sein I did last June. Surprise, Suprise Surprise
Well, Tracy, whatever you are doing to feed your LMB has been a huge success, and that includes the TFS. I do have some plants now, though not nearly as much brush as you. Sounds like it is worth a try.
Over the Thanksgiving week, while I was off, I took some time to build another fish attractor using left over 3/4" pex tubing, about 15 # of readymix concrete and a cat litter bucket cut down to about 12". After letting it set up most of the week, yesterday I dropped it into about a 7 foot depth adjacent to the main feeding and spawning area. The top of the structure should be around 5 feet under. Now it's a waiting game to see if they'll use it.
John, I went through that type of drought last year at my place. This year lots of water. Every year is different at my place. Hope u get some much needed rain.
Frank, I don't know about what size TFS survives our winters. My seining in early June shows different sizes of TFS in the net. inch and a half to 5 or 6" sizes. They seem to spawn often at the pond. Yesterday afternoon I was at one of the feeders when I saw a school of TFS about a foot or so under the surface and they looked to be in the 3 to 4" range. The say they do not eat fish food but I always see TFS around the feeders at feeding times. I don't see them eat it but why else would they be there when the feeders go off? I figured they might be eating the feeder dust that gets thrown out when the feeder goes off. Hay! I am no expert that for sure.
Frank, what are your Tp doing? you still seeing them? I have not seen any since a month ago when I saw some 3" ones sunning in some shallows. Concerned my Tp may have been food for the lmb at stocking time since they were in the 6" size at the time I stocked them. I think some made it but I may need to stock the harder to find larger size when stocking next year. My water temps were 58 yesterday at 1 to 4'
You did have a great day Ant!! I will do what mowing and weedeating I can do on the wet ground today . Thanksgiving I am getting a real treat. My son will be home with my 4 year old grandson this year. I have the opportunity to watch him catch his first fish!!!! I am soooo excited. First time in 13 years that I will have a true big family Thanksgiving!! There will be 4 grandkids all together this year.
James, it really is nice to share the pond & fish with grandkids. How was your Thanksgiving?
John, I went through that type of drought last year at my place. This year lots of water. Every year is different at my place. Hope u get some much needed rain.
Frank, I don't know about what size TFS survives our winters. My seining in early June shows different sizes of TFS in the net. inch and a half to 5 or 6" sizes. They seem to spawn often at the pond. Yesterday afternoon I was at one of the feeders when I saw a school of TFS about a foot or so under the surface and they looked to be in the 3 to 4" range. The say they do not eat fish food but I always see TFS around the feeders at feeding times. I don't see them eat it but why else would they be there when the feeders go off? I figured they might be eating the feeder dust that gets thrown out when the feeder goes off. Hay! I am no expert that for sure.
Frank, what are your Tp doing? you still seeing them? I have not seen any since a month ago when I saw some 3" ones sunning in some shallows. Concerned my Tp may have been food for the lmb at stocking time since they were in the 6" size at the time I stocked them. I think some made it but I may need to stock the harder to find larger size when stocking next year. My water temps were 58 yesterday at 1 to 4'
Tracy, haven't seen TP since early October electroshocking, but that doesn't mean much. I rarely observe them around feeders and almost never catch any. Hope they haven't all died of cold yet, or at least got eaten by LMB.
I don't have the numbers of big LMB you do, so 6" size TP would probably survive longer in my BOW. Still, bigger would be better for reproduction.
Seems that bigger fish in general can take cold better than smaller fish of same species, which is why I asked about TFS survival from last year's cold winter. You and I both have BOW with good depth, which helps.
My water is less fertile than yours, which is one reason I haven't stocked TFS. Will have to up my game in this regard!
Yesterday afternoon I was at one of the feeders when I saw a school of TFS about a foot or so under the surface and they looked to be in the 3 to 4" range. The say they do not eat fish food but I always see TFS around the feeders at feeding times. I don't see them eat it but why else would they be there when the feeders go off? Frank, what are your Tp doing? you still seeing them? I have not seen any since a month ago when I saw some 3" ones sunning in some shallows. Concerned my Tp may have been food for the lmb at stocking time since they were in the 6" size at the time I stocked them. I think some made it but I may need to stock the harder to find larger size when stocking next year. My water temps were 58 yesterday at 1 to 4'
There are reports that TFS will eat some fish food just not high in the diet chain (don't eat a lot of feed).
Thanks Eric. I suspected they were eating some of the Aquamax but could not swear by it. I will see them around the feeders when it's near the time the feeders go off.
I received a letter from Overton's fisheries last month where it said if you are interested in stocking TFS next spring then you need to place your order now.
Frank, my pond for the most part has had 18 to 21" of green water visibility and a couple of times it was even greener with less visibility up until this year after adding the Alum. Since then the water has had 22" for most of the time to where it is now at 35". The TFS seemed to have been doing well with the less fertile water. It has remained green through out all of it and remains green today but not as green as I have seen in the past. I hope this information helps in your decision making.
Thanks Eric. I suspected they were eating some of the Aquamax but could not swear by it. I will see them around the feeders when it's near the time the feeders go off.
I received a letter from Overton's fisheries last month where it said if you are interested in stocking TFS next spring then you need to place your order now.
Frank, my pond for the most part has had 18 to 21" of green water visibility and a couple of times it was even greener with less visibility up until this year after adding the Alum. Since then the water has had 22" for most of the time to where it is now at 35". The TFS seemed to have been doing well with the less fertile water. It has remained green through out all of it and remains green today but not as green as I have seen in the past. I hope this information helps in your decision making.
I called Overton's yesterday to place TFS order but haven't heard back. Bob Lusk says that I'd be wiser to buy in the spring than now, given my geographic location. Might get too cold for them to survive winter in my BOW.
Sure wish I had your fertility. Don't think viz has ever been less than 30 inches, and usually closer to 40 despite liming & fertilizer. On the plus side, it doesn't get muddy no matter how much rain falls.
What did I do at my pond today?? well, a walk around has revealed a GSH die-off of some sort over the last 2 weeks is taking place.. Stocked about 300 3-4" from Anderson's.. 6-8-10 a day floating.. yesterday was 27, today 11. Guessing Saprolegnia. fungus no doubt. Looks to me like handling issues on their end but they say no way, must be water issues on my end. Anyone ever see something similar??? EDIT: GSH stocked 40 days ago +/- a few days.. 2nd EDIT: Just looked back, GSH were stocked only 20 days ago!
Great 3 hours fishing! Friend & I culled 15 and put back 3 too big to keep, including one that had to be pushing 5 pounds. Also one HSB that fought much harder than its 14 inches. Now have removed 79 LMB the last two months.
Saw some TP in the shallow back bay. Lethargic, I doubt they'll make it much longer.
I set out otter traps after finding otter scat and a trail at the dam. It seems to be a never ending battle with the otters and beavers. I am still trying to figure out why Texas Parks and Wildlife would restock otters into E. Texas.
I set out otter traps after finding otter scat and a trail at the dam. It seems to be a never ending battle with the otters and beavers. I am still trying to figure out why Texas Parks and Wildlife would restock otters into E. Texas.
I seem to be able to control the Otters and Beavers after I realize there back "again". Once again I have to thank Highflyer for teaching me what to look for and how to set up the traps. My pond is a few hundred yds from a Bayou where a lot of different animals roam. And I think Frank is right. As I herd Bob Lusk say, when there is a lot of forage (fish) in a pond then mother nature steps in to correct it. Dam Otters!! All I need now is a thick scruffy beard, thick fur coat with ice and snow all over me and I would feel like a real trapper. Problem is it's all just a pain in the arse!
Culled 11 and returned 6 too big to keep, longer than 14 inches, today in 3 hours of fishing. LMB and a few very large CNBG still taking pellets. No HSB caught.
Canada geese back in numbers, up from 3 a few days ago to 14. A couple of cormorants, too.
Maybe it's just a random event, but now that we've culled 90 smaller LMB, seems they are harder to catch. Starting out it was easy to catch 5 or 6 small bass for every nice one, seems more like 3 or even just 2 to 1 today. Maybe me & my fishing buddies are making a dent!
Tracy, no need for a blind to shoot these geese. They aren't all that afraid of humans. Cormorants are much more wary, thankfully there are only a few.
Goose Gumbo is a great way to get rid of the geese. People who say they don't like to eat goose and or duck have not eaten it in a Cajun Gumbo. I could tell you a story about all that. Short story, 5 gals of the Gumbo was gone by daybreak.
Goose Gumbo is a great way to get rid of the geese. People who say they don't like to eat goose and or duck have not eaten it in a Cajun Gumbo. I could tell you a story about all that. Short story, 5 gals of the Gumbo was gone by daybreak.
I'll have to give that a try when hunting is legal!
As for today, my buddy & I had slow fishing. Cloudy, windy, cold water, not much of a bite. In two hours we caught nine LMB, eight culled (under 14") and one 3 lber we released. I had two other good bass on but hook pulled out.
ALso noticed several TP floating near the surface, clearly in trouble. Surprised that they made it this long considering it's been pretty cold.
Goose season just opened for the second split. You will need a duck stamp, hunting license and a good shotgun with some steel or tungsten shot. #2 or #3 will work. You can buy a small game non resident hunting lic for your place in E. Texas. Several hundred bucks cheaper than the standard non resident hunting lic. Ck your daily limit allowed and you can keep two days limit in the freezer. Two hunters, that most likely would remove 8 geese from the pond in a weekend hunt.
Suggest you not advertise it to my wifey, she feels sorry for anything I bring home from a hunt and will only eat wild game if I don't tell her what I cooked.
My cnbg are still pretty active, saw them feeding along the windy shoreline yesterday, busting the surface, so I hand feed some and like I said they were pretty active. The feeders went off while I was there and saw a lot of feeding activity but the feed trained lmb and hsb were not so active. I only saw a couple of them feed.
Have not seen the Osprey in a few days so I am guessing the Tp are gone for the most part. I did see an aggressive Kingfisher though.
Frank, what are you and your buddies using to catch your lmb this time of year? My visibility is still pretty bad at less than 12 inches. Only place I seem to be able to catch any lmb is near the feeder area but now I have a GBH that stands in the water next to the feeder every am and pm. I'm sure that is even spooking the lmb also!!
Louis (best friend, golf and drinking buddy, and expert fisherman) and I did some harvesting, barely scratching the pond's load of fish. Largest bluegill, 9 inches, 12 ounces. Largest channel cat, 10 pounds and 25 inches. Louis caught all the bluegills (I got skunked though lots of bites) and the big catfish. I caught a 4.8 pound channel at 24 inches and an oddly small hybrid blue. All catfish on wiener. Pond is twenty months old and fed.
Frank, what are you and your buddies using to catch your lmb this time of year? My visibility is still pretty bad at less than 12 inches. Only place I seem to be able to catch any lmb is near the feeder area but now I have a GBH that stands in the water next to the feeder every am and pm. I'm sure that is even spooking the lmb also!!
James, our only success was on small jigworms. Very light jighead, 1/32 oz, attached to 4 inch red shad powerworm. Moved slowly, hits were subtle. Once I concluded that I was hung, but it turned out to be a big LMB that hardly moved. Lost her, unfortunately.
My buddy tried a plastic lizard, a hot bait six weeks ago, without a single bite. My BOW doesn't get muddy no matter how much rain, but it does get a little murky. Next time I go fishing during winter it will be on a sunny day so temps rise a bit in the afternoon.
Louis (best friend, golf and drinking buddy, and expert fisherman) and I did some harvesting, barely scratching the pond's load of fish. Largest bluegill, 9 inches, 12 ounces. Largest channel cat, 10 pounds and 25 inches. Louis caught all the bluegills (I got skunked though lots of bites) and the big catfish. I caught a 4.8 pound channel at 24 inches and an oddly small hybrid blue. All catfish on wiener. Pond is twenty months old and fed.
Went to the pond yesterday and now at full pool! The bloom has lessened some and clarity is about18 for now. Caught a few BCP under the dock. That hasnt happened since spring I guess from the lack of clarity. A very large LMB tried to eat a 8 BCP that I had hooked.... that was fun
Pat, I got another inch and 1/2 rain to go with my previous 5 1/2 inch and it is still raining over here right now. I didn't see them but I heard a couple of wood ducks already today. Pond is still flushing but clarity still under 12 inch. Cnbg fed like crazy in 65 degrees air temp yesterday!! Tried a little to catch a lmb but no luck in only 30 minutes fishing. I'm still feeding in the am and pm both and still running aeriation 24 hours.
Having a mild spell the last couple of weeks. A thin layer of ice forms at night but doesn't hold up during daytime temps. Just have a floating section in the middle. The pond has been dropping in late fall after rains stopped. I decided to use the hose to raise it again to try to 'overfill' it a bit and hope when cold comes we will have more ice skating surface for the kids to enjoy.
The filling up process gave a new ice-free zone of warm well water all around the edges with the ice floe floating and shrinking every day in the middle.
Right on cue the pesky GBH showed up to do some scouting of the pond edges for anything edible. I'm not sure what he/she found. My kids told me that about a week before the GBH showed up and was walking around on top of a paper thin layer of ice. Why he would do that and what he was thinking I have no idea. I also know that if he fell through there is no way he could have taken off to fly away as they have a hard time getting airborne. I was kind of hoping he would fall through so that my crayfish, RES and turtles could have turned that trouble maker into a rack of white bones on the bottom!
I tossed some optimal feed and sure enough the shiners were happy to zoom over and fill their bellies. I hope some of the YP and RES got some but not sure. The YP mommas got to be filling out their eggs by now!
I threw some pellets up on the ice hoping that as it melts this will be a new 'slow release' method of feeding
Now we just need steady cold weather to get some hard water!
I sat up on the hill next to the pond with my 22 mag waiting on the Otter that is feeding at the pond. Set another conibar trap and plan on setting another. I don't like River Otters and or Beavers at my place! I watched the feeders go off and the fish are still pretty active when feeding. Not a 100% but still more than enough to feed. Don't see any bass or hsb feeding at the feeder. I did see a few feed around the pond. I stopped my hand feeding the Aquamax lmb food due to little interest in it.
That's interesting, Tracy. I haven't seen my beaver in months, nor fallen grass or gnawed trees. Wonder if it headed for greener pastures?
I'm feeding the Optimal Bass pellets and get a pretty good response on sunny warm (highs above 55) days, mostly from LMB and HSB. A few of the large CNBG hang around, too, but no little guys. Maybe too many predators for anything less than 9 inches to safely hang around the feeder.
One thing I've noticed is that the fish seem much more active on sunny afternoons than cloudy ones, even when air temps are the same. Guess sunlight warms up the water well beyond what the air does. In summer, cloudy days are best.
My hand feeding the lmb and hsb is something I enjoy. I have not checked water temps recently but in the past two weeks the lmb and hsb feeding dropped off big time to where only one or two are eating the aquamax lmb feed. I am hoping it's the water temps, most likely in the low 50's, and not the River Otters reducing the fish numbers. If past experiences with the otters compares to now then I suspect there are several hanging around. I did reduce the numbers of Otters by one yesterday. Trapping continues. As far as the beavers, I found some small trees cut down back behind the big pond in a smaller pool of water. They are building a dam to stop the pool from draining after rain events. I may let that dam building continue, it might make a good forage pond someday.
In my experience with otters last winter, they only went after the sluggish CC. I didn't see any significant kills of LMB or BG. They go after the easy stuff first.
John, I don't have any cats but suspect they have been dining on Tp lately and I'm guessing a few Bg based on the size fish scales I find in the Otter scat. I don't like Otters at the pond! Or Beavers.
I dug a ditch around the pond to divert rain water from the backside of the pond and in doing so it made a natural shallow pool where the beavers are now building a dam. It looks promising other than when I built the big pond, it's in the same area where I ran out of clay. So I'm not so sure if I dig it two foot deeper than it already is will it hold water year round. I think it is a sandy loam with a small amount of clay in it. it would be a good area for a forage pond with lots of water from the run off. The beaver dam got me to thinking lol
John, I don't have any cats but suspect they have been dining on Tp lately and I'm guessing a few Bg based on the size fish scales I find in the Otter scat. I don't like Otters at the pond! Or Beavers.
I dug a ditch around the pond to divert rain water from the backside of the pond and in doing so it made a natural shallow pool where the beavers are now building a dam. It looks promising other than when I built the big pond, it's in the same area where I ran out of clay. So I'm not so sure if I dig it two foot deeper than it already is will it hold water year round. I think it is a sandy loam with a small amount of clay in it. it would be a good area for a forage pond with lots of water from the run off. The beaver dam got me to thinking lol
Saw a large, mature bald eagle in a tree next to my dock. Flew off when I got close, a beautiful sight with the full moon reflecting off the water in the background.
Fish couldn't get enough feed. Seems like sunny days are the key, more than air temps.
I am really jealous of you Texas folks getting to enjoy some pond activity this time of year! I put my boat on the pond today and busted 1" ice so I could finish some brush pile work. It did make 55 deg today so not bad for NW KS.. 15 is more common this time of year so I'll quit complaining now..
Well, Snipe, I admire you for doing useful habitat enhancement despite the ice. That's gonna pay off when it gets warmer.
I've ice fished twice. The first time was on Lake Erie & I almost froze the death, coldest I've ever been in my life. Second time was on a farm pond during a winter warm spell and the ice gave way so I took an unexpected frigid bath. Not for me!
Bald Eagles are majestic birds for sure. And I can relate Frank. Year before last I drove up to the pond and found one setting on top of one of my Wood duck boxes. A site to see and would have made a great picture for Pond Boss Magazine. But after him hanging around for 90 days or so I was ready for him to leave. My thinking was, if he two pounds of fish per day that's 180 lbs of fish gone out of my pond. Thinking about what Bob Lusk says, Nature will step in when it needs to. Such as fish kills, or bringing in Bald Eagles, River otters, or like the Osprey that showed up this year. OH! caught another Otter yesterday, that's two this week.
And snipe, it's supposed to reach 68 to 70 degrees today. I am close to Franks place. And it's kinda unusual for this time of year. I like fishing up north of here but I wait till things are thawed before I head north. Even with me being a fish-a-holic I have no desire to fish through the ice Call me a snowbird if you like
Slow fishing, caught 3 HSB and 1 CNBG in two hours. No LMB whatsoever, a first. On the plus side, my granddaughter caught the new pond record CNBG, 10 1/2 inches.
Congrats to your grand daughter and new pond record!! That's a nice cnbg. Just for something different I have tried a red rattle trap type bait for 3 days during the feeding area when the feeder goes off and not the first strike from any lmb. Even tried my little beetlespin type bait with a small plastic behind it with no luck. That and a wacky worm has been my go to baits on my pond but no luck at all lately. Oh well, maybe they are just getting fat on cnbg and I will catch them next spring.
My cnbg are also feeding Dave, but not so much with my feed trained lmb or hsb. I trapped a beaver today that was so big all he could get into the conibar 330 trap was his head and neck. Hugh beaver! So far this week of trapping got me two R. Otters and this beaver. The trapping continues.
It got down to 14 degrees overnight last week just northeast of the St. Louis area and our ponds are looking good. We raised the depth early in the Spring of 2018 by about 2 feet in one pond and about 3 feet in another but they did not fill as last year (2017) was very dry and all ponds spent the second half of the year well below the "old" full pool level.
I decided to leave the battery in the TX Hunter LM-135 that we have set up this winter after taking it inside last winter. I spoke to Cody at TX Hunter and he recommended that I set the feeder to run for 10 seconds in the middle of each day just to keep the motors running a little and prevent debris or critters from getting up into the blower hole. Makes sense to me. Giving it a try.
Drove around all three ponds that are currently under management and looked at a fourth we are considering paying more attention too next year. Need to add quite a bit more brushy cover in the 1.5 acre BOW we have been managing for the last 2+ years as well as add a few 5X3 Georgia Cubes. Some issues will need to be addressed, of course, at all three BOWs so my "to do" list is sitting at about the max of what I can reasonably expect to accomplish during 2019.
Merry Christmas to all and Happy New Year. May all your pond dreams come true in the coming year. BM61.
I got the beejeeses scared out of me this evening while feeding. Haven't seen hide nor hair of any of my 3 LMB in over a month, until one of them decided to make and appearance...right at my feet in 6" of water. Threw water all over my legs when it busted some unfortunate panfish's butt.
Went down to the pond a few minutes ago in a 25 mph wind. In the past I have caught fish with the wind in your face from the bank. Wind blows bait in an fish take advantage of this caught the first bass on a 1/16 oz. curly tail crappie jig. Bass 4-5# ! 18 from there they got small 8-10 , 19 of them until it started raining..... I went home... no crappie tho.
It's amazing how small a bait really big bass will eat. My personal best LMB weighed a smidge over 8# and came on a 3" curltail grub. My best SMB weighed 7# and she ate a 1/2 oz rattletrap. I cant tell you how many big bass I've had weighed in during my years as a tournament director that were caught on micro sized baits like shakey head jigs and 3" frenchfry plastic. Just because they're big doesnt keep them from taking advantage of a feeding opportunity, regardless of the size of the bait. Protein is protein, I guess.
After I caught my breath and got over my mild heart attack, I had to laugh at myself. Then I was just thrilled at least one of my bass is still cracking heads.
Went down to the pond a few minutes ago in a 25 mph wind. In the past I have caught fish with the wind in your face from the bank. Wind blows bait in an fish take advantage of this caught the first bass on a 1/16 oz. curly tail crappie jig. Bass 4-5# ! 18 from there they got small 8-10 , 19 of them until it started raining..... I went home... no crappie tho.
Sounds like it was definitely not a, uh, crappie day!
Yep. Well, they get really big & are eager biters. And many folks think crappie are great eating, though I'm not a fan of the taste. Cold water BG are hard to beat for flavor in my book.
If somehow pondmeisters had crappie that wouldn't take over the lake...
I am pretty sure we got 2" or better with the rains along with tornado warnings during the early morning hrs here. And while at the pond yesterday with the high winds I checked the water temps with a 57 at the surface and 55 at 4'. That is quite a bit warmer than it was a few weeks ago. And the fish were feeding at the feeders. I was surprised with the water temps being in the mid to high 50's. Pat, I should have wet a hook!
Tracy, we just got another 4 1/2 inch rain!!! Unbelievable but the pond is getting another good flushing that it needs. It's still raining as I write this!!
John, I don't even know what normal rainfall for deep east Texas per year is but.you got me thinking and I went ahead and totaled everything I logged this year and I have had an unbelievable 104 1/2 inches of rain this year!!!! That's crazy.
John, I am on the Louisiana border about 55 miles farther east of Lufkin, Texas so I more than doubled the average this year. I got 21 1/2 inch in February alone!! I had 50 inches before the end of June!! I know I got 12 inches in just September!! Hard to believe. The pond didn't really start going over the spillway good until this month but it had gotton over 2 feet low before that. PAT, you got a great Christmas present!! A FULL POOL !!!! Yaaaay!!
I'm just north of I10 and 2 miles (as the crow flies) from the Tx/La line. This morning's rainfall was just over 1.5", bringing my total in the last 6 weeks alone to just over 14". Luckily, most of it has come in small amounts, but that toad choaker a few weeks back dumped over 6" and the pond was out of it's banks and flowing across the yard. I'm sitting here watching fish breaking water all over the pond, so it wasn't a cold rain. Bout time to go throw some feed!!
I called Toledo Bend this morning to check the flood gates. As of yesterday, the lake level was 172+'. Both generators running 24/7 and 5 gates open to 1 foot. The Sabine has been at flood stage since that torrent and now it'll be out of its banks....again! Thanks a lot Sabine River Authority!!
What did I do at the pond today. Nothing.. I ran the chainsaw all morning around the farm, opening up roads etc.. So, my time at the pond was just recuperating. Enjoyed the quiet, except for some geese far overhead. Luckily they leave my little BOW alone. Water temp is 44* still a few inches low, but almost full. Im thinking there is no bad time to sit next to a pond.
I got a little over a 1/2 inch of rain this morning and it was pretty warm this afternoon when I went by the pond. For the first time in a long while, I had a fair amount of FHM activity, so I threw out some feed to see what would happen and I probably had a few hundred or more FHM coming up to feed. Probably been over 2 months since they've done that. It was fun to see.
Bob, how close are you to full? I may have missed it earlier. Are you getting close? Hows it holding? Hope your leak went away, or was just the soil sucking up the water. Jeff
Jeff, I wish I was close to full. Lol! I've been getting enough rain to keep things fairly wet, but not enough to gain much. I'm probably up about a foot since my last report. I'm at about 8.5', and still have over 10' to go. It's still doing about the same, the longer it stays around the same level, the slower it drops. I don't think it's dropped much more than .25" a day over the last month or so, and most of the time it is less than that. I still haven't had a rain big enough to give me any run off from the area above the sediment pond. I'm trying to get started on clearing out some of the under growth from that area, in hopes of getting more run off.
Thanks Zep. I think do to their thirsty nature they contribute to some water loss in the drier months, but they also keep a lot of the water shaded and cooler. They dump millions of leaves in every fall, but are pretty to look at. We like the peaceful feeling.
Bob, its hard to believe youve missed some of these hard rains weve had in St Louis. Your place is a little like mine. I always see big storms barreling down on the farm, then they magically divide and somehow go around our farm. Eventually youll get the series of gullywashers you need. Jeff
Jeff, it's happened to me so many times, split and go around me, I just have to laugh any more. lol! A lot of time I see it break up right as it gets to me and reform on the other side of me. lol! The pond is right at 16 months old now and has only had run off from above the sediment pond 2 times.
In the warmer months, or when we have thunderstorms as the main source of rainfall, we seem to be in a small rain shadow. There is a hill to the west and SW about six miles distant, running mostly N-S. It rises about 700-800 feet above surrounding terrain. There are other hills a bit further to the south, running E-W, that rise a little higher still. That seems small, but I really think it diminishes our warm season rainfalls that come up from the Gulf of Mexico.
John, I've been thinking the same thing. The town I live in is called High Ridge and it didn't get it's name for nothing. It's one of the highest areas around here and I'm on the NE side of it and most of my rain comes from the S and SW.
I picked up 5 Christmas trees off the streets. Plans are to get a few more today. I add them along the shoreline as brush piles and I also add them to a couple of poles that stand in a couple of areas in the pond that has 5' of water next to 10' drop off's. I add a tree or two to each pole every year. One thing I have seen from adding them along the shoreline is the TFS gather up around the trees during the early spring, I suspect they are spawning on the trees. I am hoping to keep my threadfins this winter but these cold rainy days we have been having could hurt my TFS survival this winter. I have also seen another spot on the banks where the Otter has been pooping. I have caught two but this one seems to have figured out where the traps are set.
Been gaining significantly for the past 6 weeks or so. A lot of brush clearing in the forest is paying off, there are new areas of runoff flowing into the pond. Up perhaps four feet. Still have trickles coming in from the woods. another 18 to 24 inches and we'll see how the primary overflow works!
I'm living at the pond now so I can see the runoff as it happens. Lawn areas are immediately productive and drain within minutes. I have decent Bermuda grass to manage erosion.
Forest areas must saturate, perhaps over several rain events, but then they start steady flows down each small wash. These flows may run for a week or more this time of year.
One forested hill along the pond is sand. All year it has a water table perhaps 15 feet above pond level. It seeps all year. A hole dug, even well above the pond will fill slowly. It's nice this time of year as a good looking green moss has filled in large patches and it looks great from the house.
My take away is that watershed, like our pond, is a much more complex system than most people think.
We just got 1.5 yesterday. With the ground saturated, Im sure its going out my overflow pipe this morning. Im in Arkansas with new granddaughter, so I wont see it until later this week. I should have raised my feeder a foot or so too. I imagine the bottom of the feeder is under. Hopefully not the lower motor. Its been a while since weve had water going out the pipe.
Jeff, congratulations on the new Granddaughter, and the rain!I don't think I'll get as much as you did but it was raining here this morning pretty good but has slowed down now and is close to over. It all helps!
We received just under 0.8" of rain from this storm overnight until it stopped about 9 AM this morning.
The old pond is up over 15" since November, but still 18" low. The newer pond is up about 12" since November, and only needs 2" more until full pool. Runoff is still occurring.
Mark, have you been getting any hog damage, or are they just roaming at your place?
Al so far not really any hog damage around the cabins....it seems the hogs pretty much stay down in the bottom land/woods that has a creek bed and quite a few spots with standing water after a rain for a few days. I see hog track almost always when I walk back there.
I have been there, done that when it comes to TH feeder and rising waters. I was lucky enough to get some help to move it asap. Those dam things are heavy! I wound up building a platform using some two by fours and one by six's. a mini pier so to speak. It hang's out about 3' above and over the waters edge and make's a pretty good fishing platform also.
Had another Otter in a trap, that's three along with one beaver over the past few weeks. Pond is a magnet when it comes to otters and beavers. I have to keep a close eye out along with a few traps set after seeing any signs of either.
Water is now going through the syphon at the pond. Fish are fairly active at the feeders. Want to check water temps after this past rain event.
IS the feeder OK? Maybe you can make a flotation mount in the future? Pond looks good when it is that full! Any activity noted?
It does look better, thats for sure. I imagine the feeder is ok. The water didnt get to the lower motor. I had disconnected the battery earlier, so no water was thrown up into the feeder. There were some swirls out in the water. I did not throw any food out. It got down to 20 later that evening. I backed the feeder up the bank. Should have done it earlier, but most rains bypass our place. Another front coming through Monday. But its just a couple inches from the pipe. If we could just get regular predicted rainfall, it would always look like this. Ha! Looking down behind the dam, theres moisture in the old ravine bottom, but I really think its just recent rain coming off the sides of the ravine and back of the dam. If I have a leak, its impossible to find it. Wet spot is pooled water in the ravine, no current to it.
Tracy, Its amazing how much you have to deal with beavers and otters. I always think of them as mountain critters. Glad traps work on them. Wish I could run a feeder a little longer. (When the aqua-pro is working). I just had a small amount of feed in it, so walking it up the bank on the back legs wasnt bad. When its full, its a two man job. Jeff
Sure having a lot of cormorants feeding? They can really put away the fish. Watched one grab a oversized BG and couldnt swallow it kept diving and coming back up again. The funny thing was that an osprey dove down and stole the BG from the cormorant! Was watching with binoculars so it was really cool to see . Funny thing that 4 cormorants over 2 days died on the water..... poisoned fish maybe..... to much lead I guess.... lol
We received 1.28" of rain. The new pond is running over now, and the old (renovated slow leaker) is only 13" low. We'll see soon if more settling of the dam has occurred. I didn't see any fish out the spillway of the newer pond. Hopefully, the fish are staying deeper this time of year.
Jeff, I consider them more as bottom land animals. I have a bayou or what we called a nice creek when I was growing up in Okla. This Bayou is about 300 yds from the pond and it is what I consider a travel corridor for animals, birds and reptiles. Remember the alligator I had in the pond awhile back?
It's been some different weather this year so far. This time last year we saw some 22 degree weather but this year we will have temps in the high 60's and maybe 70 for the next 4 days. Bob Lusk has said that we might get some bg spawn on warm days in Feb. but I am seeing some warm days in Jan this year so I will be adding 10 Christmas trees along the shoreline today. Building some brush piles for the bg fry to insure some fry survival. Adding shoreline cover has worked in the past, hoping it will do it again. And I am taking a great-granddaughter fishing today. She is 3 and likes to catch bg from the pier.
My Gambusia were up in 2-3" of water yesterday afternoon in the bright sunshine. It will be even warmer today (60s), and for the next few days, but will be low 30s by daylight.
First I thought I was going to be smart and jump on the floating walkway and basically stand and paddle it down the pond like a wind-surfer. That worked for about 2 mins until it started sinking and I went in water. Brrrr...
Next my buddy in jeans walked the luckily floating walkway back down to the other end of the pond where it belongs.
Then we put down some boards and pulled the Trex dock up on shore with two ATV's.
Water was cold, but fortunately temp got up to 70 degrees today.
Dock builder says on Monday when temps are predicted to be 68 degrees he will get walkway back onto bracing by using three 18 wheeler tire tubes. We'll see if his "trick" works.
Southern Leopard Frogs have shown up en mass after last week's rains. They are really singing at night. About an hour before dawn the guys are croaking like crazy, I guess they know it's almost dawn and they need to find a lady frog before the bar closes.
I added the 10 Christmas trees along the shoreline yesterday. Most were added to existing lay down tree branches and or last years Christmas tree brush piles. I saved the two largest ones for adding to the to Christmas tree poles that are out in the deeper water. I will add them today. All the shoreline trees were added using a single hole cinder block as the anchor. After all that I went through my fishing tackle and rigged up a Caroline rig using a pearl colored fluke with the tail died Chartreuse. Caught lmb from 13" to 18" all of them were above the 100% on the RW chart. And all the lmb looked really good and healthy. While I was lmb fishing I saw some fish feeding on TFS around the pond. I targeted the HSB using a pearl colored tube bait dragged along the bottom. Second cast produced an 18" 3 1/2 lb nice and healthy HSB. I called it a day after that. It was a good day at the pond to say the least. Water temp was 51.7 to 9'. And like Vortex, the frogs were many and loud as they called out for the night.
I went out to the pond to feed and noticed the clarity of the water since the last rain event has started to clear up again. It had been reduced to less than a foot but now is back to around 18".
After throwing a few handfuls of AM500, I took a stroll around the bank with my polorized sunglasses on and noticed that it appears I must have had a very late season spawn of BG. Looks like I've got hundreds, if not thousands of YOY around 1-1.5" long. You can see hundreds of minnows right at the bank's edge, and just out from the bank, which is rather steep, if you look deeper, maybe 8-10, you see schools of tiny panfish swimming by all in the same direction of travel, so I know I wasn't seeing the same fish. Kinda has me a bit concerned how successful my three LMB will be this spring when it's their turn to spawn. I may have to do some trapping and try to thin out some of those panfish numbers.
I also discovered what looks like a couple of patches of Chara starting to sprout in very shallow water. I haven't done a smell test yet, but from pictures I've seen here, that's what it looks like. I'm glad to see some vegetation starting to take hold and contribute to reducing my nutrient load.
The pond seems to be coming into it's own at just a little over two years old and having only bucket stocked a few dozen fish, but I may need to increase my LMB numbers to keep the "perch" under control. If nothing else, my 3 bass aught to have plenty to eat and could possibly need to be replaced sooner than I planned if they get too big, too fast.
It's definitely been a constant learning experience.
Sounds like you're doing great, Tracy! I have only one Christmas tree to add, but will supplement with small trees & brush from my property.
My number one priority is more dense habitat around CNBG spawning beds so the little guys can survive, that will be the focus of my efforts. TP and TFS to be stocked after temps warm.
Only really large CNBG are hitting feed now, along with some HSB. Much slower than last summer, but feed does get eaten with enthusiasm by the HSB. Few LMB in evidence around feeder.
I threw out feed. With this warm spell, the BG are feeding almost like they should in spring.
I expected mine to pick up since the weather has warmed, but it's still really slow. I'm only throwing maybe 10 handfuls a day, and it's mainly smaller fish feeding. Don't know where my bigger fish are. I guess they're satisfied eating fry, and my LMB are ghosts lately.
I was gonna wait to dig in spring but the guy was about to start a new contract this week. Now we just get flurries, no rain. Shouldn't take much for a tiny pond slightly larger than 1/8 acre.
wannapond, I toyed with filling my pond by using the yard spigot (regualr ole' well and well pump) and found that the pond would gain about 1 inch a day from bone dry empty. My pond is about 1/4 acre so it should grossly compare to a 1/8 acre pond when both are empty. As the pond gets more full the fill rate would slow down exponentailly...I figured it would take about one year to fill it up with my garden hose and surely it would fill by rain soon enough. The pond only filled to halfway by April of 2017 after being completed late 2016, then in May, it filled the rest of the way and well over the overflow pipe in on day! I was glad the wait was over, I thought it would never fill up.
My pump will do 120 gallons/minute. I can raise a quarter acre pond about 0.8 inch per hour after it's 3/4 full. It slows after that. That would be about 1.6 inches per day at 10 gpm, running 24/7. That's without evaporation or absorption. Yes, it will take a few weeks and lots of kilowatt-hours of electricity.
Sunk Christmas tree plus brush near CNBG spawning area, probably need to adjust location more precisely re Bob Lusk comments tonight. Three stupid cormorants, two beautiful eagles seen. Visibility near minimum for my BOW, around 2 feet.
Took out 11 inch LMB, caught& released a fat 18.5. Slow fishing overall.
That is nice 120gpm? My property has 3 other wells that were abandoned due to low supply of water. Of course I just bought it last summer. The new well they drilled seems to have plenty of water, just not at that rate.
New ponds take an unusual amount of water. Depending on the soil and compaction factor, they soak up a lot of water initially.
The couple thousand gallons that's in there now doesn't appear to be going anywhere. I guess all clay helps. We tried the sheeps foot but it kept getting clogged so we stopped using it a 3rd of the way.
**** We tried the sheeps foot but it kept getting clogged so we stopped using it a 3rd of the way.***
Never heard of this. Can a pond builder comment on what one does when a sheepsfoot needs to be used to intermix and compact lifts of clay but the user can't use it because the clay plugs or 'fills' it?
Are we talking about 2 different 'sheepsfoot' tools?
Soil too dry will not compact properly and too wet will just squish (a technical term) around the compaction device rather than compress vertically.
One way to help that is to mix in some dry clay to take up some of the excess moisture or wait till it dries to the proper level.
We find this same phenomenon farming. We have little concerns of compaction on dry soils. Saturated soils if we have a wet harvest make terrible ruts in the fields to contend with, but do not really cause compaction problems as the water acts as a lubricant and the soil just squishes around. But at certain moist moisture levels excess trips across a field will cause problematic compaction layers. Best (or worst if you do not want it) compaction happens at moist but not saturated soil moisture levels.
Make a ball of clay with your hands. If it will not stick together it is too dry to compact. If it tends to squish between your fingers it is too wet. Somewhere between those two stages is just right.
I'm just hoping it doesn't leak. My pond builder said he guarantees it won't leak. I hope he's right! I've got his dozer still in my yard. Isn't possession nine-tenths of the law? I could clear some trees with that D6...
I'm just hoping it doesn't leak. My pond builder said he guarantees it won't leak. I hope he's right! I've got his dozer still in my yard. Isn't possession nine-tenths of the law? I could clear some trees with that D6...
If you have good clay with no inclusions of other material that could cause leaks you probably are fine.
We hear about the leaky ponds here on PBF. But likely hear of few that didn't leak even though they may not have had proper compaction. Proper compaction is a necessity with some soils, an insurance policy with others. In our area we don't worry much about compacting the bottom of the pond unless a seam is found. Core trenches and dams normally get attention to proper compaction, the bigger the pond the more attention paid. Small ponds problems are more easily rectified than large projects. Lots of cow ponds in our area are nothing more than the top soil scuffed off the dam area and the ravine cleaned out and pushed up with a dozen. Most work fine, a few have dam seeps and the occasional one that gets into a sandstone seam that is not fixed won't hold water. But that is "here". Our solils and subsoil generally hold water very well. Build a field terrace with a low spot and you have a "pond" till it evaporates.
Many areas are not so "lucky" with their soils water holding capability though.
We received another 1.07" of rain since very early yesterday. Pond #1 is still about 10 inches low, and #2 and forage pond are running over. At least my first pond looks like a pond again, vs a mudhole.
Wonder how Bobbss pond is coming along with filling?
John no big gains here, just slowly inching it's way up. We got around 9"-10" of heavy wet snow yesterday and over night. It turned my 30-40 minute drive home from work last night into over 7 hours. We had a light mix of snow, sleet and rain most of the day today. I haven't been able to go over and check on the pond yet, but I'm sure I'll have to wait for it to melt to see much gains. They say we should be getting more rain and snow at the end of next week.
I talked to my pond builder a few days ago. I think I'm going to have him come out and work on my watershed area to increase my run off, as soon as things dry out enough.
I finally used up all of the AM500 I had. The feeding has been very slow at best for some time now, and with so much forage in the pond, I'm going to wait until the water warms back up before I decide whether to start feeding again. Time will tell.
This last little system dropped another 3/4" of rain and brings my total to 4" this year.
Decided to take some readings while I'm waiting for the Saints to pound on the Eagles (hopefully they show up). At 3:00, the air temp was 58*f, surface temp is 62*f, ph measured 7.0 on a litmas stick, alk is still very low (less than 40) and hardness is non existent. I really need to dump some more lime, and maybe some gypsum. Not sure if I should wait till March, when the rain slacks off or go ahead and do it now. I'd hate to spend $ just to have it flushed out the drain with more rain, since I'm at the pipe now.
Some insight from the chemists here would be appreciated
Seven cormorants a fishing, four geese a honking, two eagles a soaring, and a partridge in a pear tree. Okay, so I'm kidding about the partridge.
Folks working on our deck reported seeing a cormorant grab a fish, then one eagle stole the finny feast. The water turkey submerged, but when it came up the other eagle attacked. Unfortunately, the cormorant managed to get away.
Taking a page from our Italian pondmeister, I strung 80 lb test fishing line between a couple of stumps out in the water to trees on shore. They are about 8 to 12 inches above water level. Idea is to make cormorants reluctant to land on water they might not be able to take off from. We'll see, still need to add some holographic scare tape to it.
Fishing was slow, but we did catch six in two hours. Two were 18+ inch fatties and were released, four below 12 inches culled.
Today I checked muskrat traps. I bought and put out 4 colony traps last week. 2 rats down so far. I am learning as I go with this one, I have never trapped anything in the water before. I placed the traps on runs I thought may be active that were in areas I was most concerned about (near or on the dam). I have been been moving them slightly at one location that is in a den to try and get in the main entry/exit run. Today I found some fresh mud near a run and moved one of the traps about 2 feet. If the pond doesn't have too much ice tomorrow, I hope to have at least one more muskrat for the coyotes and foxes to eat.
We got another inch of rain with this last cold front. I was disappointed this morning when I woke up to find the pond really muddied up. Strange how sometimes it runs off clear, and other times the watershed is muddy. It had just gotten back to about 20 inches of visibility.
I guess with a new pond it'll wash the clay into the water, nice and cloudy. It looks to be about 4ft deep already from the middle. Couldn't believe just one rain event raised it up that much. Was a foot yesterday. Too bad any more runoff will be frozen in place with tonight's temperature in the teens.
Zep, I am always on the lookout for both. Best way I have come up with to determine otters is look for their scatt. Can't miss it, it's full of fish scales. I have caught 3 in the last month along with a large beaver. And I am pretty sure the otters are feeding on the cnbg around the feeders. Based on the size of the fish scales seen in their poop. And mine also travel up and down the Bayou. I would keep your traps out for a least a month.
Its been cold with really high winds so I stayed away for the pond for a couple of days. I even missed the last two days of duck season due to the high winds and high water. Kinda sucks since I've been training my Golden this past year. I made it to the pond yesterday afternoon. The high winds moved my floating pier a few feet and dropped a few tree limbs into the pond. The water visibility has gone to 48". The cnbg are still feeding at the feeders and I did see some chasing on the surface. And I caught another otter. It sucks but it's better than not catching them. I seem to catch 4 each time I find them at the pond. Ok, this is enough, hunting season is over, it's time for some nice 70 degree days.
I took a stroll around the puddle this evening and found a bunch of small snails in the grass near the overflow. I'm in the process of acquiring 100 3-5" RES to put in the pond. This will be the first fish I've bought for stocking. Hopefully, this size fish will be big enough to avoid heavy predation by my three LMB.
I took a stroll around the puddle this evening and found a bunch of small snails in the grass near the overflow. I'm in the process of acquiring 100 3-5" RES to put in the pond. This will be the first fish I've bought for stocking. Hopefully, this size fish will be big enough to avoid heavy predation by my three LMB.
Well crap, got an email reply from the only hatchery I'm aware of in Louisiana, and wouldn't you know it, they're not raising RES this year.
Anyone in Texas have a contact near the Louisiana border?
Overtons in Buffalo probably would deliver to you or you could make a run there
Thanks Pat. I've heard of them but couldn't remember it. It may be more cost effective for me to go get them and transport myself in a large cooler with aeration. Only need about 100 fish. I'll give them a shout and see what they've got.
When you do holler at me..... Im 18 miles from them...... maybe meet up You will like them
Hey Pat, Just talked to Shannon at Overtons. They recommended 100 but wont know what size they'll be until they pick them up sometime next week (either 2-3" or 3-4")
I'll have to go pick them up since it's such a small order, so maybe we can get together. She's a real sweet lady!!
If I remember correctly, she said the 3-4" would be $0.65 each. I have no problem spending that. I just hope that's what they have. I've got just a handful maybe 3-4" fish that I bucket stocked, but I didn't get them until after their spawn. And I've trapped a couple smaller from the pond. I have no idea how many Harvey may have transplanted, so I may end up being a bit heavy on RES after this purchase, but that may make catching them a bit easier.
Oh, I did mention your name...and Shannon said ..."Who???!!!" Lol just kidding, I actually considered dropping your name but I was afraid they just might Jack the price up, so...
Nahh, really....thanks a lot Pat. It's much appreciated.
Checked the pond again. With today's rain I should be 3/4 full. No leaks as far as I can tell. Glad I had all clay because it received very little compaction during the dig.
Got another good rain last night. The fullest it has ever been. Still more than a foot below the spillway.
Another (or the same) cormorant visited this morning. I scared him away again. I'm hoping if he doesn't get comfortable here he'll find another place to plunder. Nearby Lake Livingston is full of these endangered federally protected barely surviving unfairly taunted beautiful creatures.
Glad to help Mike While youre at it ck out their CNBG
If they have any 3-4" on hand, I may try to add about 50 into that box of RES, and hope they'd mix in with the native BG and help improve the size genetics.
Edit: Sent Shannon a text to find out if they had any CNBG ready, what sizes and price. I added 50 (3-6") to my order.
My seem to be resident Osprey attacked and chased off a great Blue Herron. He actually made an attack like a fighter plane might do, as the GBH was feeding along the shoreline. And after that display the Osprey hid somewhere and showed up again an hr or so later to run off another GBH. This second GBH never made it to the shoreline. You think this Osprey has declared this as his fishing spot? And just because I enjoy watching does not mean I am a fan of the Osprey.
My son in law used a drone to take video of the pond & surroundings. Amazing technology! Wonder if it could be used to buzz off cormorants and maybe even find eagle nest, though I do not want to disturb eagles.
Saw a video several months back where a large city in Canada (Ontario?) hired a company with drones to keep geese away from public areas. Seemed to work well. I'm betting it would work with any unwanted water fowl. We have a new chocolate lab puppy and I'm hoping she will serve the same purpose!
That's cool Bill D. What did you name the pup? They are very smart and I have learned over the years that its all about the trainer when it comes to what all they can be. And Al recently made a comment about Highflyers new flying toy. Something was said about fling it over the pond.
Not what I did today, but what I'll be doing tomorrow! Today we bought apple, peach, plum, satsuma, orange and fig trees, as well as two blue berry bushes and a thornless blackberry bush. All of them are going to be planted around the perimeter of the pond tomorrow. Hope I don't kill them all!!!
Fish roaming the surface mid-winter: All except the catfish were on the surface today...bluegill and bass were making their rounds and eating feed...weird given that our weather has been similar for weeks...lows low forty's or high thirty's and highs mid fifties to mid sixties (a few 70s) and nothing but a few big bluegills normally feed. Bottom of pond is at its coldest, 47 F, having dropped from 52 F (last time I was running aerators in a 72 F high averaging 62 F that day. I have quite a few bluegill that want to eat everyday, no matter the weather, but they normally in winter hit the feed with a momentary strike. Today they were hanging and taking feed as if it was gourmet...savor it, approach, take, move a foot, hang. The bass were just cruising around...a few of the few grab a pellet now and then. The experience (less the catfish) was like mid-summer. We are due for almost a week of cooler (averaging about 45 F) weather. Do you think the fish somehow know this? I've not thrown a Farmer's Almanac into the pond.
SetterGuy, that is awesome, ready for ice skating, no shovels needed. I'll bet catching your jumbo perch through the ice would be a great amount of fun.
SetterGuy, that is awesome, ready for ice skating, no shovels needed. I'll bet catching your jumbo perch through the ice would be a great amount of fun.
Has anyone caught HSB through the ice?
I think it isn't safe to walk on. Not cold enough, long enough. It's 54 degrees here right now. The thin ice on the ponds early this morning has already cleared off.
I assumed you were directing this to my future purchase of RES. That's what Todd Overton recommended. I think his reputation and knowledge speaks for itself. If nothing else, it may make catching them a bit easier!
Btw...this 1/10 acre is holding an acre foot of water.
Today I added a 20ft cedar tree off the dam and cleaned up cactus along a shoreline. Cacti is heavy! Some stalks were 6in thick. Used a machete and pitchfork to dig them up by the roots. No poison next to the tank. Lots more further down the line.
SetterGuy, that is awesome, ready for ice skating, no shovels needed. I'll bet catching your jumbo perch through the ice would be a great amount of fun.
Has anyone caught HSB through the ice?
Ha! The ever elusive HSB! Maybe that will be the secret to actually catching one. Through the ice.. The ice has to be thick enough by next weekend. Monday through Friday lows. 7, -8, -6, 18, 24. Im just not sure Ill be able to get my hand powered auger through the ice.
Walked on top of my frozen half filled new pond. Pond guy left his dozer ever since he dug the pond. I'm tempted to test drive it. He's coming back to put the overflow once the weather is better.
Got all of my fruit trees in the ground today. Have to go by the Co-Op tomorrow and grab a bale of wheat straw to mulch them with before this next front gets here.
We put holographic bird scare tape on several trees bordering the pond, plus on a couple of cormorant favorite stobs. Worked pretty well discouraging them last year, we'll see about this year.
Frank, can u post up a pic of what it looks like and where u added it to the pond? Do you just tape off a limb or a stump? Did you give up on the big eye balloons or whatever the other scare off device was?
I ordered this from Home Depot: Aspectek 200 ft. Double Sided Holographic Bird Scare Ribbon Tape. Took about a week to ship to my local store. They have a similar tape that is thinner which would probably work, too.
Key is to tie it so that 2 to 3 feet is exposed to the wind & freely flaps in a breeze. Makes some noise & flashes. Doesn't seem to bother geese much, but cormorants are a different matter.
Good to know, thanks. Most all I have to tie off to is just above the surface and I would think the tape would just lay there in the water. I do have a couple of trees in the water but they are dead now and high winds are laying them over into the water. They are breaking off about a foot above of the water. Might be, I could add a 10' T Post to 5 foot water depths giving me 5' above the water to tie off to. It would be nice to keep all the birds away.
Sounds like a good idea, Tracy. I'd think the best spot or spots would be where you see the greatest concentrations of cormorants resting or fishing. At least at my place, they really don't like the sight & sound on a breezy day.
Unprecedented cold and snow here in SW MI. Kids have had 3 consecutive snow days and tomorrow off too, might be a whole week off school.
Despite our efforts, and the bitter cold, the one edge of the pond still appeared newly wet yesterday during the day. I can't imagine how that is possible in the below zero windchills! Must be the weight of the snow on the edge pushed water up from underneath and into the shallows.
We were clearing ice frequently the last few days but the lake effect snow kept coming. The kids want to skate once air temps are safe for skin exposure.
but in the coldest hour we get water on the pond. Now the 2 stage walk behind snowblower is useless as the wet snow freezes in the housing and chute as soon as the air hits it. I dare use the quad with plow but it can't move the wet banks.
My JD mounted snowblower might do an OK job but I don't trust to put it on the ice near the wet spot.
2 days of cold and then air temps in the 40s and rain Sunday. Strange.
Oh well, no snow till January, now 3 feet in the yard, 5 foot banks around the pond, we got a few days of skating in I guess.
What did I do at my pond today? Today I learned that muskrat runs are deeper than my muck boots. And that pond water is cold around here this time of year. (Ya'll wear your waders, hear?)
After a couple of warm days, the BG were following me around the ponds, so I fed them this afternoon, and got a good feeding response from the BG. That's great for the 3rd of February. The lowest official temperature so far this winter is 11 F.
I have been keeping two Conibar traps out at the far end of the pond. This area is nearest to the bayou. And I caught another beaver yesterday. Both traps had gone off but only one had a beaver in it. First time for me where a trap went off and nothing was in it. These traps are about 10 yds apart from each other. The beaver was headed into the pond. I think it was looking for a new place to set up a home.
I have been concerned lately that the pond is running short of 3 to 4" cnbg because I just don't see many at the feeders. I do see maybe 50 to a hundred cnbg in the 7 to 10" size that hang out at each feeder. So I sat out looking for some of the smaller sized and discovered that if I hand threw some feed around the brush piles along the shoreline and a good distance away from the feeder I would see around a dozen or so come to the feed. They were in that 3 to 4" range. I felt better after seeing the smaller sized cnbg.
The cnbg and the feed trained lmb along with the HSB were all pretty active on the Aquamax. So I increased the amount of the LMB feed.
Tracy, I've had similar results from my feeding this fall & winter. Real big CNBG only, little guys are scarce. Probably YOY are in dense cover, like yours.
I ordered this from Home Depot: Aspectek 200 ft. Double Sided Holographic Bird Scare Ribbon Tape.
anthropic.....following your lead I just purchased some of this scare ribbon tape on Amazon. It will be in Wed so I can install this weekend.
Where do place it and how do you place it?
Do you walk out into the shallow water with poles and tie it to the poles? Or place it on dock? Or just along various spots on shoreline?
I've been invaded this winter with "Water Turkey" (anhinga) the ones that dive under the water. In the past the gator heads were pretty effective in scaring them off....not this year.
When I am there I scare them off, but I am usually only there on weekends so I assume they are eating a lot of fish.
I have a few stobs sticking above the water that they love to perch on, so I've found wrapping scare tape around it and letting some hang loose is effective. You don't want just to wrap it around the stob, nor have so much tape that it lays flat on the water. You want it to flap in the breeze unrestricted, making noise & flashing in the sunlight.
Tree trunks close to favorite bird spots also work. If birds are really bad, you might hammer in a post where the water turkeys congregate and fly the tape there, too.
The tape doesn't last forever, but we found most of it was ok four to six months. Seemed to work better than the scare eye balloons, at least at our place.
We had another warm and breezy day, and I fed again right before sundown. To my surprise, the CC were swimming around feeding on top like they do in summer. It's only February 4th!
Fed again today. Even better CC reaction. I thought they wouldn't feed on top unless water was above about 68 degrees. Last year they didn't start until early May.
Got HVAC all connected & working at pond house! Now we can bring in furniture & stay there. Still have siding to put up and grass sod, but this is a big step forward.
Fished about 2 1/2 hours with buddy. We caught ten, culled eight, buddy lost one in the 4 to 5 lb range. Again, anything longer than 15 inches is fat & very healthy.
Despite newly deployed bird tape, cormorants were on lake. Sigh. Don't know if this group is tougher than last year, or maybe more desperate. Also a kingfisher, two Canada Geese (who hung around the one feeder with food!), two GBH and the mated pair of bald eagles. More turtles than last summer.
Long 80 lb fishing line strung from trees to stobs don't seem to have done a lot to discourage cormorants. Oh well, you never know until you try.
Fish are feeding well (MVP). Bass are visible, often hovering near the surface. The LMB are almost a year old and are big enough to see from inside the house which is cool.
Two turtles (red ear sliders) are around. First time I've seen them on a log sunning. They look happy too.
Stopped by the feed store and ordered one bag of Aquamax LMB. It comes in friday. I suspect the LMB are big enough to eat it now.
Surface temp was 70 this morning. We have a cold front coming through but it won't be long before spring sproings.
Tossed in some food, no takers. Walked the shore to see what was out and found a severed CC head floating. Stocked CC in Oct and this was the right size. Do you think it died and was chewed off? Pretty clean looking to be chewed off. Will take pics if I find any more. Kept walking to the cactus patch and dug up more. Tossed sticks for the dogs.
I'd venture to say the fish died of something stress related and what you found was left over turtle lunch. They cut pretty clean when that mouth clamps down and rips a piece off.
Been fighting a kidney stone the last few days and it sent me home from work early. After laying around several hours it finally eased up enough that felt like walking around a bit, so out to the pond I go. I witnessed several decent BG suspended rather shallow so I decided to get a better look.
Grabbed a slice of bread for dough ball bait and in 20 minutes pulled out 3 like this one.
Thanks Pat. I think I'm through the worst part of it now. Just gotta wait till it decides to get ejected completely. That's always fun!!! Not my first stone rodeo, tho, so at least I know what to expect.
Thanks bud! The few minutes of fishing definitely made me feel better. All three were very feisty and gave my light action rod a good workout. Cant wait to catch one those bigger ones down there.
At least I didn't have to get this one surgically removed....that blows dog farts.
This one was probably the better of the three... guessing close to 8".
Day before yesterday I saw some lmb crusein the 2' shallows in pairs. Also saw 4 or 5 hanging out around the feeders mixed in with the cnbg. The were also in the one to two foot water. And when hand feeding Aquamax lmb some were feeding aggressively . The FLMB mixed in do not show any interest in the lmb feed and you can see them looking over the bg. These lmb would move a couple of feet stop and look for something in there mouth gape size to eat. And while hand feeding, the Hsb were really aggressive. But, this all took place before we had the front come in with some cooler weather and rain. I pulled out the fly rod using a shad type bait and went looking for some of the lmb hatch from last spring. Caught one in the 7" range looked pretty healthy to me. Does not seem to be large mount of these sized fish. Also caught and removed a one eyed, poor conditioned 15" lmb
That will really help with shore line erosion when your wind whips up. I did it to my 3 acre pond but was not going to on my RES or old refurbished one acre ponds. But after seeing what the wind was doing to the banks and dam, I did both of them. I was a lot more lazy. I used the front end loader on my tractor. Sprinkled a half bucket down the bank and into the water a ways, then put the bucket at 45 degree angle and pulled it back firmly into the bank.
Don't forget to put some below water line. As pond level drops during droughts, bare dirt will be exposed subject to erosion.
For the people that don't like the looks of rock around the edges, in two or three years the grass and algae will fill in and you don't even know it's there.
Still frozen, so I just took a picture. No snow on the ice, and water is trickling out the overflow pipe. This is by far the longest its ever been frozen over. Hope my fish are ok..
Man, that is amazing. We have not been completely iced over all winter, and only about 245 miles south of you. The temperature gradient is really steep.
SetterGuy, you should be good. Clear ice, lots of sun. Fish should be fine. I am worried about winter kill for the first time in SW MI. I have 4-5" clear ice, we kept it clear of snow in January. then we got snow, heavy rain so we had 5-6" standing water on the ice, then heavy snow and slush. It now is a slushy mess and I can't safely get on it to shovel it. I also have no vegetation to make O2.
Did you try ice fishing for those HSB yet?
We'll have to see, hopefully we get an early spring and snow and slush melts!
SetterGuy, you should be good. Clear ice, lots of sun. Fish should be fine. I am worried about winter kill for the first time in SW MI. I have 4-5" clear ice, we kept it clear of snow in January. then we got snow, heavy rain so we had 5-6" standing water on the ice, then heavy snow and slush. It now is a slushy mess and I can't safely get on it to shovel it. I also have no vegetation to make O2.
Did you try ice fishing for those HSB yet?
We'll have to see, hopefully we get an early spring and snow and slush melts!
Phytoplankton also produces oxygen. Some ponds don't have submerged plants.
The pond was down 4.5 feet most of last summer. So theres a lot of weeds that were along the bank, that are now under water. We are in the teens again today and tonight, plus 3 of snow on top today. With the exception of GS, I dont think my fish population is that high. I didnt try ice fishing again. My pellet stove was down, so I spent the day tearing it apart. Finally tracked it down to a bad auger motor. On order.. Plus, I wasnt sure about the ice this time. It seemed solid, but theres nobody around to help me if it wont hold 250 lbs..
Yesterday went to the pond and caught a BIG LMB, close to 10# and bout to bust with eggs. Didnt have my phone with me so not to stress the old girl I looked at her for a few seconds and slid her back in. WOW that was cool!only pix is in my mind
Pat, Pat, Pat. Haven't you ever heard if you ain't got a picture, it's just another fish story!!??
No, really, congratulations on a great catch. I've been bass fishing all my life in places where BIG bass are abundant and I've never boated a 10 pounder. Sounds like your pond is producing some behemoths.
Congrats Pat! I guess that solves the mystery of what happened to all your BCP!
Yes thats kinda what I thought Bill... shame too cause I want BCP more than I do bass... oh well when you get delt lemons then make some lemonade.... its all good.
Pat, that is great. They sat that a pic is worth a thousand words. I say a C&R of a fish like that to pass on it's genes is worth a thousand pics. Ya done good !!!
Well done Pat! A 10lb lmb can eat a pretty big CP and most likely did eat a few of them What did you catch her on?
Big bite cane thumper / 3/0 flashy swimmer ..... they cant resist ......watermelon red ghost As tough as your Florida are to catch that might be the cure
Since we're kinda sorta talking about swimbaits, I've really, really become a big fan of soft swimbaits and molded gliders over the last few years. In clearer water like mine, they attract larger LMB better than anything with a rattle. That's just my experience here though.
Thats two 10# on those around here and countless 5-8 # the other great bait is Rebel Pop-R caught 2 back to back 8s last fall in the pond across from me last fall. Charlie(Stickem ) turned me on to the cane thumper
I got up this morning and decided to rake some FA from around the spawning area of the pond. In the process, I raked up this little guy hiding in the FA. My dad used to call them pumpkin seed, but I've since learned that species doesnt exist around here. I'm thinking it's a Longear. Regardless, it sure is a pretty little fish. Actually raked up two very near to each other. I've never seen more than just a handful swimming around in 2 1/2 years.
Congrats Pat! I guess that solves the mystery of what happened to all your BCP!
Yes thats kinda what I thought Bill... shame too cause I want BCP more than I do bass... oh well when you get delt lemons then make some lemonade.... its all good.
Well it goes to show, even trash fish (LMB) can be fun.
Congrats Pat! I guess that solves the mystery of what happened to all your BCP!
Yes thats kinda what I thought Bill... shame too cause I want BCP more than I do bass... oh well when you get delt lemons then make some lemonade.... its all good.
Well it goes to show, even trash fish (LMB) can be fun.
Ouch! They are fun to catch though Im having better luck with LMB than my preferred fish ( unnamed) More lemonade John
I got up this morning and decided to rake some FA from around the spawning area of the pond. In the process, I raked up this little guy hiding in the FA. My dad used to call them pumpkin seed, but I've since learned that species doesnt exist around here. I'm thinking it's a Longear. Regardless, it sure is a pretty little fish. Actually raked up two very near to each other. I've never seen more than just a handful swimming around in 2 1/2 years.
The ear tab is long like a longear but isn't as bright an orange as I am used to seeing. I was wondering if it may be a dollar sunfish given the small mouth and olive coloration. There is a lot of variation in longears though where each native drainage seems to have longears of distinguishable appearance. Below are some pics of a Dollar sunfish.
Looking the attachment, could very well be dollar sunfish. And yeah, they dont seem to get much bigger than the two I raked up this morning.
Should you make a positive ID, don't forget to add them to the list .
The BG are starting to bite better here in N. Texas. When the cold front was coming in yesterday, just couldn't talk my daughter into going home until we ran outta bait. It was her birthday yesterday and I couldn't have been happier when she demanded to spend her birthday walmart cards on a rod and reel of her own. She's 8 now and she bought a serious rod and reel for her age ... no princess or Barbie pole for her!
O.77 inches of cold rain last night. New pond is overflowing again. Old pond is 6" below overflow. Creeks are roaring again. With the saturated ground, it does not take much.
Todays 7'Lx5'Wx4'T mesquite log fish crib made it to the end of the dry dock 8ft from shore and got stuck in the mud. So I went swimming. That is one way to put it. Another way is that I fell out of the boat head first. It was my dog Apollo's fault of course. Long sleeves, jeans, leather gloves and boots make a pretty good wet suit. Had to call it a day at that point. Also cut a dozen cedar trees. Dragged a few to the tank. Some will be fluffy stuff and others will be bound for use as dense cover. The wind was howling and blew one off the dam into the tank.
I spent the late afternoon setting on the pier for awhile hand feeding Aquamax lmb to my HSB and LMB. I slowly added a few chunks at a time to the water so I could get a close up look at the fish as they feed. What surprised me was at the two different places on the pond where I feed I went through 150+- cubes at the pier and 300+- cubes at the other spot. I feed for about 30 min at each spot but I only feed as much as they wanted to eat. I enjoyed the feeding time but if I feed that much every day my feed bill would go up two fold. 100 chunks weigh about 1 lb 4 oz so I feed around 6 lbs +-.
Shortcut...how do you plan to anchor that wood down? Also it may surprise you how fast that wire will rust and give way allowing your logs to float away. Might think about lashing together with some type of poly anchor rope. I really like what you did. Just hoping it stays together for you.
It is staked down mostly submerged right now just to saturate. Probably going to tie two blocks together and hang a pair on both ends. I'm hoping the galvanized twisted fence wire will out last the logs!
It's such a beautiful day here today, I spent a couple hours soaking some dough balls. Caught a few decent BG, and another BGxWM hybrid about 7".
After I got Mr Jones satisfied I took some readings. At 1:30 pm the air and surface temps were 68*f. PH measures 7.5 and visibility is about 36".
Trying to decide when to turn the aeration back on. Trees are budding out and pine pollen is really thick on the windward side of the pond. I'm afraid it's just a matter of time now before I get an algae bloom. Hopefully it wont be BGA.
The last 3 days I got my FHM to come up and feed some. The pond had been frozen over for a few weeks, and it still had ice covering about a 3rd of it the first day they feed. I was surprised to see it.
Well, a Bald Eagle showed up yesterday. Pretty bird to say the least. Lets see, This year I have had a Bald Eagle, an Osprey and Cormorants and 3 dead Otters. Whew! Mother Nature can put a hurt on your pond fish!!!
Note, No cormorants on the pond and I thought I was the reason but now, I am guessing the Eagle has declared my pond his pond and is the reason no more of those darn fish eating black birds.
Tracy, I do have 2 pairs of wood ducks staying at the pond again. They have been scouting out my homemade wood duck house again!! Maybe I will have a good hatch again this year. I cleaned and refilled the house a couple months back in preporation for them to return. I watched yesterday as the feeder goes off (yes, I got my feeder working again) and the ducks don't even fly off! Hope they stick around.
TGW1 do you think it is the bald eagles or osprey keeping the cormorants away. I have a lot of cormorants at my lake and this fall 3 bald eagles are showing up 4 or 5 times a week. If they would keep the cormorants away I would gladly feed 3 eagles than 40 cormorants.
nehunter, I am not sure if the Eagle is keeping the cormorants away. I did see six of them at the pond a couple of days ago but the next day the Bald Eagle showed back up again this year. And he is observing things from a large tree that is real close to the pond. I have not seen a cormorant since. I can tell you the Osprey did run off a lot of birds including the Great Blue Herron's. He also kept the Kingfisher off the pond. The Osprey seems to be very aggressive and territorial.
Flame, I had a pair of woodies land on the pond yesterday evening. I've had large groups (flights) of them ( 10 to 15 per group and as many as 3 flights at a time ) land on the pond and they would go right after the feeders when they went off. It totally surprised me how they would go right to the feeder. Not sure if they were familiar with feeders or the splash of the cnbg feeding. I removed my wood duck boxes from the pond. I just did not like the possibility of my bass eating the ducklings. I am cleaning and moving the boxes to the bayou.
Have two ponds next to each other. Shiners are getting plentiful in the one without largemouth. Ice fished for awhile and caught a couple dozen 3.5- 4.5 ones, snipped off about 85% of their tails and put them in the bg lmb pond. Hopefully take a little pressure off the bg for a bit. Was trying for pumpkinseeds, yp and smb in one pond, bg and lmb in the other. The smb arent keeping up predation so Im planning on moving over some of the lmb culls this spring. Tons of shiners, yp and little pumpkin seeds for them. I expect theyll grow quickly. Still hoping to keep one pond for bg and one for pumpkinseeds. Time will tell. The sun felt different, days are getting longer. Our local lakes have more ice cover than they have in decades. But itll go pretty quickly now. Looks like Im going to be eating more little lmb than Id originally planned. Culling lmb from both ponds is going to become the majority of the fishing done here from the look of it.
It was a day of 7s here today. The air temp was 78f, the surface temp was 72f and the Ph measured 7.5. The fish are getting really active. My three LMB were cruising around together, first time Ive seen that since I transplanted them last year. The largest of the three looks to be around 2 lbs now, and they all look really healthy. Actually saw the biggest clear water in hot pursuit of some kind of panfish and all three have been busting heads on and off all day. I'm going to lay off feeding again for a while longer, so my bigger fish will have to feed naturally, but I'm thinking I may start back up around May.
I walk the pond every day hoping I'll see one of my LMB making a bed, but so far...nothing. If they don't do something soon, I guess I either have all boys or all girls. Not a totally bad situation, but I really hope I might get a little recruitment from them. The water temp is definitely warm enough now, but there is no sign of any active beds and since they're all cruising, I'm kinda doubting they're ready yet.
Tracy, eagles have stolen fish from cormorants and even attacked them at my place. If that helps move the cormorants along I'm all for it.
Saw five deer and two geese last time I visited. Still want to raise water level a few inches before summer dry spell hits. Moved furniture to place on the lake, so glad we have a ramp!
I hit the marsh at Eagle Bluffs conservation area over the weekend in hopes of catching some grass shrimp and scuds.
I didn't find either of those, but I did come across a pool that was absolutely swarming with daphnia. I collected many thousands that I brought home and dumped into my pond.
I hit the marsh at Eagle Bluffs conservation area over the weekend in hopes of catching some grass shrimp and scuds.
I didn't find either of those, but I did come across a pool that was absolutely swarming with daphnia. I collected many thousands that I brought home and dumped into my pond.
It's trips like that that bring out the 10 year old in me! It sounds like it was good day.
Just took my afternoon stroll around the pond and found 5 different GSF, all around 7", tending nests. Apparently, one of them had already been visited by a female, as it was loaded with 2-3" raiders, picking the bottom of the nest clean. Still no sign that any of my LMB are interested in spawning.
I hit the marsh at Eagle Bluffs conservation area over the weekend in hopes of catching some grass shrimp and scuds.
I didn't find either of those, but I did come across a pool that was absolutely swarming with daphnia. I collected many thousands that I brought home and dumped into my pond.
It's trips like that that bring out the 10 year old in me! It sounds like it was good day.
Yeah I was tickled. The only fish in my pond are a couple dozen FHM that I tossed in after going crappie fishing yesterday so the daphnia should have a chance to become established before there's anything in there that wants to eat them.
I also dipped up half a dozen gambusia minnows from the marsh. I put those in my wife's aquarium with the guppies. lol
John, it was only about 50 hear today but I threw out a few handfuls of feed and had lots of FHM coming up to feed. The sunshine had some of them on top already. I'm hoping for some good rain over the next few days, so I can stock something besides FHM.lol!
Looked for curly-leaf pondweed in the YP/SMB pond again yesterday and could not see any. Should this be breaking the surface now in central Indiana? It seems hard to believe that the papershell crayfish have been this effective at controlling it. Water is a bit cloudy from the recent rains, so maybe I am just not seeing it yet.
Curly-leaf pond weed in Indiana normally does not reach the surface in 6ft-7ft of water until sometime in May. However it could by end of March be 2ft tall.
Put up four new Wood Duck houses and maintained 4 put up last spring - one successful hatch in four houses spring '18 in "Beaver" pond named for obvious reasons.
I checked on the flooding going on, my pond has come up 3 ft in the last two days due to snow melt and rain, it is getting a thorough flushing. Ice was 12-15" thick this last weekend and has done some funky stuff with the water level rise. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the sudden influx of very cold water does not kill a bunch of my redears.
I also watched the flooding. Pond came up 3 ft from full capacity . The snow blocked/slowed down the overflow . Buddy came over and built a 4ft snow damn and saved my basement. So thankful. 3 plus inches of rain and snow melt in 24 hours has southeastern South Dakota looking like a waterworks. Thankful we got lucky waters are receding now. Praying for others and the farmers that have calfs dropping in this mess
I tried to run off 2 geese from the pond today, but it didn't work to well. lol! They was there yesterday and I was hoping they were just passing through. When I got there today and they was still there and I seen how much crap was all over the dam already, I knew they had to go. lol! I threw some small rocks at them, and even hit one of them with a small rock, but all he did was flap his wings a few times and went back to eating. lol! I have a full auto BB gun that I plan to take tomorrow. It doesn't have enough power to really hurt them, (and I really don't want to) but I hope it will scare them off. If not I will have to go to plan b. I know they can't stay. I might not care so much, if it wasn't for all the goose crap, but there in no way I want that everywhere.
I have found a shotgun with the shot laid out a few feet in front of them gets the message across.
Some of the geese that are used to being around people in places where they can't run them off such as city park lakes have lost all fear of humans. I reinstill their native good sense.
So far the geese have left my pond alone. I hope they never find it. I always thought the trees surrounding it kept them away, as theres not a long stretch for flying in and out. I thought you had trees around your pond also Bob. I did have 200 wood ducks on it about a year and a half ago. The amount of crap they left around was amazing. Just coated the dock. Good luck getting rid of them Bob. Hey, did you get some of this last rain? Weve had 6 in St Louis already this year. Of course, just half that up at the farm.
That's what a friend of mine uses for keeping them off of golf course ponds etc. He has a side business doing this. He is also a dog trainer so he was using his labs to chase them off some times, but the only best way is to use paint ball etc.. and harass them early morning or evening especially when they want to rest. Eventually if you keep on them for several days they will seek out a new resting place. Once they hatch a brood you are out of luck. You would have to kill the babies after that time.
I had a pair that was bound and determined to have a nest on a tiny 6'x12' island in the middle of my old refurbished pond. I finally raised the dam and overflow level so island turned into an underwater hump. Problem solved. One reason I'll never have another island in a pond.
We have a pair that nest on our island and then immediately take the babies elsewhere. They chase the rest of the geese off during their stay. As a follow-up to the curly-leaf pondweed post, I have this coming up thick in my two shallow 3'-4' duck ponds (which have very clear water right now), but cannot see it in the SMB/YP pond where it was previously pretty thick.
I have my fair share of guns (and then some) but not one paint ball gun. lol! There may be one in my future. lol! Maybe I'll go ahead and take a shotgun with me and try that if the machine gun BB gun don't work. What size should I take 410,20 or 12 gauge? lol! If they would go down to my old silted in pond and stay there, I'd leave them alone.
Jeff, I've got about 7" of rain since the first of the year, but that is over 14 rain events. None of them have been over about 1.25" at one time. So still no gully washers for me. The pond is up about 20" since the first of the year. In the past week I've had 3 rains totaling about 2.3". The last one was Wed. night and was only .60", but the ground was already so wet on top and frozen deeper down, that the pond came up 5". I finally had a little water trickling out of the sediment pond yesterday, and still was so I'm hoping it might of came up a little more. In the last week it has came up about 12", but I really didn't have any rain to speak of the 3 weeks before that so it had dropped a few inches. It's probably almost 11' deep now.
Well I didn't see any geese today when I went over, but a GBH flew off when I pulled up, and 2 ducks flew off from the sediment pond when I walked back to it. I just can't win. lol!
I watched a green heron nearly drop a fingerling BG into another pond. It ended up back in the same pond but had his flight started 30 feet further east, it would have ended up in my nearby sediment pond.
All I have is FHM for them to eat right now, I'm not sure if those are big enough their trouble? I do hope to start stocking soon. I hope the GBH isn't trying to stock it for me. lol! I got my first bag of Optimal yesterday to fatten up the FHM and get new stockers off to a good start. I hope I'm not just fattening them up for the GBH. lol!
Actually Thursday, but we got our big puddle electroshocked. The goals for this one was a little different than in the past, with RW's, numbers, etc. not important. This one was all about removing male LMB just prior to any possible spawn. We timed it perfectly, as very few of the females had moved shallow yet.
We took out 124.5#'s of hand verified males, with some being close to 3#'s. We did throw one male back that was 3+. It's a tough cull here in Hooterville.
The fun part of culling male LMB for me will come in a few weeks. I've got 6 brush piles placed on historical LMB spawning flats, and it's easy to pull the males out once they're guarding the nests. I just fan cast from the bank while paying close attention to the path of the ned rig I'm throwing. When I get a tick, I know where the male's are protecting the nest because they won't leave the nest to protect it. I just follow up that cast with a wacky worm thrown directly to where I got the tick. They almost always attack a bait dropping into the nest.
All the nests are within 3-5' of the brush piles, and I've seen them reload over the LMB spawning season. Good times.
Al, got to ask. What method did you us to determine males? Squeeze test looking for spurt of fluid, catheter, or sight? I have not fished in awhile but earlier in the yr I was questionable when determining males by sight and up until then I was sure I could tell the difference.
Tracy, no catheter, but yes on the sight and squeeze test. For us, I don't think any visual by itself would have been as accurate a few weeks ago, or a few weeks from now. I was just lucky that the scheduled date, water temps, and weather hit us just right. This was our 4th or 5th shocking, and we've never done it prior to any spawning. We've always had LMB in various stages of the spawn. I would think we'll be where you SE TX/LA guys are in a few weeks.
I did tell Todd's guys exactly what I wanted shocked up before they got started though. It's worth noting I struck out on 10" female CNBG for breeders, <>2# bull CNBG, or possible double digit LMB.
There were a handful of smaller 10-12" LMB that could have been females, but we gave them a quick look, and they were coming out anyway. I was extremely surprised that there were no more than that. What did concern me was that the CNBG that were spit up in the boat tank were all around 2". Just my WAG, but few small LMB, and only undersized regurgitated forage makes me think the bottom of my food chain is still weak, and the larger LMB are cannibalizing their own. Few of the LMB we took out would have hit 100% RW, so I've still got a ways to go.
Even with the condition of the LMB, I still think this might have been the most productive shocking we've ever had, and I'm looking forward to the next month or two. Every male I can pull off a bed is a small victory for the pond and my wallet.
The geese came back today, so did the GBH. The GBH took off as soon as he saw me. I ran back home and got the machine gun BB gun, and that did the trick with the geese. It took 150 or so rounds but they took off. I will take it with me for a while to make sure they stay gone.
Al, when talking weak in the bottom of the food chain, I am thinking most all of us who have bg/lmb ponds(lake in your case) will be what we think of being weak in the two to four inch sized forage is due to the time of year. We are just now coming out of winter where the lmb feed on the bg during the winter and without bg production during the winter that would weaken the forage numbers I would think. My last eshock was done in the month of March and showed to have low numbers in the 2 to 3" bg. But the lmb were for the most part all in the 100 to 120% range. And I know I had a lot of the larger sized bg in the pond at the time.
So here is a question. Bare with me, I have three feeders where I see at least 50 cnbg sized in the 8 to 10" range. These are really nice bg. How many fry will be produced per spawn by these 150 large sized cnbg? And how many will make it the 3 to 4" range? And what about the other bg in the 7" size? They will spawn also? I am hoping these bg will produce my forage and will get my weak back up soon. thoughts?
Tracy, I agree with all that. I just need to get the LMB/CNBG ratio to a sustainable number, whatever that is. I would really like for tilapia and winter rbt to be a treat, and not a necessity.
I'm sure no help on the numbers with BG. Now I'm thinking all the coontail I did have protected the fry, but it made the actual spawning more difficult for them. I never saw the numbers of beds that I had seen in the past. The coontail's pretty much controlled now, so this year could be interesting. I'm getting really, really tired of spending all my pond time spraying weeds, and fishing with small baits to cull LMB all the time.
Bobbss, which Optimal blend are you using for forage feed??
Snipe, I bought the Starter Feed #4. I called Optimal and told the guy that I had FHM in now and was hoping to start stocking my other fish anytime now and that I may try to stock slightly larger stockers. He said the #4 is no longer slow sinking and is full float now. He said the #4 was probably best for now and then move to the Junior. I wanted to feed the FHM, but also be ready for new stockers. My FHM aren't eating much yet, but they are eating some so I'm feeding a little. I have a few pounds of cheep stuff left from last year that I'm mixing with some of the new to help get them use to the new.
I finally got off my butt today and built the dock I've been thinking about for the last year and a half. Nothing fancy, but it'll get that cinder block I've been using to keep my paddle wheel pontoon tied off out of my lawnmower's way. [img]https://photos.app.goo.gl/GSGEPpnDY1ZQrkUr5[/img]
I finally got off my butt today and built the dock I've been thinking about for the last year and a half. Nothing fancy, but it'll get that cinder block I've been using to keep my paddle wheel pontoon tied off out of my lawnmower's way. [img]https://photos.app.goo.gl/GSGEPpnDY1ZQrkUr5[/img]
Sunday I mounted my solar maintainer/charger for the trolling motor battery, today I put a swivel seat on the minitoon and took it for a quick spin. Lots of turtles out sunning, the air is so thick with the songs of the peepers, you can almost touch the sound. Feeling pretty blessed here in Missouri while praying for so many North of me affected by the devastating floods.
I finally got off my butt today and built the dock I've been thinking about for the last year and a half. Nothing fancy, but it'll get that cinder block I've been using to keep my paddle wheel pontoon tied off out of my lawnmower's way. [img]https://photos.app.goo.gl/GSGEPpnDY1ZQrkUr5[/img]
Very nice dock and pontoon.
Thanks. The 'toon is a Michigan transplant we inherited from my in-laws. They're pretty common up there. The dock makes getting off the pontoon soooooo much easier!!
I transplanted a couple of young palmetto plants I found on my property today. They aught to dress up the dock nicely when they get bigger. You can kinda see them on the shoreline corners.
Had grandkids at the farm for the last two days. Caught a lot of YP on Sunday, and lots of HBG on Monday. No change in anything, time of day, bait, depth, etc.. Also saw the tadpoles come to life. No YP ribbons yet. We have green slime algae on the bottom and in the weeds that grew up last summer during the drought. Not liking that too much. Also when netting some tadpoles for my granddaughter I did catch one glass shrimp. Hopefully they will multiply in the weeds, moss, and leaves that are just beneath the surface, almost all the way around the pond.
Overton's Fisheries came out this past Thursday and did an electro-survey. My worst fears were confirmed. The otters and water-turkey birds have eaten about 70% of my fish. Have not seen the report yet, but looking like a near start-over.
On a better note the trail-game my wife game me for Christmas finally got mounted and immediately started showing some animals. First night a raccoon was eating corn all night. Yesterday late afternoon the wild hogs showed up. Pretty neat to be able to watch this from my phone at work in Dallas.
Sorry to hear bout the otters and cormorants Zep they are murder on fish ... otters are worse I think. How deep is your pond? Shocking only goes about 6 right
Sorry to hear bout the otters and cormorants Zep they are murder on fish ... otters are worse I think. How deep is your pond? Shocking only goes about 6 right
Pat....at the deepest it's about 17 feet, but most of the deepest is 14 feet, and then of course most of the rest varies between 4-12 feet.
Yes Clint from Overton's said the shocking is mainly effective to about 6-7 feet...so hopefully maybe not as bad as I think....but fishing has been bad for last few months, but it is winter....I dunno
Somebody told me last week two otters can eat at least 15 lbs of fish per week.
The otters may have been in there a few months before we trapped them, then the water turkey arrived.
So now I wonder whether the reflective tape worked since the water-turkey are mainly gone...or heck are they gone because all the fish are gone?
It's a bummer for sure, but as I learn to say as I get older: "it is...what it is"
Pat just curious....I realize it would be kind of far-fetched....but if you had an electro-survey being done and there was a beaver or otter in the pond swimming under-water near the boat would it shock them the same way and make them float to top?
Saw four X$@! cormorants, four geese, one GBH, and one bald eagle. Cormorants let us drive within 20 yards, but when we opened the car doors they flew off.
Frogs singing & chuckling, weeds and algae are growing faster than I anticipated. TP will be needed pretty soon, I think.
Replenished fish food. Funny reaction when testing feeders, though. Not much happens for a couple of minutes, then slow but steady feeding goes on for over an hour. Fish hit it all over as feed drifts in the wind, kinda neat to see it, but obviously BG aren't fully tuned in yet.
Zep, I hate if for you but the otters and cormorants did not get all your fish. But, you will need to take action against them. Believe me, I know. It's a never ending battle at my place when it comes to Otters, beavers and cormorants. Hire a trapper if you can't be there. Or set enough traps and check them on the week ends. You are supposed to run traps daily but a man has to do what a man has to do! I keep traps out year round, it's the only way I can keep them out. Yesterday I caught about a dozen cnbg and 3 of them had fresh wounds from cormorants. The battle is ongoing.
And Frank, my cnbg are very active right now, but if I run a test with my TH feeder and it's not at the regular feeding time there will be little action, and if it's a blue bird day it may not be eaten at all.
Tracy, My cnbg are feeding just like yours. Makes me question... do they cruise the pond for food all day? Do they stay in schools? I can't imagine all my thousands of cnbg are all sitting under my 30 ft. pontoon dock all day waiting for the feeder to go off in the AM and PM. but....I rarely catch any in other areas of the pond!! Also, I know I have some big lmb but unlike others ponds I have visited I never see a bass hit on the shoreline. When first stocked and they got about 12 inch long I would see them and actually had one run itself on dry land chasing bait!! But now rarely show any signs of them feeding. They are big so I assume they are just feeding deeper and can't be seen.
Flame, like you I have a floating pier and there are always bg near or around or under the pier but I am pretty sure they will seek deeper water when its blue bird day. the feeders concentrate them at lest during feeding times. I am now feeding Purina MVP where different sizes and weights of the feed comes into play. About 50% of that feed sinks and I see the largest cnbg all most never feed on top but feed on the sinking feed targeted about two feet below surface. I am pretty sure the larger lmb do the same and feed a few feet below the surface. But I have to say we are both lmb fisherman and have caught many a lmb on the surface. So are you seeing any lmb reproduction with all your cnbg? For me I had to add additional lmb to the pond to get a spawn. If you don't see any lmb feeding then maybe you might need to add some lmb to the mix to get back to balance or over time you may not have any lmb in the pond. The lmb you pictured awhile back was an outstanding fish and reminded me of what a trophy lmb pond might look like.
I was feeding my fish last year by hand. When I drove over the damn the fish would start hitting the surface of the water, with no feed put out. When I parked where I feed them they would be a lot of fish hitting the surface. One day my brother and I took his truck to feed. No fish hit the surface till I started walking on the dock and the fish were very slow to start eating. Maybe 2 to 3 min. before the water started to boil. My point is if they can tell a diesel truck from a gas truck driving over a damn they can hear you walking up to your pond from where ever they are in a small pond and be waiting for you to feed. We repeated this a couple times and it was the same results.
I usually have a gang sitting at the ready waiting on me every afternoon. But when I ring their dinner bell (pipe drove in the ground) you see wakes coming from across the pond as they race to get there.
Sorry to hear bout the otters and cormorants Zep they are murder on fish ... otters are worse I think. How deep is your pond? Shocking only goes about 6 right
Pat....at the deepest it's about 17 feet, but most of the deepest is 14 feet, and then of course most of the rest varies between 4-12 feet.
Yes Clint from Overton's said the shocking is mainly effective to about 6-7 feet...so hopefully maybe not as bad as I think....but fishing has been bad for last few months, but it is winter....I dunno
Somebody told me last week two otters can eat at least 15 lbs of fish per week.
The otters may have been in there a few months before we trapped them, then the water turkey arrived.
So now I wonder whether the reflective tape worked since the water-turkey are mainly gone...or heck are they gone because all the fish are gone?
It's a bummer for sure, but as I learn to say as I get older: "it is...what it is"
Zep it may not be as bad as you think with your water depth being what it is .....as spooky as as otters are they probably wouldnt be close to the boat lets hope that your fish were in deeper water during the shocking
I walked the shoreline yesterday looking for bedding fish. The lmb continue to move up into the shallows. Males are guarding their nest. One thing I have noticed is most of these males are in the 14 to 15" range. They look larger when I see them with polarized sun glasses. I remove the sun glasses and if I can see them they look smaller without the sun glasses on. A lot of these bass I can not see with out the sun glasses on. I also saw the Osprey again yesterday. It's been awhile since I have seen him so I thought he had left. He was setting in a tree top near the pond. I am not all that crazy about him hanging out because I have seen fly off with some nice sized cnbg in his claws. But hay, it's just another fish eater that hangs out at the pond. I guess I am blessed to see all the nature that hangs around the pond.
In my opinion Tracy with or without the glasses they always look smaller in the water than what they actually are. If it looks like a 2 pounder it is probably closer to 3. A 3 or 3 1/2 will be darn near 5 when you actually weigh her. Or maybe I have just always sucked at judging fish when sight fishing. Either way in a tournament if it looks like a 2 pounder...I'm going for it because it is probably at least 3. Just my observation. In my pond I still only have 12 inch visibility so probably don't even have to worry about that problem!! One plus to that is the gbh has a hard time seeing my fish on the banks!!
Zep, I hate if for you but the otters and cormorants did not get all your fish. But, you will need to take action against them. Believe me, I know. It's a never ending battle at my place when it comes to Otters, beavers and cormorants. Hire a trapper if you can't be there. Or set enough traps and check them on the week ends. You are supposed to run traps daily but a man has to do what a man has to do! I keep traps out year round, it's the only way I can keep them out. Yesterday I caught about a dozen cnbg and 3 of them had fresh wounds from cormorants. The battle is ongoing.
And Frank, my cnbg are very active right now, but if I run a test with my TH feeder and it's not at the regular feeding time there will be little action, and if it's a blue bird day it may not be eaten at all.
Tracy, I see only a few CNBG at the feeders. LMB tend to dominate there, along with an occasional HSB.
Part of the problem are the cormorants, I'm sure. Scary for CNBG to come up near surface.
Speaking of predators, I figure if the koi I put in the older pond make the water muddy, then the GBH and otters cannot see to fish. Those 5 koi sure did muddy up the forage pond last year when I was growing them big enough to escape LMB predation. I saw all 5 of them a couple of times this week, still growing. I'd rather have muddy water than predators and FA.
Two large fat female LMB caught today, around 5 lb each. Also culled 12 that were too small/skinny. Since 1 Oct 18, removed 134 LMB.
Still not seeing CNBG around feeders, nor catching them in shallower water. Water is very clear, at least 5 feet viz. Water temps around 60 to 62 max in afternoon, not enough for CNBG spawning thus far.
I was walking out to the pond this morning, coffee in hand, when I saw the reflection of a bird overhead. I couldn't find it when I looked up at first, then got my eye on him sitting on an oak branch. A big beautiful drake wood duck.
Fished some today- used a dark minnow pattern on a 4wt fly rod, landed a 4lb 10oz LM that was 20" and a fat little 11.5" that was almost 15oz. That one got tagged. Also got a mess of blue gill. Color on the bg are very pale from the stained water, but most fish look healthy. Feeding is starting, still a bit slow, but nice to see.
Just caught this BG by accident while trying to catch a shiner. Snagged it in the chest.
I'm trying to get better at sexing these fish to better manage my harvesting plan of removing all females and returning every Male over 5".
I am posting two pics. 1st is my fish. Second is a comparison chart I found on line. The chart shows males on the left, ladies on the right. Part of me says male, part say female. I'm going with female.
Mike - I think your pictured BG is a male and is currently lacking the intense spawning colors. Your pictured BG has a darkish gular(throat) area and an ear tab that resembles that of many male BG. Similar sized female BG from your pond should currently have a noticeably lighter gular area. Similar sized male BG in your pond should develop darker colors in about a month pre to post spawn. The gular area will darken and female gular area should be lighter hues and likely more toward yellow. BG body features can vary quite a bit in different areas of the country and depending on the genetic strain of BG. Note some of the variation in the comparison chart.
Your picture would be somewhat better for sex identification if it was taken more straight from the side of the fish to better show shape of the ear tab (opercular flap). The pictures in the comparison chart were taken by me for the article Growing Behemoth Bluegills In Small Ponds Parts 1,2,3 by Cody, Condello and Baird; Pond Boss Magazine 2006.
You see! My initial thought was Male, because of the color, but the narrowness of the ear tab made me second guess. Yall did fine work with that comparative article. I was using it, and will continue to, to help me in the future.
So from now till fall, I should expect females to be a lighter color, short rounded opercule, while males will be typically darker and more vibrant, the opercule will be longer, but not necessarily wider or squared off, like this one was...yes?
I'm in the process of moving my feeding times at the pond. It's easy to do with the TH feeders but I don't have a feeder that will throw the Aquamax lmb feed. So I hand feed the HSB and the Northern feed trained LMB. While I am going through this process I sat on the pier and watched the feeders go off. I saw TFS show up and was happy to see that. I made another year with my TFS survival. These TFS were in the 1 1/2" to 2" sized fish and there were two schools of 50 or so. I was also pleased to see some inch and a half to 3" cnbg along the shoreline near one of the feeders and the pier. And as I sat there I wondered when were these small cnbg spawned? Can't be that long ago if I am seeing 1 to 2" cnbg. I was also pleased to see all sizes of cnbg.
Hey QA, I've been watching swarms of 1" BG all winter. They had to be a late hatch and the cooler temps just slowed down their growth. That's the only logic I can assign to it. I've got GSF on bed, but have yet to see any BG try to start, tho these bright days sure to bring them to the shallows.
Had a pleasant surprise... my son in law did the google maps thing on the pond since they finally updated (from 2014!) and my pond isnt 5 acres but 6.1! Nice
I need to look at Google maps again! I still think my pond is bigger than .10!
I took some readings on the pond this morning. Surface temp is 70* and bottom temp at 10' is 64*. I'm happy to see that there's still a tight variance in temps. Ph measures 7.2, Alk 40ppm, and surprisingly, my hardness has increased to 40ppm as well. REALLY happy to see that!!
Gonna check the Ph again this evening to see how big the swing is.
Went fishing for BCP after hearing that they had moved up to shallow, they were in 3 water and the males are black black. Ugh getting cold again so guess that will probably mess up the spawn
This part of the country is subject to wild temperature swings in March and early April. Seems spawns get messed up more often than not, but they still manage to happen.
CNBG have finally moved in shallow water the last couple of days, but I expect them to back off during the next few cold snap days. Female LMB are absolutely bursting with eggs & look very healthy.
Last fall our biggest LMB was 3.9 lb. So far this year we've caught numerous 4 to 5 lb fish, good growth. Almost all 14 plus inch LMB are very heavy for their length & look healthy.
Since Oct 2018 I've harvested 171 LMB < 14 inches. Still have at least 80 more to go.
Put in 3 CNBG to forage pond, need 3 or 4 more to ensure both sexes are there. Plan on adding TFS, TP to main BOW in a couple of weeks.
We had 60's to low 70s for 5 days, and then it was 25 this morning with heavy frost, as fruit trees are blooming. Supposed to be same low tonight, but I won't be surprised if it's even colder.
Went fishing for BCP after hearing that they had moved up to shallow, they were in 3 water and the males are black black. Ugh getting cold again so guess that will probably mess up the spawn
Pat, I've found when this happens, move out to the first visible drop, somewhere in the 9-12' range. They "want" to move shallow but when weather turns them out I've found BIG crappie many times set on that hip of the secondary drop.
Yesterday, I found a goose nest. I have been running this pair off for 7 years now... I am tired, they can raise the damn goslings. Besides, I found a (deleted for the PG forum) otter. Then I found out the sight on my rifle has been bumped at some point. So, tonight, get the .22 sighted in again, and have a nice sit by the pond, looking for some really cute, really destructive water mammals.
After seeing all the threads on destructive critters at the ponds, I feel very lucky so far not to have to worry with anything more than the occasional Blue and Green Herons. There are Canada Geese in the area, but I never see them at my pond and I think I am too far from a constant running creek or stream to fret the otters too, much.
You watch, now that I have bragged on my luck, I'll be singing the blues with the best of them.
Would love to try tilapia. Main issue is the legality in Missouri. Big no no here. Also, with 4 acres, the cost would be out of my budget for any meaningful control.
QA, I am not close to a permanent running creek either. I surely hope you never have to mess with the otter. I don't know what they have done to my fish population, I hope not to much damage. Rifle is close to zero, fine tuning tomorrow as I ran out of light tonight. I may have to overcome my fear of body traps. I really like my fingers, fishing would be tough with them all broken.
Would love to try tilapia. Main issue is the legality in Missouri. Big no no here. Also, with 4 acres, the cost would be out of my budget for any meaningful control.
I understand budget constraints only too well. But why in the world would Missouri ban tilapia while Texas allows them? No way they could survive a Missouri winter!
QA, I am not close to a permanent running creek either. I surely hope you never have to mess with the otter. I don't know what they have done to my fish population, I hope not to much damage. Rifle is close to zero, fine tuning tomorrow as I ran out of light tonight. I may have to overcome my fear of body traps. I really like my fingers, fishing would be tough with them all broken.
Over the past 4 yrs I have had to deal with River Otters. I have lost count on how many I have trapped out of the pond at different times. If you see one then look for 4. They seem to run in groups of 4 and may take a couple of weeks to trap the 4 out. For me I have never had an opportunity to shoot an Otter and I most always have a shotgun or riffle with me. I can set till dark or set for a long morning and I have only seen one and then I saw it for just a second before it dove under the water. And don't worry about your fingers when using a Conibar 330 trap. You need to worry about a broken arm or leg. No need to be scared of the trap but need to respect it and watch where you have your feet placed so no slip and fall into the trap.
I will take a goose anytime over a cormorant. I had 15 at the pond around noon yesterday. I am in the process of discouraging their return.
Tracy I too need to learn how to set a Conibar 330....and I have trouble putting gas in my SUV....so it might take me awhile to learn....but the devastation the otters did this year has me motivated to learn. I think my trapper will be nice enough to give me a lesson or two.
Here is one of them that ate all my fish....son-of-gun needs to head to Long John Silvers next time!
Zep, it's not hard to learn on how and where to set the traps. Brian (Highflyer) taught me. At the time I never realized I would have to keep traps running year round. And how much that info would come into play at my place. When you buy your 330 traps be sure to buy the piece that helps to set the trap. Can't recall what the piece is called but it is shaped like a large pair of scissors with out the cutting edge. A cheater so to speak. Another thing is I always add some brush or limbs that might detour a horse, deer, cow or dog from taking the path to the trap. Something that and otter can go under without restriction but might stop a larger animal from taking the same path. I am not sure it really works but makes me feel a little better and I have not trapped any larger animals yet with this method.
So, while at the pond yesterday, I ran off Cormorants and I killed my first snake. I suspect it was a water snake but not sure because It change color from the first time I saw it. First time it looked like a copperhead might but the second time I saw it was almost black as it was sunning itself. For me, snakes at the pond are like Otters and Cormorants, I hate em!
That's it. I use it to compress the springs, then once they're latched, I move it to the actual trap part. It's nice having a locked trap set while I'm getting everything ready.
Placed 50 lb of fertilizer in pond today. That's on the heavy side for my size BOW, but I've learned that even after liming, it takes a lot to get a decent bloom.
Also added 2 male CNBG in forage pond after previously depositing 3 females. Hopefully they'll spawn successfully in a couple of weeks.
No cormorants seen today! Still have GBH and a couple of geese, but they are far better than cormorants.
Tracy....I grew up in Texas and was a Boy Scout on a lot of camp-outs and summer camps, did a lot of camping with my older brother, been fishing and around lakes and in the woods all my life and I have never seen a rattle snake in the wild. Seen lots of copperheads and cottonmouth...but never a live rattlesnake. Also have never seen a coral snake in Texas.
That's it. I use it to compress the springs, then once they're latched, I move it to the actual trap part. It's nice having a locked trap set while I'm getting everything ready.
Al do you think a live trap like a HavaHart could work on an otter?
One fear with a live trap is with my luck a skunk would get in the trap.
Not sure what you do when a skunk is in a live trap.
Down here we have lots of copperheads, sometimes see several within a few minutes on the trails at East End Park in Kingwood. Also water moccasins. If you spend a lot of time in the woods you'll spot a coral snake. They like to hang out under the pine needles and leaves. Neighbors have been bitten by timber rattlers here, I have yet to see one.
So far I was bit once by a western diamondback near Austin and a Water Moccasin near the San Jacinto river. Both were in tall grass.
I'd like to avoid being bit again.
Having said that I generally tolerate snakes as long as they are not around the house. I've haven't killed any yet. I'm also careful to identify them before bothering them. Hognose snakes and water snakes look scary but really aren't.
The water mocassin was nothing at first. I was running in tall grass near a creek and it felt like my foot had hooked over a garden hose. I shook it off and forgot about it. It bit me on the calf. A few hours later my dog bumped my leg and OUCH! It was a big egg on my leg that hurt like the Dickens. Then blood started pooling in my foot and up my leg. I took a benadryl. It was better in a few days. Took a few weeks for the bruising to clear up. Copperheads and water moccasins are really not bad. The vet tells me if the dog gets bit, just give her a benadryl.
The rattlesnake was different. It felt like a sledgehammer when it struck. It hit my ankle. Swelled up my leg and made me sick. Three days later a broken fang worked its way out of my skin. Took a few years for the scars from the fangs to fade. I did not get treated.
wow Vortex you are a trooper....I think I'd freak if either one bit me
i have these boots from Bass Pro that I tend to roam around in during snake months...
they are not actually snake boots, but I think the fangs would not hit my skin in most cases...because there is some empty space between boot wall and my skin
interesting where your bites occurred...i think my boots would be effective in those areas of the leg
coral snakes bites are probably even lower on the leg since they are usually small
I've heard if you get bit in the neck...it could be all she wrote
Statistically, about 48,000 people a year bitten in the United States. Of these, about 8,000 are from poisonous snakes and an average of 10 people a year die because they are cared for improperly.
Worldwide, about 40% of the time people are bitten by poisonous snakes no venom passes.
85% of the time only enough venom passes to make the victim sick.
15% require critical care in the acute phase of the poisoning
In the Florida series, about 10 people per year were bitten by a cottonmouth while reaching over the side of a boat to pull up a string of fish. Cottonmouths inflict most of their bite under the water, on top of the water, or near the water.
The height of snake season is between April and October, peaking between July and August.
Snakes are generally less active at temperatures less than 50-60 degrees, or greater than 80 degrees.
70-77% of all bites occur between 9:00 AM and 9:00 PM, peaking between 3:00 PM and 6:00 PM.
Anatomically 60% of all bites occur to the lower extremity 38% to the upper extremity, and 2% to unidentified sites.
The cardinal signs and symptoms of pit viper envenomation include: burning pain (the commonest, earliest sign), puncture wound (50% of the time accompanied by a bloody ooze), swelling, skin discoloration, nausea and vomiting, minty, metallic, rubbery taste in the mouth, sweating, chills, numbness and tingling of the mouth, face, scalp, and wound site, ecchymosis and production of blebs and blisters, erythema and edema progressing from the wound site, weakness, vertigo, haematemesis epistaxis, muscle fasiculations, paralysis, shock, convulsions, loss of sphincter control, melena haematuria, and renal shutdown. Envenomation may include some or all of these symptoms, depending on the severity of envenomation.
Death can occur up to several days following the bite, or in as little as two hours.
In pit viper envenomation the average death occurs in two days.
If the bite is inflicted in an artery, vein, lymphatics, or a nerve, death will occur in 30 seconds to 10 minutes.
If the victim does not die within the first 10 to 30 minutes, you have excess of 12 hours to get to proper medical help; in most cases, severe complications or death will not occur if proper medical protocol is followed.
Maynard recommends the following:
A. Do not apply a tourniquet ! B. Do not cut and suck ! C. Do not apply ice !
That's it. I use it to compress the springs, then once they're latched, I move it to the actual trap part. It's nice having a locked trap set while I'm getting everything ready.
Al do you think a live trap like a HavaHart could work on an otter?
One fear with a live trap is with my luck a skunk would get in the trap.
Not sure what you do when a skunk is in a live trap.
Mark, luckily I don't have any experience with otters. I have several sizes and brands of the live traps, but I've never caught a skunk either. Opossums are the easiest critters I've trapped with live traps. The last 2 were asleep in the cage when I got to them the next morning.
A friend of mine has caught skunks in the live traps a few times and has found that if you approach the "skunk in trap" with a tarp that hides your body from the skunk and then cover and wrap the trap with the tarp that the skunk will not spray while concealed in the tarp. The tarp may also save you from a direct hit in case it does spray.
It may just be a matter of your standing with the higher power, but...
All I ask is that you post a video should you try this!
During the first couple weeks following the Sabine River Flood of record in March '16, I killed 13 water moccasins and 2 copper heads ranging from 12-26 inches. I dont typically kill a snake unless it's around the house, but in these cases, they were all around where we were living at the time of the flood. A water snake would typically get a pass, but in the pond, they tend to prey on my few bullfrogs, so they have to go.
FYI...a coral snake doesnt have fangs like a pit viper, and a very small mouth. They secrete venom as they chew. They have to get you either on the finger/toe or on the webbing between them. A neighbor kid many years ago was trying to stupidly catch crawfish by putting his finger down a stack and came out with a coral latched on his finger. Ended up losing two of them. We see a lot of king snakes here that look like corals but you have to remember the old adage....red touches black,friend of Jack (king/corn snake), red touches yellow, kill a fellow (coral snake).
On another note, we got 2.5 inches of rain since last night. That puts my YTD total to 12 inches even. The pond is overflowing into the drain pipe. My color was starting to turn kind of greenish brown, which I think indicates my plankton bloom was starting to die off a bit. Its back to being deep olive green now. Took a few readings to see what all this fresh water did. Surface temp is 70*f (air temp 75), couldn't get a bottom temp because I broke my pool thermometer when I tossed it out. PH measures 7.0. My Alk is still pretty low (20ppm) and hardness is immeasurable again.
Looks like I'm going after another 500# of Ag Lime soon. Shouldn't affect anything spawn wise...should it?
What Quarter Acre has suggested about releasing a live trapped skunk is correct. I've used the following technique over the years to release 20 or more perfume kitties. I've also let friends borrow my live trap and explained the release technique well enough to them that they've successfully followed it. It works for raccoons and foxes, and even rock squirrels.
I approach the trap with skunk with an old blanket hanging in front of me, shielding my image from trapped animal. I drape the blanket over the trap, pick up the trap by grasping the carrying handle through the blanket, and pack the works to my pickup.
At the release site, I place the covered trap on the ground. For extra security, I like to chose a spot alongside a log, large rock, tree or stump, etc. I ease the blanket back from the door end of the trap enough so that I can unlock and raise the door. I have a small diameter wooden dowel which I slide through the wire sides of the trap, holding the door open, then back away several feet or more. The animal nearly always takes part of a minute to realize the now open door means freedom. It then bolts out in the case of a 'coon, or ambles out in the case of a skunk.
In the couple of occasions when a skunk exited the trap immediately, while I was still squatting and positioning the wooden dowel, the animal seemed to pay me no mind and simply wander away, tail at only half mast, to fully erect.
I agree, this would make a good YouTube video. Have fun with it. Once you try it a couple of times, it won't seem scary at all.
In my younger years I was an avid quail hunter for many years and have had many a Pointer sprayed. I have tried many different concoctions to clean up the dogs and never found anything that really worked to remove the strong skunk odor. And Zep, we have the Diamond back and the Timber Rattler, I don't care for either one. The timber can grow very large when compared to other poisonous snakes around here. And if you want to see a rattler in the wild then travel to the east side of the Caprock on I-20 near Big Springs and Lamesa. When on top of the Caprock take any blacktop rd off of I-20 in the evening just before dark. The snakes will gather on the rd for warmth. Lots and Lots of them Or make the Rattlesnake roundup in Sweetwater.
Now for me I don't want snakes at the pond. I will let the Kingsnake and some others slide on by but if it is in or on or beside the pond, a watersnake of anytype that is a different story. I have kids at the pond and dogs and ME so No snakes are allowed.
My dog got sprayed a few years ago. I googled it (of course) and read about a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and a couple of other things. Dawn dish soap, and maybe baking soda. I put it to him twice, and it really worked. I had a coon in my trap yesterday. I have the trap by the feeder, on the bank of the pond. When the coon gets trapped they generally rock the trap down into the pond.
Emergent and shoreline plants are starting to show up from wherever they come from. Some I started with plantings last year (bull rush, pickerelweed and water iris). I have a couple of new kinds of rush and some pickerelweed coming up in the lawn. I dug them up and relocated them to places along the shore or in shallow water. My water iris' are popping impressive blooms.
Down here we have lots of copperheads, sometimes see several within a few minutes on the trails at East End Park in Kingwood. Also water moccasins. If you spend a lot of time in the woods you'll spot a coral snake. They like to hang out under the pine needles and leaves. Neighbors have been bitten by timber rattlers here, I have yet to see one.
So far I was bit once by a western diamondback near Austin and a Water Moccasin near the San Jacinto river. Both were in tall grass.
I'd like to avoid being bit again.
Having said that I generally tolerate snakes as long as they are not around the house. I've haven't killed any yet. I'm also careful to identify them before bothering them. Hognose snakes and water snakes look scary but really aren't.
Hognose snakes are one of the coolest snakes, I think. When I was a kid,we always went snake hunting and the Hognose was my favorite and hard to find. They are a lot of fun, they play possum and act like a cobra. I heard they won't bite, and none of the ones I caught ever bit me. I even stuck my finger up to their mouth while it was open, and they would just pull their head back.
I used to be butt deep in snakes of all kinds, notably rattlers, but no longer. When the pigs moved in, snakes disappeared. I'd rather have the snakes.
I actually killed my first coral snake on my property last year and it was only about 20 ft. from my driveway at my house and 8 ft, from my walkway down to the pond!! I took the close look to see the red and yellow kill a fellow and that was all she wrote!! As a child back 50 years ago I purchased a Havahart livecatch trap for racoons. We had a family farm near Corpus Cristi Texas. I still have and use that trap today!! That is how good they were built back then!! I have several newer ones that work but not built near as well. I might have just been a dumb kid but I caught a few skunks in that trap and just walked slowly up and released them. I was always told a skunk cannot spray unless they can lift their tail to open the musk gland. The doors fall in on the trap and keep the skunk from raising his tail. I did learn one more thing...I decided to shoot one when it left the trap and found that they automatically release the musk as it relaxes and dies!! Won't make that mistake again. Part of our farm was a poultry egg farm and possums,skunks,racoons, all would eat eggs. Also in south Texas I have many tales of encounters with diamondback rattlesnakes!!
Emergent and shoreline plants are starting to show up from wherever they come from. Some I started with plantings last year (bull rush, pickerelweed and water iris). I have a couple of new kinds of rush and some pickerelweed coming up in the lawn. I dug them up and relocated them to places along the shore or in shallow water. My water iris' are popping impressive blooms.
We transplanted some wild Louisiana Iris last year and again this spring. Last year's plants have been flowering for nearly a month now and are putting on seed pods. So my Iris are going to be spreading. I still have a patch I can pull from to start in other locations.
The first plantings apparently had some alligator weed piggyback in the roots and I'm having to pull that out as I find it.
I also had some lanceleaf arrowhead start naturally last year and yesterday I counted 20 different plants around the pound several are blooming now so they'll be spreading seed as well.
Also had some widgeon grass start last fall and I'm finding it in several places around the edge.
I also have a lot of some kind of rush all around the pond. Some I leave, some I take the weed eater to.
It's really amazing how much vegetation has started to pop up after just 2.5 years. Hopefully, it'll all wedge out the FA soon and pretty things up. Luckily my little pond gets deep fast so it's all confined to the edges. Just hoping I can keep any unwanted stuff (milfoil, hydrila, cottontail, chara) from getting established.
I used to be butt deep in snakes of all kinds, notably rattlers, but no longer. When the pigs moved in, snakes disappeared. I'd rather have the snakes.
Pigs eat snakes. That's probably why they showed up to begin with.
I saw a 2 foot king snake (dark brown with gold rings about every 3 inches the length of it's body) yesterday and thought about removing it, but king snakes eat moccasins and copperheads so I may let it stay. However, they eat frogs too, and I'm seeing several bullfrogs lately, so I have a bit of a conundrum going.
Possums eat snakes too. Especially the venomous ones. They are immune to snake venom. And coral snakes, like the king snakes, eat other snakes.
Just started getting hog prints here. Prior property owner kept them controlled. So far they haven't caused any damage. We have a huge crop of acorns so they are fat and happy for the moment. I'm sure we'll here the pitter patter of cute little baby swine soon.
I'm not a night person, but I'm thinking there will be some nocturnal firearm discharges here this summer. I understand that is the best way to control these cuddly critters.
I guess I should say when we went snake hunting as kids , it was to play with them, not to kill them. I used to give all snakes around the house a pass, even copperheads Now I'm an old guy with a 7 year old daughter, so copperheads no longer get the pass,but the rest do. I really don't won't water snakes at the pond so they may not get a pass.
I guess I should say when we went snake hunting as kids , it was to play with them, not to kill them. I used to give all snakes around the house a pass, even copperheads Now I'm an old guy with a 7 year old daughter, so copperheads no longer get the pass,but the rest do. I really don't won't water snakes at the pond so they may not get a pass.
That's the way I've always been too. But since we built the pond and it's being managed as a food source, it's hard to not get them out....since they ain't gonna be feeding me. I realize they dont eat much, but I'd much rather eat frog legs over snake, tho rattlesnake does eat pretty good.
Dave set up a feeder close to the house and set it to go off after dark. Buy a motion activated kill lite on the bottom of the feeder and wait till the light comes on and see what is there.. I lay in bed and look up outside at feeder and if its something I want to take then I get up and pop it... but Im lazy
I guess I should say when we went snake hunting as kids , it was to play with them, not to kill them. I used to give all snakes around the house a pass, even copperheads Now I'm an old guy with a 7 year old daughter, so copperheads no longer get the pass,but the rest do. I really don't won't water snakes at the pond so they may not get a pass.
We had water (not moccasin) snakes at our place a couple of years ago. However, when the LMB got big, the snakes disappeared...
Today I stocked 50 4in HBG and 1#FHM in a 4yr old >.25ac tank/pond with "no" fish. It was cleaned out during the drought. In a another tank I added 200 2in BG, 20 2in RES and 3# 3-4in Shiners to a .5ac tank. The second tank was originally stocked 8yrs ago with only CC and BG but now has underweight LMB and some CC. It did not go dry during the bad drought. Yes, the 2nd may be a lost cause but I am not paying. Just having fun. Today we caught some clearly underweight 8-16in LMB and 4-6in BG that looked pretty decent. I did not see any small YOY or BG in near that range. There is a 5'x20' cattail stand recently established, some shallow grasses, FA and some what I believe to be American pond weed. That that is it for habitat. Zero hard structure. This tank had fish trying to eat fallen dove a few years ago. They are starving IMO. Maybe it can be improved. I know it needs some culling! In a 3rd tank I caught a UW 7in LMB on earthworm, cut it up for bait and caught a very UW 17in CC. Zero BG or FHM were observed. I also hooked 2 nice LMB but am blaming the borrowed equipment on hook set failure. This was my first attempt to try and help and assess these BOW.
Pat, I have a feeder about 100 yards from the house but I don't live there. I set up a hanging pipe feeder near the house a week ago with a game cam. Nothing but coons. 5 at a time with no hogs or deer. However, I did get a pic of the biggest coyote I've ever seen passing by.
It looks like the 5 koi I raised in the sediment pond last year, and then transferred to the old pond are spawning, despite being only about 12 inches. I wonder if any fry can survive in the presence of BG and LMB?
I learned something related to the pond fishing. So I'll pass this along. When your plastics (worms, lizards, crawfish etc) get wet in their zip lock bags after a rain. And they lose color or become dull looking to where you consider throwing them away, just remove them from the bag and place them in a throw away diapers or kids pull up disposable panties. This removes or absorbs the water but not the oils and returned them to their packaged colors. I never herd of this, it was just something I tried because I had some of those baby pull up panties in the truck. Dumped them in the diaper and I was surprised when I looked the next day. Looked like new baits.
And like you Frank, when my lmb grew to larger size I've seen fewer snakes in the pond.
Haha Pat I was pretty sure someone like you would ask. So, No not mine but another grandchild that hangs around the house on a regular basis. Those pull up panty diapers are everywhere including my truck because of possible stinky accidents she has on occasion. I saw the diaper and had those washed out worms tossed them in the diaper and it really worked and restored them back to new looking by the next morning. After some 40 yrs of fishing and these days I seem to leave a few bags of plastic worms in the boat. I have never seen anything that worked like the diapers so just thought I would pass it along.
No snakes at all last year. Yellow bellied water snake on a rock this weekend. Banded water snake swimming around today. The ecosystem is filling in the cracks.
Today I completed building my holding pen. Decided all that 1/2" pex tubing I had left over was going to get put to use. The pen is 4' in diameter and 3' deep. Had to buy some "T's", a bag of crimp rings, and a roll of 3/4" 3'x 25' plastic fencing. A few pieces of pool noodle that I also had on hand around the top.
Making a trip to Overton's this weekend to buy 50 RES and 50 CNBG. I plan to hold them in the pen for a couple days to keep and eye on them before turning them loose. Then the pen will be used to hold anything I catch until I have enough to clean. My BSFL should be coming on strong soon so I can feed those to anything in the pen.
I found 4 more large dead BG. That makes 12 in the past two weeks. I suspect it's from the 22 or so 3-4 year olds I put in the pond in December 2015 in order to get a rapid spawn the next spring. That would make them in excess of six, maybe seven years old now, and the stress of spawning maybe killed them. All appeared to be females, from what I could tell.
Northern native BG, about 7 to 8 inches. They came out of a crowded pond, and were already spawning prior to my transferring them. I estimate they were 3-4 year olds when I transferred them.
I also added 700lbs of ag lime and loaded up the Aquapro feeder.
How did you know to add the Ag lime? Simple ph test strip? Also, you are the man, hanging in there with AquaPro. I gave up. Im amazed at how far the TX feeder throws food, and how wide the pattern is. I got the leaves all mowed back from the bank. (After I replaced the leaking gas tank in my Craftsman lawn tractor..) I still have water going out the overflow pipe. Certainly the longest Ive ever been at full. We had a 1/2 rain a few days ago, but it must have come down awfully fast. Lots of runoff. Im hoping maybe my leak has self sealed. Ha! I might need to address FA. Im thinking a short tooth rake. I dont want to lose any glass shrimp though.
I also added 700lbs of ag lime and loaded up the Aquapro feeder.
How did you know to add the Ag lime? Simple ph test strip? Also, you are the man, hanging in there with AquaPro. I gave up. Im amazed at how far the TX feeder throws food, and how wide the pattern is. I got the leaves all mowed back from the bank. (After I replaced the leaking gas tank in my Craftsman lawn tractor..) I still have water going out the overflow pipe. Certainly the longest Ive ever been at full. We had a 1/2 rain a few days ago, but it must have come down awfully fast. Lots of runoff. Im hoping maybe my leak has self sealed. Ha! I might need to address FA. Im thinking a short tooth rake. I dont want to lose any glass shrimp though.
Then I sat down, and drank a cold beer.
My pond is solid clay. I add around 2 tons of lime per year and still have problems staying above 6 PH.
The Aquapro was a long drawn out battle of re-engineering... I do low voltage control for a living so it became a matter of pride.
Yesterday I noticed a sheen on the pond, and today half of the surface is covered in a fine light green powder. I'm hoping the last two days of cloudless sunshine has promoted a new pollen explosion. Regardless, I've started ramping up the aeration. Still need to pull the diffuser and clean it off, but the boil appears to be pretty strong.
On a side note, I started putting together a container garden. Ten 27 gallon totes filled with equal portions of garden and top soil. Drilled weap holes around the sides about 2 inches up from the bottom so there should always be damp soil at the bottom to promote root growth. Dont know if it'll be successful or not, but you never know till you try.
I did a rebuild on my two Kasco duel head aeration motors this past week. Started up the system and am getting little air to the 6 diffusers. So I started looking for the problem. I have approx. 1800' of air line not to include the weighted lines. While I was checking the 1 1/2" line I came across some water in the line, so I am checking on the connections in the air line and blowing out the water. At the connections, I can cup my hand over the tubing which builds some pressure and will then blow some water out. I got about a 3rd of the air line done. More to do today. Looking for leaks, blowing out the water and then will be checking the 200 yds of 1" pvc and the 6 valves that feed the weighted lines. I've never had to do all this over the past 3 yrs so after checking all this, if it does not improve the air, then I will look at my rebuild to see what I did wrong. Pain in the arse
[quote=Clay N' Pray] I also added 700lbs of ag lime and loaded up the Aquapro feeder.
How did you know to add the Ag lime? Simple ph test strip? Also, you are the man, hanging in there with AquaPro.
My pond is solid clay. I add around 2 tons of lime per year and still have problems staying above 6 PH.
The Aquapro was a long drawn out battle of re-engineering... I do low voltage control for a living so it became a matter of pride.
Did your Aquapro become fish habitat?
Its still down by the pond. Im sure it can be salvaged, and put back in to use. I just dont get to the pond often enough. Its frustrating to go back up after two weeks, and see the feed level hadnt changed. I hope to get something for it on Craigslist..
Ive never checked my water ph, or for anything else. Except temp. I guess ignorance is bliss.
I'm up to an hour on the aeration ramp up so I took the opportunity to pull the diffuser up and clean it off. I was amazed at just how lite the sludge on the membranes was. Just had to run my hand over each one a couple of times and they were back to being black again.
Also tried throwing the few BSFL I've accumulated. Sadly, there was very little response, but I havent fed anything this year till now. One thing I did find out, tho, is these little critters will float forever when still alive. Accidentally dropped a couple in the holding pen and they were still floating an hour later (the pen is empty).
Picked up 7 sacks of Optimal feed in Longview. Put new battery in Texas Hunter feeder on forage pond. Only half a dozen CNBG in there now, but should be a lot more in a month after they spawn.
CNBG, LMB, and even HSB went crazy at 7:15pm feeding. LMB and HSB particularly loved the great big Optimal Hand Throw feed, though I did see a few ambitious CNBG pecking away at it. Good for them! Only drawback is that the commotion attracted a GBH, 2 cormorants, and 2 geese.
Picked up 7 sacks of Optimal feed in Longview. Put new battery in Texas Hunter feeder on forage pond. Only half a dozen CNBG in there now, but should be a lot more in a month after they spawn.
CNBG, LMB, and even HSB went crazy at 7:15pm feeding. LMB and HSB particularly loved the great big Optimal Hand Throw feed, though I did see a few ambitious CNBG pecking away at it. Good for them! Only drawback is that the commotion attracted a GBH, 2 cormorants, and 2 geese.
I bought a GBH decoy last week and havent seen a single wading bird on the pond since. When I sit on the porch in the evening, I see several egrets and even a few rosset spoonbills circle above the trees with interest, but once they see the decoy, they move on. May be worth trying one at your feeder, but I dont know if it'll have much affect on the geese.
Picked up 7 sacks of Optimal feed in Longview. Put new battery in Texas Hunter feeder on forage pond. Only half a dozen CNBG in there now, but should be a lot more in a month after they spawn.
CNBG, LMB, and even HSB went crazy at 7:15pm feeding. LMB and HSB particularly loved the great big Optimal Hand Throw feed, though I did see a few ambitious CNBG pecking away at it. Good for them! Only drawback is that the commotion attracted a GBH, 2 cormorants, and 2 geese.
I bought a GBH decoy last week and havent seen a single wading bird on the pond since. When I sit on the porch in the evening, I see several egrets and even a few rosset spoonbills circle above the trees with interest, but once they see the decoy, they move on. May be worth trying one at your feeder, but I dont know if it'll have much affect on the geese.
Thanks, Mike. Worth a try! I do try to time feeders to go off simultaneously, which makes it harder for birds to focus on one spot. Still, hate seeing geese steal food and cormorants eat fish.
The Polk County Hookers (local fishing group) visited the East Texas Fish Hatchery for a behind the scenes tour. Saw how they breed hybrid basses. (Lots or art - plenty of science.) McDonalds jars. Smallmouth eggs and fry on mats.
Much discussion of cormorants. (They have a permit to properly control them.)
The Polk County Hookers (local fishing group) visited the East Texas Fish Hatchery for a behind the scenes tour. very impressive place. Very educational.
That might be a neat way to have one of our next N/E Texas Pond Boss Get-Togethers. Some Saturday we could all meet there in Athens at the State Hatchery...take the tour...maybe Bob could attend and give a talk and others talk...we could pitch in for a catered lunch.
Wife and I were thinking of going to the hatchery this weekend just for something to do. I haven't been since the 90's back when a buddy and I were fishing lake Same Rayburn and caught the lake record lmb. 13.68 pounds at the time. Lone star lunker program picked her up and they let us come to Athens to visit her while she tried to spawn there. They later brought her back to us on Sam Rayburn and we took her back out and released her back into the 16ft. water we caught her!! It looks like a lot more to do there now than back then.
I have been culling large golden shiners from my pond, I have pulled 73 out in the last week between 5-1/2" to 10-1/2", lots of 7-9". The Nebraska state record GSH is listed at 14 oz, 11" long.
Added 7 brush piles to the long, shallow finger of my pond yesterday. Used dried honeysuckle branches, and dead/dying pine branches and tree tops. Placed them in 2-4 feet of water and anchored with old metal dock post pieces (used jumbo sized zip ties to wrap around the end of the brach bundles, then added one more zip tie as a post connector). Put piles of pea gravel between the branch piles in 1-3 feet of water. I'm hoping to boost the BG production a bit, to ensure my LMB forage chain remains well stocked. I used plastic tubs and my little JD 1025R with a bucket load of gravel. Dumped the gravel in the tubs sitting on the edge of the pond, then put on chest waders and 'kinda' floated them out where I wanted and dumped them. About 4 totes full per bucket; 6 bucket fulls total. Think I'll skip the gym...this month. :-)
Rod and reel, 1/80th oz micro jig tipped with a small piece of nightcrawler and a weighted bobber. The weighted bobber is a casting bubble filled 60% with water.
Rod and reel, 1/80th oz micro jig tipped with a small piece of nightcrawler and a weighted bobber. The weighted bobber is a casting bubble filled 60% with water.
Bass Pro or Cabela's, you will find them in the fly tying section as they are mostly used for steelhead flys. Wapsi Super jig heads are my favorite as they have a super strong hook that will land an 18-19" SMB. I also use Danielson micro jigs and the standard Wapsi micro jigs but they are not as near as strong, but the hook sizes are a slightly smaller than the Wapsi Super jig head version. 1/80th oz and 1/64th oz are the two sizes I prefer. This is the same set up I use for catching RES and BG, they are great for catching any type of sunfish.
Micro jig heads are not easy to find if you don't know where to look for them. Here are a couple of places that I found on line that stock them, no endorsement as I don't have any experience ordering from either one of them. When I was in Bass Pro in Council Bluffs a month ago and they were packaged under the Cabela's Brand, not Wapsi.
Added 7 brush piles to the long, shallow finger of my pond yesterday. Used dried honeysuckle branches, and dead/dying pine branches and tree tops. Placed them in 2-4 feet of water and anchored with old metal dock post pieces (used jumbo sized zip ties to wrap around the end of the brach bundles, then added one more zip tie as a post connector). Put piles of pea gravel between the branch piles in 1-3 feet of water. I'm hoping to boost the BG production a bit, to ensure my LMB forage chain remains well stocked. I used plastic tubs and my little JD 1025R with a bucket load of gravel. Dumped the gravel in the tubs sitting on the edge of the pond, then put on chest waders and 'kinda' floated them out where I wanted and dumped them. About 4 totes full per bucket; 6 bucket fulls total. Think I'll skip the gym...this month. :-)
I did not add the gravel the first yr I built the 9 brush piles, he suggested 5, along the shoreline. And even without the gravel I had a boom of 3" cnbg about 90 days later. I will never forget on how many I saw along the shoreline all over the pond. Brush piles were suggested by Todd Overton along with adding 25 lbs of fhm's. I had no vegetation and he told me the minnows would take the pressure off the cnbg fry. I refresh the brush piles each yr since along with some FHMs. I think you will see a difference. I also saw a difference in how many GBH showed up daily for awhile.
I saw my first swim up fry this week that I have ever seen in the pond. I am pretty sure they were lmb because a 15" lmb was swimming under one of the two schools of fry that I saw. Lots and lots of fry about an eighth to a qtr inch long swimming together in schools and they were in the area where the lmb nest were.
Tracy, sounds like you've really straightened things out in your BOW! Exciting stuff.
My place is looking better, too. Loads of tiny/small/medium/large CNBG for the LMB to feast on as they grow. Biggest difference are the pond weeds that now line most of the shore, giving shelter to YOY. When electrosurveyed last fall, huge numbers of minuscule CNBG were in the weeds.
I did not add the gravel the first yr I built the 9 brush piles, he suggested 5, along the shoreline. And even without the gravel I had a boom of 3" cnbg about 90 days later. I will never forget on how many I saw along the shoreline all over the pond. Brush piles were suggested by Todd Overton along with adding 25 lbs of fhm's. I had no vegetation and he told me the minnows would take the pressure off the cnbg fry. I refresh the brush piles each yr since along with some FHMs. I think you will see a difference. I also saw a difference in how many GBH showed up daily for awhile.
I saw my first swim up fry this week that I have ever seen in the pond. I am pretty sure they were lmb because a 15" lmb was swimming under one of the two schools of fry that I saw. Lots and lots of fry about an eighth to a qtr inch long swimming together in schools and they were in the area where the lmb nest were.
I have debated adding any structure to boost BG production, but since stocking LMB in the fall of 2017, and seeing that class reach 14-16 inches and near 100% WR, I worry I won't be able to keep them in proper groceries to maintain that growth. So, I decided to help out the BG production (in theory). We shall see if my pond, the BG (and Mother Nature) are agreeable with 'the plan'.
I can give those GSH a home - gimme a holler if you can collect I'll pick em up and grow my WE!
Now you tell me, I have been tossing them up on the bank. I might look into getting a cast net, it would be more efficient than going after them with a rod and reel. If I do I'll get a hold of you, I have a cage that I can put them in and I can hold them for you. Last October I took out 120+ large GSH, so far another 79 in the last week. My pond is only a 1/4 acre and the large size GSH numbers might explain why my SMB recruitment has been low over the last several years.
These are great fathead, shiner, sunfish traps - set and forget it, don't need to bait, just wait. I set mine this week and in 24 hours had over 100 sunfish 2-5" long collected. Leave a dozen or so in the trap and it will continue attracting/trapping others much more quickly than an empty trap. One of the best investments I've ever made - way easier and more effective than my cast nets and cylinder minnow traps and again, no baiting required.
Frank, a learning curve from day one. One thing that sticks out to me, is how Mother Nature can and will kick my butt as I approach my pond goals. Now into 4.5 yrs of pond management. Seems like I learn something most every week. And I can't say enough when it comes to all the help from this forum and the people that are here for HELP when needed. One needs to be flexible for sure at my pond if your going to get to the goals I set in the beginning of all this. And I know you have experienced some of all THIS.
These are great fathead, shiner, sunfish traps - set and forget it, don't need to bait, just wait. I set mine this week and in 24 hours had over 100 sunfish 2-5" long collected. Leave a dozen or so in the trap and it will continue attracting/trapping others much more quickly than an empty trap. One of the best investments I've ever made - way easier and more effective than my cast nets and cylinder minnow traps and again, no baiting required.
How in the world do they work? Maybe you have a better picture of them but from the picture on the web page I can see no place where fish can get in? is the opening really just an inch wide at the inside of the cloverleaf? How does a 5" sunfish get in there?
Today I dressed out 25 female BG (many thanks to ewest for his insight on sex identification). Every one was female and row laden in different stages.
As I was cleaning them, I found it exciting to find nearly every one of them had Black Soldier Fly Larva in their stomachs. So apparently they're letting them sink before eating them, because I seldom see them feed on the surface.
13 of them found their way into some hot oil with fries, hush puppies and cole slaw. They weren't the biggest BG by any means, but they sure did taste good.
Today I dressed out 25 female BG (many thanks to ewest for his insight on sex identification). Every one was female and row laden in different stages.
As I was cleaning them, I found it exciting to find nearly every one of them had Black Soldier Fly Larva in their stomachs. So apparently they're letting them sink before eating them, because I seldom see them feed on the surface.
13 of them found their way into some hot oil with fries, hush puppies and cole slaw. They weren't the biggest BG by any means, but they sure did taste good.
Sounds great! Smart to not harvest the largest BG, too.
Happiness is a full pond. (When you are plagued by a small leak, and off and on again drought since building.) One of the few times the wind was actually stirring up our pond. (See the ripples, its usually very calm)
Unhappiness is too much FA. Ive not had much in almost 5 years. Now I cant throw a luer out without it getting covered with green slime. To be honest Ive always ignored all the info about FA has I didyhave any. Raked out a ton yesterday, but it seems endless. Why so much this year? Five feet of exposed bank thats now under water? (Covered in tall weeds) Or, being under ice for six weeks? Im reluctant to toss in chemicals, but Ive got to do something. One other sad note, after raking out a ton of FA and leaves, I didnt find one glass shrimp. I guess they got cleaned out when the water was so low, and their cover was non existent..
Today I dressed out 25 female BG (many thanks to ewest for his insight on sex identification). Every one was female and row laden in different stages.
As I was cleaning them, I found it exciting to find nearly every one of them had Black Soldier Fly Larva in their stomachs. So apparently they're letting them sink before eating them, because I seldom see them feed on the surface.
13 of them found their way into some hot oil with fries, hush puppies and cole slaw. They weren't the biggest BG by any means, but they sure did taste good.
Sounds great! Smart to not harvest the largest BG, too.
Since my pond is small, I know I cant have a lot of big bass, so I'm managing it for bigger BG. I caught several bulls in the 7-8" range while collecting these and returned them all to the pond. Even hooked one twice. My line broke the first time and the jig was swallowed. Noticed a piece of line when I caught him and cut it off before returning him. Didn't seem to phase him having a jig in his throat.
I returned every GSF as well, since they are helping to keep fry numbers in check. Even caught a couple of 11" BH on the BSFL. Was hoping to stumble on a RES....but no such luck...yet!
Wife rescued a 7-8" LCS from the pipe outlet of the YP/SMB pond and moved to new pond. Had added smaller ones last year. This new pond has very little plant life so far.
Still in pursuit of as many female BG as I can get out of the pond, I landed this handsome stud this afternoon. 8.25" and serious shoulders. My little mutt pond is really coming into its own. [img]https://photos.app.goo.gl/WGkBfkL4zxcLwMd1A[/img]
Caught two more crappie from the pond today. Both over 11". I guess I should be happy that they've all been big. No sign of young fish, so maybe they've not been too successful with their spawn.
I think they're both HBG. #1 is a Male, #2 female.
I'm missing any signs that hint towards hybrid in fish two - no yellow margins on fins, etc. - what characteristics lead you to believe it's a hybrid?
I dont think the female shows the yellow markings like the male does (spawning colors). Otherwise, the body shape of both fish especially the head and mouth, suggests GSF characteristics. Also note the ear tab on both, long on #1, short on #2, like BG.
Busy weekend of working around the pond. Got the last brush pile burned up and cleaned up, ready to start a new season of habitat work around the pond with the dozer and excavator. Observed seven different species of ducks on the pond in addition to several pairs of geese. The pond is back down to just being full, put the boards back in the water control device. Had a run in with some trespassers backing their quad and motorcycle down the edge of the pond dam and spinning out going up and over the dam. I won.
Son got his turkey Saturday morning in Indiana, his season opened up this morning in Michigan and he had his down at 7:44 AM today.
Watched a couple trucks stall out in the deep water on the seasonal road that floods when I release water from the dam and get towed out. The picture below is from a few weeks ago, the water was at least 1.5' deeper now when they tried to get through. The one truck which didn't make it through yesterday was a 2016 Chevy diesel, it sounded as if it sucked water in before it stalled so he might have an expensive repair bill. Before they pulled it out the water was about 3" over the bottom of the door windows. Highly entertaining to watch them open the doors and see the cab full of water run out after it had been pulled to dry land.
Taking a chance and planting about 2 acres of buckwheat today. It's a few weeks early and hoping we don't get a hard frost after it comes up.
Bryan, thanks for the update! Sounds awesome all the fun you get by your pond! Sounds like you need to patrol the area regularly and get some game cameras with the trespassers there.
You would probably know, as long as I have a mallard duck pair on the pond will I not get a wood duck pair to join them? I know people wait many years to get wood ducks and my pond is a long shot due to activity around it (and my dog who can't get too near it but the fence does allow him in the vicinity), but I also wondered in a small pond how a mallard pair and a wood duck pair would get along?
The female mallard is on the nest (somewhere) and the male sleeps in the shade or swims in circles in the middle of the pond every day waiting for her.
You would probably know, as long as I have a mallard duck pair on the pond will I not get a wood duck pair to join them? I know people wait many years to get wood ducks and my pond is a long shot due to activity around it (and my dog who can't get too near it but the fence does allow him in the vicinity), but I also wondered in a small pond how a mallard pair and a wood duck pair would get along?
The female mallard is on the nest (somewhere) and the male sleeps in the shade or swims in circles in the middle of the pond every day waiting for her.
I think mallards and woodies do fine on the same pond. I see them (and other ducks) intermix while cruising around our pond frequently. You could always put up a mallard nesting tube, in addition to the wood duck box.
Below are blue wing teal and Canadian geese, hanging out..
Sorry guys missed your questions...I trap lepomis/minnows/shiners up to 5" and the opening is about and inch wide I believe. I use the 18" version - simply install it so it's in 1-3' depth and in 24 hours I typically have 100+ fish. The mesh size is such I can also collect lepomis down to 1" length. This type of trap is really designed for smaller fish collection - the cloverleaf styles are probably better suited for larger fish. Steve I imagine this trap could help make quick work of your GSH - if you want to test drive it ping me and we can connect on the farm.
I've had a couple of wood duck drakes visit my little puddle late evenings and roost in a big oak on the property. I'm considering putting in a nesting box out in the pond, but I'm concerned the pond being so close to the house, and 3 dogs ruling the yard would be counterproductive. Do y'all think they'd use it?
I took my wood duck boxes down at the pond because my lmb grew larger and I like baby ducks. I could see one of those lmb gulping down a baby duck or two. So plans are to add the boxes to the bayou that runs through part of my property.
I took my wood duck boxes down at the pond because my lmb grew larger and I like baby ducks. I could see one of those lmb gulping down a baby duck or two. So plans are to add the boxes to the bayou that runs through part of my property.
Yeah...and then there's that issue. I'd hate to see a hen with a bunch of babies swimming in the pond, just to see one get ate. I know it happens in life, but I dont particularly want to witness it. One more reason to try to replace my 3 bass with crappie...lol. Chances are, now that I've had a change in thought about crappie vs LMB as a predator, my bass have probably spawned and now I'll have more of them to deal with. You've convinced me to at least wait a while until I see how their spawn panned out.
I haven't yet, but we've been blessed with our very first fish kill in our hatchery pond. Getting packed up to go seine and see if anything is left other than tadpoles.
I recieved my delivery of twilight blue pond dye today. So after taking temp readings top and bottom and making some notes on my calendar I put a little dye in the pond. My primary goal for the dye is to help control algae blooms (FA and BGA)as well as help shade the pond from the oncoming heat of summer.
Knowing the reduction in UV rays are going to hender any future phytoplankton blooms, is it possible I may need to think about fertilizing sometime in the distant future to help promote a bloom this fall? I know... it's barely spring... but no time like the present to think about the future.
I adjusted run times on the aeration to 3 hours this past Monday and am running from 7a to 10a. My temps today were 78 on top and 70 on the bottom. I'll take another reading tomorrow to see how the dye has affected temps and adjust accordingly. I expect I may be able to move back to warmer parts of the day and longer runs without as big a threat of super heating the pond (I was already bumping 80 on top and 77 on the bottom before changing run times).
I haven't yet, but we've been blessed with our very first fish kill in our hatchery pond. Getting packed up to go seine and see if anything is left other than tadpoles.
So sorry to hear that. What do you think happened there?
Added 100 lb of TP today. Shallow water temp 78 F in afternoon, surprised me it was so high. Water has a nice green tint, looks more fertile than I've ever seen before. Still could use a little more fertilizer after the 75 pounds added, maybe only another 10 or 12 pounds.
Pond weeds doing well, as are YOY LMB and CNBG. Mostly Am pondweed and something like nitella, not chara (I tried smell test). Does not appear to be taking over, ends about 4 feet deep. I see all different sizes of fish, a good sign.
Still want TFS, but maybe it's too late in the year. ???
Mike's not against going to extremes or even off the beaten path...I don't even know where you'd get that much toilet paper OR what good it would do your pond, but I'll back you up Mike!
Scattered deer corn into shallow water around the shore. Wood ducks and black belly whistling ducks both seem to enjoy the corn. I've seen both checking out the interiors of the duck boxes. We'll see if they have kids here this year. That'd be fun to watch.
Found two snake skins, one probably a yellow bellied water snake. The other definitely a banded water snake. Both are welcome.
Is it too late to hope that a wood duck may still choose to use one of the boxes I put up this year? or have they all settled down and laid eggs by now? I would think in Texas you would be way ahead of us up here in MI
Hard to say. They started looking here in December, but I haven't seen any ducklings. It wouldn't hurt to get the boxes up. Put some pine shavings in them. Change the pine shavings each winter.
The ducks looked mine over last year but I think my shores were too bare. This year I'm starting to get shoreline plants and they seem to like it here.
If you do: I'd suggest using cheap 4" PVC for the poles. Coons and snakes find it too smooth to climb. Some even recommend coating the poles with grease. I don't do this. I did camo paint the poles with spray paint. The poles are almost invisible.
If you can put them over water it is safer from predators, but the kids can take a long drop to hard ground with no problem. Whatever works.
I wandered around after work today and just observed things. I don't have any fish yet, aside from a few dozen fatheads that I've tossed in after crappie fishing this spring, but I'm amazed at how much life there is.
The daphnia I put in earlier in the spring seem to be doing well. They are everywhere near the shoreline. The bullfrogs have been busy making more bullfrogs. The bottom is covered with tadpoles. They also seem to like the pallet stacks. I've noticed several different species of aquatic insects, both adults and nymphs.
All of the plants I put out last weekend are looking good.
My previous worries about turbid water were unfounded. Visibility was 4'-5' before the rains came through the other night. It clouded up a bit with the inflow, but is already back to 2'-3'.
Thanks for the advice Vortex. My boxes went up right around ice out and they are up for the first time with fresh pine shavings in them.
I have one on my fiberglass pond light pole so no way predators can climb it (too smooth). The second one is a little higher about 100' away in a dead tree and I have the tree wrapped below it with a 2' section of stovepipe as a predator guard.
I only have grass between the mounts and the pond edge but the houses are mounted right on the edge of a fairly thick stand of trees.
the last two years a wood duck pair stopped overnight around April 12-13 and then were gone. I was hoping they would stop again, but no joy yet.
I did nothing today at my pond as I had a number of blue wing and green wing teal that were enjoying the pond when I got home. I decided to just let them be as I kind of enjoy having them around before they move on. Seeing teal is a sign that tail end of the duck migration is near.
Couple of things happened at the pond over the past few days. One was while I was hand feeding Aquamax lmb pellets. I threw out a few and was getting an eye survey of the fish in the area when I see this Xtra Large lmb swim under a chunk and she just eyeballed it for awhile. She was shaped like a horseshoe and was just hugh! She has to be a Florida lmb because of her size and the fact my northern lmb cant be that large yet and from my understanding the northern does not get that horseshoe shape. She finally sucked down the food chunk. I have never seen a Florida lmb eat fish food before. Man, it's nice to see that sized lmb in the pond. Would have been better if it had been on the end of a fishing pole.
The next thing was while I was walking the boat ramp area, my golden was wading in the water and was about chest deep. He caused a few smaller fish to swim out of the pondweed and when that happened a nice sized lmb attacked these fish and swam between the legs and under the Golden Retriever. Sam, the golden, jumped straight up into the air, freaked out and got out of the water. It was funny to see It took a few minutes before Sam got back into the water. Normally I can't keep him out.
Is it too late to hope that a wood duck may still choose to use one of the boxes I put up this year? or have they all settled down and laid eggs by now? I would think in Texas you would be way ahead of us up here in MI
CC- I can only speculate, but I think the nesting season for wood ducks in Iowa is about the same as Michigan. "House hunting" begins at ice off through the end of April. From mid to late April, hens will lay about one egg per day till a clutch of 8-12 eggs is laid. She will then begin incubating them from late April/early May for ~ 30 days (till they hatch). IF she is interrupted in this usual cycle, she will try again. This actually happened with one of my boxes. I checked it from my john boat in late June (no egg fragments, no membranes, no nest activity) showing an unused house. But I had a late hatch on the pond later that summer, with hatchlings seen in August. When I check that box again this winter, it had egg shells and membrane halves! So a hen tried over and had a later (successful) hatch. So you still may have some tenants. Also, she only leaves for an hour every morning, and again every evening, when she starts to incubate her eggs. So the house will seem void of activity otherwise. Watch for the drake 'hanging out' on the water near the box in the morning and evening. The pair goes to breakfast and supper together.
Tracy that is funny that the bass went right under the dog.
Grandson and I did a little dock modification getting ready for my Texas Hunter fish feeder that should be in next week some time. Made an overhang on the dock so the feeder will not take up any of the existing dock space and moved the storage box to the other side and also got it off the main dock area. I think it turned out good. The feeder will sit on the left side.
The feed will shoot to the south and is out about 70 feet over the water so should get consumed before any SW wind has a chance to blow it to shore.
Description: Feeder will sit on left side over water.
John, it was funny seeing his reaction. He really jumped straight up in the air. Maybe the lmb attacked his worm lol. It was awhile before he built up the courage to get back in the water.
The part the chairs are sitting on is floating. Pond is at full pool now and it sits level with the fixed portion. The section just beyond the new wood is the attaching portion that connects the main fixed dock to the floating dock and as the pond level drops will take on a downward slope. The new wood is the very end of 80' of fixed dock that is 8' wide. The floating portion is 8x12 if I recall correctly. The attachment is 8' long giving me 96' of length out into the pond from the bank.
The floating part I bought used off Craigs list. The rest I and my grandsons built. The 80' main section is built of steel and was put out in the water in 40' sections on top of 12' hedge (osage orange) posts then the wood 2x6 decking was installed.
Would have been a lot easier had I done it before the pond was 2/3 full. But we got it done. We really enjoy it.
Put 12 lbs of copper sulfate down on the FA. Then started raking in the area where the grandkids fish. Took out many pounds of slime. Found this guy in the slime! I stocked maybe 20 of them three years ago, and havent seen one since. I thought my SMB had cleaned them out.
Friend caught multiple HSB on soft shad lure. Vicious fights, none of his lures held together more than two fish. But water temps are approaching danger zone, will have to curb this soon.
We harvested 7 LMB, bringing total since 1 Oct 18 to 195. Goal: 250. Caught half a dozen LMB too big to keep, along with CNBG we threw back.
Was going to add a little more fertilizer, but water was the greenest I've ever seen. Viz maybe 24 to 30 inches, olive green. I think adding more fertilizer is an unnecessary risk now that water is fertile & weather is hot. Besides, I feed daily.
Am pondweed and what looks like nitella are spreading, though limited by depth. YOY fish are taking advantage in a big way. Looking forward to adding 7k TFS in next week or two!
Cormorants are gone(!!!), still have some ducks, a GBH, and a couple of Canada geese. Haven't seen the bald eagles lately, hopefully I will soon.
Fishing weekend with the guys. Cold here and a big front moved through so fishing was ok but not great. Hardly any fish coming to the feeder as water temps were around 60 on Friday and Saturday. As we enter year 4 of managing our 3 ponds i have high expectations. We caught a nice female LMB full of eggs that weighed almost 4 lbs. and a few others just shy of 3 lbs. This is in a 1.6 acre pond that was full of stunted bass 3 years ago. After the initial harvest of 40 per surface acre i stocked in a bit more than 50 1.25 lb. fish in June of 2017 along with 400 adult (5-7") BG. On a maintenance harvest plan since last season of 15-20 LMB under 14" per surface acre per year.
Very exciting seeing the results and expecting to catch some 5 pounders out of there this season. The big female (with eggs) posted a 150 relative weight and more than 85% of the fish we caught were in excess of 85 RW with most in the mid-to-upper 90s to just over 100. That is a huge improvement in just under 2 years post-stocking.
Also put the second dose of copper sulfate in our "Big Lake" (6.5 acres) yesterday....put in 50 lbs. using the burlap bag dispensing method. That was half the initial spring dose we put in 5 weeks ago. Going to try and keep on top of it this year so when our annual Cast & Blast event occurs in mid-September we are not fighting FA for five days of fishing (and dove shooting).
I used the burlap bag method also. Seems to be working pretty quickly, faster than I thought it would. Found a dead crawdad, and tadpole the next day. I know thats hardly anything, but I didnt think the copper sulfate would hurt anything but the FA..
Friend caught multiple HSB on soft shad lure. Vicious fights, none of his lures held together more than two fish. But water temps are approaching danger zone, will have to curb this soon.
I havent caught a single HSB since stocked three years ago. Any additional info on this soft shad lure? How and where did you fish it? Are you looking for some signs of the HSB working and cast to it? Dont they stay out in open water? If any of mine survived, Id like to at least see one, one of these days. Thx
Bought a pizza and a soda, drove 30 miles to the pond, and sat on the tailgate for a couple of hours. Feeding pizza crust to the fish and just took in the pond. No thoughts of what needed to be done with muddy water, plants, water chemistry, stocking, or any other projects. It was glorious as the sun set and the pond settled in for the night. Im much better at planning and scheming, than taking time to appreciate what has been accomplished bit by bit. Many thanks to this forum and all the contributors for helping me along the way. Hopefully generations of my family will get to enjoy and engage in this long term project.
Bought a pizza and a soda, drove 30 miles to the pond, and sat on the tailgate for a couple of hours. Feeding pizza crust to the fish and just took in the pond. No thoughts of what needed to be done with muddy water, plants, water chemistry, stocking, or any other projects. It was glorious as the sun set and the pond settled in for the night. Im much better at planning and scheming, than taking time to appreciate what has been accomplished bit by bit. Many thanks to this forum and all the contributors for helping me along the way. Hopefully generations of my family will get to enjoy and engage in this long term project.
You are so right! We pondowners are incredibly blessed to have what we do. Sometimes I forget that.
Friend caught multiple HSB on soft shad lure. Vicious fights, none of his lures held together more than two fish. But water temps are approaching danger zone, will have to curb this soon.
I havent caught a single HSB since stocked three years ago. Any additional info on this soft shad lure? How and where did you fish it? Are you looking for some signs of the HSB working and cast to it? Dont they stay out in open water? If any of mine survived, Id like to at least see one, one of these days. Thx
I think it was a silver Bass Pro Shad, SG. Retrieve was only a couple of feet deep at steady medium speed. Best luck was around my dock with two feeders nearby, LMB and HSB come around both for feed and CNBG that are feeding. Late afternoon/evening seem to be prime times, less activity in the morning.
70 HSB put in 1 year ago, about 10 per acre. We've even caught some on dark jigworms meant for LMB and CNBG, maybe they are hungry since don't have any TSH. Great fighters, if they jumped nobody would care about LMB.
Pat....next winter I am trying the "fishing line experiment" Filippo in Italy used to ward off the water turkey....I've already bought a huge spool of line....it's kind of crazy in an almost 4 acre pond....but it's also crazy losing thousands of dollars in fish to the water turkey. I'll report back how it works in conjunction with the reflective tape next winter.
I think it was a silver Bass Pro Shad, SG. Retrieve was only a couple of feet deep at steady medium speed. Best luck was around my dock with two feeders nearby, LMB and HSB come around both for feed and CNBG that are feeding. Late afternoon/evening seem to be prime times, less activity in the morning.
70 HSB put in 1 year ago, about 10 per acre. We've even caught some on dark jigworms meant for LMB and CNBG, maybe they are hungry since don't have any TSH. Great fighters, if they jumped nobody would care about LMB.
Thank you sir. Not sure if any of mine survived, but I keep hoping and trying.
At my place I use most any minnow/shad looking soft bait with a single hook jig head. You can cast it and swim it back or drag it slowly across the ponds bottom. Swimming it just fast enough to where it does not lay still on the ponds bottom. Or you can drop shot the same type of bait and or Carolina rig it. All of the above have caught some up to 5+ lbs. A sassy shad or the Power bait minnow works and so does soft plastic cigar shaped paddle tail swim baits. My largest came off a 1/2oz double willow leaf spinner bait. But my favorite way is to catch them with a fly rod using some poor/sad looking shad type fly that I made lol. Keep chunking, if they survived you should catch one. From everything I have read about your pond setter, I would suspect at least half of the stocking survived. Best of luck to you Or maybe add some more to your pond this spring or fall.
Anyone tried Big Bite baits 5 cane thumper with Owner brand 3/0 flashy swimmer. Have caught and released 10# plus LMB and lots of all sizes . They cant resist
Nope.... its called a Cane Thumper 5 color is watermelon red ghost. I cant post pix but if you will pm me your email or I can text a picture of the package
Mine must have all died. Ive tried everything with zero success. Maybe it is time to try something else.. WE might be the answer. If I can find some. After my explosion of HBG, Im a little leery about adding anything.
My recent success has been with a topwater popper kinda thing in my pond. I was watching it and noticed lots of stuff happening on the surface and bingo it worked. (that's on LMB) good luck Dave
The last few days when feeding, I've been seeing that a few of the larger FHM that come up to feed, have their spawning colors. If I had never seen pictures of them with their spawning colors, I would of thought there was a new minnow in my pond.
The last 3-4 days I have noticed more lmb on the beds than ever. Even though I have also seen my first pod of lmb fry too. My lmb were late to the beds last year too compared to everyone else it seems. As long as they spawn I don't care. by the way we just got another 1 1/2 inch of rain in the last 30 minutes. I just hope it doesn't flush my fry over the spillway!!
Pat, she wouldn't budge. I've been thinking all day about a patty melt with grilled jalapenos. No burns are as nice as that hot flattop melted cheese stuck to the roof of my mouth.
Was doing some maintenance (aka clearing some FA) when I found this at the edge of the pond. I think this is one of the SMB that the previous owner said was in the pond & I have seen a couple of them swimming about in the last week as well as one today.
Wasn't there the other day and have got plenty of BG and other YOY that don't seem stressed so not sure what happened here. I do have a GBH that visits but no visible signs of injury so I don't think that's it.
Maybe just old age?
Anyway, I pulled it out and put it around the other side of the pond for the other wildlife to have. It'll most likely be gone tomorrow.
I did start up aeration last week and it's been running 3 hours a day for the past several days after a ramp up so perhaps it's tied to that - though I've got no noticeable odors and everyone else seems happy.
It seems this time of year presents some challenges in identifying possible mortality of fish. The occurrences seem to escalate somewhat as well. Some could be due to age accompanied with stress from spawning. Rising water temps adding to a change in water chemistry and bacterial growth.
I find a couple floaters a week sometimes and have seen a couple swimming lately with what aquarium folk call "Ick" on their dorsal fins as well as some dead that have reddish blotchy sores on their sides.
Not sure what causes it, or how to prevent it on a pond scale. Hopefully, this occurence was due to a combination of age and post spawn stress.
That sure is a handsome RES, Shorty. Is it full blooded or does it have a bit of BG in it? I ask because of the more pronounced vertical barring on it's side.
Shorty, I hate to say it, but I feel like I'm guilty of lusting after your beautiful RES. If my few tiny RES can ever be coaxed to bite again... or if they even survived the last winter, I'd be happy if they were half as purty as yours. You raise some fabulously beautiful RES. Good job, your conditions must be just right.
It is kind of like I should make sure my wife isn't watching as I gaze into the computer screen, mouth half open......
Been picking up a few here and there.... went several years with none now catch one or two near the shore reeling the jig real slow for crappie and pick them up.... never in 6-7 water on top water plug
Lots of RES on beds here. Saw a pair spawning yesterday late afternoon. That is in my RES/SMB pond so easy to tell they are RES on the nest. Can clearly see the red opercular tab on many. Did see one hybrid though as it had yellow tipping on the fins.
Two large bluegill dead on the bottom in shallow water near the beds. I suspect the heron (GBH). He has long legs and has been wading around the bed. He nails a bluegill and can't swallow it. Also a great white heron hanging around there, plus the usual smaller herons (little blue, green) that aren't gonna hit a bigger fish.
I like the heron. Don't even mind he gets a big bluegill, but hate for it to go to waste. (Somebody will eat it eventually.)
Walked around the pond this afternoon. Nice sunny day. I was followed by a herd of BG so I took some Optimal BG chow down to the pond this evening to see if they were ready to hit the feed for this year. Had to go back to the house for more as they were jumping out of the water for a taste! Game on!
Took my wife out on the pond. She likes to fish but would rather spend her time with the grandkids so it's been awhile since she has been to the pond. Got her in the boat along with our two dogs. It's tight with all that but it is what it is in the small little bass boat. This was her first time to bass fish the pond. I rigged her up a wacky worm and made the cast for her. She does not do well with a bait caster but it's all we had at the time. Her first lmb was in the 4 lb range followed by several more in the 3 lb range. She really had a good time. Not bad for an hr or so of fishing. We don't bass fish the pond much but when I do it's mostly for a survey but this time it was for fun. And based on her fishing I may need to start removing some of those 10 to 12" lmb. She caught about 5 in that size range. It's the first time we have ever caught lmb in the yoy size. Last year is the first time we had a successful lmb spawn. This spring is year 4 since our first lmb were stocked. One more thing is the lmb looked really healthy with the exception of one in the 15 to 16" range and I am pretty sure it was a male that had been guarding nest recently, he was pretty skinny but was a larger male.
Dang Tracy, that is great news on catching that many of all sizes!! Ya gotta love a wacky worm!! It has been my go to bait for believe it or not over 40 years. It used to be a secret!! What color did you use and how much visibility do you have right now?
Flame, you are right about it being a go to bait. She used a green pumpkin 18X power bait in the 5" straight worm Yamamoto style. Our Visibility is at 30" due to all the recent rains(frog floaters). I am really pleased with the fishing right now. It has taken 4 yr's to get there along with more money than I want to admit to. But the fishing is good and size of the lmb and hsb are really pretty good. I am also sure these smaller sized lmb were yoy from the stocking of the Lonestar Legacy/Camelot Belle lmb based on the aqua marine color located on the head area they are know to have. I also had a guest with my son that landed a really nice sized hsb the other day off the pier. Largest fish he had ever caught and that has been my goal from day one. To catch a trophy, a memory not to forget. My son estimated the fish to be 6 lbs and said it was in really nice condition. He will be close when sizing fish. Caught on an H&H spinner bait.
Actually the last 2 days, but I completely tore down my venturi spray rig over the last few weeks, and rebuilt it from scratch. I eliminated as many issues as I could from version 1, and came up with this. The only moving parts are the pump and venturi dial, and no chemicals ever touch the pump. It's paid for itself a dozen times in time savings alone.
I treated 4 surface acres over the last 2 days, and other than slotting the tank for the suction hose and tank mixer wiring, it's good to go.
Al, four acres sounds like a large area. What are you trying to get rid of? And your spray system looks pretty simple and clean, including the new looking boat. My boats are never that clean
Tracy, it is a large area. It's 1/3 of the total surface acreage, and double what I usually treat but here are my thoughts.
I'm treating coontail, bushy pond weed, and potamogeton, and all three are just now starting to aggressively grow. All the rain has kept us at full pool since last October, and has meant the siphon often drains for several days at a time. Because of the current the siphon creates and rolling spawns of CNG, RE, tilapia, and LMB, I needed a window to spray. Still water and 3-4 days of post treatment sunshine mean I have to treat when that opportunity gets presents itself, and it did this last week. The high water level, allows me to get closer to the current shoreline, and treat weeds that aren't always reachable in summer. It also is cheaper in the long term chemical wise. If I jump on spotty invasives as early as possible, then I won't be spraying weed mats all summer.
A side affect of all this is also almost immediate weed free shallow water for CNBG spawns. For years they fought through coontail to make isolated nests based on availability, not preference. Last year and this spring, I've seen more group beds than ever before. Often with 10-15 nests in a group.
No advice here, just what I do with my big puddle to make it work.
I've had the Grizzly several years now, and love it. All welded, and 6' wide make it very stable for a tin boat.
My granddaughter has moved in with us for the summer, between college semesters. This morning was the first real opportunity for us to spend on the pond fishing. I raised this one till she was around two and dont get to spend much time with her since she lives in east Tennessee. Glad to see she hasn't lost her love for fishing. [img]https://photos.app.goo.gl/PwaL3uFi9H2xGVrM6[/img]
I put out 320lbs of gypsum slurry. I buy 40lb bags of gypsum pellets and make 5 gal bucket slurry mix.
The suspended clay will flock up in a week or so.
Did you take PH and Hardness readings before you added your slurry? I'd be really interested in seeing the results after it settles, especially the hardness numbers. I need to raise my hardness terribly and if gypsum doesn't raise the PH too much I plan to add some.
I put out 320lbs of gypsum slurry. I buy 40lb bags of gypsum pellets and make 5 gal bucket slurry mix.
The suspended clay will flock up in a week or so.
Did you take PH and Hardness readings before you added your slurry? I'd be really interested in seeing the results after it settles, especially the hardness numbers. I need to raise my hardness terribly and if gypsum doesn't raise the PH too much I plan to add some.
Gypsum does not change the PH. I struggle with habitually low hardness & PH, as do many others who have suspended clay. The hardness did slightly increase (read: it was measurable) vs the typical reading of zero, last year after I added 600lbs.
Fish fed normally within hours of adding the slurry. They acted like nothing changed. Same thing last year.
Pro tip, get one of those drill bit paint mixers. Stirring the granules into a decent slurry manually is less effective.
Went fishing yesterday evening and caught several BG and another RES in breeding color. Man those are pretty fish. Had a minnow trap set in the overflow pond and probably had a hundred LMB in it about 2 long, returned them to main pond. I had thrown three 8 BCP in there this early spring so I guess if ole GBH hasnt ete them those shiner size bass will not like the outcome.... lol
Put the remainder of my left over pex, a couple of milk crates, a piece of broken cement block (in the bottom crate) and wire ties together for another attractor. Whole thing ended up just over 4' high. Placed it out beyond the main spawning area. Easy cast from the dock.
Gorgeous. Love the rain, except when it goes over emergency spillway.
Thanks anthropic...hopefully the rain will now come in non-flood ways.
Originally Posted By: DrLuke
Really cool, Zep! I am the chief shovel guy around here, and have put in more flower beds than I'd like to admit. I do like the iris she picks out.
Very nice DrLuke!...i am experimenting this year at the house with less water guzzling flowers...and more drought resistant stuff like Mexican Feather Grass and Purple Fountain Grass.
I have this small pond about 25 feet across on the back edge of my property. The fella who farms the ground said one of the previous owners heard it was good for deer hunting to have a watering hole. So the owner had a pond dug. I agree in principle, but there is a year round flowing creek that runs thru the property about 25 yards from the watering hole. I think I will repurpose it as a FHM forage pond for my main BOW. Trim back and kill the willow and clean out the bottom of trash. Put in some pallets and hopefully the love fest will begin.
It's that time of year...a guy I work with has a few honey bee hives out at our property....looks like all the rain produced more flowers for the bees. He said he will have over twenty-five 6oz containers for us this week. He'll sell the rest. We're going to grow it from 4 hives to 10 hives this year. Those bees were not very happy when he and his brother were harvesting the honey this weekend.
While preparing to take the granddaughter fishing this afternoon I walked down to the pond to make a few casts. Made 4 casts out to where I just dropped that new attractor and caught two of my three LMB off of it. The little buck (1) is looking kinda puny, real skinny, but the other, (I think it was 2) was really healthy. Tried to get a picture of her but while holding her in the water waiting for my phone to be brought to me, she made an escape.
The trip to the other pond resulted in a new 11" LMB being transplanted into my pond, which will naturally be named 4. Havent seen any sign of 3 in quite some time. I'm hoping shes just hanging out in deeper water. Visibility is too shallow to see much.
Filled three feeders today, watched two ducks and one greedy giant GBH. Saw hummingbird, but don't have feeder up yet & may be too late.
Beaver came close to us when we were loading a feeder near the dam. He did a funny double take when he saw us, stuck his head completely out of the water and then dove & was seen no more.
Pond is most fertile it's ever been judging by the green tinge & 24 inch viz. Don't want to add more fertilizer now because I'm a scaredy cat when it comes to cyanobacteria.
It sure has been a strange spring here too. This time last year the pond was pushing 4 feet in visibility, this year, even using pond dye and running aeration 12 hours at night I'm still fighting a strong algae bloom. By day's end the surface is almost completely covered with that hazy film and the visibility is barely 16" now. May have to look into adding some bacteria to help get rid of the apparently heavy nutrient load the pond picked up from last fall's droppings.
That and another dose of aglime will hopefully help clear it up over time.
Floated the newly acquired Titanic and took depth soundings of the pond. 20ft by the dam and tapering to 7ft at inlets. Very happy not too much sediment so far. Kids got nipped by HBG and squeals abounded. Trapped a few FHM and threw into a small watering hole with a pallet for future restocking. All in all a great day all around.
Decided not to stomp in the mud yesterday to check the pond. Oil company sent video though. The road separating the wetland and the tank got washed out where the new culverts were put in. Water was flowing over the road as well. Hopefully we dont lose the entire road. Checked on my bees at my grandmother's property. Weak hive is totally infested with hive beetles and wax moths. Probably a total loss. A week ago I only saw a few.
Bullhead ain't so bad. They eat little fish and 12" is about as big as they'll get. If you feed pellets, I'm surprised you havent seen any before now. They are vacuums! They were one of the first to show up in my pond, long before it filled up. They aren't bad eating either.
Today I hand pulled about 100 cockleburs from around the tank. Some already had burrs but shouldn't be developed enough to grow. Last year I weedeated hundreds. Maybe next year I'll only have a dozen or so. Wishful thinking. Johnson grass on the other hand has a firm grip in large areas.
I've been away from the pond for 12 days because of some vacation time at White River Ark for a little trout fishing and some smallmouth fishing at Bull Shoals. So, when I got back to the pond I hand feed some Aquamax lmb and watched the hsb and some lmb thrash the water as they feed. I also watched the cnbg feed when the TH feeder set off a 2 second throw. I saw different sized cnbg from 4" to 10" swimming around along with one lmb in the 3lb range in the mix. I did not see any TFS in the feeder area where I will see them on occasion and I did not see any ripples areas across the pond surface that is caused by the TFS. I am wondering if the TFS have been decimated by the hsb and the northern lmb? It's time to run the sein, which may be hard to do because of the American pondweed that now grows in the shallow areas of the pond. I may have to resort to a cast net. It is survey time
RAH, I am aware of the long dormancy but have never heard of a second seed. I also have not researched their lifecycle, yet.
Pat- They are a broadleaf plant that can grow 4ft tall and produce dozens of grape size burrs. Some people will shred their field and a low growing plant will thrive. Some are just naturally smaller yet produce significant burrs. I've seen hogs covered in them dropping them under deer feeders and anywhere else they roam.
Caught another bullhead in the cedar just put out for crappie hideouts. Also caught two red ear in same spot..... kinda odd to catch red ear in 8 water under a cork set at 24
After being away from the pond for about two weeks, I did some cast netting around the pond and decided to rest for a bit. I was setting in the side by side and looking over the pond for any signs of TFS when I see a 4' gator eyeballing me. He was in a corner of the pond and was slowly making his way toward me. As he got closer he dropped lower in the water to where only his eyes were above the waters surface. This is my second gator that has showed up, a smaller one last year. This one I am guessing is about a foot longer than the last one. If they continues along this line, it won't be but a few years to where a really large one shows up. Like some of the other undesirable birds and animals that show, this one won't be around long.
I've had to persuade a few to leave my pond too. Haven't seen any this year...yet. Luckily I'm completely fenced in so only a little gator can easily get in.
Added another 500# of AgLime to the pond yesterday afternoon. Now its wait and see how it affects my Alk and Hardness. PH has been spiking into the 9s lately and I'm fighting a BGA issue. Thought it was Plankton but apparently it doesn't float and scum up the surface. Aeration and dye just isnt keeping it under control.
Apparently all this rain has dumped astronomical amounts of nutrients in to pond thru runoff. Even the FA seems to want to come back, so once everything settles, I guess I'll be doing some more aggressive copper sulfate treatments.
Anyone have any other suggestions on how to get this mess under control?
Spent the afternoon at the pond in amazement at how fast sago pond weed shows up. Had a pretty significant FA bloom last week, was a bit concerned but zooplankton must have come on strong because water looked beautiful today, in fact, I could see a moss-rock structure I built when building the pond last year-looked like I was looking through clear glass at it.. then I noticed the fish. For the first time in a year conditions are such that I could see a group of 10, maybe 12 or more SMB that have been absent from the creel so far-just sunning. Don't know what it was but seeing that completed another phase of what felt today like accomplishment. Maybe the first time since building the pond that I've felt like "things are working as planned". Good day at the pond.. I have to wonder if this is what everybody feels after all the hard work involved in this venture :-)
I had some guest out to the pond, a friend who was a pro football player yrs back. He brought his son along with his two granddaughters who looked to be 3 going on 4 and a 6yr old. I set them up for cnbg fishing off the pier and the older one took right to it, catching one right after another and up to 9" or so. The little one not so much. Or maybe she is just a little too girly with all that outdoor stuff lol. Will they had a good time and we sent them home with a few cnbg to eat. I also saw a school of TFS swim by as we fished and I was glad to see that. Looking back at it all, I wished I would have taken some pictures.
She did it again. Out fished me in my own pond. This time with a six month old in a pack, and using a Paw Patrol rod and reel. The drag was screaming the whole time. I said, youve got to tighten that drag a bit, she said, its maxed out. Ha! New pond record for SMB.
Thanks guys. Proud dad here. FYI, the SMB was 17. The longest one yet from our small BOW. My hand held scale said 1.25 lb. it was more than that. Either my scale is messed up, or it was in some weird configuration. Wish I would have got the correct weight.
I've been very curious about how the CC are progressing. Bought some strawberry Berkley Power Bait and threw a line out tonight. It didn't take long! Caught 3 very fat CC then fed everyone. Stocked 100CC in Oct 2018 along with BG, HBG, RES and FHM. Decided my goal is grow trophy BG in the tank. Is there a post/thread of the recipe someone has handy? I will add bass likely next spring after a successful BG spawn. There was a great post recently about culling bass more than 14" and female BG to promote big BG. What else?
Roundy - All three looked like this and did not have a forked tail or speckles. bullhead is what I first thought of as well....just thought no way...We have a huge watershed and I have no clue what is upstream.
I knew rain was coming so I had my son come over with his front end loader and scoop the last of my ag lime up (about 4 tons)and place it in washed out gullies that lead into the pond. Well...unexpectedly we got 4 1/2 inch downpour!! But every bit of the aglime got washed into the water at least!! Good news I think? At least it did not go over the spillway. Missed by about 2 inches!!
Luckily, I dropped another 500# of aglime in the pond late last week. It had a few days to settle before we got another 2" of rain yesterday morning. My YTD total is now 35.5 inches. Events are starting to spread out between now, so hopefully it'll ease up soon.
Never thought I'd be happy to see the dog days of summer.
Fished awhile with a flefly(small feathered jig). Havent used anything but Stubby Steves for some time. Caught a couple of medium bg but also caught two 8 inch limb and a CC that went 2.5 to 3 lbs. After the water turkeys hit me I have no idea whT I have. The bass surprised me and I really dont recall stocking cats in 20 years . But, it looked young and healthy.
Yesterday I bought a 4/10hp waterfall pump and some PVC. I built a fountain of sorts that shoots water out over the surface to create some surface aeration during the day. By dusk, all of that scummy PA was gone and then the bottom aerator came on at 11pm. This morning the pond is completely clear.
I tore apart my Ecoplus7 air pump that I use for shallow water aeration, fixed a broken wire, then put it back together and fired it up, it puts out a very nice boil. I have twin diffusers sitting 30" off the bottom in 5ft of water.
I moved the cloverleaf trap to my wetland/sediment pond/forage pond that was stocked w FHM and BG in March. Caught 5 YOY BH, 2 black bass 3-5in, GSF, and likely some HBG. Also caught 5 golden shiners in the main pond that were not stocked. My questions are: Since I am trying to build the forage and introduce bass next spring should the bass be removed or let them grow to start controlling or at least grow to eventually start controlling the BH? Or will the bass be a detriment to the FHM, future bass and since having unknown genetics remove them? Or advance the stocking plan and add bass now? Or build more traps, remove everything I dont want and hope traps are enough to slow down the momentum of the invasion? Or will heavy trapping physically harm too many of the forage I'm trying to develop? Catching lots of BG... or switch to cloth based traps to reduce damage ...
Took a road trip to pickup a pontoon to make into a floating dock. Almost lost one wheel when lug bolts worked loose, but things worked out. Look at the size of the pontoons on it, they are huge, like the better part of three foot across. Aluminum parts are fine but everything else is trash, thinking about putting Trex on it for decking. When new it was very deluxe with power folding canopy, solar panels to charge batteries, microwave, small fridge, and fresh water system with some type of privy setup. This will probably end up a indoor winter project for use next year.
I went out to switch over from bottom aeration to fountain this morning so I took some readings. Aeration is running 9 hours (11p-8a). Surface temp was still 88f, 3' was 87f and 11' was 86f. I've backed off another 3 hours on the startup to give the surface more time to cool. PH was 7.5.
While switching over the systems, I noticed the air line was quite warm. The pump is housed and tho it doesnt have a fan, is very well ventilated. I'm wondering now how much pump heat contributes to the water temp. Not sure how much air gets to cool before it reaches the diffusers.
That should make a super dock, I was planning on doing the same thing and found a really nice one in Iowa on the facebook marketplace, like a 24 fter, I won't be able to get up there and pick it up but for an 8x24 aluminum dock, they were asking 1000.00 for it, you cant build any frame with floats for anywhere close to that. this one already had some kind of floor on it but I don't know how good it was.
We received over 3.5 inches of rain so far since last night. My older pond that leaks some is up 12 inches, still 5.5 inches low, and the newer pond is running out the upper and lower emergency spillways. Looks like another round of rain will be here in an hour or two. Our creek was out of the banks a little. It will have time to run down some.
I did some rod and reel sampling this morning. 5" Male RES in spawning colors, SMB I stocked 9 days ago, and what Cody thinks are bryozoans growing on the dead stems of last years smartweed in the water.
Fish look healthy to me Shorty. Ill have to google bryozoans. Hope they are something you want?
Edit. Up at the pond today. Spent last night and this am mowing. Had two hard 1 rains right before we got here yesterday. Water is 2 deep going out the overflow pipe. Can hear it running hard through the rocks behind the dam. Our soil is still saturated from all the rains so far this year. Renter has beans planted in the 10 ac field that is a big part of my runoff. They are only about 3 tall at this point, so not holding back any water. Makes for some pretty dark brown water..
We have had 4.93" since this rain event started yesterday evening. Looks like some more coming. The ponds are all over the e spillways, even the leaker is about 3/4 inch over the overflow, up over 18 inches since yesterday. I hope all the fresh water doesn't cause any problems. The water still feels warm to my hand. Lots of crawdads are moving on land around the ponds.
We have had 4.93" since this rain event started yesterday evening. Looks like some more coming. The ponds are all over the e spillways, even the leaker is about 3/4 inch over the overflow, up over 18 inches since yesterday. I hope all the fresh water doesn't cause any problems. The water still feels warm to my hand. Lots of crawdads are moving on land around the ponds.
John and Jeff, the rich keep getting richer. lol! I did get about 1.80" over the last 3 days, almost all of it was over the first 2 days. I think that was the first good rain I've had in about a month.
Bob, It's still raining, and we are well over 5 inches now. Every drop now is water down the creeks and over the spillway; the ground is absolutely saturated and "pumping" when walked upon.
In the past four and a half years I have run the water well to keep the pond full during our serious droughts, so I am not going to complain about all the rain I have had in the past 7 months. My son may complain about it because of his commercial bee business but not me. It's nice to see the pond full at or on the upcoming 4th of July.
And we removed another small gator from the pond, that's three so far. They have all been small gators and not looking forward to finding any large ones in the future. The good thing about the gators is I have not seen any otters or beavers lately and my turtle population looks to be down from where it was. Funny thing is, I would have thought I would see them in the drought years where they were looking for water but instead we have them when it's wet all over.
Took a road trip to pickup a pontoon to make into a floating dock. Almost lost one wheel when lug bolts worked loose, but things worked out. Look at the size of the pontoons on it, they are huge, like the better part of three foot across. Aluminum parts are fine but everything else is trash, thinking about putting Trex on it for decking. When new it was very deluxe with power folding canopy, solar panels to charge batteries, microwave, small fridge, and fresh water system with some type of privy setup. This will probably end up a indoor winter project for use next year.
Roundy, this is what we did. We thought Trex would be too heavy for the boat. We put carpet on it but I would advise against doing that as it just traps moisture.
Trex is a bit over 2X as heavy as 3/4 marine plywood when both are dry. Trex doesn't absorb water but plywood tends to get much heavier if continuously exposed to moisture. Add carpet and I don't think there would be a huge difference after a few seasons. That aside, for dock usage, the removal of the motor and the old furniture would more than make up the difference. I bought an old 14 ft flatboat that had a plywood, foam, and aluminum subfloor in it. The continuous moisture caused the aluminum to corrode and leak in multiple spots. When I took it to the salvage yard to scrap it, a boat that should have weighed under 200 pounds crossed the scale at 541 pounds. That made up the price difference between dirty and clean aluminum prices.
I plan to do a pictorial of the conversion process if there is any interest.
Last week, Wife and I spent 5 days at our place. She got on a tractor and mowed the 4 or 5 acre front pasture while I used chain saw, limb saw and sweat to clean up old dead junk around the house. Hauled off 2 16 ft trailer loads to make brush piles. Took 2 days to get it all done and I still need to put in another day around the house. Getting HOT!!
Did some fishing and got some surprises. After the cormorants hit me, I've done some restocking of 3-4 inch BG, 15 pounds of FHM and a dozen 6 inch HSB's. But what they left behind is a mystery. I knew I had some larger BG left because they come to feed. I generally only use Stubby Steves for BG. Decided to try a small feathered jig instead. I caught 4 bass about 8 inches long and tossed them back. That surprised me because I've seen no bass action. But, the big surprise was a channel cat of about 3 pounds. I don't recall stocking them in the last 20+ years but it was a healthy fish and I released it. Also hung what I figure was some larger HSB's that got hung up in structure. I would like to get them out but that might take some effort.
Set a minnow trap in the current of the spillway overflow and caught probably 50 shiners about2-1/2 long so I guess the shiners are still spawning. Another happening was right at dark I noticed fish circling on the surface in several places along the dam..... could this be shad doing a mating dance?
I shut down my deep aerator and put it on a timer to run at night only today, temps are warming up quick here. I sat on the dock and dangled my legs in the water for a bit, I had 2" to 3" GSH nibbling on my leg hair within a few minutes. While I was sitting there I noticed a male FHM in spawning colors dancing around underneath a submerged smartweed leaf.
Even with three days of cloud cover, nighttime temps in the 70s and rain, the pond is still hanging around 80 on top. With the installation of my DIY fountain in place, I've decided to turn my bottom aeration off for the summer and try using surface aeration only. It has done an amazing job of controlling PA blooms so far and I hope the to be able to maintain some decent DO as well as cooler temps in the mid depths. As soon as daytime temps reach the mid 80s again, and stay there or cooler, I'll be switching back to the diffuser and let it run 24/7.
I was walking around the pond this evening and found a swarm of BH fry. First swarm I've seen in two years and definitely the freshest hatch I've found. They were hold up right against the bank in the middle of all my BG beds. Grabbed my dip sein net and was able to remove about 3/4 of the swarm in one fell swoop.
As small as these suckers are, it's amazing how much fire those spines still carry when they poke you.
Think I'll spend part of the 4th catching catfish.
Yesterday morning I was looking over the pond and noticed an area where I saw some flashing and disturbance on the ponds surface. After more investigation and using the boat for scouting, I believe I have had a TFS spawn a short time back. I did manage to get close enough to see a small fry or two (about an inch long) so I am guessing they were small TFS. As I approached the schooling fish they would dive deeper so I did not get a real good look at them. I don't know of any other fish in the pond that would school up like that unless it would be Golden shiners and I am not sure the GSH would act the way these fry acted? Needless to say, I was pleased to see the new fry and hoping these were TFS.
About an hour after feeding this afternoon, I went back out to the pond to try a new dry fly on my flyrod. As I stepped onto the dock I saw another swarm of BH fry, even bigger than the swarm from yesterday. I netted out a big bunch of them again and disposed of them.
I'm curious if the smell of pellets is drawing these fry up into shallow water. Both days, about an hour after feeding, is when the swarms showed up. Both were in the area where I feed, and right up against the bank.
Looks like the cloverleaf traps are gonna be getting a workout as soon as these fry get a bit bigger. They're small enough now to wiggle thru the 1/4" mesh.
We doubt that you will ever regret stocking and raising those smallies to be the great fish they are known as. They can be a really great fish in a warm water pond when provided the right forage species and good management.
Then I fished for a while.. Had six SMB on, but only got one to the boat. Boy are they a blast.
Two tips I learned from a professional SMB guide in SEMO:
1) When bottom-dragging for SMB, the first tap is often for stunning prey. Pause on the first, swing hard on the second.
2) Gear up -- use a higher gear ratio reel when fishing for SMB in relatively shallow water. When they race toward the deep water (and towards the boat), if you don't crank fast enough to keep up with them the slack in the line will allow them to throw the hook. I use a 6.3:1 but 7:1 may be better.
We doubt that you will ever regret stocking and raising those smallies to be the great fish they are known as. They can be a really great fish in a warm water pond when provided the right forage species and good management.
They are fun. Had a day like that last year too. They were hitting anything that went near them. I am not sure I lost any that day. Maybe theyre getting too fast for me. They are in another aggressive state. Seeing big swirls and splashes all around the pond edge. Last year I was catching a lot of golden shiners, this year not so many. I used to think Id never run out of FHM too. Now they are completely gone. Went for a quick swim today after more mowing. Lots of small HBG attacking me. Im thinking the SMB are working them over too.
Two tips I learned from a professional SMB guide in SEMO:
1) When bottom-dragging for SMB, the first tap is often for stunning prey. Pause on the first, swing hard on the second.
2) Gear up -- use a higher gear ratio reel when fishing for SMB in relatively shallow water. When they race toward the deep water (and towards the boat), if you don't crank fast enough to keep up with them the slack in the line will allow them to throw the hook. I use a 6.3:1 but 7:1 may be better.
Ill see if I can determine my reel ratio. If I remember right they were pretty high speed. All the hits I had were taken right at the edge of the water.
Edit. I was going to fish this morning, but the water is a little warmer. Dont want to stress the fish, or make the SMB any more hook shy. So, no fishing for now.
I got tired of hand loading/unloading the little pond boat on/off the trailer to tool around the pond (and did not want it just sitting at the bank), so I built a trailer to do the job. I had to spend about 40$ at the hardware store for the hitch and some hardware. It has an extension for the hitch (not shown in picture) that keeps the tractor from having to get so close to the bank.
It's not too pretty, but matches the condition of the boat...bent up, beat up, and the trailer may hold water better than the boat!
No sure what kind of wheels those are. I was thinking old wheel barrow/utility cart. They would appear to have had solid rubber tires at one time. I'm just glad the old property had a scrap pile on it when we bought it...I love scrounging!
I like the trailer. It's got a nice Fred G. vibe to it.
I've been kicking around the idea of making a lightweight dolly for my pondhopper boat. Wheels and axle that can attach to the stern without tools, and some sort of yoke attached to the front tie ring that can be used to drag it around.
There are going to be a lot of river bottom potholes chock full of crappie after the water goes down, if a guy could get to them...
I like the trailer. It's got a nice Fred G. vibe to it.
I've been kicking around the idea of making a lightweight dolly for my pondhopper boat. Wheels and axle that can attach to the stern without tools, and some sort of yoke attached to the front tie ring that can be used to drag it around.
There are going to be a lot of river bottom potholes chock full of crappie after the water goes down, if a guy could get to them...
A light weight pallet, with bike tires, using a length of all thread for each axle works pretty good as a dolly. Mount the tires on the all thread, then nail the crap out of the rest of the rod with large fence staples to the bottom of the pallet.
I have seen wheel kits on the web like you are talking about Augie...they called them Dingy Launchers. That's what I wanted to do, but my junk pile did have the right stuff, not to mention the more complex design efforts involved.
Two tips I learned from a professional SMB guide in SEMO:
1) When bottom-dragging for SMB, the first tap is often for stunning prey. Pause on the first, swing hard on the second.
2) Gear up -- use a higher gear ratio reel when fishing for SMB in relatively shallow water. When they race toward the deep water (and towards the boat), if you don't crank fast enough to keep up with them the slack in the line will allow them to throw the hook. I use a 6.3:1 but 7:1 may be better.
Ill see if I can determine my reel ratio. If I remember right they were pretty high speed. All the hits I had were taken right at the edge of the water.
Edit. I was going to fish this morning, but the water is a little warmer. Dont want to stress the fish, or make the SMB any more hook shy. So, no fishing for now.
Decent rain so had to check the tank and cloverleaf traps. Only 5BH from the forage pond but 18 in main tank. Bucket stocked them in the cattail pond that is only a foot deep, leaks and never overflows. It's an old saltwater evaporation pond and pretty salty but they should be fine. 1.5in of rain is going to stop the expansion project for a few days.
Then I should own that patent!! My baby brother and I built that exact setup to haul our jonboat down to the calcasieu river. We'd paddle across to the pothole swamp and shoot ducks as teenagers. We weren't old enough to drive yet. You know what they say....necessity is the mother of all invention.
Fish were still aggressively feeding yesterday, a mix of LMB, HSB, and CNBG. My son had good luck with a dry fly ant imitator on a flyrod for panfish. My grandson caught two big LMB, one close to 5 lb, and a solid 2.5 to 3 lb HSB. Once I saw it was a HSB I intervened to end the battle quickly so as not to exhaust it.
Still have a good flow from stand pipe, no noxious fumes. Probably excess rain has kept bottom layer from anoxia so far, but not likely that will continue.
Took some temp and visibility readings this evening (6pm). Surface temp is now 94f, 18" down = 90f and a bottom reading at depth = 84f. Visibility is 36", even with dye in the pond. Short of switching to black dye and really throwing it at the pond, or pumping cooler water from the well, I dont know what else I can do. Only running the surface fountain now, 6 hours from 4-10am.
I'm really hoping that what I read in this month's issue of PBM about fish acclimating to their regional temps holds true.
We're bracing for the first tropical system of the year with predictions of 5-10" of rain in the forecast. That should cool things off a bit, and likely flush the pond for the fifth time this year. YTD rain is 40".
According to Lusk, the fish you catch in 90 degree water and return to the pond will more than likely die from stress. Im through until cool weather (Autumn) returns.
Mowed around the ponds again today. All summer, we have been getting mostly small, but frequent rains. The grass grows so fast you can tell it in half a day after mowing. I probably burn 10 - 12 gallons of gasoline a month just mowing this place. BTW, the dewpoint at 9 PM was 78 degrees!
Checked the traps. 5 YOY BH in the wetland with 2 traps. 15 YOY BH in the main tank mostly in one trap. Captain Obvious told me to fish for larger BH next to a trap...9 and this injured one. In about an hour. Snapping turtle, GBH (three are regulars), owl? Still in 1st year and found this moss getting started. Great for fry but if it is what I've seen before it can take over shallow areas. What is it called? 1.5in rain yesterday and dirt crew made it in to dig and haul quite a bit of topsoil. Free decent expansion! They aren't going very deep (5ft) but it should make for a good spawning area. Considering leaving a cove area but will the water get stale if not connected adequately to deeper water?
Still in 1st year and found this moss getting started. Great for fry but if it is what I've seen before it can take over shallow areas. What is it called?
ShortCut, That looks to me like Sago Pondweed-not a bad thing overall.
Battling Leaf Cutter Ants. They form conga lines from holes to the pond edge. They strip every single leaf off my Canna Lilies, Pickeralweed and Water Primrose. Once these are gone they hold their ant noses and go after the mud plantains.
Before it got dark I followed the conga lines to three holes which were treated with bifenthrin granules.
I'll go looking again in the morning. These guys are pretty near unstoppable but we gotta try.
Fire ants are a continuous battle in North Texas. But, I recently found that if I stir the nest and shake some Sevin dust on it the ants are gone within days. I find no indication that they have moved. I think they might be getting it on their bodies and carrying it back down into the nest.
Down here we encourage fire ants as they help control the leaf cutters, ticks, scorpions and termites. I first met fire ants in Dallas and never thought I'd grow to appreciate them. Still don't like when a dozen of them sting my leg while mowing though.
Fire ants are a continuous battle in North Texas. But, I recently found that if I stir the nest and shake some Sevin dust on it the ants are gone within days.
Thanks Dave for that tip. I will try Sevin dust. I use Amdro and it works ok...but with Amdro I think they are just moving down the way. I wonder if Sevin dust also works on other kinds of ants? I see a lot of non Fire Ants too.
Fire ants are a continuous battle in North Texas. But, I recently found that if I stir the nest and shake some Sevin dust on it the ants are gone within days.
Thanks Dave for that tip. I will try Sevin dust. I use Amdro and it works ok...but with Amdro I think they are just moving down the way. I wonder if Sevin dust also works on other kinds of ants? I see a lot of non Fire Ants too.
When we lived in Gordonville, TX., I found placing a piece of tin siding on top of mound caused them to just move out. Not sure what it does but they were gone in a day anytime I tried this.
Drove around pond to see how things are going. Looks like lots of FHM and GSH with HBG trying to spawn. Some HBG nests being guarded are swept clean and others seem to have quite a bit of green in them. Is this normal? I wondered if the male was waiting on a lady to come along, but it was going to be a long wait. I was always concerned I didnt but out enough spawning habitat for FHM, but I see any possible site being guarded. Any overhead structure really, even if it is about same size as the male guarding it.
I did a little snorkeling and the water is pretty warm from top to bottom. I thought by raising my diffusers off bottom it might leave a little cooler water on bottom but it did not. But my fish are active and are tearing up the water when the feeders go off. The HSB and the feed trained lmb are also really aggressive when hand feeding. All in all everything looks pretty good right now. Except I don't fish when the water is this hot because I am afraid I will hook into a potential soon to be trophy and then the fish would die off before it's potential is reached. Oh well, all is good but I am ready for things to cool down.
I kicked the timer off my deep diffuser this morning, it's overcast and raining so I am going to let it run all day. So far 2.2" of rain in the gauge and it is still raining with more in the forecast later today, the high is only supposed to reach 73F today. This is the type of summer weather that can kill an algae bloom and cause a DO sag.
The "free" expansion project continues. I'm guessing .3+acres but they aren't done yet and have not committed to a completion date. I have no experience but would've done it differently. They are using a long reach excavator. Hopefully they bring in their D6 dozer to pack everything. It's not level and all very soft. The seeping water appears to be allowing faster evaporation as most other ponds in the area are still almost completely full. Going to be interesting to see how and when the dividing "dam" is removed. Feel free to voice your concerns or encouragement!
Caught a couple of fat LMB 5#s. Caught a helmet headed CNBG all the way across the 6acre pond that regurgitated bunch of pellets...... guess they do get around
Put 100 lbs of Aqua Max in feeders. Fish seem to like it just about as well as Optimal, judging by their eagerness. Good to see that they remain enthused in August!
Grandkids are visiting, so they've been helping me reduce the BH population for the last couple days. Throwing them all in my holding pen for the time being.
Only one trap set in main tank yesterday and no BH. Today 11 in it. Pretty sure I saw a small swarm 3 days ago out in the middle. Went ahead and rebaited all 4 traps today in the main pond. Wetland/forage pond is likely going dry in a couple of weeks and very few BH were caught lately. 900+ BH removed from both. 100ft from main pond my Lab ran right past a 4ft rattlesnake yesterday...removed it. 2 weeks ago the dozer guys killed a large copperhead next to the expansion. Snakes have found the new BOW. They are also thirsty. It's very hot and dry here.
I very rarely see a snake since hogs moved in. I kinda miss them. Cotton mouth in my pond that I only see when I don't have a shotgun. I like the snakes better than the hogs.
I've changed poison ivy spray. I now use an inexpensive brand from Tractor Supply that is almost 50% glyphosate. Due to a wet Spring it had erupted everywhere. Had to use a 4 wheeler instead of hand sprayer. Some areas I can't get to.
My wife says she got a "weak" batch of RoundUp last time and now buys another (cheaper) brand of glyphosate. She has been spraying our fences for over 25 years, so she should know what she is seeing. New stuff is working as expected.
I had a rain gauge that was stuck down in the ground. Went there last weekend to see how much I got out of a storm. It was shattered into small pieces. No tracks due to rain but have no cows. Had to be a big hog that stepped on it.
We changed out our spinner type deer feeders and went to gravity feeders. It was pretty simple to do by removing the spinner box and adding a 3 way or 4 way spout that is gravity feed. This keeps the corn off the ground and has made a big difference when it came to the pigs coming to the feed. Another thing that helped was to invite friends over for a pig hunt several days in a row. Hunting pressure did a lot to get the pigs off the place.
We changed out our spinner type deer feeders and went to gravity feeders. It was pretty simple to do by removing the spinner box and adding a 3 way or 4 way spout that is gravity feed. This keeps the corn off the ground and has made a big difference when it came to the pigs coming to the feed. Another thing that helped was to invite friends over for a pig hunt several days in a row. Hunting pressure did a lot to get the pigs off the place.
I'm setting my timed feeder up tomorrow. Was thinking about using gravity feeders, but with the concern over Chronic Wasting Disease (which we dont have a problem with yet, but is in every state around us), I'm apprehensive about having multiple deer feeding from the same spout, which is one way the disease is spread. I'll be busting as many hogs as I can in the meantime.
After a couple weeks of warmer days and nights, and lack of rain the pond has evaporated down about a foot. I continue to hand rake out the little bit of FA on the edges. Still zero vegetation elsewhere (soilfloc may be part to blame and I'd be curious to see if others who do soilfloc on the edges of their pond if the compacted sand also discourages natural rooting of native plants?) I'm not upset as the soilfloc continues to be a great solution to my groundwater pond dropping.
Other reasons for low plant life is (are) crayfish and/or goldfish.
It seems each year, right about this time of August we see the chocolate swirl effect of some type of brown plankton or algae. Timing is good if that means the water is fertile since we have lots of baby SFS and GSH to feed and we need fertile water. I do not fertilize purposely, but am sure that the broadcast spreader that hits the grass around the pond puts some nitrogen into the pond as well. There may be a little runoff too but have not had heavy rains.
Still aerating every night to keep water temps down and the last few days started filling some cold water from my well to top it off.
This is the first year I tried some pond dye. I didn't mind the color but now I'm back to brown color water. It didn't seem to change the bloom potential or timing. At this point with the bloom going I didn't know if I should add some more pond dye in or just let the cycle of life go.
I have been working on my aeration system to get all the diffusers back up and bubbling. PVC air lines and tractor pulled brush hogs don't go well together. So, I got to thinking about why I have not seen the numbers of snakes that I usually see over the summer months. This year I have seen one snake and it was a water snake about 4' long and was laying on the top of one of the brush piles along the shoreline. In the past I might see as many as 14 snakes in a week, all of them in the pond. This year I have seen one snake. You think it is because the lmb and hsb have grown to be larger and more of them? Or because of the past years of removing the snakes by a 410 or the 22 mag? In ether case I am happy not seeing all the snakes this year.
Same with me Pat. I saw a cottonmouth in the pond a couple of weeks ago but didn't have anything to get it with. I used to be infested with snakes of all kinds. Then the pigs moved in and any kind of snake is a rarity.
Pat the first thing I thought of was a while back when DD1 Dave said. Hogs killed/reduced the snakes at this place. But I have only seen one hog in the past 2 or 3 years and I saw him a couple weeks ago on my neighbors place. I have had them in the past 5 yrs. It's easy to recognize if they are there. Going back to the no snakes seen at the pond statement, I don't know if it is due to years of hunting pressure on them or are they being eaten by the lmb?
Yesterday I finished up the work on the aeration lines and got the diffusers up and running again. Water is hot at 89 degrees. Aeration is running from midnight to 9am. The cnbg are very active on feed, the feed trained lmb are feeding along with the hsb when hand feed. They seem to be fewer in numbers when hand feeding but the ones that are there continue to be pretty aggressive. As I boated from one diffuser to the next, looking at the amount of air at each diffuser, I noticed several schools of TFS of different sized fish. Some were a half inch long while other schools were in the inch and a half range. Schools looked to be in the 500 +- numbers of fish in each school. I noticed some of the larger sized cnbg were feeding on some of the smaller sized TFS.
Standard TX summer drought combined with expansion has resulted in a 6ft water drop. Recently a pair of juvinile Roseate spoonbills has shown up to feast on the now puddle forage pond. They are WAY away from home at the coast. They aren't as shy as the GBH. I was going to siphon the forage pond but decided that would move any remaining BH into the main tank. I'm still catching loads of BH. 98 YOY yesterday... There's too much debris to seine the forage pond but since I don't have one I will just save some $$ now and restock it later. My Labs sure enjoy the water seeping into the expansion!
Edit/addition: Got a 5ft throw net today. 100+ dead bullhead, a few GSF and GSH (Gold shiners) around the forage pond. Threw the net 3x and caught 200+ BH. I'm just going to let everything in there die once it dries up by next week. Threw the net 2x near feeding area of main tank and caught 200+ GSH. Should be plenty of forage for 8in LMB being stocked this fall!
It's a Nice private lake for sure. In my minds eye I expected to see more vegetation, and maybe a few cypress trees in it as well. Thanks for posting the pic's Al. NICE !! I know it's a lot of work to keep it so nice with some good fish in it as well. How big are your Lonestar Legacy's getting to be?
Its so hot that I aint gonna do anything at the pond so Im sitting in my deer stand hunting hogs, tonight and last nite, two hogs last nite and so far tonight one coyote that came to the bait ( dead boars)......
Thanks guys. I love the uniqueness of my pond, but DD1 never typed truer words. It is a handful to manage by myself. Tons of help from the guys at Overton's to help steer me in the right direction.
Tracy, I've already planted 5 Bald Cyprus this year, and am about to plant 5 more. With the pond dropping to it's summer water level, I can put them out about a foot deep, and have them close to, or in water year round. Also, my Legacy's RW can't be close you yours. Proper forage is an ongoing issue.
Al, don't BS a BS'er. From what your better half told me @ Highflyers gathering, I know you have some really nice lmb and much larger than I have swimming around. And I think DD1 Dave most likely said it well, lots of cash and time spent. Ha! I have not found any cheep hobbies and chasing pretty girls is not cheep either. That's based on what I have spent and done and I don't have a grow out pond to throw more time at. Well Done !! The lake looking good.
Now, lets look into growing out some big prawns in that new revised grow out pond
Tracy, we may have bigger LMB, but I can say with 100% certainly that our RW's are not near yours. We've both handled enough larger LMB to know when a 6-7 pounder should be closer to 8-9 pounds, and we have plenty of those 6-7's that are under performing.
I'm in on prawns, but I've been told by experienced hatchery guys that they burrow and can be problematic to get out of the pond when the time comes. It might be worth trying if we can figure out an easier way to pull them.
Bob, sorry I missed your question. It's 12 acres at full pool, and can drop to 8-9 acres during late summer.
AL, have you ever considered freshwater sirens? Not the mythical singers, but the amphibians. I remember seeing & hearing plenty of them on the best big bass lake I ever fished in my life, and wonder if they might be part of the reason why 12 to 15 lb LMB were actually pretty common.
Oh yeah, I put out 140 lb of feed at my BOW today. Fish still feeding pretty well despite heat, though not as enthusiastically as they did six weeks ago. I have BG Jr. pellets at grow out pond, seems that YOY are beginning to eat them.
Water clarity, a slight greenish tinge, makes me happy. First time I've achieved a real bloom and kept it going. My wife reported seeing an awesome CNBG, "as big as a dinner plate." When the water cools, we are gonna eat some of the mid size panfish & skinny bass.
Frank, got any idea on when or what month those cnbg had their first spawn in the grow out pond? Did you have the breeder's in the pond during February?
Al, Since my retirement I am pretty busy, more so than what I expected to be. So maybe you have some extra time also? What about grow out cages? I'm sure you have already thought about such things. For me I thought of runways on the top of my hill that overlooks the pond and cold be drained by piping to the pond. But all I have done is think about it. If it takes 10lbs to make a pound then it might take a pretty good sized raceway and lots of fish food and raised in the same tanks with Tilapia for the prawns to clean up after. like I said, I have thought about such things.
Anthropic, you talking about this bad boy? In 2014, I found this one in my hatchery pond. We've also seen smaller ones regurgitated by LMB during electroshockings. I never even thought about rearing them. My guesstimate is that the one in this pic was 8-10".
Tracy, a piped raceway would be nice for sure. I'm not sure I would mix tilapia and CNBG though. Tilapia are extremely volatile when crowded, and they'd probably beat the CNBG to death when they're pulled. A piped system might eliminate that problem. I'm no expert on all things related to hatchery ponds, but I know that there certainly comes a point when food costs let you know it's time to get fish out posthaste. Last time I raised tilapia I was right at a 50# bag of fish food every 3 to 4 days. At that pace, an extra month of growth could easily hit $400-$500.
Eagle checking out our pond this morning. Think it was a Bald Eagle but it might have been a young one because the head was not as pronounced white as I have seen some.
Used to be an extremely rare site to see one (although they migrated overhead high up in the air). Starting to become more common to see them.
Anthropic, you talking about this bad boy? In 2014, I found this one in my hatchery pond. We've also seen smaller ones regurgitated by LMB during electroshockings. I never even thought about rearing them. My guesstimate is that the one in this pic was 8-10".
Yeah, Al, I think that's the same critter. We would hear them when they swam to the surface, released a breath "cusshhhh" (or maybe took a breath?), then went back down. Not sure they really needed to do that, but it was pretty common. Lake Jackson in Tallahassee, Florida back in the 60s.
I kinda wonder if they were part of the reason Lake Jackson was, for a time, the center of the trophy bass universe. Lots of meat on a large siren, and I'll bet they are easier for LMB to catch & swallow than a BG.
Tracy, I'm afraid there was no CNBG spawn until June this year. I'd drained the forage pond and it took time for it to fill. Didn't stock until May, and then only half a dozen. And as luck would have it, this was the TH feeder that malfunctioned so we had to dig out disgusting wet feed. But something is quietly nibbling on the small BG Jr pellets now, I'm pretty sure its YOY.
A siren is an aquatic salamander that looks very much like an eel. I think the picture resembles a greater siren. They can grow up to a yard long! And you're right, they only occur in the south & especially southeastern US, none on West coast.
A spiny softshell turtle decided me and the dogs aren't trying to kill it despite being hooked earlier this summer. It's at least a foot in diameter. It was eating fish food about 15ft away from me and the dogs. I believe there are 3 in the tank. Not too common out here but neither are roseate spoonbills and other birds I've seen.
A siren is an aquatic salamander that looks very much like an eel. I think the picture resembles a greater siren. They can grow up to a yard long! And you're right, they only occur in the south & especially southeastern US, none on West coast.
After a very busy day yesterday cleaning up after have a very large honey locus tree removed, tons of wood to cut and stack, we made today a fun day. After lunch we went fishing in our pond, did not want to clean fish so just played with a big black rubber worm. The BG are a riot hitting and running with the rubber worm. We just laughed and laughed as the BG attacked those rubber worms! Great fun afternoon, no work!
After lunch we went fishing in our pond, did not want to clean fish so just played with a big black rubber worm. The BG are a riot hitting and running with the rubber worm. We just laughed and laughed as the BG attacked those rubber worms! Great fun afternoon, no work!
This little fella came up at feeding time. He took a snip at one of the catfish. He got pretty close I was surprised for the 1st time especially. He got within 10 feet or so.
.75" rain last week and 1.25" yesterday. Very disappointed the pond builder didnt finish the +/-1ac expansion before the rain. Most of the runoff went into the expansion. Doubtful it will dry up before the next big rain...I suspect it will be next summer before it is cleaned up. Doggy paradise.
Neat site anthropic...I wonder how long they would last? I'm afraid they would be like fathead minnows as far as survivability in a pond with predators. There used to be a bait shop near Lake Fork that sold live mud-puppies. I have a hunch 50 placed in my pond might not last even a week.
Wonder if I could stash them in the forage pond & feed them. Sounds crazy, but they'd be ideal to fatten up LMB if they could reproduce & thrive in a protected environment.
You'd think they would be heat tolerant, as they are found all across the South. However, the waterdog site mentioned the importance of keeping them in cool, dark place. Perhaps it's best to stock them when temps drop, much the same as fish.
Mowing and feeding, mowing and feeding. Don't want to catch anything in the very warm waters. Ponds are getting low. We have received a little over 3 inches rainfall this month, all in small bits. One nearby place has received almost 11.5 inches.
Wonder if I could stash them in the forage pond & feed them. Sounds crazy, but they'd be ideal to fatten up LMB if they could reproduce & thrive in a protected environment.
If you do the status quo, you should expect the status quo.
Raising reptiles for forage could be very cool. I've had good luck at my hatchery pond by stocking RBT in the winter, and then doing the tilapia deal in the summer. Reptiles could fill the late Feb to May down time. That would be a heck of a forage rotation.
Just an afterthought, but it hasn't been that many years since tilapia and HSB were verboten in private ponds, but now they're a mainstay. Somebody had to be first.
Al have you ever considered the trout winter forage stocking? I suppose the trout in the winter would have a shorter window than the Tilapia which last thru spring/summer/fall. Tilapia last 6-6.5 months here in North Texas and Trout would last what like 4 months? Plus tilapia probably reproduce at a much higher rate? Not sure the trout would reproduce at all in North Texas?
Mark, I've bought the 3-4" RBT from Overton's, and raised them to 8-10" for forage. Just my experience, but they are a blast to raise, and grow really fast if you feed them pellets, and stock a good number of FHM's also. The small ones jump out of the water when they feed, and it's quite the show. They're also the easiest fish I've ever raised to seine out. They like the more open water in the middle of the hatchery pond, so dropping the water level to make sure you get them all isn't really necessary. They don't stay close to the bank like CNBG.
I've seen them swimming the big pond banks as late as mid March. I'm not sure how long they would live here because they disappeared PDQ. It pretty much depends on the water temps, and if you have O2, which I don't. I guess they're more of a treat than anything else, but it's a fun relatively cheap project for the amount of good they do for LMB.
Zep, as I understand it trout will not reproduce in our ponds. However, they can make good forage, better than BG, due to fusiform shape. I think they'd survive 6 months where I am, Nov-April. Fit well with TP to cover almost the entire year.
Seriously thinking about waterdogs. I can see it in 2025: Purina Waterdog Chow, with a pic of Bob Lusk holding up a giant specimen!
I'm getting way above my pay grade, so I hope any of our northern members would chime in with their thoughts.
Anthropic, I started with 1/8" Cargill, and finished up with 1/4" pellets. As with most fish, they started lightly eating the pellets, but once they settled in it was total chaos. At Todd Overton's advice, I also added FHM's at the same time as the RBT. They wiped those out almost immediately.
I wondered the same thing about stocking them on top of CNBG, and my WAG guess is that they would do well. The CNBG would slow down their feeding with the colder water, and the RBT would thrive at those same temps. I'm not sure if the spiny CNBG would beat them up during seining though.
If targeted for forage, then they only need to be raised until they hit whatever length the majority, or the targeted size, of the LMB you are wanting to feed can eat.
Mark, I stocked them in December both times I had them. The first batch was for fly fishing in the hatchery pond, and I think those were stocked at around a pound a piece. I would think a 1# RBT would be too big for the majority of the average LMB in a pond. Again, only a guess. IIRC, I got 100 for the forage sized RBT, and they filled up both 60 gallon vats on my transport tank by the time I pulled them.
Thanks for the info, Al. One advantage of RBT is that if you buy or feed them up to around 1 lb, only larger LMB could eat them, maybe 2.5 lb and up. Fattening trophies is a good idea. And then you could stock TP in April or May when RBT die out due to heat.
Maybe I'll add them to my CNBG forage pond and see what happens. If necessary, I can drain it directly into my main BOW this fall.
Can those mudpuppies live in southeast kansas. I'm not seeing a zone chart for them.
"Among the largest of the salamanders, mudpuppies can exceed 16 inches in length, although the average is more like 11 inches. Their range runs from southern central Canada, through the midwestern United States, east to North Carolina and south to Georgia and Mississippi."
Retirement has been keeping me way too busy. Finally got back to the pond yesterday. Mowed for six hours and called it a day. Did that so I could just enjoy this morning. Its been a good morning. Now Ive got to go back down with the weed eater.
SetterGuy, that view is outstanding. Thinking of all you went through to get to this point with your pond development it has to feel great to be this far.
I can't tell for sure but it looks like your water has a little bloom action or at least has a little tea/brown colored stain. That slight reduced visibility should help with keeping algae under control? I don't see much in the way of algae problems or surface weeds so that is a good thing!
I assume the SMB or something else is keeping your bullfrog tadpole population down? I had tons and mine are mostly gone. I have some adult leopard frogs but would love to keep the bullfrogs around if I could
How are your YP?
Any sign of PK shrimp (ghost shrimp)?
Congrats on a beautiful setting and some awesome SMB (even if one got the short end of the stick on the 'length vs width' gene pool.
Very Nice Setter! I know what you mean about getting the mowing done first thing...I tend to mow on Fridays so the rest of my weekend can be spent enjoying the freshness of it all... I hate to waste the fresh look in the middle of the week.
Thx CC and QA. I didnt fish too long. Brought the weed eater down and got about half the bank cleaned up. Raked a ton of FA from near where the grandkids fish. (Didnt pull up a single glass shrimp in any of the FA) I did pull out and then return, lots of big bull frog tadpoles. Grandkids coming up next weekend. Want it looking nice. Water level is down about a foot, but we havent had much rain recently. About 1/10 of what weve been getting in St Louis. Interesting to see the mist coming off the water this morning. Im sure that, and the fifty or so big trees are a big part of my water level decline.
I didnt catch a YP today, but I was looking for SMB. That biggest one cleared the water on three jumps. Had me laughing like crazy. Will hopefully catch YP next weekend. I did jump in after a few hours of weed eating. Holy crap, the water had really cooled off. Wasnt in long!
I see a few questions about Mudpuppies (waterdogs) above.. We have an abundance of these throughout KS and Rstringer, yes, theses are present in SE KS as well. You do NOT want these (the larval stage) in a forage pond mixed community as they will wipe out anything under about 5" in length. They are true hell on FHM. Here's a few Pics of adult Sallys that are as docile as anything gets. Their larval stage is totally different though.
Snipe, I understand that "mudpuppies/waterdogs" can be a common name for the larval state of tiger salamanders, but don't the true mudpuppies (Necturus maculosus) remain under water for their entire lifespan?
Either way, I wonder if they exhibit the same feeding traits as the tiger larva?
I have not lived anyplace that was conducive to salamanders...I wonder if they would prosper in my pond? Tigers would be pretty cool to have around (or would they?).
Snipe I know I prolly shouldn't but if I find a few for sale I'm gunna get some. Maybe only 3 just like the koi I'm hearing I shouldn't have did that either. I'm going to call my pond "On Rebel Pond".
I have those in the pond also along with a couple grass crap. Also let father in law bucket stock some bass. Also have 1 lonely turtle. Which I'm glad theres only 1 so far. I think I'm going to put in some lilly pads also. I want a little bit of everything.
Added some active GSH to new pond. And some FHM, one in middle reminds me of Nemo.
Oh, lovely! Keep an eye on the shortie Where did you get them? Lately I've been thinking about buying some FHM and RES for my property in Hungary but can't find good ones for a reasonable price. My pond there is still a little murky though, maybe I should wait a little more before buying anything.
These I got from my local bait store. He ordered them in for me, regular fish stock I normally get from a fish dealer. These were just convenient to get so I could get things started. Probably only a couple feet of water into the pond so far.
Suddenly it turned muggy and in the high 80s today. Got out of work late so got to hand feed at dusk. Every night just before dusk 4-5 bats come out and swoop around over the pond.
Tonight I happened to be feeding right at dark and the fish were going crazy at the surface snapping up the feed. The bats were unusually low and continued to swoop down into the area of the fish feeding and a few times snapped something off the surface.
Could it be possible they are getting tiny minnows? I can't imagine there were aquatic insects at the surface as the water was quite disturbed and I can't imagine the bats could pick a floating insect off the wavy water.
of course how cool would it be if the bats were snacking on my Optimal Jr. pellets!!
Probably only a high speed camera would really answer the question.
The best guess is that they probably were just getting a drink, yes?
Anthropic - I Couldn't agree more with ya. I'm not interested it trophy's. Mine pond is more for the looks, swimming and fun fishing m feeding. Heck I even let the turtle stick around. Now on to the bats.. I had a couple of mine in our pool before. I was told they drink like that by swooping down on water for a quick drink. Neighbor might have just been BSing me.
curious how they packed them so that they could stay alive in a box? I understand their gills need to stay wet to survive out of water? What was the transit time and from what location?
Place was in Ohio and I'm in Central Illinois. They mailed Monday and I received Thursday morning. Interior of box was cool, not warm at all. They seemed to have packaged them on sopping wet sphagnum moss, 12 to a plastic container about the size of about 24oz cottage cheese container but made of hard plastic like a solo cup. Holes punched in the top and taped to keep closed. The containers were set inside a cardboard box and containers were packed in with damp newspaper that may have been frozen when first packed. Box was a bit damp but held up well. Craws were frisky for the most part with a few casualties but less than one would expect for the journey they had. $60 Shipped for 120 craws. I bought them last year for my bigger pond with about the same results, would buy again.
Dumbfounded Went looking for my ECHO Polesaw and it has come up missing. I worked on it a while back thought I put it away and now I am not sure if someone needed it more than me or I just misplaced it. I had two young men out to the pond and worked to remove some of the Willows that are so invasive at the pond. Wound up using one of the chain saws along with some roundup 365 to dab on the top of the willow cut. We also replaced a couple of the metal 55 gal drums used for floating my pier and replaced them with plastic drums. We used the front end loader and some straps/chains to pick up one end of the pier and slipped out the drums that needed to be replaced. The water was cooler than I expected after it had been in the mid 80's just a few weeks back. Now I am thinking I might be ok to start up a little fishing in a couple weeks. Still have a lot more Willows to be removed. I also increased my feeding time by 2 seconds on two of the three TH feeders. Bg were very active along with seeing several lmb in the 3lb range moving around and in with the bg. It was a long day at the pond.
Eric, anything is possible when it comes to me and my projects My CRS seems to be getting a little worse each year. I am going to backtrack my last trip around the farm. It's possible it is laying on the ground someplace if it was knocked out of the back of the side by side. I can see it now, where I forgot (CRS again) I had it back there and I caught on something that pulled it out of the back of the Polaris without me knowing it. Hay! what's another 400 bucks for replacement? Dam it!
Place was in Ohio and I'm in Central Illinois. They mailed Monday and I received Thursday morning. Interior of box was cool, not warm at all. They seemed to have packaged them on sopping wet sphagnum moss, 12 to a plastic container about the size of about 24oz cottage cheese container but made of hard plastic like a solo cup. Holes punched in the top and taped to keep closed. The containers were set inside a cardboard box and containers were packed in with damp newspaper that may have been frozen when first packed. Box was a bit damp but held up well. Craws were frisky for the most part with a few casualties but less than one would expect for the journey they had. $60 Shipped for 120 craws. I bought them last year for my bigger pond with about the same results, would buy again.
I would be interested in an address or name of the place you purchased those craws, I love them for forage for bass and even crappy, the pond I fish in currently is loaded with them, you never see them but all the crappy and any injured bass that I clean are always loaded with them, but I am filling a new pond with fish so I wouldn't mind to get a good start of them in that pond before I introduce the predator fish. Thanks in advance!
Place was in Ohio and I'm in Central Illinois. They mailed Monday and I received Thursday morning. Interior of box was cool, not warm at all. They seemed to have packaged them on sopping wet sphagnum moss, 12 to a plastic container about the size of about 24oz cottage cheese container but made of hard plastic like a solo cup. Holes punched in the top and taped to keep closed. The containers were set inside a cardboard box and containers were packed in with damp newspaper that may have been frozen when first packed. Box was a bit damp but held up well. Craws were frisky for the most part with a few casualties but less than one would expect for the journey they had. $60 Shipped for 120 craws. I bought them last year for my bigger pond with about the same results, would buy again.
I would be interested in an address or name of the place you purchased those craws, I love them for forage for bass and even crappy, the pond I fish in currently is loaded with them, you never see them but all the crappy and any injured bass that I clean are always loaded with them, but I am filling a new pond with fish so I wouldn't mind to get a good start of them in that pond before I introduce the predator fish. Thanks in advance!
Love craws, both in pond & boiled, but be aware they may eat some of your pond plants. I haven't stocked any for that reason, as until this year I've had a hard time growing pond plants. This spring will be a different matter!
Anthropic - I will concur on the pond plant issue. I have done three different plantings trying to get plants started in my 2 ac pond. I haven't been able to get anything started yet. Not even any natural occurring plants except just a smattering of smartweed. Earlier this spring I had a coating of green on the pond bottom around the edges and in the BG nests, but even that is gone now. I don't think that is all by accident, them craws are hungry rascals. For now, I'm going to add some more hedge brush and see what develops. The pond has only been filled since this early spring, but had but was dug a couple of years ago, I had to rework watershed to get pond to fill.
As many of you know, I stocked too many crawdads in my pond prior to stocking the game fish and the craws outgrew the fish. The only plants that have taken to naturally growing IN the water are the Arrowheads (and the occasional culled cattail). I successfully planted a few Pickerel Weeds that made it through the winter and have planted a couple Thalia dealbata this year and some Kidneyleaf Mud Plantain. The craws don't seem to eat these in my pond, maybe they would be something to consider in y'all's ponds that have crawdad populations.
I tried American pond weed too, but the craws uprooted them all and they are now hanging in pots off the dock and seem to be doing well, but the craws can't get to them.
I used to feed baby LMB and BG/RES in an aquarium . One item I would use was tiny craws about the size of a green pea. The fish loved them. I rotated fish in and out as they got bigger. A few months later I noticed that some new small fish had cuts on them and the fish number was down from stocking. I looked real close and under some stacked rocks was a 3 inch craw snacking on a dead BG. One of the tiny craws obviously survived and hid in the rocks. One days prey becomes the next weeks predator.
Although less than 50 miles from areas flooded by Imelda we are still waiting for some serious rain. In the past few days Imelda has probably dropped a half inch at our ranch. The biggest benefit has been for the grass and forest, both were suffering from a prolonged hot dry spell. The ground is not saturated so no runoff to the pond yet.
Imelda may still dump something on us tonight. Fingers crossed.
What did I do in my pond today. Well, I have about a 1/4 to 1/3 acre Michigan pond that is stocked with about 10 large mouth bass and 75 bluegill. I fed those bluegill with a purina gamefish feed about 32% protein. Just have been doing that for about 2 weeks and they are starting to learn and are starting to turn up the water. Noticed my minnow population and baby bluegill population are exploding and the bass are going crazy on them around the shores. Plenty of places to hide for these minnows, but the bass are crafty. Oh, and up here in Michigan(at least my town) has abnormally low rain this summer. Lost about 27 inches over 6 months.
Rah, some areas around Houston got up to 40 inches of rain. One, a little more. While that's unusual and overwhelming, it's not unheard of. One problem along that area of the Texas coast is overbuilding. The areas that were once natural drainage areas have been developed with a lot of houses and other structures which impedes the natural runoff back into the Gulf.
Who was the singer that sang "They paved paradise and put up a parking lot."? I've never seen a politician that didn't want growth.
We pond and wetland builders are certainly helping slow the movement of water and reducing flooding downstream, but some poor regulations certainly discourage such activities. Often, imagined risks are considered without considering the tangible benefits. Wears me out sometimes...
RAH, great time to post up that picture with the statement about regulations and the unforeseen consequences. Texans for the most part don't like regulations and really don't like them when it comes to the land the own through working to get it or by family passing it down through generations. Not a lot of regulations here when it comes to pond or wetland building. We even get tax breaks for wild life preservation. Similar to as if we were growing crops. What concerns me is the fact that many people are now moving into Texas and they come from over regulated areas across the USA. It's just a matter of time before they will want to change Texas to be like the place they left.
As far as our weather, it's either feast or famine and has been that way as far back as I can remember
Aside from getting forage minnows back in the spring, my local guy has been unable to broker the fish I want for my pond.
I fetched some RES back in June and hauled them home in a bag. It was a short trip but they suffered a bit.
Now it's time to road trip for YP, so I put together a semi-proper transport system. 275 gallon IBC tote with a pair of 800gph pumps for circulation and cooling, and a 125cu/ft tank of pure O2 for the bubbler. I'm thinking I'll swap in a bigger ice chest before I head out.
Finally cast a line in my old pond. Caught a 12-14" fat LMB and moved it to the little artesian pond hoping it will chow down on GSF that must have migrated in during flooding. Not sure it will survive the differences in water or the handling, but we will see. Took a minute to remove the hook, but was only in the bucket for 2 minutes, but it really did not fit either. Gills stayed under water though.
Went to my 7 yoa Great Grandsons football game. They lost.then we headed 2.5 hours North to my place. Got up this morning and went fishing for BG with Stubby Steves. Along with a bunch of BG, he caught a 10 inch HSB that I stocked a couple of months ago at 4 to 6 inches. It looked healthy and he got excited. He caught one last year, prior to the cormorants, that went about 8 lbs.
The boy does love to fish my ponds. Wish he lived closer
Wife and I started to go on a paddle boat ride. Started off then realized we left the fish food bucket on the dock. She pedaled up near but not as near as I thought. Stepped toward the dock with the boat rope in my hand and fell backwards between the boat and the dock.
Hurt my pride, but that's all. Well not exactly. One fried cell phone and one wet contents of billfold. And lost my glasses.
So went to the house and got mask, fins and snorkel. It was just dark by that time but since the visibility is about zero in that pond it did not matter anyway. Might as well closed my eyes. Did three free dives in about 7' of water and on the third dive down retrieved my glasses.
Ran across a mussel that must have been 6" long.
The pedal boat ride duration was about ten feet for me tonight. I guess I did get a little snorkeling in though.
Picked up a Great Grandson who lives about 100 miles South of me. Actually, went to his first grade football game on Saturday morning. When he saw me his first question was whether he could leave with me and go fishing after the game. You know the answer. So, we left and headed about 175 miles North to my place. Got up the next morning and went fishing before the water heated up too much for the fish to survive being caught. He caught some nice BG, a small bass and a recently stocked 10 inch HSB. The HSB had doubled in size since stocking about 3 months ago.
Then got on a 4 wheeler to check out deer feeders. After that, went to the back of the place to feed catfish and GSF in a small 1/4 acre pond. He wants to catch a cat and I bet I'll let him. That afternoon, he wanted to head back to my house to see Grandma. I talked him into spending the night and then go see Grandma. Yesterday back to his Mom.
Those weekends are priceless, David. Sorry about the dip SNRUB, Im pretty impressed tho that you were able to recover your glasses in 7 ft of water, Don't think I would have made that,, I find that a snorkel is pretty ineffective after about 3-4 ft of water.
That is great Dave. Priceless time he will remember forever. Be sure and instill your appreciation for GSF in him. Our club is pretty small and needs all the members it can get.
A snorkel gets ineffective below about a foot. Lungs can't breath in below that depth much (because of the water pressure exerted on them) and if they can you just exchange old air in any longer length tube so get no new O2 and lots of CO2. So below about a couple feet, it is all up to breath holding and free diving. The snorkel just lets you breath easily while resting on the surface. Once upon a time I could free dive to 50'. Don't even try any more, although since I have lost about 90# I think I might be able to make it 2/3 that far.
I was trying to free drive around Cancun before. I could only make it about 15 feet and felt like my body was being crushed. It was totally different while scuba diving. I have no clue why it was different but my body felt it for sure.
Almost stepped on this fat daddy last night. Picked him up a scared my wife with him. She called me some names and ran. I can run alot faster than her so she meet him in person. Good night lol.
A first for me. I removed 2 14" lmb and one 15" for eating and cooked em up last night. I was sure they were males, and when I cleaned them there were no eggs. Fishing was good and the top water bite was on. The only bad thing was after catching around a dozen I had a nice 4 lb'er break me off and I hate that. I don't like leaving a lure in a nice 4 lb fish. I should have checked my line after each fish was caught. Dumb on my part! The other lmb caught were in the 16" size and were fat and sassy. I did not weigh them but am sure they were above the charts since a 16"er would not be in the 3lb range. I also discovered I have a lot more Bushy Pond weed than I thought I had. More than I want, so Grass carp and spraying weed killer will be needed. I also discovered my diffusers were not running, set up for midnight to 9 am. I know they were running a few days ago but not sure how long it's been since they were running and when of if they were running. Sometimes we will lose power at the farm and then when the power comes back on my timer starts back but starting times will not be where I want them, so I suspect the diffusers are running but not sure what time of day they are starting up. Will check on that today. It was a good day at the pond.
That is great Dave. Priceless time he will remember forever. Be sure and instill your appreciation for GSF in him. Our club is pretty small and needs all the members it can get.
A snorkel gets ineffective below about a foot. Lungs can't breath in below that depth much (because of the water pressure exerted on them) and if they can you just exchange old air in any longer length tube so get no new O2 and lots of CO2. So below about a couple feet, it is all up to breath holding and free diving. The snorkel just lets you breath easily while resting on the surface. Once upon a time I could free dive to 50'. Don't even try any more, although since I have lost about 90# I think I might be able to make it 2/3 that far.
50ft is extremely impressive, Ive never been able to get half that deep, but I can appreciate the pressure gradients at that depth, I did commercial diving, surface supplied, for a company out of Lafayette LA for a short period of time back in the day.
Poor man's chiller. I replaced that 48 with a 150 before I made the trip. Coiled up 50' of garden hose connected to a bilge pump. Circulates the tank water and helps a lot to keep the temp down.
Worked great to keep cold the case of Shiner Bock I bought in Ogden.
Well hopefully she made room for even bigger ones. Fellow who caught her is gonna eat her. He was so excited. He just took up fishing this year and has watched YouTube videos to learn.
Thank you for being a group to share successes (and a few failures) with. I'll post a pic with the happy fisherman holding the fish once he sends it to me (those were taken with his phone).
Thanks go to my neighbor for keeping the BG in check, and to a nice bit of plant cover. Really like that my friend was so happy. Looks like my genetics are OK.
It's good to see a nice sized lmb caught since they seem to be hard to catch at my place right now. I know the big ones are there but they are a lot harder to catch then the 2 to 4 lb lmb in the pond. I think it may be because there is a lot of bg for them to feed on. And as they get bigger they become smarter or wiser much like we do as we get older. Studies have proved fish are smarter than we think
This pond is rarely fished for bass, so this one may have been naive. Caught on a large white plastic worm. She's in the freezer of the fisherman, so now others can fill the niche.
We have had steady rain as the warm wet stream of weather continues on the 'pineapple express' from Hawaii. Steady rain means more and more street runoff and pond overflow.
I had plans to dig in some overflow pipes to direct water towards a specific spot in the woods on the far side of the pond, however, I can see now that I can direct all I want but when there is this much water it still is going to overflow in all directions.
Fortunately this year the aerator went on a platform made of a half of a 55 gal drum filled with expanding foam. The cabinet is on top of a floating piece of styrofoam cooler lid for added good measure come high water (and some vibration damping effect). Glad it didn't submerge!
Lots of water in the woods. It is interesting that I don't see any minnows in the overflow water. I fed them at their usual spot on the opposite banks and they happily fed like usual, oblivious to their new domain in the wooded area.
The dog figured out he can wade around in the water since the shock line that goes around the pond is way out in the deep water now!
The landscaping on the opposite side of the pond is nearly touching the water, we never had water that high!
If you look closely in the 4th picture you can see the orange goldfish just under the surface cleaning up on pellets!
Can't get this one to post straight. If you download the file (#5 below) it will show up correctly.
Sorry about the flooding. We got record rains just after the pond was completed. It filled in one day. Pond builder visited because of his concern, but good design allowed it to handle the deluge. Hope all is well when things settle down!
The last two ponds we built (One was 4.5 acres, one was 30 acres) filled with the same rain. The 4.5 acre pond took 2.5 years to fill and the 30 acres took 3-4 months to fill.
Sweet buck RAH. Congratulations. This is the first year out of 10 that I didn't go opening morning. I was to worried about the heat. I'm going tonight and Saturday night. I have a doe on camera since 2015 that has no tail. She should be 6 years old at this point. I am actually hoping my Dad can harvest her. He retired this year and is looking forward to hunting more with me and vice versa.
P.S. Finding any deer from EHD? We haven't found any. We hunt in southern Ripley County where there was some reports of them. Hope it cools soon and rains.
None of the worrisome deer diseases reported in my area. We have a lot of water sources which may help avoid concentrating the deer in one area, at least this is what I am hoping... Hot weather made fast processing a must. Deer went down in its tracks which helped (no tracking). Very close shot, so I did a neck shot which is tricky, but my crossbow is very accurate.
Update: Big doe hanging in the barn. If it did not have young with it, I would not have been sure it was not an antlerless buck. Went down really quick, so a very short drag, which is always a bonus for an old guy like me...
We are near the center of the deer disease area. In the last 3 years, we have gone from routinely seeing herds of 20 or more to rarely seeing a deer.
That is unfortunate. Hoping hunter pressure can keep our herd healthy but that is probably wishful thinking. DNR cut our county bonus-doe number in half (from 4 to 2), but folks that hunt in multiple counties can take the county limit in each county (seems like odd regulations to me). Filled my 2-deer archery limit, so now on to bonus deer after processing doe in barn. Can also take an additional doe with muzzle loader. Far more complicated than necessary...
I'm not a hunter but I'm an eater lol. I took some back straps last year and soaked in spike overnight. Then drained then Sprite again with seasoning for few hours. On to the smoker it went. That's was better than any cut of meat iv ever had. Of yeah covered in spray butter also. Not trying to turn this into a recipe thread just sharing lol.
I'm not a hunter but I'm an eater lol. I took some back straps last year and soaked in spike overnight. Then drained then Sprite again with seasoning for few hours. On to the smoker it went. That's was better than any cut of meat iv ever had. Of yeah covered in spray butter also. Not trying to turn this into a recipe thread just sharing lol.
Wish we had someone who likes to cook at our house!
Thanks gehajake and roundy....they are very well made and stable. Looking forward to fishing the middle of the pond for a change. She caught the first fish outta the boat today...a striper. She'll never let me forget she caught the first one..lol. gehajake if ya decide to look into it call and ask for Kevin Houtwed...he is the owner and a really nice guy...and will will make any customizations happen.
Zep tht is a very cool pond toy. Many fishing story will be made and told from it. I'm adding a picture of my pond and you all will know why I'm jealous lol.
Congrats on another one RAH. Hunted Friday night with my dear old Dad. So glad he can still go with me. We didn't see any. I also hope the DNR keeps our herd healthy. The last few years have been great. We primarily hunt Ripley County which was an 8 quota for a few years but as with all countys, we are 2 this year as well. The tag limits are kinda crazy aren't they? I tried explaining to a young man at work about harvesting during archery season, then allowed 1 during muzzleloader, and then the bonus does, he just looked at me with daze and confusion. LOL. Good luck.
Airborne - Best of luck to you and your dad this season! Had a limb on my TenPoint crossbow delaminate while cocking it yesterday (dangerous!). I have had several problems with this crossbow since buying it after shoulder surgery, and I have not been happy with their service. It is currently at a dealer who is handling the repairs this time, but I bought a Ravin and it was cheaper, and is faster, better constructed, more accurate, easier to cock, and way lighter. Only downside is the white camo pattern which seems to be trendy these days. Live and learn on buying from a company that has apparently gotten too large to maintain quality control. I'll use the TenPoint in foul whether to spare the Ravin the harsh conditions.
Going to try eating a few BH and a deep hooked 8in GSF. The CC stocked 1 year ago almost to the day are also growing. 2 CC caught and released tonight. First bounty of the pond!
The fish at my place has completely shut off at feeding time. Last 2 days they have went from eating like piranhas to zero. It's getting down into the low 30s now at night now.
A couple days ago our water was just over 60 and some eating to 50 today and nothing. I did take the feeders out because our high is not going above 45 in the next week. I guess it is time to be getting the ice fishing gear in good order. That is usually our best fishing.
Feeding dropped off to next to nothing so I put the remaining feed in storage for the winter. I also changed the aeration over to the winter diffuser only setting and shut it down until needed when ice and snow show up. I have it rigged so I can just flip a switch in the house when I want to turn it on to blow a hole without having to bundle up and trudge to the pump house at the pond.
Yup - Have only seen one two times while hunting, but they have been spotted in every county of Indiana. This one is quite small, but I saw a big tom a few years back. Way cool! Can see much better if you zoom in.
My buddy had a pretty wild experience last spring while spring turkey hunting, had his grandson out hunting in the youth season, he had two of them come in to his turkey calling and when they got close they split up and came in on them from opposite direction planning on ambushing this turkey, they were hid in some tallish grass and the bobcats came within 15 yards before they realized it wasn't a turkey they were stalking. said it gave him chills the extreme teamwork they displayed in their endeavors.
Feeding dropped off to next to nothing so I put the remaining feed in storage for the winter. I also changed the aeration over to the winter diffuser only setting and shut it down until needed when ice and snow show up. I have it rigged so I can just flip a switch in the house when I want to turn it on to blow a hole without having to bundle up and trudge to the pump house at the pond.
Bill my feeding has gone sporadic. One day they will tear the feed up, then we get a cold front and there will be feed floating uneaten.
I set my timers to half the amount and timed them to mid day instead of morning and night.
Last year when I was only hand feeding, I fed all the way up to the beginning of December. Not sure what is going to happen this year with the feeder.
The SMB in my RES/SMB pond have pretty much quit feeding. The water has cleared up and I can see them a foot below the surface, but for the most part they just ignore the feed. So I will toss out a little on a warm day to see if there is interest, but pretty much stopped feeding them. That is one advantage of hand feeding. You get to observe what is going on.
Feeding dropped off to next to nothing so I put the remaining feed in storage for the winter. I also changed the aeration over to the winter diffuser only setting and shut it down until needed when ice and snow show up. I have it rigged so I can just flip a switch in the house when I want to turn it on to blow a hole without having to bundle up and trudge to the pump house at the pond.
Bill my feeding has gone sporadic. One day they will tear the feed up, then we get a cold front and there will be feed floating uneaten.
I set my timers to half the amount and timed them to mid day instead of morning and night.
Last year when I was only hand feeding, I fed all the way up to the beginning of December. Not sure what is going to happen this year with the feeder.
The SMB in my RES/SMB pond have pretty much quit feeding. The water has cleared up and I can see them a foot below the surface, but for the most part they just ignore the feed. So I will toss out a little on a warm day to see if there is interest, but pretty much stopped feeding them. That is one advantage of hand feeding. You get to observe what is going on.
John,
Sounds like we are seeing the same thing. I opted to just quit feeding but I'll bet there will still be a few days when they would feed well. I hand feed and like the control it gives on the amount fed per day. Even during the summer, there are days when a front moves thru that they don't feed well. On those days, I might take half the pail of food back to the house. I considered a small feeder to keep feeding consistent even when I can't make it to the pond, but I have a bad FA problem and really don't need any extra nutrients that uneaten food will provide....Besides, I like to watch them eat!
This past cold spell effected my cnbg feeding the past 4 days at the feeder that throws into 4 to 5' water. They pretty much shut off at that feeder but the other two feeders that throw into 7 to 10' water remained active. I expect the shallow feeding cnbg will turn back on after the warmer weather over the next few days. I might get a chance to ck water temps today. The hsb and lmb are actively feeding with fish to 7.5 lbs.
Augie showed up last night and spent the night in God's country NW Kansas so we absolutely had to send him home with a load of nice Yellow perch today! Augie and his wife left us a huge bag of homegrown pears and they are very, very tasty :-)
Tbar glad our dog wasn't with us and that the ATV didn't fling the snake upwards. She posted the snake pic on www.facebook.com/groups/whatsnakeisthis/ and they confirmed Cottonmouth.
My water is clear for the first time since it's beginning coming up on 5 yrs this November. Sam (the younger Golden Retriever) and Charlie the little toy Poodle/Maltese who is now 8 yrs old and who the family lap dog made a trip around the pond yesterday. We stopped by the feeder that throws into 10 foot of water. I watched some dozen or so lmb that all ranged in the 4 to 5 lb size swim along the bottom of the pond in the 4 to 5' water depths. For me, it was something to see. As I watched I saw a nice size school of 5" TFS swim by along with some nice sized cnbg that was hanging out in the area. I threw out some of the Purina LM feed, a few chunks at a time and watched these nice sized lmb come up and feed pretty aggressively. As I did this slowly, a few chunks at a time, I saw some 5 lb HSB move into the picture. They also feed pretty aggressively. The whole picture was something to see. As we made our way around the pond to the pier. We all set there and began our hand feeding the lmb feed. And again the show was on. These lmb and hsb were a little smaller for the most part but still nice sized. There were a lot of 4" cnbg hanging out along with some larger sized ones. And another school of TFS showed up but these were in the 3" sized. While watching all of this a school of some dozen or so HSB came in like a line in the sand. Busting the feed and busting the TFS school. So aggressive and moving so fast I was not able to tell what sized fish these were. It was good to see all of this at the pond. It was a good time relaxing and spending some time with the fish and the dogs. And I didn't do any fishing. I'm not sure I want all this clear water but is nice to see what down there in the pond.
Took a road trip to windblown western Kansas, where Snipe loaded my tank with some very nice YP. We all made it home in good shape, and everyone is happy except for my shiners, who are now being terrorized by these new savages.
I couldn't do anything today except look at the ponds. We have had over 2" of rain so far today, and well over 10 inches in October. My older (leaking) pond is less than 5 inches from full, and the newer pond has been running over most of the month. CC were still feeding well as of last evening. I've already had over 54 inches of rain this year, with 2-1/4 months to go. If it's even normal through the rest of the year, it might hit 60". The ground pumps like walking on a stiff wet sponge. Simply amazing!
John, after years of frustration I'm thrilled for you to see a heavy rain month and to see you have hope that the old 'leaker' pond might just look full for a little while.
John, after years of frustration I'm thrilled for you to see a heavy rain month and to see you have hope that the old 'leaker' pond might just look full for a little while.
post some pictures if you have time!
I would but it's still raining. I hope Bobbss in east Missouri gets some good rain on his relatively parched watershed. If it keeps this up, my old pond will be over the overflow in a couple hours. Putting on a rain jacket to go look.
Edit: Still raining. Old pond lacks 3 inches to overflow, rising rapidly. More rain coming. I suspect it will run over in less than three hours, which means it will merge with my forage pond about an inch deep, necessitating a draining and restart of that pond next year due to small BG and LMB migrating into it. There's probably 10,000 gambusia in it now, plus 10 Koi that I am growing out enough to save from predation. I wonder if Koi migrate downstream?
John, still no good rain here. I had just under 1" for all of September, and I'll have to check my log book (it's in my truck), but I think I'm at around 1.5" for October so far. I'm hoping for some on Saturday. I hope I get a good one soon, so I can see if the work I had done to my watershed is going to help much.
We are at 35 YTD. Right at the 10 yr average. 90 mi south in St Louis 54 way above average. Pond is down 2 as we havent had much rain for the last two or three months. My leak is still there, but very slow. Im not sure, but I think the trees May take as much as the leak does. See the drop on the dam behind me. Caught a SMB on Sunday (released). A few other SMB, but 99% HBG.. My grandson can row that boat around the pond for hours. He came over to watch me catch the SMB.
Pic also shows the drop. This used to drive me crazy. I wanted 100% full all the time. Now Im just, it is just going to do what its going to do. Ha!
Oh that's seems crazy for this year (SE KANSAS). Ever since I decided to draw down my pond in 2018 I dont think its stopped rain here. Just put a tractor along the bank. It's like a modern day rain dance. I swear it works lol.
Oh that's seems crazy for this year (SE KANSAS). Ever since I decided to draw down my pond in 2018 I dont think its stopped rain here. Just put a tractor along the bank. It's like a modern day rain dance. I swear it works lol.
I've decided to pretty much let my ponds do what they are going to do also. But, they are all full this afternoon, and it finally stopped raining at least for a bit. The old pond did not get overfull, thankfully, so did not quite merge with the forage pond. The barrier between them worked.
Pictures were requested. First pic is my older pond (renovated Aug 2015). Second pic is the forage pond (built Nov 2015) with the older pond in the background. Last pic is the older pond (renovated Aug 2015) with the new pond in the background.
I was wrong, I'm only at 1.35" so far this month. They say I should get 1"-2" tomorrow. Probably won't help a lot, as dry as it has been, but it all helps. John, you're ponds look good.
I do believe any hunter would be proud of him. Very nice good luck finding him.
Sorry RS, I had posted that on the wrong thread, I transferred it to the, "Got a nice one Saturday" thread if you were referring to the deer pic. Sorry!
We have had another 1.29 inches rain. Everything is completely soaked. The ponds all reached an all time high, but the rain has now moved out but for a lingering mist, so no breaching disasters pending. The barrier to larger fish between the forage pond and old pond has held up, and I have seen no migration of fry between ponds or out the spillways. I guess they don't migrate much with fall floods. We've received 12.17" rain here so far this month. Might be a record October.
I'm transferring the next two weeks rainfall to Bobbss and SetterGuy. LOL
It's been dry here for the last couple of weeks. Water temps are in the low 50s, I did catch two RES last night. Earlier the week I stocked a small number of 6-8" walleye.
I do believe any hunter would be proud of him. Very nice good luck finding him.
Sorry RS, I had posted that on the wrong thread, I transferred it to the, "Got a nice one Saturday" thread if you were referring to the deer pic. Sorry!
We have had another 1.29 inches rain. Everything is completely soaked. The ponds all reached an all time high, but the rain has now moved out but for a lingering mist, so no breaching disasters pending. The barrier to larger fish between the forage pond and old pond has held up, and I have seen no migration of fry between ponds or out the spillways. I guess they don't migrate much with fall floods. We've received 12.17" rain here so far this month. Might be a record October.
I'm transferring the next two weeks rainfall to Bobbss and SetterGuy. LOL
Ha John. Thanks. It came to St Louis instead. We received another inch in St Louis, but .1 up at the farm. All the farmers are in full harvest mode up by our place. They are hoping it stays dry. Our beans have been combined. Im hoping he gets winter wheat in soon. Its crazy though how much different the two places are in regards to rainfall, and 90 miles apart.
SetterGuy, depending on where you are in NW Arkansas, in October we received from 11 inches to 19 inches of rain. Well over 12 inches here at my ponds. That's roughly 260 miles SSW of your place, straight line distance.
I was surprised to see a few tadpoles still around the edge of the pond this morning. No minnow activity or reaction to hand thrown feed either, but it was 35F here also. Seen large three toed tracks along pond edge and in water also, there must be a GBH shopping for groceries along with the plethora of raccoons by the number of tracks.
Refilled four feeders. Fish responded well to three of them, kinda inactive at the fourth. Bigger CNBG, LMB, and HSB seemed to dominate more than usual, smaller CNBG and LMB were scarce. Eaten, gone deep, not sure, but I do know that weeds have retreated a lot so maybe they got flushed out & met an untimely end.
Delighted to see duck potato flourishing in a few spots along with am pondweed. My devious drawdown plans had a setback when it turned out we got left with a device to open the valve that didn't fit! Recent rains kept BOW at full pool and water running out of top of standpipe, a good sign.
Low Temps supposed to hit freezing later this week. It will be interesting to see if the TP survive. Previous experience has shown that they don't all die on the same day, some apparently hold out longer than others. I'd enjoy netting a few for a fish feast!
Hoping for good rain Tuesday and Wednesday along with cold weather. My fish have shut down on feeding. This will be the coldest opening weekend for deer rifle season I remember. The most positive aspect of the drought is that the neighbors 600ac "feedlot" of winter wheat has not come up yet. I have counted 100+ hogs and 60+ deer there on one morning. Should make for a great opening day! No moon as well!
Hauled my butt 70 miles each way to winterize my house. Forecast 25 for the town of Bowie. But, it is generally 4 to 5 degrees colder out in the sticks. I learned about this the hard way by busted water lines and busted cast iron pump.
Well today Halloween night marks the anniversary of the bull dozers moving off the property and my 2 acre pond and officially considered complete in building!! That was 5 years ago already!! Seems like just last year!! So much I have learned from everyone here!! In the rain category...We have had 71 inches this year and my pond is still only 12 inch low!! Thanks to everyone on all your help!! Happy Halloween!!
Checked the pond temperature. 46 degrees at the surface. Had to cut the feeder way down and only mid day. This is a month early for these water temperatures.
48 surface temp here in Central MO. I shut down my deep aeration a couple days ago.
Made a quick run to NEMO Fisheries this afternoon and picked up another 30 RES. It's probably too late in the year to get them on pellets but I'm going to make an attempt at it. At the least I'll fatten them up a bit on chopped nightcrawlers before the weather gets really cold. With the change from daylight to standard time I'll have to feed them in the mornings before I leave for work, but I think they'll have a better chance of making it through the winter if they get some groceries in their bellies.
Checked the pond temperature. 46 degrees at the surface. Had to cut the feeder way down and only mid day. This is a month early for these water temperatures.
I ran out of fish feed with the October 23 feeding. With the forecast for more rain, I did not buy any more. The ponds flooded over subsequently, and then it got much colder. I think I will wait until spring to buy more feed.
How many fish are you putting in there Augie? It would seem that you are already up to about a million head! lol
I've put in 80 RES and 270 YP. The miles to fish ratio is pushing 6:1 but it's all just for fun, right?
By those numbers I've overstocked for the size of my pond, but when the losses due to weather events and the ICH are taken into account I think I'm probably right on target.
The grinding gears in my brain are telling me to put this batch of RES into my transport tote and over-winter them in the barn. Cold weather is upon us, but if I tank em indoors and keep em warm they ought to be very well pellet trained by springtime.
Feeding has really slowed down in Northeast Ohio. Geese are coming in, yeah ... more nutrient load. Picked up sticks for hours, cleaned out the waterfall (more sticks). I weighed down my fishing benches and chairs with big rocks so they don't blow into the water like last year (hopefully.) We get big Canadian air blasts. Fountains coming out later this week. I've cut my aeration back but still running a few hours a day during warmest part of the day.
Ok, you've got me curious. Why are you painting the trees purple?
Bill
"According to the Purple Paint Law, several states like Texas allow landowners to paint a fence post, pole, or tree on the edge of their property purple to signify No Trespassing. Why no signs? Some landowners might have signs, too, but acclimate weather has a tendency to knock those signs down"
Supervised youngest son and his fiance cutting hedge (osage orange) to make a line of brushy cover along bank in new pond. Went well but ran out of daylight before we got it all tamped down and fully positioned.
Pulled the pontoon paddle boat out of the water for the winter yesterday as well as the fish cleaning table and plumbing. We went from 60 and pretty nice day Sunday and predicting mid teens for the temperature by sun up. 25 mph winds and sleet today. Brrrr. Drove past the pond a couple times while bringing up wood to split. That is as close as I got to doing anything with the pond today. Lots of wind and waves.
Got 6+ inches of snow last night and today. Had about 20 ducks on my little puddle enjoying the open water before the temp drops to 5 tonight. I expect we will have skim ice or hard water by morning. Those ducks better make a move tonight or I just might be pulling them out of the ice in the morning and inviting them to Thanksgiving dinner!
snrub...We basically went straight from summer to winter with a few nice Fall days...it will be in the mid-twenties tonight in Dallas...but normally these kind of low temps wont last here. I bet the tilapia will die earlier this year...I didn't see any dead this weekend, but it's got to be close.
It went lickety split from 70's to low 20's here, In the teens further North where my property is. It's hunting season but, so far, no reason to go. I was there 3 days on opening weekend and saw nothing. Didn't hear a shot and I can usually hear them from 5 miles away. Grandson and his girl friend went last weekend. They saw nothing and only heard 2 shots around the area. I'm crediting that to a huge acorn drop. Corn is piling up under the 6 feeders. Even the hogs aren't messing with it. The high winds will bring down more acorns.
I'll probably go there in a couple of days just to get my butt out of the DFW area.
snrub...We basically went straight from summer to winter with a few nice Fall days...
That ain't no joke for sure.
Mark, I like to feed my CNBG heavily when the water's in that 60-85 degree range. It only lasted a few weeks before I had to reset the feeders for more limited winter throws.
Just a random thought, but I wonder if you could install an external waterproof switch on feeders that would cut the power to the slinger/auger, and keep it from spinning on cold fronts like this one? It doesn't matter if the blower keeps spinning on the regular cycle, but stopping the slinger/auger would sure keep a lot of wasted food out of the water without losing all your feeder settings by disconnecting the battery.
A walk around the pond, scouting for cormorants, showed me that I most likely have an otter or two at the pond again. I keep a close eye out for scatt (Poop that has a large amount of fish scales in it) and for excess fish scales in piles around the bank. No slides along the waters edge were detected at this time so I am pretty sure I have found the otters early. The WAR BEGINS once again. DAM OTTERS!
snrub...We basically went straight from summer to winter with a few nice Fall days...
That ain't no joke for sure.
Mark, I like to feed my CNBG heavily when the water's in that 60-85 degree range. It only lasted a few weeks before I had to reset the feeders for more limited winter throws.
Just a random thought, but I wonder if you could install an external waterproof switch on feeders that would cut the power to the slinger/auger, and keep it from spinning on cold fronts like this one? It doesn't matter if the blower keeps spinning on the regular cycle, but stopping the slinger/auger would sure keep a lot of wasted food out of the water without losing all your feeder settings by disconnecting the battery.
Bingo Al! This is my first year with the TH feeder and I was wishing there was a simple toggle switch to switch off the feed for a few days at a time. My fish went from gorging themselves to not a trace of interest after a 15 degree night. So I had to go set the two feedings of 5 seconds I had reduced to to zero seconds. I'm pretty sure with some warming weather I will feed some more (fed up to about the first of December the last few years). How convenient it would have been just to toggle a switch off then turn it back on when the weather warmed. Not that the timer is that hard to set, but a simple on-off for all the settings would be a welcome addition. I'm sure I could put a switch in line and do the trick, just surprised the company has not already figured that out.
It has probably been over 3 weeks since I've seen a BG feed, and very few were feeding for the last few weeks that I did see them. I still had a few FHM feeding until the pond froze over Tuesday. It is still about .95% iced over. I don't remember when it iced over for the first time last year, but I know it wasn't this early.
Did nothing on the pond. Spent a day messing with water well. Bottom line is that the Yankeefied temps in the mid teens froze my water pump and the pump burnt up. I had a heater in there but lost electric power on that breaker. Will either buy a new pump tomorrow or bite the bullet and just call a well service pro and make the problem go away.
I sat in the shoreline duck blind hoping some ducks or otters would show up at dusk. But did not see any ducks or otters. I did see some TFS action and maybe some GSH action. I've ben told the GSH looks like raindrops and the TFS look like nervous water or ripples. I saw a little of both but not sure if there two different types of fish. I did see a little surface action from something feeding on them along with a Kingfisher that seemed to get all he wanted.
Hearing all you guys from Texas talk about the cold and freezing weather is putting a damper on my ambitions, after a month or so of this cold weather here in Mo I have visions of cranking up the RV and head south toward south Texas till it warms up a little but now I am having to rethink that,, I do realize Texas is big and there may be some huge temperature variations in localities. I have a friend here who has a house in FL, he heads outta here after Christmas and tells me to let him know when the crappie start spawning and the morel mushrooms start popping,, he'll head back. I love that theory.
Had a long time friend out to the ranch this past weekend and he brought his two girls. It's fun watching kids enjoy the outdoors and get away from the big city, get away from video games, and enjoy nature. The youngest caught her first fish. She probably reeled in 5 fish. The older one really got hooked on fishing. By the end of the weekend she was baiting her own hook, removing hooks from fish. They both had a blast playing with the worms and minnows too. Their Dad shot a hog, and they got to see him clean it hanging from a tree. Of course their Mom back it Dallas said she worried it would traumatize the girls seeing the dead hog, but I guess it's not traumatizing watching the trash on TV or the internet all day?...lol. So the girls fished, saw a wild hog, boated, cooked out, had their first trip to a feed store...the youngest started holding her nose in the feed store, and we finished off the day with a Sat night bonfire. Those kids wanna come back soon and they are gonna tell their Mom that too!
It has probably been over 3 weeks since I've seen a BG feed, and very few were feeding for the last few weeks that I did see them. I still had a few FHM feeding until the pond froze over Tuesday. It is still about .95% iced over. I don't remember when it iced over for the first time last year, but I know it wasn't this early.
Mine were not feeding a couple days ago so I shut off the feeder. Went out today just before lunch and did a test throw for just three seconds. Lots of BG and CC going after it. So I did a longer test throw with the same reaction and turned the feeder back on with 3 feedings of 5 seconds each. Warming trend seemed to help the feeding activity.
Snrub, it warmed up enough over the last few days for the ice to melt off so I threw a few handfuls out and some FHM came up to feed, but no BG. It is supposed to be warmer this week than it's been for a while, so maybe some will feed later in the week.
Hand feeding with Purina LMB for the first time in about a week. Been to cold for me. My first feeding took place at the pier and near one of the feeders. The fish were fairly slow to react. The lmb and hsb did feed but it took about 10 to 15 min for them to eat all that was thrown out. About 250 cubes. The second place was at the feeder located in the deeper water where I saw about 30 hsb gathered up along with a few lmb. Tossing out another 250+ cubes they were very aggressive. Food was gone just about a min after each cup was tossed out. These fish were different sizes but most were in the 3 to 4 lb range. It may be time to toss a bait and do a little fishing A side note is I have seen a couple of dead floating 10" Tp.
I've seen folks who are moderators as listed under their name. There are even a few people who are Moderators AND Lunkers (how do you become a Lunker on this site?)
But you are a Lunker AND an Ambassador AND a Field Correspondent.
So how did you get those titles and I'm sure there is a story behind this...
Why are new members not becoming Lunkers or correspondents?
Did a little fishing and turned the aeration and feeder back on today.
Just run the aeration about 4 hours during the heat of the day.
I had turned the feeder off when the cold snap came through because of no interest. Been off three days. Did a test throw today out of the feeder and they were hitting the feed pretty hard. So I set it back on for mid day three throws of about 8 seconds each. I'll leave it on as long as we are in a warming spell and probably turn it back off the next cold snap. The smaller CC were also feeding today, which surprised me.
Hybrids and BG were biting decent today, and that was after three feedings. Caught one nice male BG. Probably caught 15 fish in about 45 minutes.
...I've seen folks who are moderators as listed under their name. There are even a few people who are Moderators AND Lunkers (how do you become a Lunker on this site?)
Why are new members not becoming Lunkers or correspondents?
or are there strings 'attached' to these titles?
CC,
Moderators are hand picked by Bob L. and are under appreciated policeman of the forum in my opinion!
Near as I can figure, the practice of recognizing other members with the other titles, as well as Hall of Fame stars, died out on the forum several years ago. Maybe as the forum grew it became too big a chore/cost to recognize individual members and add those titles?
Maybe one of the mods will see this post and chime in with the actual explanation.
As I recall,,, the events BillD. has a good explanations of Moderator and Lunkers monikors. Lunker title was discontinued because it was though it became competitive and personal feelings were getting disrupted. I think Ambassador, that meant active promoter of the Forum, is no longer used.
I was disappointed when the special titles were nixed. I asked for Lunker, but Bob L said there were plenty of those already. But he did promise that I could have Lunkhead all to myself!
This past weekend we had a bald eagle visit. Maybe it knows Tilapia funerals are around the corner?
Albino Cat Pond looking cool yesterday morning took one otter shot here
Re-naming this "otter creek".
bad news...I saw 4 otters sunday morning at day break. no wonder fishing had declined slightly recently took two shots with AR-15 missed first shot think I wounded or killed 1 otter with 2nd shot he jumped out of the water into the air looking pained but never saw body...would an otter for sure float if I killed him? licensed trapper buddy already has 9 traps set
I was happy the first time an Eagle showed up at the pond but not so much when it stayed for about 3 months. A mature eagle can remove a good sized fish. Same with the Osprey that showed up last year but seem to remove smaller fish than the eagle. And then add a few otters that show up from time to time. And yes they do show up for the slow moving Tp this time of year. I love to see them but don't like it when the stay for long periods of time. And Zep, I'm also hunting otters at the pond right now in the evenings and at daybreak yesterday. Good Picture ZEP.
My ponds are primarily for wildlife, so I don't mind sharing the fish with whatever shows up. I do take exception to beavers clogging the drain pipe. Need to place large chunks of concrete around pig-panel guard to keep them from digging under it. Bricks are not heavy enough. They are persistent critters! Not happy with them cutting bald cypress either. Fortunate that neighbor trapped out 4 in the last week. Might still be one left, but we will see if drain continues to be blocked. Clearing it every day is no fun.
My ponds are primarily for wildlife, so I don't mind sharing the fish with whatever shows up. I do take exception to beavers clogging the drain pipe. Need to place large chunks of concrete around pig-panel guard to keep them from digging under it. Bricks are not heavy enough. They are persistent critters! Not happy with them cutting bald cypress either. Fortunate that neighbor trapped out 4 in the last week. Might still be one left, but we will see if drain continues to be blocked. Clearing it every day is no fun.
Do you have spare metal fence posts or cattle panels?
You can fence off the whole thing -- google beaver deceiver. Cold water installation not recommended
My ponds are primarily for wildlife, so I don't mind sharing the fish with whatever shows up.
The 4 river otters currently at my pond between them can consume up to 12 lbs of fish per day. 360 lbs of fish a month. With the cost of fish stocking that can run into some money if they stick around very long. 2EachHisOwn but they are not welcome at my pond and will be killed whenever possible.
The beaver dug under the pig/cattle panels. I only stocked each pond with each species one time. None of my species of fish has ever been eradicated by the wildlife. Sometimes it takes a while for the big ones to be replaced though. I don't ask anyone to manage their ponds as I do. Just sharing my perspective. I did take exception to the beavers and am fortunate to have a neighbor who enjoys trapping. No otters yet, but the populations are growing in the state.
I hand feed my fish. Lately they have been eating a whole bunch. I had been expecting to save some $$ over the winter but so far these guys have only slowed down during a couple of cold snaps.
They have moved out to slightly deeper water, not much going on near shore. And on colder days they go for the sinking pellets first then bolt to the surface and dive right back down to warmer water. Sometimes they breach like a whale.
I checked water (surface) temps today. 70F.
The local ranchers have a saying - "What you get in the Spring depends on what you feed in the Winter". I expect it holds for fish too, at least here in the South.
Turned my feeder back off today after doing a test throw. Been feeding the last few days. Lots of activity so I gave them a good feeding but supposed to get freezing cold for a day or two. So it will stay shut off for a day or two.
Then I will turn it back on for the week (warming trend) then that will be the end of feeding for the season. I will not be around to monitor activity so will just shut it down. It is usually around this time of year anyway.
Still surprised to see a few CC sheepishly feeding. I never see the big ones like I did a few weeks ago. But the foot long ones are still getting a few pellets.
I hand feed some of the lmb and hsb at the pond most days so I get an idea on how many and size of the ones that come to the feed. I feed at the same place where the TH feeders are and so I usually get a good idea on the numbers and size of the cnbg that hang around the feeding area. I noticed yesterday the hsb are hanging at this one feeder 24/7 and it seems like the large sized cnbg have moved out. There are some 6" cnbg there but the larger ones have disappeared from the feeding area. I'm not sure if the hsb pushed them out or the cnbg have moved into deeper water where I can't see them. Not sure what is going on and wonder if the large school of hsb pushed the large cnbg out of the feeding area or the winter weather moved them into deeper water.
Algae bloom is finally going away some , water clarity went from less than a foot to close to 2 now so maybe I can do a little catching instead of just fishing
Pat, must be nice to have open, fishable water. We've got 1" of ice-too thick to fish through; too thin to walk on.
Today we watched a great blue heron stalk over the 1/4 acre of icy surface. What was extra satisfying was seeing the bird make a couple of stabbing attempts. 1" of ice protects the fish perfectly well. Go away, bird.
Now that the water is clearing up some got to see an osprey make a successful dive and come out with a fish in its talons.... I dont mind that at all..... cormorants different story.....
Added 200 lb RBT today. Water check pH 7, alkalinity 48, hardness 34. A little low on hardness, but not enough to lime again quite yet. Good water color, maybe 30 to 35 inches viz.
So quiet. I forget how peaceful it is out there sometimes!
Another one bites the dust! Otters are not so cute when you figure out how many pounds of fish they eat per day.
And Frank, are you ok with telling of how much per fish to stock the 200 RBT? And as you watched the release of the trout can you estimate the numbers of each size of trout stocked? example might be something like 100 4" and 100 8" etc? How many per acre? I'm ok if you don't want to post up the cost, so maybe send information on PM like cost and where did you get the trout and did you have to order ahead of time, like last Oct for an order?
Tracy, I'm guessing 1 pound average on the larger trout, so that would be 100 of them in 100 lbs. The 100 lb of smaller forage trout probably average 1/6 lb, so there were about 600 of them.
Big trout were for winter fishing & maybe some would be food for larger LMB, I have a number now that could easily swallow a 1 lb RBT. Fusiform shape helps.
Smaller trout are to help feed smaller LMB now that TP are done. I was told that they will grow an inch or two monthly if regularly fed, so by May should reach 8 to 12 inches. They should help feed bass until TP are stocked again.
Pricey, though, for a fish that does not reproduce & won't survive summer. Overtons transported from Missouri. Probably average around $4-5 per fish, including transport. Smaller RBT are more expensive per pound, but less per fish.
Apparently RBT do better NOT conditioning to pond water in their tank. Just put in them in BOW directly, which surprised me. But they seemed to do fine, only a very few small ones seemed distressed at all.
Frank, Thank you for the information. I'm on the edge when it comes to RBT stocking. Please keep us informed as to what you see this year when it comes to all things related to your stocking. And if you can maybe a picture or two of the trout you catch this year. I'm sure your family and friends will enjoy the memories of catching trout from your lake.
Went out around the ponds after dark tonight. Beautiful evening comfortable in a sweat shirt. No mosquitoes!
Been a while since I looked into the water after dark. In the RES/SMB pond with all the bushy pondweed saw hundreds of bullfrog tadpoles. Could not believe how many there were in the shallows resting on the pondweed.
Went out around the ponds after dark tonight. Beautiful evening comfortable in a sweat shirt. No mosquitoes!
Been a while since I looked into the water after dark. In the RES/SMB pond with all the bushy pondweed saw hundreds of bullfrog tadpoles. Could not believe how many there were in the shallows resting on the pondweed.
Neat sight to see. You would expect to see that in the summer not the winter.
Thanks Lance.....we have not caught any otters in the nine traps and have not seen any since I wounded or killed one early the first morning we saw them. Maybe scared them away for the time being? The trapper says they'll be back when Tilapia die-off happens...I am shocked I have not seen a single dead Tilapia yet. On another note we moved the game-cam and getting some good deer pics this week.
Zep, based on the pic I would say that's a 3 yr old nice little buck with a great rack. If you can, let it go this year and if it makes it through this years season then next year it may be a great buck.
anthropic....there are a couple of Lake Tawakoni creeks that run across the lower part of the property...the pond drains into the bigger creek...the trapper said that is definitely where the otters are coming from.
Tracy thanks for that info...interesting....we hope our property becomes a deer sanctuary..we love to look at them, but we don't hunt deer...but have no problem at all with people that do....we only will happily shoot otter, beaver, and hogs...anything destructive. That buck could easily get shot on a neighbor's property...so he just needs to call our place home to stay alive...lol
Zep, I am fighting otters right now and I don't like them. it looks like I will have to trap again. I have only seen one in the pond and believed it was shot but seen nothing floating up. So I am now going to place a camera up that will send me photos when they are on my pier. So I can shoot their arse.
Zep, based on the pic I would say that's a 3 yr old nice little buck with a great rack. If you can, let it go this year and if it makes it through this years season then next year it may be a great buck.
Zep think TGW is correct (3-1/2 year old) next year should be a hoss! Lot of did between 3-1/2 and 4-1/2 ..... good looking buck
I set up a game camera at my pier because the otters are eating and craping on it and I have not been able to find a slide where they are entering the water. A place to set a 330 trap. Will, two otters showed up on the pier @ 2;30 and 3 am this morning. Looks like they are walking the pier so I have to come up with another way to trap. You think they would enter a live trap setting on the pier, maybe use tunafish as bait? Thoughts guys? not sure I can keep the coons out long enough to catch the otters. Dam otters! I also suspect the Tp are one reason the otters show up this time of year.
Not sure....I saw four otters 3 weeks ago...may or may not have wounded/killed one that morning...no sign of them after wounding one...then today 2 DEAD in traps. I told trapper lets keep traps set...he said as long as you keep your dog away...he'll reset.
Dogs are the reason I have not set traps at this time. and like u we are pretty sure we used lead to remove one recently. Most every time I have used taps I would catch 4. I am guessing they run in families or in packs.
Dogs are the reason I have not set traps at this time. and like u we are pretty sure we used lead to remove one recently. Most every time I have used taps I would catch 4. I am guessing they run in families or in packs.
Tracy....luckily our dog really never gets near where the otter traps are placed....she is skittish and doesn't leave our side....if we take her on a walk anywhere close to the traps she is on a leash.
The trapper said the male otters travel up the creeks looking for a home/pond with a good food supply..then the male goes and finds a female and brings her back to the fish pond..and they start a family....not unlike what humans do...lol.
ZEP, I think the ones I have trapped live in communes. Like back in the 60's and 70's. in the past 5 yrs I have trapped about a dozen. along with 4 beavers. All I need now is a big beard and a buffalo or beaver fur coat to be what I picture as a full fledged trapper.
We are fortunate to have a retired neighbor who traps out problem critters. With the poor fur prices, he just does this as a favor to us. Beaver are the biggest issue, especially when they clog drain pipes.
RAH, I understand the same when it comes to fur prices and that is why I don't take the time to skin them for selling. One Christmas I was looking a coats for my X and looked at fur's. The beaver was the softest fur coat of all the different coats I looked at. And it was not cheep priced either. And around that time some extremist were tossing paint on people that wore fur coats.
ZEP, I think the ones I have trapped live in communes. Like back in the 60's and 70's. in the past 5 yrs I have trapped about a dozen. along with 4 beavers. All I need now is a big beard and a buffalo or beaver fur coat to be what I picture as a full fledged trapper.
It unfortunate that extremists have been so successful at green-washing so many things. Then they show great pride in using a paper straw. I simply skip the straw all together. Wild fur is a very sustainable textile and requires that wildlife habitat be maintained. Funny that they pollute the environment by throwing paint on fur which is very biodegradable, while wearing fashionable plastic-based clothing. Well, the world turns on...
Im with ya RAH. Some around here don't like deer hunters. I say if your going to eat them or just not kill for the fun of it have at it. Let just one of their family members get hurt or killed by hitting a deer and they might change there mind. Not that I want that at all. I'm just saying it happens around here. Just about everyone I know here has at least been close to hitting one.
ZEP, I think the ones I have trapped live in communes. Like back in the 60's and 70's. in the past 5 yrs I have trapped about a dozen. along with 4 beavers. All I need now is a big beard and a buffalo or beaver fur coat to be what I picture as a full fledged trapper.
Mark, that pic's probably 4-5 years and 80 pounds ago when we were having constant beaver problems. Scott(esshup) helped a lot, and I've accumulated quite a stash of cages, conibears, snares, etc. since then.
Trapped 2 opossums this week that didn't play by the very lenient property rules.
esshup I am guessing what u taught Highflyer he then passed it along to me. Now I need to learn how to use snares since I am not finding active slides but finding otters and their fishy scaled poop on my pier. Maybe snares are they way to go right now. Al, esshup any suggestions?
Do you have an overflow pipe coming thru the dam from the surface of your pond? A client uses a MB650 trap right before his and catches a couple of otters per year.
Snare or conibear on the pier, I can only think about putting up a short fence (12" high or so) out of chicken wire, snow fence, etc. and leave some openings in the fencing for the otters to go thru. Put snares or Conibears in those openings. Watch for any pets though, they will be dead if they try to go thru the openings.......
A client uses a MB650 trap right before his and catches a couple of otters per year. Snare or conibear on the pier.
For a guy that can barely figure out how to put gas in my SUV...lol
Is an MB650 any easier to set than a conibear?
You may need to ask HF. I gave him a 330 to set but didn't tell him about the setting tool.... HaHaHaHa. He DID get one spring compressed, but his face was pretty red.
With those MB650's, you can put them on a hard surface and step on the springs on each side with your feet at the same time,then latch the dog onto the pan. It's safer if you have someone show you, lemee see if I can find a youtube video.
In the 2nd video, he's making sure he is keeping pressure on the trap with the heel of his hand while he sets the dog in the pan. Be careful, if your fingers get caught you will be saying LOTS of bad words!!! Then running for someone to let you out of the trap if you can't get your feet on it. THEN you'll be looking for me because I showed you the video. LOL
esshup, I like the idea of the fence and set it up where the walkway to the pier starts. I wont use the conibear traps there because I don't want to catch a dog, neighbors or mine. I have used them many times but always in the water. But a snare might work in the same set up. Now I have to learn how to set it up.
I was beginning to think it was just me with the pond down some foot or two. I watch the projected weather forecast just to see it go around me and peter out just as it approaches my place.
Yes the whole time I was digging on the pond this year it rained nonstop. Now that I'm done nothing. When you want something ya never get it. When ya dont vare or want it things are plentiful. 1st world problems lol.
Full pool when checked today. Some sporadic feeding going on, though much less intense than a couple months ago. Saw a brown duck, but no cormorants.
Bite was very slow due mostly to cold water, saw little activity in shallows. Small bass and large CNBG were caught in a couple of hours, best bait was a sinking beadhead fly fished several feet deep.
Only real activity came around 4pm, when we noticed fish breaking the surface near the dock. My son cast there & hooked something big on his 3 weight flyrod, fight lasted several minutes until line broke. Best guess it was a nice hybrid striper. We decided to call it a day after that battle.
Tube on SMB pond was clogged so I removed the rat guard from the pond side of the 12" pipe and got it cleared. The muskrats got in anyway and with the low fur prices, I set my own live-catch trap. They are running a muck!
Thursday at 6am I will be at Lowes loading up all their left over Christmas trees. From the looks of things today, even with the trailer it will take multiple trips.
Tip: Talk to their garden center manager asap. They want to get rid of them in a day or two at the most to make way for the garden center change over to different inventory. Last year they had 2 employees cutting them up to fit more in the dumpster on Dec 27th and they were more than happy to give them away.
Spawning area for the Yellow Perch, but most of it will be habitat for YOY fish and I'm putting a bunch on the piece of pipe I hammered into the bottom of the pond in the deepest part late last Winter. That will give the fish some place to hide during the winter when they are in the deepest part of the pond.
I picked up somewhere between 300 and 400 trees today. I have 4 different ponds that they will be going swimming in.
esshup, thanks for the heads up! I picked up several today and will be going back for me. I put a couple Christmas trees last year in my pond. They made a big difference.
The "free" expansion is still progressing. Month 8. A dirt pile directly in the flood zone has finally been hauled off along with another and half of the 3rd. The expansion area remains a "dirt pit" according to the dirt guy...and is essentially a 1ac mud pit. I was lectured on how grateful I should be. Fortunately the drought has not totally flooded the area. I'm "next on the list" as soon as it dries out. Meanwhile the expansion cannot be developed for habitat and the drought/expansion resulted in a 7ft drop in water level. A lot of the runoff goes into the expansion area and subsequently soaks in or evaporates. The pond at 1+ac full pool is now closer to 1/3ac. Fish are feeding on warm days. Most of the cedar trees I added are mostly or entirely dry. I look forward to being able to finally add habitat to the expansion area, some day.
Ok, we have otters again. We were able to get rid of 3 of them last winter and no signs since. A local trapper caught one about 2 weeks ago and had no more signs until today. Studying the tracks on the ice and snow it appears like at least a pair. Our pond is close to a small river and I know that is how they find us. I would like to find a more permanent solution. Has anyone tried STOP POND OTTERS? It is a product that emits sound into the water that will keep them from entering. It is not super costly and would be cheap if it would work. Trapping is only a temporary solution.
Ok, we have otters again. I would like to find a more permanent solution. Has anyone tried STOP POND OTTERS? It is a product that emits sound into the water that will keep them from entering. It is not super costly and would be cheap if it would work. Trapping is only a temporary solution.
Thanks jgr for telling us about this interesting product. I have glanced at the website https://stoppondotters.com/ does it say how large of a pond it is effective on?
I am not sure where I found it, maybe in Q & A. There was a pond of 10A that claimed success. I called the number but it was later but they texted me saying they will call me back. I will let you know what I find. A year ago when I researched this problem this was not one of the options so I think it is fairly new.
It's just frustrating that he got all the topsoil needed for a big job 4 months ago and is not interested in finishing the cleanup. Last year the pond overflowed for nearly 3 months during this time period. I was expecting the same so it's been stressful. The land is 100% recreational and calling my pond area a "dirt pit" just pisses me off.
Dang,I envy you having deer at a pipe feeder. Deer/acorn season just ended. I hunted a lot and saw one yearling doe and had glimpses of 6 or 7 more. Due to the massive acorn drop, I didnt hear over 6 or 7 shots in the area. Got a long shot at a pig but missed. Glad the season is over.
Eagles have returned, presumably to nest where they did last year near southeast bay of my pond. Got a great pic of one on top of dead tree on our island, will try to post. The whole branch broke off and fell when he took flight!
Sadly, I've seen a few cormorants too. More ducks this year, though, which is nice.
Feeding is slower than it was in summer, but still happens. They hit at it for 30 minutes(!) until all gone.
In SW MI the weather has been unusually balmy. We had a little snowstorm but most of the snow has melted off. Yesterday was blue sky and sunny and just above the freezing mark. Enough for the thin skin of ice left in the pond to melt. I'm down to the bottom of my bag of Optimal 'homemix' food. Most of the fish won't feed when water temps are below 50, but this year is different.
I threw some out around the floating ice floes and sure enough the spotfins were there to slowly pick away at it. Amazing how these shiners are so hardy, so rapidly take to pellets and will continue to feed right through the cold weather/cold water season. Certainly they don't launch themselves out of the water in their excitement to eat like they do in the middle of the summer but they certainly were there and picking away at the food as it hydrated and sank.
Amazing. Hopefully more pond owners can source these and get them in their pond, or perhaps come spring those in the midwest who have sources to obtain these can grow them in forage ponds and share with others. I started with less than 2 dozen and have thousands. They seem to be one of the more ideal northern pond forage species.
I made a boat trip around the pond yesterday. Water clarity being so clear and I wanted an up close look at things under the water. Not sure what the water temps are but it seems like the lmb and the larger sized cnbg have moved into the deeper water depths in the 9' area of the pond and the same thing going on the deeper side of the under water ridge at 11' depths. Not seeing many of the 9 to 10" sized cnbg. Pond is down about a foot and a half. The few lmb that I saw looked to be fat and maybe in the 3lb to 4 lb range. The hsb were active around the feeders and were aggressive when hand fed the Purina lmb feed. There were some good sized northern feed trained lmb also mixed in around the hsb. They also fed but seemed like they backed off a little and did not feed as aggressive as I have seen in warmer water. But it may have been that some of the lmb I saw around the feeders were Florida strained lmb that are not feed trained. I need to build a few brush highways. With the cedar trees being so green rite now it makes it to where I can pick out some good ones to cut down and transport to the pond.
Yep fish often move to the steady temp and O2 area and them move up , if at all , to feed at the warmest part of the winter day. Most cold tolerant of those fish are the HSB followed by N LMB then Fla LMB and CNBG.
Eric, I noticed that by far the most enthusiastic feeders were HSB. They'd come halfway out of the water, while the LMB (I have both N and Fla) and CNBG were much more subdued.
Two of the bucks reminds me of when I looked at an 18 yr old good looking girl with a big rack and knowing it will only get better when she turns older. Another couple of years age of the buck will blow you away as he turns all that body size and rack into mass. But like many 18 yr old boys, girl's can get you into trouble. As he ages he should learn not to run into the wide open spaces in broad daylight chasing girls. Zep, look at the spike buck closely what do u see? First of all he is most likely not legal to shoot. Good pic's
First of all he is most likely not legal to shoot.
Thanks Tracy. I know nothing about all this....but some guy at work just told me the "spiked" buck (with 2 straight horns) may be an abnormality...and you don't want him breeding....and he should be killed.
Yep fish often move to the steady temp and O2 area and them move up , if at all , to feed at the warmest part of the winter day. Most cold tolerant of those fish are the HSB followed by N LMB then Fla LMB and CNBG.
It really not an abnormality but most spikes stay spikes and are then considered inferior. Some actually wind up with branched antlers
Dave, like this?
I had pictures of that one from last year and the antlers looked exactly the same. Upon butchering no signs of being hit by a car, so I'm guessing it's genetics. Maybe someone else here with more knowledge about it can chime in?
This one was only seen on camera at night, VERY infrequently, and it's coming to a feeder that is placed where there was no hunting this year. I'd love to get an estimate on age and size.
Tracy why is that spike not legal? Dave spikes might not be a spike the following year. Some actually turn out ok
Pat I agree. A spike may turn out to be a great buck. For 30 years I was told to take all spikes. But, then I learned not to take all of them after reading that they may wind up growing into good bucks. There are exceptions when a spike needs to be taken but if you look at the pic Zep posted it's pretty easy to tell it's a very young buck. It's like all the pond stuff we all have learned about here, same/same with the spike deer.
Zep, after gun season there is black powder season for deer hunting. Those bucks have another 10 days or so of hunting pressure.
Scott,in Texas, I would figure that buck to be 5-6 yoa. Nice deer.
BTW, I rarely shoot a spike unless its a really old one. About 10 years ago, one of the kids that have over run my place shot a really small spike. It turned out that it was between7 and 8 years old. Dang near no teeth left.
It really not an abnormality but most spikes stay spikes and are then considered inferior. Some actually wind up with branched antlers
Dave, like this?
I had pictures of that one from last year and the antlers looked exactly the same. Upon butchering no signs of being hit by a car, so I'm guessing it's genetics. Maybe someone else here with more knowledge about it can chime in?
This one was only seen on camera at night, VERY infrequently, and it's coming to a feeder that is placed where there was no hunting this year. I'd love to get an estimate on age and size.
Its really hard to tell age cause the buck is in mid stride and lean from the breeding season but guessing minimum 4-1/2 probably older. Nice buck
Thanks Pat. I shot a 138" buck here with the muzzleloader a while back in late December and the skin on it's neck was actually flopping around. A neighbor has at least one picture of that buck from about 1/2 to 3/4 mile away but it's in late summer and still in velvet.
The only thing I did today at the pond was turn off the winter diffuser. We are supposed to get a bunch of rain the next 36 hours and any remaining ice will be gone.
The one laying on the ground definitely needed taken out of herd especially if it has been like that year after year. Whats sad about the laws is that if its branched on the bad side it aint legal to take, unless its 13 inside spread
The one laying on the ground definitely needed taken out of herd especially if it has been like that year after year. Whats sad about the laws is that if its branched on the bad side it aint legal to take, unless its 13 inside spread
Around here in about half of the counties have an antler point restriction to try to get bigger deer, the deer has to have at least 4 points on one side to be legal, which in the above case would make that deer legal.
The one laying on the ground definitely needed taken out of herd especially if it has been like that year after year. Whats sad about the laws is that if its branched on the bad side it aint legal to take, unless its 13 inside spread
Pat, I have the antlers here, I'll measure the inside spread.
Hello everyone. Long time no see! I've been MIA in the pond world for the last few months. Deer hunting, holidays, vacations and the other real life stuff kinda put pond management on the back burner.
So, back in early fall I turned off my surface aeration and went to 24/7 with the bottom diffuser. It's been a couple months now and the pond has remained turbid. I think some of it is due to BH stirring up the bottom. I had a big spawn of the suckers last year. Visibility is around 8". I've was feeding regularly until recently as I dont want to keep feeding BH vacuum cleaners, tho the BG and GSF were still feeding well.
A little surprise came yesterday when I was fishing a little and decided to pull my holding pen up and check on the few fish I had put in it back in the fall. When I got it up, there was a 4" LMB in the pen. I assume he got in thru the fencing when he was tiny and stayed until he was too big to get out. Anyway, looks like my 4 LMB were able to pull off a spawn after all. Also had a 6" river shiner in the pen, so they must have spawned too.
Even with a 24/7 aeration cycle running, I've still had a couple of blooms this fall that I think were BGA. Bright green and smelly if you got down wind. I'm hoping to reduce nutrient loads sufficiently to prevent any major blooms this spring. Time will tell I guess.
It's good to be back and I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and the start of a prosperous new year.
Mike, look into getting a small Fyke net or making/buying some traps that are specific to catching catfosh/bullheads. I bet if you can knock down the BH population some of your turbidity issues will disappear.
Mike, look into getting a small Fyke net or making/buying some traps that are specific to catching catfosh/bullheads. I bet if you can knock down the BH population some of your turbidity issues will disappear.
I built a couple of cloverleaf traps last year and modified the entrances to allow BH to get in. Baited with pellets in a plastic bottle with holes punched in it. Never caught the first catfish. I'm hoping since my LMB were able to spawn at least minimally, they'll put a little dent in the population. I've got one (#2 of yall recall) that is pushing 3# now so she is capable of eating a fairly large BH, which should be easier to swallow and hopefully preferred over the BG/GSF.
I was able to put a pretty good dent in them last summer with a dip net hitting the swarms when they got close to the bank, probably caught 1000 of the little buggers 1.5" long, but I know I didnt get them all.
The one laying on the ground definitely needed taken out of herd especially if it has been like that year after year. Whats sad about the laws is that if its branched on the bad side it aint legal to take, unless its 13 inside spread
Pat, I measured it today. I drew an imaginary line straight forward from the right side of the spike and measured to the inside of the widest part of the right main beam. 10.5" is what I got.
Question for you. If that spike was only 1" or 2" long would that be a legal deer in Texas?
The one laying on the ground definitely needed taken out of herd especially if it has been like that year after year. Whats sad about the laws is that if its branched on the bad side it aint legal to take, unless its 13 inside spread
Pat, I measured it today. I drew an imaginary line straight forward from the right side of the spike and measured to the inside of the widest part of the right main beam. 10.5" is what I got.
Question for you. If that spike was only 1" or 2" long would that be a legal deer in Texas?
The one you took is legal if one side unbranched regardless of length or width
We had a couple inches of rain last Thursday and the burn ban was lifted. I was not seeing any doe so I burned on the last day of deer season. Here is a pic of my mud hole full of water that the dirt guy just will not clean up and will not be able to in the foreseeable future. I burned 5 brush piles and one got away from me. It burned about an acre before I knocked it down and it burned itself out. Not a fun way to close the day! My pond is in the upper left corner of the pic.
Did you have any kind of contract with the "dirt guy"? That should be a heads up moment for the rest of us. Even if he thinks he is doing you a favor you still want a completion date in writing. I myself would have never thought about it in the first place. Defiantly in the future I will if ever get that type of work done. Glad you only burned down 1 ac at least some have been a lot worse.
Whenever I burn I am a nervous wreck. I take LOTS of precautions. Back burn a 50' perimeter around whatever I am burning. Have a 60 gallon PTO driven sprayer on the tractor. Burn when wind is forecast to be no more than 7 mph, no greater than 5 is better on my nerves.
Burning brush is rarely stress free! Once she was loose panic set in real fast. Knowing it couldn't be stopped I took a moment to decide on calling the fire dept. It was moving rapidly toward the spillway creek and bad ground. I couldn't stop it but knew it would on its own eventually. All that could be done was knocking down areas that were slow moving. Toward the pond are oaks with wet leaves on the ground. Dead end there. Now I have a giant fire break for other brush piles when the wind shifts to the south! Going to have great grass in the Spring.
Bailed water from one of the boats after a good rain that we needed. Water was a little dirty from the rains. Picked up duck decoys and the only fish I saw was a small school of a dozen or so of Gams. Looked to be sunning in the shallows. Winter seems to have set in at the pond. Cut back the feeder times to 1 sec throw with the 3 feeders. did not get any water temps but I would have liked to know what the temps are running.
I also have a lot of brush from removing willows from the ponds banks. Plans are to burn these large brush piles as soon as I can find a low wind from the N or Ne.
I went out this morning and pulled a big oak branch out of the pond. It fell out of a big dead oak that I REALLY NEED TO DROP before it ends up in the pond.
From the house I can see a lot of surface activity since I turned off the bottom diffuser during the week. I'll probably put it on a mid-day cycle during the day instead on 24/7 (maybe a 6 hour run) since we're getting into the coldest part of our winter now.
We burnt the dam off last week, and it has become an annual task. Since the dam is on the south end of the pond, we always wait for a southerly wind before we do it. We burn off each end of the dam(which is about 1,100 feet) for about 10', and then let her rip. One might be amazed at the number on burning crap that rides the wind out 20'-30' into the pond.
After burning 10 mesquite brush piles last week I was anxious to replace them. Some mesquite were blocking my view of the field I cleared so I cut them down as well. 2 gas tanks through the Echo today. Set a cloverleaf with beef liver while cutting and caught 2 7in BH, 3 nice BG and 2 YOY BG. Then had a great ribeye curtsey of my generous neighbors. Solid day.
Put some more cedars in pond for crappie to hang around , whats left that the big bass havent eaten...... sure hope the surviving BCP have a successful spawn this year. Water clarity is around 2-3 now. Lots of surface splashing going on, dont know who is eating what at this point
Osprey continues to hang around the pond. Watched him circle the pond yesterday. But was discouraged by my Golden Retriever. It's funny to see when I tell Sam, "That bird is eating my fish" He then goes after any bird that is pointed out to him.
Pat, where and what water depth are you adding the cedars? I cut down and took about a dozen to the pond but not added them yet. Plans are to build a highway/travel path.
Pat, where and what water depth are you adding the cedars? I cut down and took about a dozen to the pond but not added them yet. Plans are to build a highway/travel path.
Tracy....do you weigh the cedars down with cinder blocks?
Tracy some are in 5-7 and some wound up in 10. Think that may be too deep? Its hard to get them out there .... use a tractor with light rope and pull them across corners into water then use boat to take of rope and add sand bags to sink them. They cheaper to use than cinder blocks
Tracy some are in 5-7 and some wound up in 10. Think that may be too deep? Its hard to get them out there .... use a tractor with light rope and pull them across corners into water then use boat to take of rope and add sand bags to sink them. They cheaper to use than cinder blocks
I have caught some mighty nice trophy Crappie in the hotter part of the summer, way down deep, probably more then ten ft on some brush that I didnt know was there till I started hanging up on it, I could cast and let it drop way down twenty feet away and never get a bite but drop it in close to the brush, twelve ft deep, pulled a number of them out of there, and do it every summer, they love to go deep when it gets hot and if they have brush there, it seems they hang around close to it. Its some of my best hot summer fishing.
Good to know, Im not sure whats going on in my 6 acre pond but the crappie used to be easy to catch anywhere you would fish( returned all back), now cant buy a crappie bite very often,abundant bass might be the problem. Sad thing is that I want them and dont know what the problem is. We have a good bloom all spring and summer long into winter.
Pat W, I have seen a similar scenario in a 2 3 acre lake that I have fishing access to, Crappie are more and more rare, when you do catch some they will be excellent size but not very many of them, the homeowner has had Flathead catfish in the pond before but we are thinking we have removed all of them some years ago, some were close to twenty lbs, but the crappie have not rebounded like we think they should have, there are a bunch of bass, some pretty good sized, in this body of water, we always have been putting them back but I am debating on culling a few of them in the future.
Ge I have caught bass up to 10# (1) and many 5-7#, guess that big mama is hurting the population of BCP that I have been trying to encourage. Also have some shad and GSH
Today I made a second fish cage, about half the size but stronger than the first. I also used a wider mesh net this time because last summer I've lost about 40 LMB in the first cage, due to a narrower mesh net that had been closed by the algae, causing poor water circulation and therefore a lethal DO drop. I will use it from spring onwards to store the LMB to cull and all the other fish to be eliminated from the pond that I will give to friends. Not sure if the
It finally happened! The last of the 3000-5000yds of topsoil has been hauled off and the expansion drastically moved towards completion. I think they did as best they could with the D6 given all the mud. It's pretty rough but if they don't come back, that's fine. Finally, we are ready for a lot of rain. The neighbors' big sediment pond is almost full so it will overflow pretty quick into ours.
Sweet - how big will it be when it gets full. Exciting times mine is just about to run over the top. Going to have to add some to the samn when it dries out.
It will be about 2ac. When we bought the place all we really expected was a small stock tank. After the NRCS calculated the watershed everything changed and I found y'all!
Zep, yes I do use cinder blocks but like Pat I have used sand bags also. With the size cedars (7 to 10') I am sinking I can use one block because I know they will sink on their own at some point. And Pat, Bob Lusk most always recommends setting brush close to the spawning area. Todd Overton recommended I build brush piles along the shoreline, so it was 3'+- depths. Course that was for spawning cnbg. I would think Cp would spawn in the same area. I am not so sure brush sunk in deeper waters would help survival of Cp fry even though it might be a great place to fish for larger sized Cp. Pat, it would be fun to get a group of us guys together for a cp fishing trip on Public waters where maybe the best of the best might be transported back to the pond. Can be pretty easy to locate and catch cp this time of year at Lake o Pines or Caddo. Just a thought but then again for what money is spent like a couple of hundred on a trip maybe it's better to contact Todd or Bob.
Tracy from what I read the BCP go out to open water after they hatch and are not structure oriented until they are larger. There is conflicting info about them that I wish would be discussed here
A comment about cinder blocks and using them to weight down cedars. I have found if you ask a local manufacture or supplier about their bone yard of blocks, you can usually have them for free or they will deliver for a small charge. It is easier for them to give them away than dispose of them. The big box guys dont have left overs or bad blocks. Also, I have been using 36 zip ties, rated at 175 lbs, to secure blocks to trees. A 1 wood drill bit hole through trunk, slip a zip tie through hole and around cell of block. Done!
I saw a BCP on another forum that had a tape measure by it. It was 12" long and 4.5" tall, so a Largemouth Bass with a gape of 5" could eat it....
That BCP did not look skinny either. So the larger LMB may be eating more BCP than you think. When you catch some of those crappie, measure their height and see if the LMB in your pond can eat them.
I ask a question a few yrs ago about using Cp for lmb forage. As esshup pointed out, maybe those larger sized 8 to 10lb lmb are feeding on the Cp? Your bucked stocked lmb do seem to have had nice growth ( 1 1/2 to 2 lb per year) considering you have some really nice sized lmb in your 5 to 6 yr old pond.
As many times that I have had LMB grab BCP that I had hooked I think both of you are right...... may have to open season on LMB in order to have a few BCP to catch.
Had a blast with the rainbow trout today! Finger numbing cold didn't stop them feeding & biting at all, we kept two nice ones for dinner. One was north of 2 lbs, the other close. Great fights, the larger one actually bent the hook & we were lucky to net it.
Kept 4 smaller bass, released 3 good ones. Biggest was maybe 20 inches, but very fat, probably female full of eggs. We also caught 3 hybrid stripers, released all. Oddly, we had zero luck on bluegill.
They are still feeding, but now it seems like the trout, stripers, and largemouth are dominating. My buddy's wife absolutely loves trout, she's gonna be thrilled tonight.
PS Saw bald eagle on patrol, also a couple of nasty cormorants hung around for a while.
anthropic - Great story - did you get any pictures of your trout fishing adventure?? If yes please contact Bob Lusk about your story and it will make a GREAT article for Pond Boss magazine. Lusk will write the story you just provide him some details and pictures. I suggest the article be published September-October 2020 which will be a good time to be stocking trout in ponds for winter spring anglers.
Hey, Bill, I'm sorry to say no pics this time, our hands were freezing. We'll try again and hopefully get some good ones. Never stocked them before, but really enjoyed them. Gorgeous fish, great fighters.
After a solid week of absolutely miserable weather, the last two days have turned to bluebird skies and high 60s. Decided to try my luck with at trying to catch something in the shallows. First cast with a yellow beetle spin resulted in me getting my line broke. Just a glimpse of the fish told me it was one of my two sow LMB. I switched to a 1/4oz terminator spinnerbait and started paralleling the shore line. About 15 casts later I landed this one. Finally got the app updated, and remembered how to use it. Sorry the best I can get is a link. [img]https://photos.app.goo.gl/eEPseiuJ2SUsSp5L9[/img]
I think after this years LMB spawn, I'll be trying to catch my two big females and turn them loose or transfer to a different pond somewhere. They're getting big enough to put a hurt on my bigger bluegill.
Yesterday I was checking the feed at one feeding station when I looked into the 3' water when this fish come out from under some bushy pondweed. I thought WHAT THE HECK IS THAT FISH? My first thought was it was the largest live cnbg I have ever seen and must have weighed two lbs. It looked like a big crappie because it was so big. I don't have crappie! Then I thought, was it a big RES? Pat, now you have me wondering if it was a big Tp even though I thought they were all dead at this time?
Here is a question to you guys. What bait and how would you fish this time of year for big one I saw? It's in tight cover with sunken trees and vegetation so it would have to be dropped in so to speak.
Shorty had an old thread dedicated to fishing methods of catching RES. I thought I had it in my watch list but it is not there. It should be somewhere in this list though.
Thanks snrub, I tend to think of crickets during the spring and summer fishing. It maybe a good bait for the winter also. Another thing is res like low light and this fish I saw was in bright sunlight conditions with the unusual 70 degree weather we had yesterday. So, not so sure it was an res?
I will see them in bright sunlight when they are nesting. Otherwise I never see them.
Could a warm spell got it out to check nesting sites?
I'm not a good enough angler to think about seasonal baits. But what you say makes sense.
I have caught a lot of them in my confined tiny forage pond (back when I had RES in it) on the tiny Gulp Chartruse Waxies and the fake Gulp worms. Most were small ones though and there were no other fish to speak of to take the bait first.
In my main pond the BG are so voratious, a RES would have a hard time racing them to the bait. I have found the RES a lot of times to be very gentle biters. Like a slight tug, tug, then once they decide it is actually something to eat they take the bait. Not always, but often.
I fished the pond for about an hour this morning between 9 and 10. I caught 10 perch along with 2 hybrid bluegills. The perch were 9 to 13 inches, and the hybrids were both about 8. All were released. It was nice seeing the average on the perch has gone up about 3 inches from last year. I may have to cull a few meals after they finish spawning this spring.
Spikes and 1 lb test and wolfram tungsten jig.
I noticed a couple of black grubs on the anal fin of this one. None of the others had any. All looked healthy, which is great because last spring was a bad one for fish losses,mostly HB, but that is another story for a different thread.
It's not what was done today but what I didn't expect to happen. My land was abused and left for dead over the last 100yrs. Oil production pipe (water, gas, oil) was left for dead. I have been dragging it to piles for 2yrs. Scrappers hauled off 90% of it this weekend! 600+ft!! There's more I can't drag but I never expected that crap to be hauled off for free!!! 12 brush piles burned, lilies planted today next to the outhouse and the pond expansion clean up all add up to a really sweet start to the year!!! The 100 CC will be big enough to start harvesting this year as well! I'm very excited about this year and what's to come.
I noticed a couple of black grubs on the anal fin of this one. None of the others had any. All looked healthy, which is great because last spring was a bad one for fish losses, but that is another story for a different thread.
Corgi, depending where you are, add Redear Sunfish or Pumpkinseed Sunfish to your pond. They will eat the snails which is allowing the black spot to flourish.
I noticed a couple of black grubs on the anal fin of this one. None of the others had any. All looked healthy, which is great because last spring was a bad one for fish losses, but that is another story for a different thread.
Corgi, depending where you are, add Redear Sunfish or Pumpkinseed Sunfish to your pond. They will eat the snails which is allowing the black spot to flourish.
Thanks for that info Essheup. I will research this with Dave, the biologist I deal with at Stoney Creek hatchery. Even though they are not on their list of available species, he may be able to get me some.
Corgi, awesome perch!! quite impressive. Where abouts are you in MI again? I'm envious that you have ice safe enough to ice fish on. Don't get me wrong, I'm loving dry roads and no snow shoveling, but our ice is pretty slushy with temps barely getting below 30 at night and day times in mid 30s. We hit 50 something on Sunday, a beautiful day in SW GR.
Did your perch come from Stoney Creek? They are great people. I wonder where they get the perch from? I wonder what the genetics are from? I was told my perch came from original Lake Erie stock.
I agree, it would be awesome to see if you can get RES and see if they survive. I stocked about 25 and need fish traps or an underwater camera to see if any survived since I can't catch them. But they are very hard to catch and my kids do the fishing, they use corn and worms and usually target the shiners, goldfish and perch which are more aggressive. They are not fishing slow on the bottom which is what the RES need.
I haven't found a pumpkinseed source. Let me know if stoneycreek can order some, I'm interested. I do know of lakes where they can be caught and not sure how effective it will be to try to move them.
Interesting to hear you had a fish kill? If you have time start a thread and fill us in!
Corgi, awesome perch!! quite impressive. Where abouts are you in MI again? I'm envious that you have ice safe enough to ice fish on. Don't get me wrong, I'm loving dry roads and no snow shoveling, but our ice is pretty slushy with temps barely getting below 30 at night and day times in mid 30s. We hit 50 something on Sunday, a beautiful day in SW GR.
Did your perch come from Stoney Creek? They are great people. I wonder where they get the perch from? I wonder what the genetics are from? I was told my perch came from original Lake Erie stock.
I agree, it would be awesome to see if you can get RES and see if they survive. I stocked about 25 and need fish traps or an underwater camera to see if any survived since I can't catch them. But they are very hard to catch and my kids do the fishing, they use corn and worms and usually target the shiners, goldfish and perch which are more aggressive. They are not fishing slow on the bottom which is what the RES need.
I haven't found a pumpkinseed source. Let me know if stoneycreek can order some, I'm interested. I do know of lakes where they can be caught and not sure how effective it will be to try to move them.
Interesting to hear you had a fish kill? If you have time start a thread and fill us in!
Thanks. We're in Mecosta county. Stoney Creek Fisheries & Equipment is correct.
Dave LaBomascus is the biologist there and he has been very helpful.
I would not want to try any from local lakes as that may introduce something other than the fish.
Where did you get your RES?
When we fished muddy bay in Houghten Lake a few years ago, SW corner of the lake , we use to use tip ups with 2 lb test, very small hooks, with one very small shot, half the size of a bb, with mayfly larva, "wigglers". We would then slide a piece of cardboard that had a slit for the line over the hole covering it. This kept the light from giving it away as these fish are smart. We were also only fishing in about 4 feet of water.
We use to regularly catch RES in the 12 to 13 inch size. We would only catch a few any given outing, but they were dandy's. They're still there and just as hard to catch, but "wigglers" are the bait worked best for us ice fishing, and there are always the YP. We caught more of them than we did the RES but nothing wrong with that.
The ice on Chippewa lake a few miles away is around 10/11 inches. I have a good 8 to 9 where I drilled in the pond, and I checked a few spots. Everywhere except where the diffusers are keeping the pond open.
Unlike the turkeys that like to walk to the edge to get a drink, break through, and then fly off in embarrassment, I stay away from the edge where I know it's not safe.
I've tried fishing the open water from shore in the pond with the same small jig and a bobber/spinning rod set at about the same depth, and can hardly buy a bite, and yet I drilled 3 holes through the ice the other day and all of them were producing. Go figure. Might of been the time of day, the hat I was wearing, or the way I was holding my mouth.
Long short story on the fish kill is the adjacent swamp flooded out the pond when the road commission busted up the ice dam at the culvert on the road. Swamp flooded and overflowed into pond.
Lost 117 HB, 15 YP, and 3 LMB. All had red soars or gray fungus. The stressors were the spike in phosphates and ammonia. Some of the HB were over a foot long. The pain is still with me.
The cure is about 1K for the excavator who dug the pond 20 years ago, and lives close, to bring in about 35 yards of clay/dirt and build up the area separating the swamp from the pond, as well as dredging out the drain that empties the swamp and skirts the pond.
Also I have been taking an ice spud when I walk down the road to check the culvert myself. Just to make sure an ice dam doesn't form again. When THEY open it, it is already a problem. I get the run off when they fix it. This winter I'm trying to keep it open myself. It's been a mild winter so I've not seen it backing up and only used the spud once to see how thick the ice was. About 4 inches. No problem yet. However winter in Michigan can be fickle. I hoping to have him do the landscaping next summer as the ground was too wet this last fall to get started.
For those interested in the fish in northern Michigan, I think the "RES" that corgi referenced in Houghton Lake are Pumpkinseeds not redear sunfish. I did a little home work and found this pretty reliable information. If the PS were truly 12"-13" long, they were trophy category fish, state records for MI which is PS = 12.6". So pumpkinseed sunfish can get 12"+. RES see below https://www.aa-fishing.com/mi/mi-fishing-lake-houghton.html
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/f/fishery/aag2862.1471.001?rgn=main;view=fulltext From the MDNR fish sampling report. Table 1. Catch by trap nets at Houghton Lake during 133 net-days, May 17 to June 18, 1955 Species Number caught Bluegill 2,070, Pumpkinseed 1,263, Rock bass 1,316, Black crappie 417, Yellow perch 28, Walleye 1,111, Largemouth bass 167, Northern pike 107, Smallmouth bass 100, Brown bullhead 1,341, Bowfin 72, White sucker 59, Gar 39, Yellow bullhead 11, Carp 3, Catfish 2, Redhorse 2.
The state record RES of Michigan was 12.6" long and caught in Lyon Lake a small, natural lake in Fredonia Township, Calhoun County, Michigan. The lake is part of a small cluster of lakes 6 mi south of the village of Marshall, Michigan. The latitude of the lake and annual winter climate is similar to Battle Creek and Ann Arbor MI.
Thanks for the excellent research Bill. I was also wondering if in a shallow lake that far north that he might be catching pumpkinseeds and not redears. Big PS are in a lot of the lakes in that area and also in newaygo county. Pretty fish!
Corgi, you lost 117 HB, are those hybrid bluegill? Wow that is a lot of HBG to lose. I don't follow exactly how the swamp threatens your pond, but it sounds like overflow somehow goes away from your pond, but when ice dams up the overflow then it goes towards your pond?
I can see where a big surge of stagnant marsh water in the pond all at once would not be good.
What is the restocking plan? Many on this forum would be happy to have less HBG since balance between HGB, GSF, and LMB is a tough one to balance out.
The YP seem to do great in MI ponds. I wish the biologists in MI would give stocking advice around lots of time building forage, then use pellet trained YP as the middle of the food chain (fun to catch, great to eat, tolerant even in warmer water and shallowerlakes, and relatively easy to control numbers through removal of egg strands) and then encourage pond meisters to experiment with different apex predators (rather than LMB and CC) Once LMB are in the mix you almost have to have BG, or HBG and then the balance act begins to avoid stunting.
Sounds like you have a good plan, come good weather to fix things!
When I said a few years ago, I should have said early 90's. We drove from Lansing to Houghton lake just to target these fish, which we thought were redear.
We caught 6 one day, with about twice as many perch and a few nice gills, but the size of the pumpkin seeds, if that's what they were, as their color was much darker, and we thought they were RES, and much larger as well, and no small ones were caught. All were 10 to 13. On our last trip for them, in 95 or 96, we caught perch and bluegills, but none of the troph size PS. If these were PS and they are established in the lake, the same technique would work today. I believe the cardboard over the hole makes this technique work as tip- ups set in a hole with out the cardboard covering it would not catch any of them. Perch and bluegill would bite the wigglers, but not the PS. Cover the augered hole, and leave a slit in the cardboard with a small hole in the middle for the line to go through, was what made the difference.
I spent some time looking at pics of both pumpkin seed and redears and thought I could ID a pumpkin seed by the bright orange and yellow coloration, but the larger ones get darker, just as the ones we caught were.
Also, looking at the RES pics, I noticed a more pronounced red on the outside of the flap of the larger ones than on similar sized pumpkin seeds. As I remember, the flaps had red on them but the larger ones had less than the smaller ones.
There are no records of RES being stocked in the lake by the DNR, or as near as I can tell, the lake association. This lake has extensive data that has been collected over the years from net surveys, creel surveys, etc, and not one mention of, or pic of a RES could I find. So I will concede that these were probably PS, but troph sized ones.
I lost touch with Scott when he moved years ago, and I believe our last fishing trip was in the late 90s.
I thought that he had one mounted and a pic is worth a thousand words. If not, I know he would have some pics. I'm going to try the my wife/his wife face book thing, and see if I can get some pics.
Now I'm on a mission to catch one at a private lake my sister lives on. Locals on the lake planted 500 of them and I caught 4 or 5 last winter while fishing for gills/perch. The largest was about 9 inches. I'll have my camera with me for the next few trips ice fishing there. I still have a few weeks of good ice.
As far as the pond loss of HBG, I'm going to put a thread together with satellite pics showing the pond, the adjacent swamp, culvert, creek, and try to explain what I believed happened. Too much off topic for this thread.
Corgi, you are on a mission to catch one at a private lake.. You mean RES? Locals planted 500 RES? that is interesting since if that lake is as far north as you live it would be interesting to see if RES can survive that far north.
I found some good pictures of some big Pumpkinseed or probably pumpkinseed/NBG hybrids that I had posted a while back. These were caught in a lake called 'Pine Lake' which is actually a series of a bout 5 lakes about an hour south of Grand Rapids.
You can see they don't necessarily have the bright yellow/orange belly and they don't have the brightest ear tab, but these may be hybrids as well. These were caught on the spawning beds sometime in May I believe.
In this link you scroll down about half way and you will see my post and some pictures including closeups.
The lake she lives on is little bass lake in the 6 lakes area just north of M-46 (Edwards)off M-66. After showing her a couple I caught last year, she told me of a gent on the lake that had put in 500 of them. They have made it at least two winters, and maybe 3 if I can catch another in the coming weeks. Last winter the larger one was about 9 inches. I love that lake for the easy limits of pan fish. Multi species from the same hole. Love it.
Bingo on the pics. The hybrid pumpkinseed/bluegill pics you referenced are it. These fish had the darker coloration typical of older male BG, and yet had some red on the ear flap, although not as much red as I've seen on the recent pics of RES I looked at. The females had the same, but a deep burnt darkened yellow coloration common with females in the breast area. Thanks for that CC. It still doesn't explain the creel studies and trap nets that have not shown them, or lack of other anglers pics showing them. How many people fish Tip-up town every winter? A bunch, and yet I could not find any pics. Houghton gets tons of pressure year round by anglers so the lack of pics surprised me, although my google search was for RES, and PS, not hybrid PS/BG.
Still, thank you for researching this. Much appreciated.
With PS hybridizing easily, I'm surprised there are very many pure PS with their beautiful natural colors left in these lakes. But if you can get PS hybrids or PS from local lakes and get them in your pond that would be cool. A lake we like to fish in in newaygo county about an hour north has very nice PS, not very many of good size though.
I'd love to know how the gentleman at little bass lake got ahold of 500 RES (if they were RES) I know of no fish farms in MI that will sell them. I can't imagine he ordered them online and had them shipped in and did he transport himself from Ohio or Indiana?
Would be a good piece of information to know (not trying to get anyone in trouble though)
Imlay City Fish Farm (Imlay City Michigan) claims to be selling redear sunfish. Has anyone ever bought any of these or ask them where they get them as raised in-house or from another fish farm such as in Arkansas? 3"-4" and 5"-6". It would be very interesting if these fish were pumpkinseeds.
Thanks for that link Bill. I checked the road time from there to my door, and it's about 2 and half hours. At Stoney Creek hatchery , they put the fish in oxygen infused bags and they do just fine for the one hour drive back home. Even in the warmer weather they survive a one hour ride with no casualties.
I'll first try calling Stoney Creek to see if they can get some for me as they are only an hour away.
The biologist there told be that some people from the upper peninsula came down for some trout and those trout survived an 8 hour ride back in the same type of O2 infused bags in 5 gallon buckets. It was early spring so the temps helped for that long of a trip without aerators. I would think that a 2 and half hour trip, the the RES would be fine if done early in the year when spring temps make transporting less stressful. As well, bring more buckets and have less of them put in each.
I'd like to get about 25 to start and see how they do. How prolific are they? Is there a chance they could overpopulate the pond? How will the other fish do with the introduction of 25 of these? Can someone give me the possible downside to introducing them.
I do like the idea of interrupting the black grub disease at it's source and would not like to see the perch get peppered with them as I've seen in some ponds and even in some shallower lakes. The two I had on the perch the other day were the first I've seen on any fish in the pond. Getting ahead of what could be a problem seems like the right thing to do.
The pond is .6 acre and has about 200 to 300 HBG, and about 200 YP, and have no idea how many bass, but the eagles and owls like them, a boy scout caught one and released it that was just shy of 23 inches and weighed 7 lbs on an old de-liar. I did not see that fish but was told about it from the prior owner of the property. I've caught a few different year classes of LMB, and the largest I've caught was 18", but I was fishing for the HBG when I caught it.
I noted that their prices at Imlay city on HBG and YP are the same pricing at Stoney Creek hatchery, so they may have the same supplier.
I'll make some calls and post the results. Thanks again.
Duct taped one feeder that had a leak allowing some rain water to seep into feed. Not a sexy fix, but important. HSB still feeding really well, I suspect rainbow trout are too. No sign of CNBG near feeders or shallows.
Heard but didn't see a bald eagle, good to know they are hanging around. A few stupid cormorants were looking for dinner.
My new pond is completely full and starting to overflow out the pipe in just under a year, although one of the wettest years we've had in a long time, I found the ice to be thick enough to walk on comfortably, so I took a chainsaw and cleared and piled up a bunch of smaller trees and brush along some of the edges where it filled up and flooded them before I could get them cleared, thought I would have more time but the pond filled up fast, 30 ft deep in a small area but pro 5 acres of 25 ft of depth. Also cut down several trees about 6" in dia about 18" above the water about 20ft from shore to use to fasten my base down on for my wood duck houses, purchased 2 of the pre-made houses that several on here appeared to have luck with and then built two more out of scrap 10" pvc pipe I had laying around. gonna see how they work, wish I had them completed as its still hard enough to go out and install them this morning but don't have the posts and bases welded together yet, and it will probably be too soft after today, will have to install them out of the boat, does anyone know when they need to be out by here in central MO? I know the geese are flying north fast these last few weeks, TIA
Can some of you farmers tell me how much one of these should cost? I'm thinking bout a spring project. Cabin fever has me wanting to be outside. And it hasnt even been a bad winter.
I will walk the ponds edge most every time I am at the pond while looking for Otter and or Beaver signs. I watched the Osprey circle above the pond then looked away only to see when looking back he was flying off with another Bg or res in the 5 to 6" range. I also had my first sighting of a Cormorant on the pond this year. He was lucky he left before I was able to set up my Cormorant deterrent. As I walked the shoreline I flipped a jig with crawfish trailer. I stuck one that straightened out the hook on this 1/4" jig. I was shocked when she got off and I learned she had bent the hook. I think it's a big deal when a lmb bends a jig hook. She hit it pretty hard but was on for only a few seconds before straightening the hook.
Pat, THATS FUNNY but true. I was using a Ducket Cranking rod that is pretty limber. When using braded line with no streach it makes a good combo. But you are right about I should have backed off the drag some more.
Zep, I am sure you are please to find the dead otter. My experience tells me there is most likely another close by. I hope that's not the case for you. And cormorants, I hate those darn birds. They can really reduce fish numbers too. I saw that first hand ! Rumors are TP&W brought some otters in a few years back, I'm not sure why. I would hope there was a good reason for that if that's the case.
Since the last 15 days have been exceptionally hot to be February (today it was 66 F at 2 pm) I decided to put the feeder back and try to fish some LMB. The water is still quite cold (about 50 F on the surface) and I had to make many launches and probe several spots without success, but then in the middle of some branches in the water I felt a very light, almost imperceptible bite and it came out this beautiful fish. Can you tell me, just looking at the photo of the urogenital area, if it is male or female? I would say female, but only because the belly seems full of eggs.
My experience tells me there is most likely another close by.
I agree Tracy....traps are re-set!
Originally Posted By: TGW1
Rumors are TP&W brought some otters in a few years back. I would hope there was a good reason for that if that's the case.
Not sure, but I wouldn't doubt it, they did in Nebraska...but most people see them as cute little happy animals...heck I did too until they started destroying my fish population. I'm just happy we can legally trap/shoot/kill those "cuties" no matter what PETA thinks!
55 BH in the traps Sunday. 98 today. 88 in one trap next to brush along the dam. Three traps are set there now. The fish truck is coming Thursday so I'll be adding LMB to snack on the thousands of BH that will surely hatch this year. Yes, there are some LMB that washed in with the BH but I dont think there are very many. Not enough to slow down the BH I know! Threw a cast net also Sunday and only caught GSH.
Duck tape worked, no more leaks into my feeder! Not a permanent fix, but if it lasts this season I'd be delighted.
My bride & I put out 150 lb of AquaMax MVP in three feeders -- they finally had some at feed store. Dock feeder still has some eager biters, but other two are fairly quiet. Still no sign of CNBG, it's all LMB, RBT, and HSB.
Saw eagle, couple of ducks, and four blasted cormorants.
Frank, my cnbg have feed fairly aggressively daily this winter. Most likely due to a mild winter other than for maybe a two week period during Feb. Every pond/lake is different. Do you think all the predictors are having an effect on your cnbg feeding at the feeders? Or did you stop feeding and they have not come back to feeding station at this time? And Blasted cormorants, that's what I would do!
Can some of you farmers tell me how much one of these should cost? I'm thinking bout a spring project. Cabin fever has me wanting to be outside. And it hasnt even been a bad winter.
I would expect anywhere from free to $1000. The free would be if you know someone is getting rid of old bins.
Frank, my cnbg have feed fairly aggressively daily this winter. Most likely due to a mild winter other than for maybe a two week period during Feb. Every pond/lake is different. Do you think all the predictors are having an effect on your cnbg feeding at the feeders? Or did you stop feeding and they have not come back to feeding station at this time? And Blasted cormorants, that's what I would do!
Zep, opps that's a beaver my bad
Weird, isn't it? But creel results show the same at my place: CNBG totally absent. My son did see tons of tiny "minnows" near the dock, which I'm guessing are actually results of first LMB spawn.
Craigslist free section is a great place to look. Found an almost new stand for my son's bearded dragon aquarium. Also stall mats for the horses and stall front doors. That was a huge score!
Also, I wonder if the top or bottom could be taken off and it could be used to protect newly planted water lilies or eelgrass from turtles, crawfish, grass carp, etc. At least until they've grown up. And all the while also providing shelter for YOY fish.
If you're going to order any more of those kennels, I would contact your local animal control departments. After some time, they rotate those out and get new ones or have new ones donated. You can get them free or on the cheap.
We had a guest who just got back from being away from his two boys for the past year. David is serving with the military. He and his two boys came out along with the boys 90 yr old great grandfather. Fishing from the pier they had a blast catching some bg up to 10" maybe even larger, and one hsb that they said it had to be 8 lbs. lol. Not sure about the weight of the hsb because they had no scales to weigh that fish that was caught and released. But if they thought it weighed 8, it will still make a great fishing story. There could/might be an 8 lb'er in the pond. The grandfather was catching the largest bg he had ever caught. They kept 8 bg in the 7" size and cleaned them and cooked them up at the pond.
Trophy pond is working and my pond goals are being met. Take a kid fishing.
Started building my fish highway yesterday. Sinking some cedars standing up. Purpose is to provide some pathway from deeper water to a shallow area TH feeder. Most of this area is a shallow flat that is 5 to 7' in depth and about an acer in size depending on what time of year it is. Water temp was 60 @ the surface and 56 at 4' depth. A high pressure day/ bluebird skies with very few CNBG feeding at the feeders. The HSB were actively feeding on something at the surface.
Set some 3 inch schedule 10 pipe through the Ice for piers on this springs dock project. Ice is melting off fast in South Dakota. Diffusers and warm nights are eating away at ice like crazy. Only open fishable water in the county, almost like Im trying to attract cormorants 🤮🤮🤮
We had ice out here last weekend and I have found just seven RES morts over the last week. Today I went and sampled fish with a rod and reel, I caught 12 SMB, 7-8 RES, and 3 GSH. Water temps are probably still in the low 40s. Two of the RES had red blood in their fins which is probably cold water related to ice out. Things look good.
Proud great great great great great grandpa lol (who's know many)
Wish my water visibility was even half wht many of you have. Hoping for a better summer. This forum has caused me 2 start thinking about things I never even gave 2 thoughts about. By then end of the summer I thinkni will have better visibility.
Bought a pound of fat head minnows and went fishing for crappie that I havent seen in a while. Didnt catch any crappie but started catching LMB 8-9 and removed them . Several were 2-4# removed them also. Think Im overloaded with LMB causing the decline of BCP. The larger LMB are fat but the 8 are thin for the most part. Any ideas how many LMB to remove to change the dynamics of a six acre pond?
We had a funeral at the property. Does anybody else have friends asking to bury their pets at their property? A friend asked we agreed the ashes could be interred.
Actually I guess we had two funerals...got another otter coming up the creek before he got to the pond.
Caught a nice sunset Sat night.
Hung a cute sign...made to make the bad guys think.
Oh and a guy dropped a cedar tree for me and said "rather than haul it off ya want me to make a small bridge?"...I said sure why not.
My nephew caught this nice gravid female YP through the ice on a gravel pit not far from Lake MI. Exciting to think how many YP in the great lakes watershed are getting ready to lay eggs. It looks like there are 20,000 eggs there! Hopefully the conditions are right (not much wind, gradual warm up, no cold snap or ice over) for successful spawn and lots of fry!
My 9 year old grandson filleted a fish for the very first time! About 12 inch bass, he did very well for a beginner. As always, fresh fish you caught yourself tastes better than anything in the store.
Zep I like your bridge. I know myself I would try to see how fast I could do it. We all know how that ends up ( on youtube fails).
Anthropic that's a lesson nobody every taught me. I can do it know bout it would have been nice to learn when I was little. Mine still end up as fish nuggets.
The cnbg have left the feeders after a couple weeks of cold nights and wet colder days. Or they have moved to spawning mode as the water temps are moving up. I am not sure what is going on with the cnbg? I remember only once before in the past 5 yrs that I have seen where the cnbg were not at the feeders. Water is clear with 6' of visibility, Ph 7.5 late afternoon. Surface water temps in the low 60's. And I watched two lmb going through the spawning ritual. I would feel better about it all if the cnbg would return to the feeders.
Been storing these in the shop all winter. I'm hoping they made it alive. Changed the water a few times for them. I let them go back into the pond last night.
RS You will be lucky if they regrow. Any idea what the lowest temperature was where they were stored? Lack of sunlight may have been just as or more important than cool temps. Let us know the results so others can benefit from your experiment.
I will plan on keeping everyone posts win or lose. I put them out in my shop its insulted but only lit the fireplace a few times. Prolly got in the upper 40's at the lowest. I figured I would be lucky if they made it but worth a try. I put them ose to a window so they would get some sunlight but still wasnt much. These are water hyacinth. Theybdont look near as good as they did then they were removed for sure.
We have had a couple of real nice, if a bit windy, days here in central MO, water temperature was up to 46 degrees, I went out in a boat and installed four wood duck boxes, two manufactured ones and two home made ones, after putting the first two up I heard a duck and looking up seen a male wood duck making a big circle around the pond, talk about timing, hope I am not too late, does anyone know what is a good time to have them out in this area?
That's in my "forage" Pond. That bass will be relocated to my main Pond once I get a line wet. Unfortunately bass will never be eliminated as they get washed in from the Pond up stream. Also saw some sunfish and a few perch but no pictures.
Partial ice coverage limited the light as it is only open near the shore line. The water is cloudy from all the rain. Hopefully it clears up.
Romance is in the air -- literally -- at my pond. Pair of eagles, pair of Canada geese, two pairs of wood ducks, one pair of an unknown brownish duck. Sadly, coromorants are also on site.
Still not a lot of feeding other than rainbow trout. Not sure if cormorants inhibit fish, or if cormorants have done such a number already that there aren't that many CNBG left.
Frank, I am not seeing much activity at the feeders either. CNBG has for the most part shut down for the last 3 or 4 weeks. I did pick up the 3wt fly rod and caught two really nice sized female cnbg. One at the feeder area and one away from the feeder. Since I only caught the two and both were female makes me wonder if the males are setting on nest or did they just go deeper than I expected them to be? I also found an 11 or 12" cnbg dead and floating, it was maybe the largest I have seen come out of the pond. Not sure if it was due to age (maybe 6 yr old fish) or did spawning activity cause her to die?
Iv have been feeding small amounts with almost zero activity so far. Tonight I'm seeing some splashing at the pond right at dark. So hopefully it wont be to much longer before they start coming up for dinner time.
Fish are feeding at feeder well and hitting on the surface all around. Caught a hog yesterday that was 8-9# that really put up a good fight, thought it was a big catfish but was a big bucket mouth. Transferred her to my neighbors pond
Looks to me Pats CP pond has turned into a trophy lmb pond Pat, that's not all bad.
And I did see quite a few cnbg around the feeding area yesterday but was not there when the feeders went off so not sure if they have started back to feeding at the feeder. But I did see some which is more than I have seen in the past few weeks.
I took my 2 year old grandaughter to the pond the other day with a decent sized dip net. She wore me out..."Catch another one Grandad!"...repeat...repeat...repeat. I couldn't get her to touch any of the many tadpoles, HBG young, frogs or crawdads...almost but not quite. She's "skeered". Too cute too!
I did happen to net a handsized HBG by surprise right up against the bank nestled in some land grasses that where under a bit of water due to the recent rains. Kinda odd...I didn't see it before I netted. I was just mildling scoping tadpoles up and caught the fish. I was alos suprised to catch so many 3/4 to 1-1/2" young HBG. Last years late season young I supose...I wonder why they were not foraged upon by the HSB over the winter.
It was the first time for her and I at the pond alone... I hope I created a habit for us.
But I want BCP! Anybody want any LMB come get all you want! Sometimes they not that easy though. Anything over three pounds goes to neighbor anything under gets eaten or thrown up on bank till the BCP recover some
Threw out 15 to 20 pounds of pond fertilizer, hopefully will green up the water and make cormorants unhappy. Tons of small bass near cover, which doesn't make me happy.
Pat, we really need to not only get depredation licenses to eliminate cormorants, but also figure out what can be done legally NOW to deal with the issue. Extra cover? If so, what kind of cover? Reduced visibility? Are some kinds of fish, such as shad, attractive to cormorants?
What types of fish are they most likely to eat? Small LMB might be a blessing in disguise, but what about larger LMB? What about BG?
What tactics seem to work best to discourage them? Fake alligator heads? Big eye balloons? Fake human dummies? (Or in my case, maybe a real dummy) Nets?
I just think this has become such an issue that we need to focus on it.
From my experience I have not seen where fertile waters with 18" of green visibility made any difference in discouraging the cormorants. This year my water is at 6' of clarity and I have seen fewer or maybe the same numbers of the dam birds. I'm leaning toward clear water might be better than fertile waters. If fish see the bird or the birds shadow they most likely will dart away like they do when a human approaches them.
Shad are a fish that they will attack, I've seen it at my pond where they drove the shad back into a corner. They killed off a lot (hundreds) of the 4" TFS and did not even eat them.
Right now, I have an Osprey that loves my pond and feeds there daily I don't deter him but I see him fly off most everyday with a 5 to 7" cnbg. Now, multiply that by the number of days he has been there. He has been there for several months now.
I’ve only seen two cormorants this season and one got lead poisoning from some where..... seems like the clearer water does deter them or word gets around about lead poisoning . I’ve watched them eat mostly BG and BCP
I got 1 catfish to come up for dinner time last night. It shouldn't be to much longer before the rest show up. Once it gets warmer out I plan on trying to throw a throw net on top of them in the middle of dinner. If that don't work I will just get the old zebco and a worm out. I see a fish fry I my future.
I was wondering if it was time to get the feeder back out. Will be home tomorrow from our winter haunt down south and anxious to see what shape the pond is in. Got some pond dye ordered to combat what I know will be FA already growing. Reports from home show we had a flood and lots of rain so at least maybe some nutrients got flushed out with the overflow water.
Snrub if your ponds are not running over that means you have an overflow pipe. Everything around d these parts is soaked with more rain in the forecast.
Caught and restocked a fat 3# female LMB to my neighbors pond . Changed to top water bait and was surprised that they were already hitting it. Does anyone know how many LMB to remove to allow the crappie a chance to regroup. Have removed a 9,5,3 and 23 smaller fish 2# and down.
1.5" of hard rain last night more than topped off the pond! Used a piece of .5" wire mesh to see what is coming through the culverts that drain the wetland...5BH and 6GSF in less than 5min...I'm planning on making a screen about 10' in front of the culverts. Tried a screen last year on the culverts but they clogged up pretty bad. Other ideas are welcome. Saw either GSF or BG making beds in the pond shallows the other night.
Got a quick question for the group. Is it better to mow with clippings going into the water or not? The fish seem to like it they normally follow me eating either bugs that jump in or the grass I'm not sure.
Camping out with just the dogs. Best friend couldn't make it from Houston due to the virus shutdown and family obligations. They are hunkered down with 2 boys and a dog that just had knee surgery.
Watched LMB I guess staging for the spawn along side of BCP all down the dam for the last 3-4 days. Bass ranged from 3-6# with one long as my arm. Thought the crappie were gone as I haven’t been able to catch any as of lately. LMB one one side of pond are tailing in very shallow water. Water temp is in the upper 60s.... figured the BCP would be done spawning by now
Checked for YP ribbons. Still just have the one. I’m afraid my YP just are not doing well. I do have record numbers of bullfrog tadpoles. All the way around the 1 ac pond looks like this.
Good to get away for the weekend after a very challenging week at work. Never had to lay anyone off in twenty year old company....but this week it came and so did the tears. One lady after we laid her off said "I love you guys"....that was emotional. Hopefully it's temporary. So being out at the pond this weekend is such a nice break.
Lots of rain this morning....ponds are all full.
Texas bluebonnet's starting to show up.
Sidewalk to boat slip under water.
Boat slip almost submerged...but gosh these kind of problems are fun.
Zep sorry you guys had to do that. My work did it a few years ago. There were lots of years shed that day as well. It's a very emotional time we r going thur already. It sounds like they will get unemployment and also an extra 600 a week now. DAMN I'd say you got plenty of rain.
Got a quick question for the group. Is it better to mow with clippings going into the water or not? The fish seem to like it they normally follow me eating either bugs that jump in or the grass I'm not sure.
I would not put them in the water. Most ponds as they age have problems with too much nutrients rather than too little. Adding the grass will just add to the nutrient load.
A pond will get shallower on its own from the things that go into it. But as far as I know ponds never get deeper on their own. The more we can keep out (other than the stuff we want there like structure) the better.
Your pond is one YP ribbon ahead of mine. I still haven't spotted any. Water is starting to clear so I might be able to see one now if I put the boat in and went looking.
Last year in Missouri must have been good conditions for bullfrogs to make more bullfrogs. My pond is loaded with them. Thousands of them.
With water temps getting to the upper 50s I started the slow-roll on aeration this week. I'm adding 15 minutes/day to the run time.
Stopped in at the farm-n-home over lunch today and picked up a gallon jug of Cutrine+. I had hoped to avoid chemicals but the FA is going to go nuts if I don't do something. I'm going to wait until the aeration is going a couple hours/day to put it in.
Thanks for the replies. I will make sure and try to keep it out from now on.
What I have found works pretty well around my pond is I leave about one or two swaths around the pond uncut. Then I make a pass throwing towards the pond those approximately two swaths out. This lets the tall grass catch the clippings keeping them out of the pond better. Then after making a few passes throwing the grass toward the pond, I finish by cutting those last two passes throwing the grass away from the pond. By cutting those last, they help keep the clippings out of the water.
Your pond is one YP ribbon ahead of mine. I still haven't spotted any. Water is starting to clear so I might be able to see one now if I put the boat in and went looking.
Stopped in at the farm-n-home over lunch today and picked up a gallon jug of Cutrine+. I had hoped to avoid chemicals but the FA is going to go nuts if I don't do something. I'm going to wait until the aeration is going a couple hours/day to put it in.
I’m heading up to the pond tomorrow. Hopefully there’ll be another ribbon or two. I have some Cutrine left over from last year. The FA was the worst it’s ever been (last year). I’m hoping I may not need it, but I’m afraid that’s just wishful thinking. Hope you see some ribbons!
Augie, my first spring was like you describe with all the frogs. I had hundreds and hundreds of them everywhere. Tadpoles too. But after my lmb grew the next spring their numbers dropped to just a hundred or so with some of them being big bullfrogs. And then the frogs learned not to get in the big pond lol. They took to my sediment pond instead.
Snrub that sounds like a pretty good idea. Thanks for the tip. I'm lovin the grass greening up around here. I'm hoping this year to get the top of my damn all filled in and grass growing. Only bout half of the pond has grass along it as of right now.
My computer at home might be on the fritz. anyone else having problems seeing the pictures in the last two posts by Shortcut just above this one? The first post has a jagged jpeg icon and it says 'linked image' and in the next post there is a link with the [img] and [/img] around it but I can't pull up the link.
I know my computer filter sometimes does this but I have filtering off and can't see them. I can't seem to post my own pictures either. I have chrome and didn't have this issue before. If everyone else can see then never mind.
If I go to my own thread (pond redo) it dosnt work. The picture that is, comes up as blank screen. So I dont think it's your computer. I went back and looked at some older posts. There are coming up blank aswell. I sent an msg to moderator about it. This forum caught a virus itself. I would make a RONA joke but might be to early for that.
Thanks for checking and letting me know RStringer. I was going crazy on my end trying to figure it out. Other forums are hosting and showing pictures just fine. Hopefully the mods can get it fixed as of 8:15 pm EST it is still not working
Looks like the glitch started on March 30, prior to that it was going well. Maybe someone can report that to the mods and they can see what changed on that date.
I went over to the pond to feed the fish this evening and found a sick and dying deer next to my pond. It had big patches of red bare spots, and one of it's back legs was twisted up. It tried to get up when I got near it, but couldn't. I called animal control and they told me to call the conservation department. They told me to shoot it so it wouldn't suffer, if I could,so I did. Kind of a bummer to have to do it. Now I have to go over tomorrow and try to figure out how to drag it out of there, which is another bummer.
I went over to the pond to feed the fish this evening and found a sick and dying deer next to my pond. It had big patches of red bare spots, and one of it's back legs was twisted up. It tried to get up when I got near it, but couldn't. I called animal control and they told me to call the conservation department. They told me to shoot it so it wouldn't suffer, if I could,so I did. Kind of a bummer to have to do it. Now I have to go over tomorrow and try to figure out how to drag it out of there, which is another bummer.
I found one similar to this. It was hit by a car/truck.
Tbar, that is what I was thinking happened to this one. I went over this morning to drag it off and it was over half gone already. I don't know if it was eating any of it but a hawk flew off when I pulled up and 2 vultures were in a tree. I've seen a few coyotes in the area before, so they might of helped.l know it made it a lot easier to drag off.
Fished the pond using my 3 wt fly rod yesterday. I wanted to catch some bg for eating and for fun. I caught several bg and caught a 3 lb lmb. Most of the bg were in the 8 to 8.5" and all of them were female. Not a single male was caught as I fished around the pond, so I am guessing they are guarding nest. And that brings up the fact that I have never seen a bg on the nest at my pond. I have looked but have yet to find a bg bedding area even though I built some bedding areas when the pond was built. The areas were built as shallow flats using sand to build the areas. I know sand is not best but I thought it would be better than clay. After keeping 6 bg I decided to pick up the bass rod threw a wacky worm and on the first cast caught an 8.5 lb lmb. Thought that was a good way to finish up the fishing trip. A great day for sure.
Fished the pond using my 3 wt fly rod yesterday. I wanted to catch some bg for eating and for fun. I caught several bg and caught a 3 lb lmb. Most of the bg were in the 8 to 8.5" and all of them were female. Not a single male was caught as I fished around the pond, so I am guessing they are guarding nest. And that brings up the fact that I have never seen a bg on the nest at my pond. I have looked but have yet to find a bg bedding area even though I built some bedding areas when the pond was built. The areas were built as shallow flats using sand to build the areas. I know sand is not best but I thought it would be better than clay. After keeping 6 bg I decided to pick up the bass rod threw a wacky worm and on the first cast caught an 8.5 lb lmb. Thought that was a good way to finish up the fishing trip. A great day for sure.
Yes it does payoff Pat. The pond is doing well right now. HA! as I look back over the past 5 yrs there was a lot more to it all than digging a hole, adding water and then fish. I could take the whole page here listing all the people that gave me some assistance in getting it to where it is today. Your name would be on that list
Lol Tracy Seems as we have been at this longer than 5 years don’t it. Was that bass full of eggs or had she already spawned? I think there is still TFS in mine, see some running the surface late evening last few days. I’m still at war removing LMB to make room for crappie, probably have to get rid of bunches of BG also. Saw a few in shallow water all colored up for a few days then they went deep again same with large LMB. Guess they did their thing and left
Pat, she looked like she had done a partial spawn, she was roughed up a little with a little bloody spot on the base of her tail but she still had some eggs in her based on what I saw. She was caught in about 8 to 10' of water but near shallows. The 3 lb'er caught on the fly looked to be in much better shape with fewer spawning marks if any.
I have had good fishing this past week. Caught a 10.8 lmb on Caddo lake. My second one over ten out of the lake in the past 6 or 7 yrs. This larger lmb looked to be on or near the nest with spawning marks at the base of her tail. She also looked to be partially spawned out but still had a sack full of eggs in her. I could see what looked to be eggs about the size of a baseball in her that was located near her or over her vent opening.
Pat, have u noticed at your pond that the lmb spawn will go on the spawn from early March to where I saw males on the nest as late as May last year.
Tracy I have never seen them on the nest before, but they spawn every year it seems, they left the area and the BG moved in so who knows. This spring the water is clear36” or so , last spring the bloom started early. Do you have spikerush in your pond?
Son in law caught a nice SMB today. We are catching Golden Shiners in the trap in the background (along with lots of tiny HBG & many many BF tadpoles). The GS make good bait for the YP and the SMB.
Hey SG, that looks like a terrific smallmouth! I sent you a PM, check your email when you get time. Would love to hear about more perch ribbons? Lots of forage available? Do you have plans to restock HSB? Walleye?
Still trying to source HSB or Walleye. I don’t think either of the local hatcheries are open. Plus my lovely wife would get a little nervous if I went into a store. We are taking social distancing pretty seriously.
Got the lawn entirely mowed. Last year I only mowed a portion and did not like it. This look makes me happy! Edit: Why do my pics show as linked image when doing the [img]link[/img]
Spread another 25 lb pond fertilizer today. Stocked TFS so trying to establish bloom. Encouraged to see many fish from fry to junior varsity to varsity!
Tracy I have never seen them on the nest before, but they spawn every year it seems, they left the area and the BG moved in so who knows. This spring the water is clear36” or so , last spring the bloom started early. Do you have spikerush in your pond?
Yes I do have several clumps of it around the ponds edge and a few clumps of Louisiana Iris. I also have a nice amount of APW but then I have Bushy pondweed and I don't like it, seems to be very aggressive growing in my pond. I think it also has caused my water to clear with visibility running around 4'. I have seen 6 or 7' of clear water this winter and I think the clear water has caused me to lose my TFS. That along with the HSB and LMB feeding on them. I do not see any water ripples across the surface.
Spread another 25 lb pond fertilizer today. Stocked TFS so trying to establish bloom. Encouraged to see many fish from fry to junior varsity to varsity!
Frank, from your past post I have seen where you had a good amount of vegetation in the pond. How does the water fertilization effect the plant growth? I need my water to green up some more but concerned when it comes to fertilizing the pond water because it might stimulate my bushy pondweed and I don't need that! So, what are you seeing when u fertilize?
We finally had a day in the high 70's yesterday! It was a great day for spring cleaning at the pond. I noticed a school of 1 inch bluegill swimming in the shallows. Do you think these are from the spawn last fall? If so, I am surprised the made it through the winter. My water temperatures just reached the low 50's in the last couple of weeks. I assume they wouldn't have spawned and grown to 1 inch already this year? Thanks guys as always for your insight.
Tracy I have never seen them on the nest before, but they spawn every year it seems, they left the area and the BG moved in so who knows. This spring the water is clear36” or so , last spring the bloom started early. Do you have spikerush in your pond?
Yes I do have several clumps of it around the ponds edge and a few clumps of Louisiana Iris. I also have a nice amount of APW but then I have Bushy pondweed and I don't like it, seems to be very aggressive growing in my pond. I think it also has caused my water to clear with visibility running around 4'. I have seen 6 or 7' of clear water this winter and I think the clear water has caused me to lose my TFS. That along with the HSB and LMB feeding on them. I do not see any water ripples across the surface.
Tracy the spikerush grows completely underwater and is widespread and not in clumps . Very fine leafed and invasive in my opinion
And I thought Spikerush was a shoreline type plant that grew along the water edge, sometimes the base of the plant under water and sometimes at the edge. Looks like the leaves or stems are needle shaped. This is what I have around my pond . Tells you I am no aqua plant expert. Pat now as far as all this, my plant problem is Bushy pondweed, that stuff grows like crazy at my place. Hoping my newly stocked Grass carp eat it.
Per USDA Common Spikerush wants to keep it`s seed pod out of water. So if grows in saturated soils, but not flooded it will not grow tall. If flooded it will continue to grow up to 4 ft to keep the pods out of standing water.
The stuff here lives under water mostly. Late summer/fall it puts up I guess pods above water. It will grow in 6’ water with no pods. Very fine leaves or stems branched at stem
Two Bald Eagles flying over the pond. Looked like they were fighting over who gets to fish the pond. I'm sorry, but seeing bald eagles fight with each other in the skies over the pond on most days is not what I really want to see. Beautiful birds is an understatement. Majestic Would be a better description. But Dam it, They need to leave my big fish alone.
Tracy, we've had an Osprey hanging around here. We usually only see them 2-3 times a year. He got a fish or 2, and as far as i can tell, he's gone now.
No Bald Eagles so far this year, and yep, they are majestic.
After the storm I saw a lone cormorant at the pond. We already have three pairs of wood ducks (they've discovered fish food), four geese, two bald eagles, and a great blue heron. Eagles and wood ducks are welcome, others not so much.
Water very murky by our standards, viz maybe 18 inches. Some runoff plus about 50 lb of fertilizer. Will fertilize again when it clears, need a good bloom for our TFS. One encouraging sign: large numbers of fish from teeny on up in shallows. Numerous bait balls that can be seen only in sunlight.
About half the dogwood and red bud trees planted on our island have been destroyed by a beaver. They were surrounded by metal wire, but anything less than 2 feet above the ground wasn't enough to keep the rodent away.
Al, like you and Pat, I've had an Osprey living at the pond for at least the past 8 to 12 months. It is possible that the Bald Eagle has run it off but if it did it's only been recently if he has left at all. The Eagle has been around for a couple of years now along with the Osprey. I'm getting used to feeding the birds lol. A lot of my culling is done by birds and otters over the past few years.
Neither can I. I'm shooting darts at the pic issue.
Finding the cause of the errors is kinda like taking a multiple choice test. Eliminate the answers that you know are wrong, then the odds go up that you'll get the correct answer. I'm trying to eliminate answers right now. Some member's pics are showing up, but they have a different website folder structure than the ones that don't. Why that happens is the answer I'm looking for.
I don't have, or want, access to the source files, but I did enterprise level application development for years. There's always a reason a database driven website fails, and if I can narrow that down, then maybe the programmers can target the reason.
If it helps, i can post the exact error message i get when I try to upload a picture. It uploads the 'shell' and it shows a placeholder, but the 'guts' of the picture is missing. It doesn't help if I change format to .png vs .jpg or .jpeg 3rd party hosted pictures work.
We probably should stop the attachment manager completely if possible since all the pictures being uploaded since this is broken may never get fixed since the actual pixel data seems to be missing.
test picture failed It seems to think that it doesn't recognize the embedded data of the uploaded JPEG as a true JPEG due to some error. Strange is on the attachment upload window even after the error you can see the thumbnail in the bottom of the window so it recognizes the picture in the upload pane even after the error. But then when the forum goes to pull up that picture it opens a new tab and the opened tab is blank.
Here is the error:
Fatal error: imagecreatefromjpeg(): gd-jpeg: JPEG library reports unrecoverable error: Not a JPEG file: starts with 0x89 0x50 in /var/www/vhosts/pondboss.com/httpdocs/forums/libs/image.inc.php on line 36
Thanks for trying guys. It's all over my head when it comes the teck stuff. I am considered to be an expert when it comes to my field but when it comes to anything more than typing here I'm lost for the most part. Why not use RAH's method of posting pics ? Is that not working now?
As far as the pond, will, I made a walk around and saw 5 male lmb guarding nest. And with the cool nights we have been having this past week or so I did not see many cnbg in the shallows or anything else other than those male lmb. If the pond follows what I have seen before I will see males guarding nest for the next 4 weeks or so with males guarding leaving and then new males coming in for a second round of spawning and males guarding their nest.
I have not been able to id the ducks that use the owl house.They do not use my pond and fly in at sunset. Sometimes they land in trees until I leave other times one goes into the house. They whistle and last year I saw black bellied whistling ducks but these have a dark back with light belly. I'm thinking about removing the water snakes so they don't eat the baby ducks that will arrive soon.
It was nice to get away from the big city, do a little "social distancing" in the county, and catch a few fish from a pond on a near perfect weather day that was predicted as a rainy day. Predictions!
Thanks Pat. She caught it on an H&H. Do you know by looking at it if that is a hybrid crappie? The guy we bought the place from put a few regular crappie in, so I wasn't sure if it was a hybrid I stocked or one of his?
Zep, nice fish. I think the H&H spinner bait is probably the best pond bait ever made. A great go to bait. I have a question or two. Is the Hybred brim a res/bg or a green sunfish/res blend? I was not aware u had green sunfish and did not know you had cp either. All those fish look to be really healthy. And how many years have the both strains of cp been in the pond? Have they ever spawned?
Oop's, I do seem to remember something about getting your HCP from Todd?
I was also curious what cross the HBG was. May be unknown but some of the experts surely have opinions. Pretty fish at any rate.
We have started the 2020 harvest of some GSF and HBG. Cleaned a batch and canned them to try something different. We have been eating a lot of sardines so decided to try canning some BG and CC.
Wow Jeff that is a MASSIVE smallmouth. Congratulations! That is so exciting to see. There must be an abundance of forage in your pond and good growing conditions. Do you know if that was a female with eggs?
Thanks guys. Stocked 60 in Oct of 2015. We’ve kept three so far. We have caught two little ones over the years, so there has been some reproduction. This one had no eggs, and pretty much an empty stomach. Not sure what that means. I cannot tell makes from females. They are a blast to catch. I taught the son in law to catch the GS in in a trap and use them for bait. He’s obviously got the hang of it. Ha
Fished again yesterday and today. In MO you can only turkey hunt until 1:00. So it leaves us time to fish. Caught a good sized GS. Went ahead and used him for bait. Big SMB hit him on first cast. But spit him up (dead) before it could be landed. Daughter caught 2 or 3 very small YP, so I must have had some successful recruitment last summer.
Haha! Yes that’s my Little Mermaid special. Deadly on SMB and YP! Grandkids use it, but my daughter ends up with it after they lose interest. They net tadpoles, their Mom (my daughter) could fish for hours.
She caught 17” SMB yesterday with a GS. I think the whole county heard her when she landed it.
This guy was out in the winter wheat yesterday morning. Right above the pond, but this was as close as he’d come. I think I need to improve my calling..
Setter, the whole story sounds great. Daughter yelling out excited. And the Turkey hunting pic is cool. But I may have to given that bird a shot at. Maybe it looks closer on the picture. Either way it's a good time just to set in the brush and watch them.
My son in law made the decision. He had his rangefinder out. (51 yards) Plus he was showing us his backside. We thought he’d come over to check out the hen decoy. Unfortunately he had two real hens with him. Never got closer than 75 yards after that. In our field for two hours. Strut the whole time. Still exciting though. I think our SMB population is the most healthy one in the pond. The YP numbers don’t seem as strong as a few years ago. The RES numbers are good, but we don’t see many over 5/6”. The HSB must have not survived the stocking as none have ever been seen (in 5 yrs). The water is as clear as we’ve ever seen it. The SMB hang out just off the banks. Mostly at north and south ends of the pond. They were visible the last few days, either laying in wait, or cruising in packs from 3 to 6. You could throw out a GS and watch one of the pack peel off and go for the GS.
Took a little time and fished the pond from the boat. In a couple of hrs I caught two bg and 11 lmb 6 of them were in the 11" range and the others were 3 16" that looked to be a little thinner than I want but maybe due to post spawn. One 15", one 17" and a 20 1/2' lmb that was post spawn but still in the 7lb range. Not a bad fishing trip catching most all of them on a weightless June bug colored lizard. But as I fish around I have seen where the vegetation is getting pretty bad with half the pond having submerged plants growing down to at least 6' depths. Most of it is bushy pondweed growing in 3 to 6' water and I found what I believe is Widgeon grass in the deeper edges in 6' water. I also have American pond weed that grows mostly in the 2 to 4' water depths. I am concerned to say the least. I do have Grass carp at 3 1/3 fish per acre. These were 14" when added early last fall. Hay! if they eat 3 times their wt per day then 30 lbs per day of vegetation might be consumed. That's not much considering what I am seeing. I may have to add some chemical treatment before long. I don't want to but?
Lots of bg at two feeders, one feeder down right now. I could use a bg spawn!
Had a friend stop by which has a small pond. He is wantin to get some fish started in his. He brought a cage with him. We stuffed a sock with some pellets and tied it off. Threw it in the cage and cage is in bout 3 - 4 feet of water. Put in the pond right noon on sat. Going to see how much we get in 24 hours. I should have took a picture. It's a homemade job opening is prolly bout a 3 inch circle. I will take pictures when I pull it out. Wish me luck!!!
I really don't know. I was hoping someone would tell me. Myself im color blind so its for me to tell. Around here I just here them called perch and crappie.
A couple weeks ago I moved my very neglected bees 30mi to my pond property. It's a miracle they survived last year. Since I have no idea how old the queen is I went ahead with replacing her and moving everyone into a fancy cedar hive. The old hive had rotten holes in it. They were very cooperative and polite. I expected a few strings even with a suit on but not one even tried! Trying imgur for the first time.
Another beekeeper! Have you found HoneyBeeSuite? Rusty, the proprietor, is a gifted writer, scientifically trained, very observant and knowledgeable, and well respected.
I installed two packages of bees into my two top bar hives a week and a half ago. For 2 days after beeing hived, the girls were out walking the muddy shorelines of the pond getting water. Seems that the travel from Utah made them quite thirsty.
That's a beautiful hive you have there. Is it a Langstroth with a fancy top, or a Warre, a Valhalla? I can't really tell from the pic.
Started up my aeration but discovered I'm not getting any bubbles from any of the six diffusers. Checked 1800 ' of air line for leaks but discovered the problem may be under water. Pain in the ass to get things up and running again and at best it will take me a couple or three days to find the problem.
Used cut BH to catch 2 "record" CC during the super moon tonight. 100 CC were stocked 10/2018. 100 CC on the wall, take 2 down, pass them around...4000BH on the wall...take 2 down 3998 BH on the wall...only you guys get it...I ate BH for dinner yesterday.
Sunk several more cedar trees. Last few days we’ve caught a lot of SMB and YP. Enough to make me think both are doing well. So I thought I’d try to help the GS and all the recent hatches survive.
Old pump jack above the sediment pond hasn't been used in 10yrs. It was covered up mesquites. Figured if were stuck with an old pump may as well be able to see it. Cleared about 30 mesquites from around it yesterday. The boss asked to keep the 2 large trees. Now the fun of dragging brush begins...
Caught ten or twelve LMB plus one nice RBK in three hours with my son & grandson. Three LMB were too big to keep, we filleted most of the others. Beautiful, sweet white meat!
Geese and wood ducks have discovered feeder in forage pond. Spreads out the pressure some but I'm not delighted. PLEASE make sinking food!
I like the look and the shade of trees around the pond, but I know they pull a lot of water out, and they sure dump in a lot of leaves. This time of year it’s the pollen and the flowers. Still, it’s the clearest my water has ever been. Pollen and flowers all pushed into a corner.
our leaves are just starting to poke through the buds making the branches look 'fuzzy'. You are quite a bit ahead of us with the pollen and leaves. Soon our water will be floating green like yours. The leaves are no fun to rake but the trees are nice to have around. Looks good!
I spent the better part of Saturday treating my tan colored pond with alum. Secchi disk reading went from 8" to 36" by the time I was done. With windy conditions the next day, I was dismayed to see only 24", but realized I could see the the downwind side was very clear and you could see a distinct line in the water between real clear and less so. Evidently the wind blew the best water over to that side, kind of turning the pond over. The day after that things seemed to be uniform and I could see the secchi disc spin at 40". Hopefully this lasts a long time!
We had a big rain here overnight, so I went out this morning to see what things looked like at the pond. Got at least 4" new water. Before the rain it was starting to clear up. Now it's murky again and running a good stream over the spillway.
But that's not really the interesting part.
I noticed a swirl in the water that just kept going around in a circle. Looked closer and saw it was a GSH about 6"-7" sized. It was just out there doing donuts at the surface. I stood and watched and it just kept on making circle after circle - about 3' circumference, each circle bringing it a bit closer to the shore. Eventually it wound up laying on its side in the APW maybe six inches from dry land.
I tried to grab it for inspection, but when I got almost close enough to reach it that thing took off like it was shot from a cannon and was gone.
Been catching and cleaning a lot of fish to try and thin the herd before hot weather. Moving some SMB from the SMB/RES pond to the main pond as we reduce the numbers of HBG and CC out of the main pond.
Wife found a good way to process fish. The small pin bones in the BG after filleting she always just tried to pick them out before frying. Since she has been canning some fish, now she just cuts that skirt of the fillet off. That leaves what I would describe as the tenderloin if it were a hog. A perfect boneless fish stick. Then she takes the skirt of the fillet and instead of picking or cutting the bones out, just puts them in the canning jars and cans that portion. The bones come out soft and edible after the pressure canning process just like sardine bones.
Canned BG is really delicious. One of our favorite ways is to take a pint jar of our canned BG, add one tin of sardines in olive oil, add one tine of Kipper Snacks smoked herring, dill pickle relish, mustard and some times some mayo and capers. Fish salad (think tuna salad). Sometimes chop up a couple boiled eggs in it too.
Along with a bag of pork rinds makes a great keto/low carb lunch for two. Very tasty. The little bit of smoke taste from the Kippers and the oily sardines really adds to the taste of the otherwise very mild canned BG.
Tried canning some CC but will not do that again. The CC just breaks down into kind of mush. Not enough structure of the meat. But the canned BG turns out very much like the consistency of canned tuna. We will continue to just freeze the CC for fresh consumption.
I figure with the cost of feed, pond construction, aeration and maintenance we have estimated about a thousand dollars a pound in our delicious fish. But hey, who's counting.
Heck, I never thought about how much they were costing me per pound!
Don't look at the cost per pound Bob Lusk talks of the cost for having a pond verses a bass boat and a new truck to pull it for cost comparison. I might argue that I could buy two trucks for what has been spent on the pond when comparing the cost lol
Same here Tracy. I was tongue in cheek when I estimated the cost per pound It is likely a lot higher than I even said.
It is a hobby. A place to throw money down a hole that makes no sense other than it makes us happy. Something to keep us out of the bars and drinking ourselves to death. We have to occupy our time with something. Better it be something that is non-self-destructive.
Surprised but pleased to catch a Lone Star Legacy Florida bass with the trademark blue-green splotch near the head. It was about 13-14 inches long, solidly built, right on the edge of being harvested until I saw the color.
Haven't stocked any LSL bass since 2016, not sure how they were doing. So glad some have flourished & are reproducing. Will see how many more there are in electrosurvey on Tuesday.
Lots of large CNBG around 1 lb. Had a setback in fall of 2017 when my bigger CNBG died after a severe cold snap, but they've made a comeback. Buddy saw a RBT near the feeder, so I guess a few are still alive.
By the way, I've noticed that since my water viz went down below 2 feet (usually around 4 feet), the HSB have gone crazy at the feeders & on lures. Could be just a coincidence, could be warmer water. Anybody else notice something similar?
Hope everyone is having as peaceful evening as this. I love this time of year. 65 degrees at 8:00. The wife has named our pond "LAKE STRINGER". Gotta say i like it. Lol
That’s a lot of rock to haul with that Ranger. Are you loading it by hand? Hope not. You’re a tougher man than I.
Yes...I dunno about tougher, cheaper perhaps :-)
Triaxle delivered 22.5T, not sure how much we're putting in the bed of the Ranger each load but it has a pretty healthy squat before we go dump it and place the rock by hand.
Thankfully for me, wife and young boys are onboard with helping...loading the Ranger only takes about 5 minutes with unloading and setting another 5-7.
Where did you get the rock Paul? I have a couple of ditches I need to slow the runoff in but cant seem to find large rock anywhere near me in central Texas.
Cisco! I live in Cisco and the pond is in Mortin Valley. Would love to show you my place and see yours. Vulcan south of Eastland has rock. I know a couple people who can haul it. Know anyone who can get bulk river gravel out here? Tonight I caught some pond record BG I stocked 1.5 yrs ago and a 12in LMB that clearly washed in. Pond is getting fun! The water has 30in visibility which means the BH are getting managed by the CC and everything else!!!! 2000+ YOY and 100+ 8-15in BH removed in the last year. I've stopped counting.
We had very heavy rains this spring on top of already saturated ground a high water table. A dam burst in Midland, MI, and the whole downtown is under 6-8' of water! Our pond overflowed into the woods again. Last night I saw this thrashing in the water near the overflow area. Turns out the largest spotfin shiners are thrashing in the 2" water and trying to get into the 1" water and wriggle through the grass to get over to the other puddle of remaining overflow water. They keep trying and trying. They must have strong instinct to swim 'upstream' or to keep moving.
The thrashing and splashing of course attracted not one but 2 GBH this morning and the kingfisher has been chattering away and swooping for breakfast.
If I get close the ball of fish breaksup and they go back to safety. I had to use my super zoom camera from an upstairs bedroom to video this and where you can kind of see the thrashing. I noticed when I walked closer that it is only the largest sized shiners doing this. Have not seen this before but somehow they knew that this was the 'exit' to the pond..
#1. Caught another otter in a trap. #2. Saw an Eastern Yellow Belly Racer Snake....never seen a snake move that fast thru grass. #3. Caught a snapping turtle, a black bass and several catfish on hot dogs.
Sounds like a good time at the pond Zep. I discovered my mystery fish is a Tp that survived the winter. Got a good look at this large male Tp. Surprised it survived the winter. And the Osprey was back at the pond yesterday, maybe because I did not see the B. Eagle yesterday. I'm sure it is around because I see it most everyday. Zep, otters, Osprey and B. Eagles and Kingfisher's do a lot of my culling.
Not today but last weekend. Replaced handrails on the dock and starting on the deck as time allows. Kids and Grandkids had a blast. Cant seem to post the pics but I'll work on it
Drained forage pond into main BOW. Fun to watch! Caught 5 to 6 lb HSB and LMB, both looked very healthy with good relative weight. Harvested six smaller LMB.
Geese have (finally) left, five wood ducks remain. Hopefully we'll see some little woodies soon.
Drained forage pond into main BOW. Fun to watch! Caught 5 to 6 lb HSB and LMB, both looked very healthy with good relative weight. Harvested six smaller LMB.
Geese have (finally) left, five wood ducks remain. Hopefully we'll see some little woodies soon.
Bushy pondweed getting to be a nuisance.
What happens? Bust ups everywhere? Need some video of this for next year pleeeeeeeeeeease
Seen my 1st ball of fry last night. I cant say how big it was because the water is so cloudy. It was about 2 foot in size and very dark. I would say they might have been up to half inch in size. No clue what they were but was pretty cool to see anyway.
Seen my 1st ball of fry last night. I cant say how big it was because the water is so cloudy. It was about 2 foot in size and very dark. I would say they might have been up to half inch in size. No clue what they were but was pretty cool to see anyway.
Caught a 7" BH on a shallow-med depth diving 3" hard crankbait. It was not foul hooked. I did not know BH are that aggressive. Still very few YOY BG being caught in cloverleaf traps, no GSH and rarely LMB. Last year all three were regularly trapped. Some days there are 10+/- BG that were stocked last year. I've removed several pond record BH in the last week using cut GSF. One had a crawfish and old hook in its stomach. 2 of the last 3 appeared to have already spawned. Although visibility is about 15" the only beds I see are small GSF. Maybe the BG are bedded deeper. I hope. This weekend I will be building a large tube/torpedo trap per recommendation from Bob to remove large BH more efficiently. Updates to follow and perhaps mass production!
As far as I know I don't have any bullheads in there. Bass, crappie, some kinda sunfish, 2 grass carp, 3 koi, catfish. I would guess they were bass but not sure they were small. I will try to net some up in the next few days. Curiosity will kill a cat.
Lol they showed up along with some kind of carp looking thing, scrappy fellas for their size. Someone really likes me to stock LMB BH and lil carp...... no greenies tho
Walked the pond after today's rain. Found the fry ball again. So I went n got a little net and got me some. Not sure if the are big enough for an ID or not. I'm no fish IDer so I'm not 100% sure but im thinking bass.
Lol they showed up along with some kind of carp looking thing, scrappy fellas for their size. Someone really likes me to stock LMB BH and lil carp...... no greenies tho
Yikes. I've heard that LMB will control BH numbers, but maybe not always
Lol they showed up along with some kind of carp looking thing, scrappy fellas for their size. Someone really likes me to stock LMB BH and lil carp...... no greenies tho
Yikes. I've heard that LMB will control BH numbers, but maybe not always
In my case the LMB eat all the crappie and leave me the bullheads!
Walked the pond after today's rain. Found the fry ball again. So I went n got a little net and got me some. Not sure if the are big enough for an ID or not. I'm no fish IDer so I'm not 100% sure but im thinking bass.
Definitely NOT bullheads . Yeah, I agree, they're bass.
Lol they showed up along with some kind of carp looking thing, scrappy fellas for their size. Someone really likes me to stock LMB BH and lil carp...... no greenies tho
Yikes. I've heard that LMB will control BH numbers, but maybe not always
Our old refurbished pond was full of GSF and BH. Can hardly catch one now. Could hardly keep them off the line a couple years ago. The LMB have definitely cleaned them up.
Went up to the pond yesterday evening and saw schools of FHM fry that weren't present last Sunday.
Today is 11 weeks since I stocked my 0.4A pond, which included 10lb of FHM.
Its pretty darn cool to see the ecosystem starting to establish itself, especially after seeing what seemed to be thousands of frog eggs and then at least hundreds of tadpoles as we placed rip-rap over the last couple weeks.
I'm wondering if my BG/HBG were hitting some of the FHM fry as they swam near the surface, I was seeing a lot more surface activity out of the sunfish away from my feeder than usual.
Yesterday, I just sat and watched the feeder go off at 6:45. (AM) Cleaned up the food in about 2 minutes. Amazingly peaceful morning.
The five previous days were very busy, with grandkids and their parents. Too much fun. Son in law, has gone crazy over SMB. I hear him holler every time he gets one on. The water is a little clearer than years past, and he can see their shadows beneath the surface. Hopefully they won’t get too hook shy...
Setterguy, I think if you look up in the dictionary what a pond is meant to be you will find a picture of your scenario there, quiet peaceful mornings and enjoyed to the max by everybody on a beautiful weekend, fishing swimming and camaraderie, family time!! In this area people spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for a cabin on the Lake Of the Ozarks,and if you dont spend nearly that much on a boat you will get turned over in the wake of a 100,000.00 dollar boat, the surface gets so rough you cant enjoy fishing or anything,, sorta makes the money we do spend on our private little fishing honey hole, playground a little more reasonable,,, and Ill take the privacy every time.
Setterguy, I think if you look up in the dictionary what a pond is meant to be you will find a picture of your scenario there, quiet peaceful mornings and enjoyed to the max by everybody on a beautiful weekend, fishing swimming and camaraderie, family time!! In this area people spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for a cabin on the Lake Of the Ozarks,and if you dont spend nearly that much on a boat you will get turned over in the wake of a 100,000.00 dollar boat, the surface gets so rough you cant enjoy fishing or anything,, sorta makes the money we do spend on our private little fishing honey hole, playground a little more reasonable,,, and Ill take the privacy every time.
110% this right here.
On that note, yesterday we bought a molded jon boat for our little slice of paradise...but evidently there has been a run on oars during Coronatine so the little trolling motors had to make due with halves of a small kayak oar.
In addition to the normal feed the fish routine, we went swimming yesterday. 75° surface temp. Daughter and I stayed in for quite awhile. We thought it felt great. Florida cracker Mrs. Augie got right back out. "It's too cold!"
While out there I noticed a healthy crop of FA growing on the bottom. Gonna give it another dose of Cutrine+ this evening.
That is a tough little kid. I lipped a bass like that the other day, it flipped and it shredded my thumb with its teeth!
I'm a weenie. I wear a glove most of the time.
After a successful bass trip, my left thumb tends to get shredded & eventually begins to peel. Tried gloves, but didn't help much. What did was to wash thoroughly, then treat area with a topical antibiotic like neosporin. Skin heals quickly, no peeling.
Harvested five more LMB, now ninety for the year. Need to take out total of 200 plus, so have quite a ways to go. CNBG are monsters, even "small" 8 inchers are built like sumo wrestlers. A blast on light tackle!
My switch to summer feeding schedule looks successful. Six and nine am, then 8pm. Fish still feed eagerly in the shade, not quite so much in sunshine.
No giants this time, though I did hook a runaway freight truck at dusk. Ripped drag off like it was headed to Louisiana down Interstate 20, then the hook came out. Possibly a monster bass, or hybrid striper. Huge, whatever it was. If HSB, I'm kinda glad the hook pulled out, as the fight probably would have killed it.
Bushy pondweed still growing, a real nuisance in many areas.
Frank, you mentioned the bushy pondweed being a nuisance, I couldn't agree more! It is a pretty invasive plant at my pond. And I am not a fan of the plant even though I can see where a small amount of it might be beneficial but from my experience with it there is no way you can have a small amount of it. Another thing I have noticed is for some reason this year it seems to have become a problem in many ponds. I have not noticed many comments on it here till this year. I plan of spot treating but have been holding off till I found and repaired my leak in the aeration system. I found the leak yesterday afternoon. As a side note. When I discussed treating the BPW with Todd Overton, he told me that if I were to treat a larger sized area like a qtr of the pond, I could still kill off fish and he did not think the bottom diffusers would help in that situation. But I am thinking the aeration is better than not having it when it comes to spot treating. I have been talking with Al for designing a spay system to use when treating of killing off the BPW. He has been very helpful. Warm water temps and treating BPW can kill off the fish. That sucks because the stuff is so invasive.
I hear you, Tracy. First noticed bushy pondweed running wild last year, but it's maybe even worse this time.
With temps in upper 90s I'm leery of even spot killing BP. Rain has finally ceased, too, which means more stagnant water.
How are your grass carp doing? Have you seen them taking feed? That's one thing that worries me, they might push aside other fish on my feeding program.
I have not seen any of the 15 that have been added. 10 last fall and 5 this May. Sure hope they make a dent in the BPW. They should grow fat and sassy, lots for them to eat in the pond. I am looking forward to the days they can control the BPW and if that ever happens then I won't mind a little BOW Hunting/fishing to remove some of the larger ones that take up water space in the pond. I may have to remove some and add some younger ones. Until then, I am just watching to see what the GC do in my pond. I never thought I would ever add GC to my pond because their bad reputation in some of the TX lakes.
Frustrated today... Often this time of year a pair of Goose and young will show up at my pond as a rest stop. We harass them the best we can to make them know they are not welcome and then the next day they usually are gone. They are very determined to not leave during day time hours and I think this is because the young cannot fly yet and have to leave on foot (by cover of night?) Then yesterday we literally had about 40 geese several 'families' and many young. We tried the typical harassment techniques including sending our dog in and using noise, water, blunt projectiles, splashes, noise, light... I was hoping they would get the hint over night but no luck this morning. I guess we go to the same techniques for another day and hope they get the point. Maybe they have to rest a bit before moving? We aren't giving them any time for rest and I'm not sure what the little ones are eating when they stay huddled in the middle of the pond....
I wouldn't mind them so much except for the amount of excrement in my pond is going to be large and last time this happened I was stuck with a nasty pond infestation of eurasian milfoil (or at least it is convenient to blame them for it...)
Good luck with them CC. I hope there’re gone soon. I don’t think geese like my little BOW. It’s surrounded by tall trees. Not easy for them to fly in and out of. Mixed blessing, those trees.
We got ~2.5" rain from the remnants of TS Cristobal. Pond ran over the spillway all day yesterday. I picked up a couple dozen baby RES from the yard yesterday evening and tossed em back into the pond. Picked up another half dozen that were still kicking on my lunch break today.
The mini-B trap is proving to be very effective at catching small sunfish. With it setting on the bottom of the pond in 3'-4' water I was collecting mostly young RES, so I decided to see what would happen if I suspended it with the top just barely under the surface. Done that way I'm collecting 90%+ BG/HBG, with the occasional RES and GSH mixed in. I never used any bait when I was soaking it on the bottom, but I've found that with it up top it's more effective if I toss in a piece of bread crust.
Frank, you mentioned the bushy pondweed being a nuisance, I couldn't agree more! It is a pretty invasive plant at my pond. And I am not a fan of the plant even though I can see where a small amount of it might be beneficial but from my experience with it there is no way you can have a small amount of it. Another thing I have noticed is for some reason this year it seems to have become a problem in many ponds. I have not noticed many comments on it here till this year. I plan of spot treating but have been holding off till I found and repaired my leak in the aeration system. I found the leak yesterday afternoon. As a side note. When I discussed treating the BPW with Todd Overton, he told me that if I were to treat a larger sized area like a qtr of the pond, I could still kill off fish and he did not think the bottom diffusers would help in that situation. But I am thinking the aeration is better than not having it when it comes to spot treating. I have been talking with Al for designing a spay system to use when treating of killing off the BPW. He has been very helpful. Warm water temps and treating BPW can kill off the fish. That sucks because the stuff is so invasive.
Bushy Pond weed took over my RES/SMB pond last year. I would estimate 40-50% coverage. Put 4 grass carp in the 1 acre pond last fall. Most of it is gone today. I don't know if the grass carp did it in, the FA got the upper hand or just conditions were not conducive to it this year. Or a combination of the above. But at least to date it is in remission. I can still retrieve it on my hook when fishing so it is still there to some degree. But all around the bank where it was thick to the surface is gone. I can see out into the water now and can't see any of it.
I'm starting to wish I had only put in 3 GC per acre rather than the 4.
Last year I had dyed the pond heavily early in the season, thinking I could keep the FA and BPW in regression. The BPW had been somewhat bad the year before but not covered the pond like last year. Well I think what I did was suppress the FA and that let the BPW go gangbusters. Bob Lusk had been up that year for my get together and showed us that the FA was competing with the BPW as the FA was covering some of it and shading it out. Well when I suppressed the FA the BPW had nothing holding it back. This year I have a little FA around the banks but nothing serious. I don't mind a little around the edges as it gives the YOY fry some refuge area.
When a person controls one thing, sometimes something else worse takes its place.
John, that's a good point about FA and BPW competing with each other. I'm wondering if I made a mistake stocking TP. Maybe they can do more harm than good when they eat the algae in a BOW with abundant bushy pondweed.
I've asked permission to put in 24 grass carp to help control BPW, 3 per acre. Probably will need more, but based on what I've read it's smarter to undershoot than overshoot. Also investigating the intriguing possibility of a lake mat to spot control BPW. Eric West clued me in on this idea, gonna check it out. Hopefully I can also do a drawdown this fall/winter. Tried & failed last year, but now I have a better game plan.
I have considered a lake matt but I was thinking of using a tarp, staked out to where it blocked all the sunlight under the tarp. But, I started with 3 and a third grass carp per acre last fall but added an additional five of them to the pond recently. I added them because I was loosing ground and gaining BPW with the mild winter we had this year. It covers at least 50% of the pond and I see it growing even in the deepest part of the pond. I am no fan. Snrub, hope my GC put a good dent in my bpw like they did yours.
Milder winters rather than torrid summers is most climate change in the US, so this trend may continue. Also, long term rise in atmospheric CO2 probably encourages aquatic plant growth, just as it does to plants on land. Would love to see an article or two on these topics. Previous emphasis was on higher summer temps, up to 14 F increase (!), but that's not likely to happen in the foreseeable future.
Lake mats are like grass carp in that they work best early on, but I'm gonna give it a try anyhow. Open up areas for predators to get at forage, and creates edges which LMB love. The mat guy did tell me that it is possible to get a hook stuck in the fabric, though.
Shorty, what did the walleye bite on? What was the size/condition or growth since stocking? I'm curious how walleye due on pond and what they will eat in your pond.
The walleye hit a small jig tipped with a small piece of nightcrawler under a casting bubble. I stocked 50 of them last November in the 5-7" size range, this one was just a little bit under 8" and it was a little thin, but that likely has more to do not having enough small forage fish going into winter and early spring. The 4-6"smallies I stocked last summer really hammered everything under 4" in size last year, I did overstock SMB numbers last summer to get the GSH numbers under control. Right now I have a lot of 4" to 6" GSH which have been competing with both my smallies and walleye for forage, those same GSH pulled off an epic spawn in the last 2-3 weeks and there are fry everywhere you look now. My 4-6" RES were also looking thin a month ago, now they are all fat little pigs. My smallies and walleye should plump up as this year shiner GSH fry grow larger, some of the GSH fry are already 3/4". I haven't seen a GSH hatch like this for quite a few years.
Met with TX Parks and Wildlife Tuesday. I'm interested in a controlled burn and overall property recommendations. She really liked what I've done with the property thus far. It had been abandoned for 30+ years. Encouraged me to get started on the 5ac mesquite thicket...next winter...maybe. Went early for some peace and quiet fishing without the dogs. Caught several BG, a healthy LMB and hooked a CC that managed to untie the knot at the shore. Dang braid doesn't hold a knot well. Ate BH twice for lunch this week. Trapping BH rate has significantly dropped. Only 2 today in the big trap and none in the cloverleafs. Water visibility is at least 24" in some areas. There is at least one swarm of YOY BH about .75" It was basketball size but after several days of daily 12ga blasts is down to softball size. I'm sure predation is also assisting. Going to have some road work done soon. Hopefully I can sneak some BG gravel beds and rock pile into the budget. We have the rock, just need it moved.. SHHH!
Lots of the BF tadpoles are turning into frogs. I’m not sure when they lose the defensive properties that keep fish from eating them. They still have a small tail, but they can hop. Grandkids caught hundreds of them yesterday. Also, caught this crayfish. No pinchers?? I stocked some several years ago, I purchased at a pond supply shop. Not sure what kind they are. I thought they got cleaned out when the pond was low, but apparently there were survivors. Hope it’s a papershell.
Thanks Shorty, that info is very helpful. SO it seems that your walleye grew a few inches in the past 6-7 months, but now they should really have plenty to eat. I wonder why such a huge success for the shiners? High water? Cold spring? I too have GSH that are approaching 6-8" long. THey were stocked now I think 5 summers ago and I don't see many young just the old generation as there are no predators who can eat the largest GSH. I have had very successful spotfin shiner reproduction and there are tons of the tiny SFS in the shallows. I have to make a trip up north and may swing by the fish store and get a few pails of FHM. FHM could never survive in my pond more than a few weeks, but now with hundreds of other minnows everywhere they might just be able to blend in long enough to pull off a spawn or two this summer yet.
Keep posting your pictures of your RES I love seeing their colors!
Came home from work this evening and was enjoying watching my pond and happened to luckily see the beaver I've been after. I was very happy that I was finally able to 'remove' him from my property.
Thanks Shorty, that info is very helpful. SO it seems that your walleye grew a few inches in the past 6-7 months, but now they should really have plenty to eat. I wonder why such a huge success for the shiners? High water? Cold spring?
There are several reasons for the huge shiner hatch this year. Last year I had too many small 2-3" GSH and a very poor shiner hatch following a fish kill that killed 98% of the fish over 6" in my pond. Last year's drift related fish kill wiped out most of my smallies, mature RES, and almost all of the large shiners in my pond.
What's left of last year's small 2-3" shiners are now 5-6" long and sexually mature. We also had a dry spring with low water levels that allowed water pepper and other vegetation to flourish around the pond, all of this is now sitting in 15" of water providing spawning structure and cover for the shiner fry.
Came home from work this evening and was enjoying watching my pond and happened to luckily see the beaver I've been after. I was very happy that I was finally able to 'remove' him from my property.
Good deal. Those things can be destroyers of dams, although in your situation with a pit pond that may not be an issue. Dustin from Optimal sent me some starter #2 to feed the HSB fry and I have clouds of FHM fry in the shallows of the forage pond so hopefully the HSB are growing and doing well. May put out a minnow trap and see if a few will venture in to see how they are doing.
Exactly. I had seen some small trees the beavers had ate off, I just didn't want them to curddle and kill anymore of my nice big trees. I'm very excited to see how the HSB turn out, I'm sure they'll do great! That reminds me I need to buy some more optimal.
1. I spent too many hours going through the entire fuel system of my father in laws 50 hp Suzuki 4stroke outboard (low pressure filter, high pressure filter, low pressure fuel pump, electric high pressure fuel pump, spark plugs, injectors, check lines, fittings) due to engine quitting slightly above idle. It is a 2004 and all of this was original so not a bad thing to have done. Then started checking lines, swapping bulbs, swapping tanks with other outboard tanks, and finally tracked the problem back to a fuel/water separator mounted under the console. I had already just installed a new fuel filter in that separator housing so never thought that could be the issue. The fuel pumps into the filter and bowl beautifully. But apparently fuel can't get OUT of that unit. I see a small vent plug but the plug is solid with a rubber o ring so I can't see how any air goes through that plug. But if I bypass that fuel/water separator the engine runs great.
We use a small 6 gallon plastic tank and fresh gas most every trip. I don't feel like we even need a fuel water separator, is that for a saltwater rig? Or for boats that have an onboard under the deck tank that somehow can get condensation in it? I'm looking to order the new metal housing that the filter screws into which should solve my problem but it is crazy after all these hours and wrenching that somehow in that metal housing which just has a fuel in fitting and a fuel out fitting that we could have an obstruction somewhere. I can blow in the in and in the out and no obstruction but somehow the motor cannot draw enough fuel through it.
The repair shops are all backed up due to COVID and no available parts so I was determined to solve this on my own. Learned a lot, watched some youtube videos and I guess I can rest easy that all the filters, plugs, injectors, pumps should be good to go for another 16 years.
2. HELP!! what is the best HAND CLEANER?? I have all kinds of grease and the nasty stuff that accumulates on fuel lines when they lay under a cover in the back of the boat for too long on my hands. Can folks share their favorite handcleaner brand with me?
cc, good mechanical sleuthing you've done there. Yes, I agree, all that work is a good idea for a motor of that many years. I'd run the rig without the water separator, too. I didn't see that you are using non ethanol fuel. The ethanol can absorb a little water and do the "drying" for you. Just do as you have been and use fresh fuel each outing.
I've been using Humboldt Hands, a bar soap from Eureka or Arcata California. Our son went to college over there; he stocked us up with lots of bars. They probably have a website.
I run chainsaws for a living, climbing pitchy pine trees, etc. That soap, and Simple Green, cut most of the sticky stuff that I get on me every day.
I took my boat in for some work on the Tuesday morning before last and the guy told me he got in 22 boats that sat before. I also had a fuel starvation issue. Changed out the bulb but did not solve the problem. Guessing it is the fuel lines damaged by Ethanol gas. I am hoping to get it back week after next. That's a month out of service.
CC, you are definitely a better mechanic than me. I am rebuilding a wheel hub, drive axel. bearings etc on my Polaris side by side. I would have never attempted the project before. Just started the project so hoping I don't have to carry the whole thing (parts) in a box to the Polaris dealer and ask him to put it all back together.
TGW1, I am FAR from a good mechanic. I recall my dad being frustrated with me as a teen that i had no sense of tools or things mechanical. He could fix anything and I admired that but didn't know where to start. I was (and still am) determined to tackle almost everything myself and try to be 'self-taught' like him. The big advantage i have now is youtube. Almost everything is spelled out for you on Youtube with pictures. It saves me a lot of figuring out how you take things apart to get to the parts by watching the steps someone else used to get down to the part you need.
Online parts diagrams and easy access to almost any part online has helped me a lot. I also am learning that what makes a good mechanic is having the correct tool for each job. I'm slowly breaking down and buying a few of the 'proper' tools which helps a lot when the going gets tough.
What we did with the boat motor was 'threw parts' at it. I'm sure a good boat shop would have put a fancy fuel pressure gauge on and found that the filters were not the issue but the fuel supply to the motor was the problem.
We still need properly trained mechanics with the experience that I don't have, and for all electronic diagnostics I'm lost!
Did some weed trimming on about 1/4 of the pond. Hoping that was the right call. I did see my fathead minnows had babies. Such a proud dad moment. lol.
Went out and caught some BG to check relative weights 15 weeks after stocking 3"ers.
Caught one male at 5.0"/1.6oz, one female at 5.5"/2.0oz, and two females at 5.75"/2.5oz. All seemed to be protecting beds at the end of my pea gravel beach in 2.5-3' water.
Also caught five HBG that were at least 5.75"/3.0oz, with the longest 6.25" and the heaviest at 3.6oz.
Caught two large LMB one evening, each around 20". Both looked pretty healthy, recovering from spawn. Some very big CNBG as well, over ten inches and one pound.
Fished just a short time in my small 1/10th acre sediment pond just to see what was in there. Lots of runoff and terribly turbid water earlier this spring with lots of flow through I was not expecting much. With the dry weather it is finally clearing up enough so the fish can see the bait.
Caught a few mutts that I clipped the fins and fed to the LMB and CC in the main pond. But also caught a half dozen nice smaller RES about 5-6" long. Happy to see those in there. Caught a couple of colorful CNBG that size too. Wife caught a small LMB. A lot of action for the half hour we fished right at dusk.
This pond really doesn't get managed much as it is just to catch sediment before it goes into the main pond. But it is kind of fun to fish it just to see what is there once in a while. Probably a lot of YOY fry dump over in the main pond in big rain events. Get a lot of natural hybrids produced in this pond that I believe is because of the turbidity in spring the males/females maybe have trouble at times determining species.
I saw my first grass carp in the pond yesterday. Totally surprised at how large it was. Stocked last fall at 14" and a slim fish at that time but it looked to be 3 times the weight it was when stocked and maybe 17" long. The other thing i have notice is my APW looks like the GC are feeding on it and that is not the plant I wanted to remove. Maybe they are feeding on the BPW but there is so much of it i don't see much or any reduction in it. i continue to remove a boat load of it every day through raking it. And I'm too old for all that and not something i look forward to each day.
I can't believe how fast my pond went from a great fishing pond to a pond full of bushy pondweed. I REALLY have no idea how my larger fish have been effected by the BPW. It's been a Nightmare for me.
Tracy, I hope those GC make some progress on the BPW. Raking out a boatload a day will keep you in shape, but there are more fun ways to get exercise! I’ll be raking FA out today myself. Jeff
Saturday night we were outside enjoying the evening when Daughter's Doberman that thinks it's a Lab saw something cutting across the driveway between the house and the barn.
Dog took off like a shot, then there was some awful wailing and gnashing of teeth, and the screams of some poor critter being horribly maimed and killed.
When it was all over the dog's nose was split down the middle, she was cut to the bone on her right hock, and there was a full grown muskrat shredded on the ground next to the toy hauler.
I felt bad for the dog getting chomped. Can't feel bad for the muskrat. I'm glad the varmint didn't make it to the pond. I hope it was a loner on a scouting mission.
This morning I noticed one of the noodle floats had been pulled out of the cage that I was holding baby RES in for pellet training.
The cage was tipped over and mostly sunk, and all but half a dozen or so of the RES were gone. The BG cage had been messed with too. One float was out, but it's a smaller cage and was still floating. I'm thinking that a raccoon has discovered my fish gulag. I'll set the live trap out on the dock tonight and see if I can catch the freeloader.
Sounds like fish cages should be sunk, at least overnight. Like almost everyone, I have lots of raccoons. Thanks for sharing the experience, it will help.
Made more effort at thinning the heard and managing the population in my 1/10th acre sediment pond. Caught probably 75 fish. Hybrids big enough to eat went into the holding cage. CNBG either went into the main pond or back in this sediment pond. Half a dozen RES went into main pond. Bunch of small hybrids and a few GSF got tails, one pectoral fin and the dorsal fin cut off with scissors and put in main pond for LMB.CC prey. LOTS of hybrids in this pond.
I kind of like just standing there and jerking out fish after fish with a fish on 3 out of 4 casts. Most "casts" were actually just flipping out the line a few feet from the bank without even opening up the bail on the reel. Might as well been using a cane pole. 1/64 oz jig hook with a Gulp green waxie for bait. They were definitely biting. Barb mashed for easy removal although it does cause me to lose one once in a while. Ever once in a while catch a SMB or something bigger. Only fished a short while.
I think that we have the drain installed and stabilized in our newest pond construction site (will be 4th pond). We seem to have a thin sand lens that runs between 2 clay layers all over our place requiring a bottom drain to remove the inflow of water. It was touch and go on getting this in and having it work after heavy rain, cave-ins, and a mud slurry filling in the hole. Very stressful, but with a 6' extension of the pipe into an expanded hole, it seems good now. The pipe is over 280' long and 13' deep in places. Plan is to cap it in the pond once construction is done. I left a closed slice valve on my last pond just in case it was leaky, and that still worries me. My son gets the credit for digging the longest and deepest part of the trench and getting the pipe in (14 hour marathon in the backhoe with one 15-minute break), finishing at midnight. Still have a lot of work filling in the trench and holes required to clear cave-ins. Did some yesterday. I am not really fond of dozer or backhoe work, but I love ponds!
Surface temps are almost 90 degrees, I still have RES actively spawning in 6" to 10" of water this afternoon. Sechi disk reading is 14" so there may be RES spawning deeper that can't be seen.
Not today but yesterday I had to replace the motor and wheel to my Texas Hunter feeder. The problem was moisture getting to the feed. I "clumped up", stopped the wheel and burnt out the motor. I caulked everything and let it set up for a day before adding feed.
Not today but yesterday I had to replace the motor and wheel to my Texas Hunter feeder. The problem was moisture getting to the feed. I "clumped up", stopped the wheel and burnt out the motor. I caulked everything and let it set up for a day before adding feed.
Nice warm(hot), super humid day.
I've had the same issue. Used duct tape to seal up the edges of the feeder, no problems since then. As you say, clumping is deadly to the motor. A warning to new pondmeisters: Do NOT throw the clumped, moldy feed into the lake. Can kill your fish!
Bushy pondweed removal continues almost every day. It's work and not something I enjoy doing but it seems to be necessary or I would not do it. Alot of it is dead or dying and floats as a large free floating matt. But in other areas of the pond it is green and lays on the top of the water and is about 6 to 10" thick with strands of it growing from the bottom up. I use a heavy grass rake that brings the thick layer to the boat and then hand pull this thick blanket into the boat. I will load around a 100 lbs of it per boat load, And when I unload it there will be around 10 gals of water in the boat or around 80lbs of water. So I really wind up with about 30 lbs + of actual plant. And that ends up with me clearing an area about 15' by 15'. I find that there is alot of life in that thick blanket as I pull it into the boat. I find 1" lmb fry, 1/2" cnbg or res fry along with other things that look like crickets but not crickets. They live under water in the thick blanket. I also find tiny worm looking things that have tiny heads along with some things that look like little beetles along with some other insect looking things. But all of them live under water or on the waters surface. Some of them will sting me or bite me like a bee sting. And that's not something I care for.
I also increased my diffuser run time and added an hr to 4 1/2 hrs from 3 am to 730 am. I have been slowly increasing run times in an attempt not to over heat the water. I am running 3 out of 6 diffusers with me using the ones in the deeper pool area. To run the others, they would be in the really thick plant area and get little to no water movement so I don't run them. After increasing the run times I found 2 dead HSB that were in the 4 to 5# range and my other HSB were not actively feeding so I am guessing they are stressed, I hope they pull through all of this. Another thing is I saw was a grass carp that must have been close to 30" long and weigh about 6 + lbs. Blew my mind that I have seen such a fast growth in these fish that went from 14" to double that in just 10 months. They have alot of plants/food to eat. I am hoping that all ten of them survived last fall stocking along with the other five I added this past spring so they can put a dent in all the Bushy pond weed.
One more thing, the ponds seems to be loaded with 3 to 4" cnbg
I siliconed the inside edges and around the inspection "windows". Hope it worked. I went there yesterday to check on it and everything seems OK. HOT and super humid. Walked about 150 yards to the feeder. When I got back to the house, I was drenched.
I see they same with my feeder but have thought that maybe a new bag of fresh feed that seems to have some moisture might come into play for some of the clumping in the corners of the feeder.
Two weeks ago, we put 4/5 bottle of Airmax Twilight Blue dye into our pond which had been a light brown stain; Secchi visibility was 15" prior to placing the dye.
One week ago, we checked the pond after some wind and rain and the pond had a nice green color to it, but Secchi visibility was still 15".
Friday evening, Secchi visibility was about 24" following a week of mostly hot/dry weather and the aerator running 30/min day in the evenings.
Yesterday, one day later, Secchi visibility was 28-30". My 7 year old also took his birthday present Ryobi trimmer out to knock down some tall grass close to the pond where I can't get my Fastrak.
I also ordered another Moultree directional feeder and more Optimal, this time Bluegill instead of Junior.
Beautiful pond, Paul. Did you line it with limestone?
Thanks!
Yes, we did...wife and I (and boys) loaded 22.5T of rip-rap into the bed of a Ranger 570 by hand, drove it to the pond, then unloaded and placed it by hand over the course of about 17 days. I was able to get 4 rows of rock around the perimeter, and more in areas where erosion was a greater concern.
Water clarity went from 5" to 15" within two weeks of placing the rock...VERY noticeable improvement.
In reality it could probably stand another 4-5T of rock along the dam from above my son's head right to the drainpipe...but my wife says we're done :-)
Tracy, when I put everything back together on my feeder, I siliconed the seams on the inside and the inspection windows due to water leaks. They had caused the feed to clump up around the edges. Then they broke loose and went to the spin plate. They stopped it up and burnt out the motor.
Oops, I put five, five to six inch Tilapia in my pond.My wife and i were watching and a huge bass garbed one of them like a cigar and took off with him.I wish I had my Phone.
Beautiful pond, Paul. Did you line it with limestone?
Thanks!
Yes, we did...wife and I (and boys) loaded 22.5T of rip-rap into the bed of a Ranger 570 by hand, drove it to the pond, then unloaded and placed it by hand over the course of about 17 days. I was able to get 4 rows of rock around the perimeter, and more in areas where erosion was a greater concern.
Water clarity went from 5" to 15" within two weeks of placing the rock...VERY noticeable improvement.
In reality it could probably stand another 4-5T of rock along the dam from above my son's head right to the drainpipe...but my wife says we're done :-)
I hear you Dave, and know that clumps can do damage along with you have to pull all the feed out of the feeder plate, spinner funnel area and the box itself. Pain in the arse and I could see where it might get in a bind and burn the motor up. I have an extra TH feeder right now and have thought of selling it and buying the feeder that will throw the Purina LMB feed or going back to the Cargills 1/4" sized feed. Which I would gladly do if I had a place to store it and keep the mice away. The mice problem I ran into when storing feed is the main reason I changed feed to Purina where the feed and seed store stores it for me.
Since Texas Hunter is a sponsor of this site, and they command a premium of at least double what other feeders cost, would they not care that folks are frustrated with their design, having their motors burn up due to water penetration? Why should you have to rebuild and resilicone their feeders if they are the best? If people are not finding the premium cost to correlate with premium results then someone else will move in and take their customers. I would hope they would read this and work immediately to change the design or the materials used to avoid any future possibility of motor seize or burnup due to wet food. I would think a proper motor size could easily spin some moist food or even pop through a crust of old food in the corners?
i have three of the large sized TH Feeder and they all have clumped feed in a corner or two. And some clumping will also happen around the viewing windows with one or all of them. It is not a perfect system but it still works pretty good when it comes to feeding my fish. i would like to explore a different brand because i would like to throw out some larger sized feed.
I have a 25 yr old Sweeney feeder that has one small damp clumping spot right under the lid handle bolt top center, I just haven't got around to sealing it with some industrial polyurethane sealant, the clumps never made it to the motor but did block the rest of the feed from getting to the fan for a small period of time.
The lid came off one of my TH feeder during a thunderstorm which totally soaked all the feed in it, but that was not the fault of TH. One of the handles had been damaged during shipping and would not latch properly.
My other problem feeder got that way because the lower housing got flooded. Again, not TH fault, I just had it too far into the pond and an extreme water event happened.
But it is true that they do sometimes leak around the edges, especially after a couple of years. Not a hard fix, though. My biggest fears are that this will jam & burn up the motor, or that the moldy feed will kill fish. Neither has happened to date.
Yes, but that didn't matter after the feed got soaked. On my rarely visited forage pond, so it went several weeks unnoticed. The stench was incredible!
I use pellet feed to bait my trap and..one day in the pond makes it stink...2 days and it's bad...3 days will never happen again...ATROCIOUS!!! I can't imagine weeks worth of damp feed in the sun.
Yesterday I got my best look at one of the YP I stocked back in May. I thought I was seeing some coming up to feed but it was hard to tell for sure because they was up and down so fast. I haven't had much rain lately so my water is a little clearer and I got one to take his time about getting a pellet. It was nice to see and know at least 1 is still in there. Lol! The other day I got to see one of the LMB that I stocked in May, hit a minnow for the first time. He hit so fast that I'm not sure if he got it or not but it was fun to see. I know that at least some of them are hitting them good. Most of the ones I see have grown a lot.
Refilled feeders and noticed that, though water levels are up a good foot, they never did get high enough to go over emergency spillway. Grass gets pushed down and little fish get trapped trying to escape when that happens, but there was no sign of either.
Water is murky but not muddy. Considering my issues with bushy pondweed, the murk is welcome. Standpipe in back of dam flowing vigorously, but without any hydrogen sulfide smell whatsoever. My best guess is that all the rain has helped push out loads of the anoxic water on bottom already. Anyway, no sign of a fish kill, for which I am glad. Sometimes it's an advantage to be only moderately successful raising fish!
As hot as it is I didn’t do anything today at the pond. Right now I’m sitting in a deer stand waiting for the hogs to come in. It’s 10:30 and still hot . The only thing showing so far is a family of coons, mom and six babies. Put out 1200#of protein for the deer yesterday and 1000# today. The pigs are getting fat off the protein pushing the deer away. Counted 30 deer at one drop feeder, they will empty 500#s in three days. We had a bumper crop of fawns this year probably doubling the herd size, sooo got to remove some mouths from the feed trough....
Pat, we really enjoy feeding the deer but we moved away from feeding pellets. Cost was just to high when we looked at 500 lbs per every 3 or 4 days. I went into wildlife food plots year round. Rotating plants each spring and fall. I found that cost is way lower than feeders. After 7 yrs of food plots (trial and error) I now do a combination of Sun Hemp/Iron Clay peas and that is after watching what they like to eat and what the cost is. My deer's favorite is Forage soybeans but they are expensive on the other hand, soybeans pump nitrogen into the soil and that helps the fall plants. Standard soybeans grow and mature to fast for wildlife plots when looking for something that feeds deer for a longer period of time. Wheat, Elbon Rye and clovers are my fall plants. We try to keep 10% of the property in food plots. And that varies yr to yr because if too much rainfall at the wrong time keeps me out of some of the place because to I don't want to plant the tractor.
Rainfall is the problem... none in the spring. One spring we planted 5 acres of iron clay peas, they came up and every last one was eaten to the ground in two days. Fall is almost as bad, winter wheat I’ll do ok if we get rain at the right time but they hardly let it grow before eating it down
On growing deer TV they show how to put up elec fencing to keep the deer out till the plants get going. If eaten down below the bottom two leaves the plant will die when it's young. The E fencing will stop the deer for a period to where the plant can get established and that's when there is alot of native food for the deer anyway. I usually leave my fence up till mid June and then disconnect the hot fence. But even then some of the deer will get in but not enough of them get in to kill the field. It's July, Aug and Sept here when the deer are stressed due to the lack of Natural food and that is why I try to keep food around during that time. It does take labor and money when farming for the deer. But I do enjoy doing it. No fencing is necessary at my place for fall plants. And like you said they can keep the wheat mowed down and it also stops growing in colder weather and that is why I use Elbon Rye along with the wheat. I also know how rain or lack of it at the right or wrong time can make it tougher. Some years I have seed left over because I could not get to all the food plots for seeding. I have some great pictures of some big ass deer in the food plots. We don't hunt the plots but will hunt travel routes to the fields. All of it made me realize how tough it can be to farm for a living. I grew up with farm kids but I did not realize what all it takes to get it farmed even though they did alot of the work at night.
We have a group that stays around the house and beg for food. Every day I carry corn and protein and they let me get within 10’ of them to put out feed . My tomcat follows me everywhere even to put out feed.... deer are used to him now also. he rides in the boat when I let him......
I had a tom cat like that but lost him due to old age a couple yrs ago. He would travel with me like a dog would do. And I have to admit it we still slip in a little feed at the house. Like you said and I enjoy seeing the fawns when we do. It's about the only way I see any fawns and thats when the deer are hanging around the farm house checking for feed or feeding.
Noticed my bloom seemed to disappear after a rain and the cool front came through. Today I have the surface swirling with a brown floating bloom of some type. Just under the stuff floating on top water seems clear. Doesn't seem to bother the fish or their appetites.
Seems like it goes through this cycle in the summer about this time after a bloom clears. More hot muggies coming!
Installed a 2' riser on the drain for my new pond because of the washed in sludge. Building a pond with small equipment has its challenges. The stress of cleaning out the sump was just too high. This gives me a lot more buffer.
relocated a 4 foot gator from the pond. I always ck for gators when I make my rounds at the pond. It's not the 4 footer's that show up at the pond that bother me so much, it's the larger ones that might show up.
Gators are cool critters but I am not complaining about not having any. No poisonous snakes here either, but with the warming trend, copperheads could move north into my area since they are not far south of here. No bears or mountain lions either, just coyotes and bobcats.
Nothing cool about gators in your pond. A couple of years ago one of my closest neighbors called me and told me that I needed to keep an eye out for gators because he had several show up at his 3 acre pond. I told him I had already found one that week and removed it. It must be a time of year when they look for new homes. He then told me that another neighbor had found a water hole due to alot or rain on his place that was holding around seven gators some of them quite large. He called the game warden, who showed up and told him he could not remove them. I looked into the laws and as a land owner I can remove the gators as a nescience animal. Or at least that is what I understood. But to be honest I would remove them even if there was a law that said I could not. Too many hunting dogs and kids around my pond. For those that don't know, the gator is quite inquisitive and will show up to investigate movement around the pond. But it's a little unnerving when setting in the boat, fishing and one pops it's head up a few yards from the boat.
Pat a two footer bit your thumb lol What the heck were you doing with it?
Lol it was during a New Years party and it was a dare..... dang them things are fast!....won’t do that again
there had to been a little alcohol involved in that dare. Im with you TGW1, what the law don't know don't hurt them, Id have to get rid of that many gators, now a little two footer might be kinda neat in a pond, especially this far north, I worked in Louisiana for a while and they were kinda neat to see around but definitely dangerous.
Just a quick update. I stored some water hyacinth in my shop over the winter. Was hoping some would make it. I changed the water bout once a month with pond water. I put them in sometime around Easter. Sad to report I'm not seeing any of them around that have made it.
Just set up my Yamaha aeration setup. Put a 90degree fitting on the jet of my jet ski pointed down. At full throttle the ski wants to go in a tight left hand circle.you go for a while and then you have to lean a little to make it go straight. Stirs up the muck and then creates a nice bloom.
Like some others that have been discussed here recently, my pond has quite a bit of bushy pond weed this summer.
I was leaving it alone because it wasn't taking over, it provides fantastic habitat for lots of low on the food chain critters, and shades the shallow areas from the blistering summer sun.
Since the muskrats showed up it has become a major nuisance. Those varmints have torn a mountain of it loose and it was floating all over the pond. Not really a big deal, but the pond is our swimming hole and the girls aren't real hip on swimming in seaweed, so I spent some time yesterday cleaning it up.
I used the 12' v-bottom boat and borrowed one of the plastic rake/shovel gizmos the girls use to pick up horse poop in the barn. That thing worked really well to collect the BPW. I pulled out four loads of the stuff, which was pretty much all of it that was free-floating. Had to put the boat back on the trailer, pull it out and drain the water between each load.
Found one ~4" western painted turtle that was recently dead, and two smaller ones that were alive and extremely upset with me for dumping them into the boat. Couldn't begin to count the numbers of PK shrimp, fry fish, tadpoles, and other wiggly things that were hiding in the stuff.
Pond looked a lot better this morning. Current from overnight aeration caused almost all of the loose stuff that I missed to pile up against the dock, and I was able to stand on the dock and get that with the poop collector gizmo.
Daughter's doberman killed a muskrat that she caught in the driveway a few weeks back, but she sleeps indoors at night so is of no consistent benefit for keeping the varmints away.
My dog sleeps on the front porch, but she's getting old and doesn't much care for chasing varmints anymore. She has a pet possum that she catches and wallers about once a week, but she doesn't want anything to do with something that's going to fight back. lol
I bought 20 PK shrimp from the ebay guy last summer. More out of curiosity than anything else. I had no expectation that they would establish a viable population. There are thousands of them now. Got lucky on that deal.
Glad to hear they liked your habitat. It sounds like they need a certain amount of a certain kind of weeds and water conditions to be happy.
I also recently bought some PK shrimp from the same seller on ebay. I would recommend him highly. He is working his tail off to keep a supply and is probably losing his mind fighting the USPS and other shippers to keep his PK shrimp alive during the shipping delays. He told me he was about ready to quit as he had a stretch where about 90% of his orders were delayed enough that the shrimp died in transit and he had to replace them all on his dime. My shipment had the same thing happen, USPS decided they would take his money for guaranteed 2 day shipping, then let it sit in a warehouse for a few days down south (they said USPS folks didn't feel like working when the gov't money they got by staying home was a better deal for them). It then got delayed again, then it hit a weekend so it was a 5 or 6 day transit and only a few hardy souls survived the trip (despite excellent packing, insulation and ice packs). I had to wait about a month before the ebayer felt comfortable trying it again. This time he chose Fedex and he shipped on a Tues and it arrived on my doorstep at 1pm on Wednesday, FANTASTIC!! I offered to pay for the 2nd box, certainly was happy to cover his shipping costs but he was a first class ebay seller and would not take my money. USPS would not stand behind their promises. It was actually hotter in MI than it was in Louisiana during the first shipment which didn't help. The bonus to shipping in mid-June was that several of the shrimp had just laid eggs en-route in the water or were loaded with eggs so hopefully I got some potential for young shrimp to come along with my order of adults. The big 'IF' yet is whether they will find enough refuge and like the chemistry in my pond. There are very few weeds for them to hide in.
Water has held a significant bloom for weeks (very low vis) and now I have a big part of the surface with floating swirls of blue/green algae. Some recent fertilizer runoff is probably helping that process. Running the aerator more and adding cold well water to try to limit that.
I tried to encourage the ebay seller to hang in there, he was doing a great service to the folks in range of his shipping!
As Bill C would say, with no aquatic vegetation, why wouldn't the BG algae take off?
I might be considered a serial killer as of today. In my walks around the pond I noticed my first fish ambush. I realized tht me scaring the small fry out tht the 3-5 inchers would ambushed them . My clarity in my water has been terrible for so many years I never could see it before. So kept doing it and watchin for it. So I'm prolly the reason for at least a dozen or more fish being lost today. I'm sure most of you see this all the time but a 1st for me. Hopefully within the next year or so mine will get better..
Wife was driving me around the pond today, and what did we see? A cormorant! I didn’t think we had them in Missouri. I’ve seen lots of posts here about them, and if I remember right, none of the posts were particularly positive about having a cormorant around. He had been sitting on our overflow drain pipe for quite a while. As the pipe had about 1/4” of my processed fish all over it. I talked things over with this cormorant, and he decided to depart. Then I googled him in Missouri and sure enough they must be fairly common. I’m hoping we don’t see any others. I always thought they were just a problem down south. No pictures. I’ll add that apparently cormorants are an ancient bird. My take is that their brains don’t appear to have evolved very far. Not the smartest bird we’ve ever had visiting.
They can spot you from 200yds off! Hard to sneak up any.... have to convince them from where you are. Been to hot to fish so been pig hunting at nite..... 14 in two weeks.... gonna go tonight
They can spot you from 200yds off! Hard to sneak up any.... have to convince them from where you are. Been to hot to fish so been pig hunting at nite..... 14 in two weeks.... gonna go tonight
They can spot you from 200yds off! Hard to sneak up any.... have to convince them from where you are. Been to hot to fish so been pig hunting at nite..... 14 in two weeks.... gonna go tonight
Can you eat them? Pig hunting sounds awesome.
Yes they are as good as any pork but a tad bit tougher... shoot a young one and split it length wise an BBQ it yummy it’s so hot to be processing. It’s a blast to hunt them
Keep am eye out for the Cormorants, I believe they send out scouts and if there is forage for them there may be additional birds show up. Keep up the pressure on them.
I went to the fence store last week and picked up three more 24' sticks of heavy gauge galvanized pipe. That will be enough to finish pinning the floating section of my dock to the pond floor.
Still battling muskrats. We've dispatched five of them. Not sure how many are left, or if some new ones have moved in from next door. They are making a mess of things. I had a glorious stand of APW before they showed up. It is all but gone now. Most of the cattails have been wrecked and they're working on the arrowhead.
I've also been dealing with a nasty infestation of bladderwort. I've hauled out a mountain of it in the last few weeks, but I've stopped removing it since the last of the APW disappeared. It's about all that's left for the PK shrimp, fry fish, etc., to hide in right now.
Went for a swim in my RES/SMB pond. Was hot and dusty mowing around the ponds with my little tractor and bush hog type mower so I just stopped and jumped in.
What I found interesting was the shallow thermocline. The top two feet was very warm water then very nice cool water below. That there was a thermocline was no surprise but I was surprised at how shallow it was.
I did not go out to deeper water to determine if there was a second thermocline but I suspect there was. I'm guessing the top two feet was warmed up by the sunny hot day. A few weeks back my grandson and I did a scuba dive in this pond to brush up his skills before going on a week long diving vacation. At the bottom of the pond it was pitch black and cold. I suspect that anoxic water is still down there but I did not check it out.
It is so interesting having three ponds within close proximity of each other. This RES/SMB pond had a really good algae bloom with about 2' visibility. Can't see a fish at all unless they come to the surface to hit a pellet. A hundred feet away is my old refurbished pond and it is clear enough I can see fish lining up at the bank waiting for me to throw them feed. Maybe 3' visibility with a rather poor algae bloom.
Another difference in the ponds are the aggressiveness of the SMB. In the RES/SMB pond the SMB only have themselves to compete with. Pellet feeding can be pretty aggressive or lackadaisical, depending on the day. But in the other two ponds the SMB are in there dukeing it out with the BG, HBG and CC. Very aggressive feeding. I can catch SMB in the two ponds where their population is fairly small in the scheme of things as easy or easier than I can where there are only SMB in the pond to bite the hook.
Jeff, I wonder if you being so close to Mark Twain Lake is why you got one?
Could be, but I’ve never seen one over there either. This one must have been immature. It stayed around for a while maybe 40 yards away. When it finally decided to fly off, it circled right over me.
I've also been dealing with a nasty infestation of bladderwort. I've hauled out a mountain of it in the last few weeks, but I've stopped removing it since the last of the APW disappeared. It's about all that's left for the PK shrimp, fry fish, etc., to hide in right now.
I just learned blatterwort is carnivorous. Very interesting.
Jeff, I wonder if you being so close to Mark Twain Lake is why you got one?
Could be, but I’ve never seen one over there either. This one must have been immature. It stayed around for a while maybe 40 yards away. When it finally decided to fly off, it circled right over me.
In the lower fingers of Mark Twain lake I have seen tons of Cormorants in trees out in the water, like a nesting tree or something, I have seen one or two in my lake here in central MO but then I havent fully stocked it yet, only baitfish and CC.
There are dogs bred to kill otters, and hopefully beavers. If they'd take on cormorants, too, this would be ideal. Unfortunately, this would only work for people who live at their pond full time, so not for me.
I have trained several different breeds of hunting dogs. If i wanted to train a dog to kill otters or beavers, would get a dead one and start using it to train with. After the first training event freeze the otter and us it again a few times. Using your excitement when doing it and that will transfer to some dogs but not all of them. It goes to a dogs genetics and aggressive behaver. If the dogs are not gun shy, you might throw it around and shoot around it while tossing it around the water and shore line. Beginning trainers might teach some bad habits but some dogs will work around that.
In the lower fingers of Mark Twain lake I have seen tons of Cormorants in trees out in the water, like a nesting tree or something, I have seen one or two in my lake here in central MO but then I havent fully stocked it yet, only baitfish and CC.
I need to spend more time over on the big lake. I’m just pretty poor at crappie fishing. I need some schooling. Hopefully I won’t see any more cormorants on our pond. It sits about a mile east of the dam.
I am trying to figure out what fish I have left after the fish kill that happened awhile back. Paying close attention yesterday to what is hanging around the feeders. I saw 3 or 4 lmb and one looked to be it the 17 " others were in the 12 to 15" sized. I don't see lmb feeding around the pond. I just see a few at the feeders. I am also seeing some large bg in the 9 to 10" size and good numbers of 5 to 6" bg but not seeing the numbers of smaller 3 to 4" bg I was seeing after the fish kill. Makes me think they are being eaten or they have doubled in size over the last month. One 12" male Tp was in the group of bg. And a few weeks back when I was raking the pond weeds I found good numbers of 1 to 2" lmb fry in the vegetation matts. I feel like I have lost my confidence when it comes to what I have in the pond when it comes to the lmb. This is making my mind run in all directions as to what to do next and my patience is running thin. . I feel like I want to add some golden shiners and some fathead minnows also for feeding the small lmb fry I found in the pond. This is driving me nuts.
Dang Tracy As hot as it is I bet there is a lot less visible feeding going on that you can see . I guess I missed the thread where you had a fish kill. That sucks for sure. I stopped feeding about a month ago.... got too many BG interfering with LMB and BCP reproduction I would think adding shiners and fatheads would benefit your fish plus’s might get a population of shiners going
Catching BH's !! We had a 500 year flood this spring, wiped out two dams not far from here(now they are only rivers) and acquired BH's. Not happy about it, but what can ya do? So far we have about 85 BH out of the pond and keep fishing for them a few times a week. They are fun to catch, and the cats love'm !
Male otterhounds gets up to 125 lb. They were so effective in England that otters were nearly wiped out and otters became protected in 1982. They can follow the scent of their prey in the water and on land.
Male otterhounds gets up to 125 lb. They were so effective in England that otters were nearly wiped out and otters became protected in 1982. They can follow the scent of their prey in the water and on land.
My German shepherds enjoy beaver meat (neighbor is a trapper), but the beaver were never active when I was at the pond with the dogs. My neighbor dispatched the 6 remaining beaver in my pond. Still have plenty trying to clog a culvert on the other end of my property which live in another neighbor's pond and a nearby creek. So far, the cage that I built around the pipe has kept them out. Looks like otter hounds are a very rare breed.
esshup that is what I was thinking. e survey would be nice to have. I hate it that the pond was producing good fishing no matter what fish you were fishing for. I know my lmb numbers are down because I have bull frogs everywhere. Lots and Lots of them. Snakes too. I had not seen any snakes in the pond in a couple of years Last time I saw large numbers of frogs and snakes at the pond was back when the pond was about a year old. I am seeing some nice sized bg and a few lmb and i think I saw an hsb too. But nothing like what I had before the fish kill.
Now as far as Otter hounds, I think there are several breeds of dogs that can control otter numbers around a pond. RAH has some dogs that could be trained as well as other breeds. There are dogs out there that chase and kill cats, those dogs could easly be trained to kill otters I think.
Completed construction of a 1/4" mesh Z trap over the weekend. This one is a 2'x2'x2' cube. There are three 3/4"x3" openings in each funnel.
The primary use for this one will be the removal of small BG/HBG and sampling for yoy YP.
Two overnight soaks - no bait, in 4' of water - yielded 200+ BG/HBG/RES, half a dozen small crayfish, and a handful of GSH and FHM. The RES go into the pellet training cage. BG/HBG/crayfish/minnows are transferred to the new forage pond.
The 2' height is probably overkill, and makes the thing a bit unwieldy to dump, but my thinking was that I'll use a 4' seine as a lead when I get serious about sampling for yoy YP, and a tall trap may be more effective than a short trap when deployed in that manner.
If I wanted to catch hand-size BG , I'd use 1/2" mesh, cut the height down to 11.5", and put a single 1"x5" opening in each funnel.
So in your picture you have the 1/4" mesh.. Bill is the 1/4" better than 1/2" What do they sell usually? I think I have 1/4" mesh roll here and would like to build one soon. I'm thinking 12-14" tall is probably plenty tall for my small puddle
Before the muskrats destroyed all of the APW the shrimp would hang out in there.
Now, aside from a few remnants of cattail and arrowhead that the vermin haven't yet eaten, the only vegetation in my pond is bladderwort. Any time I mess with it I can see shrimp flipping around. The fish see them too and then poof gone no more shrimp.
Before the rats ate the APW I would catch PK every time I soaked a trap. I haven't trapped any PK since the rooted plants were wiped out. So I'm gonna say the nice stand of APW that I used to have made a happy home for PK shrimp.
Thanks Augie, I was afraid of that. The PKs really need certain types of vegetation to hide/thrive in. I think my stocking was in vain as I'm still struggling to get a stand of ANY weed (desirable or not) to take root....
I'll be rid of the rats soon enough, but it's too late in the year for the APW to grow back before winter. There's a mountain of seed in the pond so it ought to come back just fine next spring.
I'm hoping that the giant tangle of cedar trees that I put in before my pond filled will provide enough cover for some of the shrimp to survive the winter, because that's about all there will be for them once cold weather gets here and the bladderwort croaks.
On another note, I just got off the phone with Chet Hartley. My SMB order is locked in, and he's got a few advanced HSB for me. Water temps are still on the warm side so we're going to touch base again in a couple of weeks. I expect I'll be able to pick them up before the end of this month.
And I think I forgot to mention that I found one yoy YP in the Z trap when I pulled it yesterday. It was a sickly looking little thing. Not even as long as my pinky finger, horribly mal-nourished, and only slightly dead. So from that I can say that my YP did pull off a spawn last spring. I just hope the rest of them are managing better than this one did.
I've been thining my larger GSH down, I've pulled 141 GSH in the 5-7" size range out of my 1/4 acre pond in the last three weeks. (564/acre) So far I haven't seen a noticable difference in the number of large shiners eating pellets in the evening.
I've been thining my larger GSH down, I've pulled 141 GSH in the 5-7" size range out of my 1/4 acre pond in the last three weeks. (564/acre) So far I haven't seen a noticable difference in the number of large shiners eating pellets in the evening.
Shorty, what method are you using to remove them. I think I have some that are getting to big that need to be removed. I really wasn't planning to stock them but must of been some in with the FHM. They've been in for 2 years now and I think some might be up to 8".I just stocked the LMB this spring so those big ones won't be getting ate anytime soon.
Rod and reel, I'm using an 1/80th oz micro jig, casting bubble, and a very small peice of nightcrawler. I keep a five gallon bucket next to the dock that I throw them in to dispose of.
Before the muskrats destroyed all of the APW the shrimp would hang out in there.
Now, aside from a few remnants of cattail and arrowhead that the vermin haven't yet eaten, the only vegetation in my pond is bladderwort. Any time I mess with it I can see shrimp flipping around. The fish see them too and then poof gone no more shrimp.
Before the rats ate the APW I would catch PK every time I soaked a trap. I haven't trapped any PK since the rooted plants were wiped out. So I'm gonna say the nice stand of APW that I used to have made a happy home for PK shrimp.
Augie, I finally have a pretty fair amount of APW, but it’s too little too late for my shrimp. When we had that drought a few years ago the water level dropped down below where I had any cover on the banks. I haven’t seen any since. My traps catch about 20 tadpoles for every baby HBG, and about 20 HBG for every GSH. Only a couple YP in the traps, and 0 SMB. I think that’s more about where I place the traps vs fish numbers. I’m worried about muskrats. What’s the first sign I should be looking for that they are around? FYI, my cormorant never came back. I guess he didn't like the noisy neighborhood.
The first thing that I noticed after the muskrats moved in were shredded cattails and almost overnight - muddy water. Then the APW started to disappear. Then they started on the arrowhead. It didn't take long at all for them to wreck the place. The pond looked like a war zone two weeks after they showed up.
We shot five of them. I don't know how many are left because they don't show themselves. Conibear traps are here and going in this weekend.
Ice fishing jigs would probably work. I find micro jigs in the fly tying sections of Bass Pro and Cabela's, you won't find them in the regular fishing section.
I catch everything with it, RES, SMB, HSB, and GSH. When targeting GSH I use a very small peice of nightcrawler, 1/4", and have the micro jig set 16" below the casting bubble. GSH can be caught near the bank or in open water, most of the other fish I catch are caught near the bank.
I used to catch GSH with a #12 hook and a piece of corn. I'd squeeze the seed out of the kernel so I was left with the "skin" and they would hammer it on the drop.
I took advantage of a friday off with perfect weather. Transplanted about 15 gallons (5 - 3 gallon bucket fulls) of this today. Put it along the bank that wasnt grow grass yet. I keep moving dirt every chance I get. I keep changing the contour of the bank. Tilling up the dirt and moving it was t allowed it to grow anything but I think I'm done 4 the year. This stuff seems to transplant really easy. I have been racking some sections of big chunks all year.
I went to a few places and the best I've came up with so far is 1/64, which I did get. Do you think they will do? Is it the size of the hook or the weight that is important, or both? I could always file a little off the weight if it would help? I did also get 2 flies that are 1/80 and can cut the stuff off of them if they would be better? They have green heads.
1/64 oz will work, it's the size of the hook and piece of nightcrawler that matters, smaller is better for catching GSH. I've caught SMB up to 18" on the 1/80 oz jig.
Day 2 of my new pond is complete. It's amazing how much they've cleared with just a skid steer and a small track hoe (so far). Here are the before and after pics:
Got over 12” rain in last 3 days. Pond is full after being down 14-18”. We have never gotten rain in August or September before . Maybe fishing will pick up soon
Steve it will b an exciting time for ya. Have you started a thread about ur pond build?
Not yet but I figured I would start something when it gets closer to being finished, similar to what Quarter Acre did with his pond log. But you’re right, I can barely contain my excitement!
I am attempting to get winter food plots up and running but it needs to dry out before i can get to some of the areas. Also scheduled for a Pine tree select cut, but its to wet to get to about half of the trees. Plans were to use that money for forage pond and solar setup. But i also needed the ran for the pond to fill up from the summer level drop. We usually get the rains in late Sept or in Oct. so it is a little early this year.
Had some family n friends over yesterday. Before everyone got in it was the clearest iv ever seen it. By the time 10 or so people swam in for several hours it was back to very murky again. This morning its noticable better.
Went fishing yesterday morning. The fish are lure shy so used a Stubby Steve and caught a real monster BG. Due to water temps, I rarely fis at this time of year. But, we have some cool nights and the water had cooled.
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.
Yesterday Grandson and his friend(like another grandson) strung wire over the pond to deter cormorants. They have cleaned me out twice and it’s about time for them to show up again. I used Tposts with electric fence tape about 3 ft off the water and about 30 or so ft. apart.
Got advice from Esshup, Lusk and Chris Steelman. Appreciated!
Another Gator showed up at the pond. Looks to be about 3'er. In the last couple of years the gators started showing up at the pond. Not something I really want but will keep the otters and beavers away I would think.
No gators, but I did manage to break the shear pin in my Minn Kota electric motor. Since it is permanently attached to my pontoon boat, a bit awkward to get at. But the repair will happen.
Herbicide eliminated maybe 90 percent of visible bushy pondweed, and maybe 70 percent of american pondweed. Bushy pondweed still green & growing near bottom of deeper water, however. Wish the american pondweed were less affected. Cattails and duck potato unchanged. Pond viz declined dramatically but is gradually clearing. Smaller fish likely had a hard time when most of their cover disappeared.
Harvested 139 largemouth bass so far this year, want to take out another 60 to 90. Relative weight seems to be doing better now, larger fish very healthy. I haven't seen a hybrid striper in several months, though. Hopefully they survived the summer and will provide some great sport as things cool down.
Fished. Cleaned fish. Fed fish. Trapped RES fingerlings and transferred to other ponds that I figured could use them.
You reminded me that I put several CNBG in the forage pond. Hopefully they'll spawn & fill it up over the winter & early spring, when I'll drain it into the main BOW.
Pat is the coloring on that bluegill a bit unusual?
me2 on hogs 2nite I went out at sundown and walked to woods and then realized I forgot my deep woods off I stayed as long as i could getting eating alive my skeeters wondering which bite would give me west nile....lol finally gave up
esshup, from what i have researched Gators do eat fish as a primary food for them. This one would lay his head on a limb of a sunken tree at the feeder. By his being there the cnbg would not feed as actively as they did without him being there. I am not seeing as many turtles, so i think he has been eating them also. They are another primary food for them. Since i have been having gators show up over the past 3 yrs with all of them being 4' or less i assumed they were year old gators but discover they only grow 8" per year so that makes them out to be 3 to 5 yrs old. That really surprised me. We use this pond for retriever training and for training young fisherman so can't have any gators. Keeping an eye out for gators is a new pastime at the pond.
Zep, no pics but the other day i caught a golden colored bg. It was a bright gold colored from head to tail.
The previous owner of my house lopped off the tops of four fairly large live oaks that were either overhanging the roof or severely damaged over the road. They were unsightly and not helping the remaining four oaks. A friend was in town and we went to work yesterday. Four new live oak log benches were added to the pond! Used 8ft old fence posts as levers to load them on my old light weight boat trailer.
Hello- I am new to the forum and would appreciate any suggestions. My brother and I are having serious overgrowth of aquatic plants in a 20 year old 4 acre pond used for fishing. We want to get our water tested for nutrients, etc. Do you know of labs in Franklin County or St. Louis County that will analyze the water and provide testing procedures.
We are working with local extension office on identifying problem plants. once we know what we are working with, do you make product suggestions for chemical controls.
We just finished working on dam, deepening sides of pond to 2 feet, deepest part is 18 feet. We have grass carp ordered. We are going to work on some riparian buffer. We are going to try some mechanical removal, but that is arduous. We have used all of the above over the years- just a tough year.
We have bass, bluegill and catfish and a lot of fun.
Hello- I am new to the forum and would appreciate any suggestions. My brother and I are having serious overgrowth of aquatic plants in a 20 year old 4 acre pond used for fishing. We want to get our water tested for nutrients, etc. Do you know of labs in Franklin County or St. Louis County that will analyze the water and provide testing procedures.
We are working with local extension office on identifying problem plants. once we know what we are working with, do you make product suggestions for chemical controls.
We just finished working on dam, deepening sides of pond to 2 feet, deepest part is 18 feet. We have grass carp ordered. We are going to work on some riparian buffer. We are going to try some mechanical removal, but that is arduous. We have used all of the above over the years- just a tough year.
We have bass, bluegill and catfish and a lot of fun.
Thank you!
DE14362, welcome to the forum. You will have better answers if you create your own thread instead of using this one. Head to the main forum list, scroll down to Aquatic Vegetation, and create a topic in "Controlling unwanted plants."
During the 7.5" rain I saw YOY GSF and and BH washing into the wetland/sediment pond. Main pond went from 6' low to overflowing in 12 hours. About 1ac to 2ac. Surprisingly it only overflowed for three days. Now that the BH are fairly under control I fear the gizzard shad will be a far greater adversary.
Took off last Wednesday for a long weekend of sprint car racing at Lucas Oil Speedway. After unpacking and washing the camper I went out to the pond to feed the fish.
You'd have thought the poor things were half starved to death by the way they attacked the pellets. They were not messing around.
I got a visual on some of the advanced size YP that I got from Snipe last fall. Now that the water has cooled into the upper 60°s they have become much more active and are taking pellets from the surface rather than being content to hoover up what sinks. There are a couple or three that look to be pushing on 14". The big RES will chase the smaller YP away from the pellets, but these larger YP won't put up with that behavior. They push right back.
Electro harvested 56 bass, pretty much completing goal for the year. They definitely looked better than they did in May, though maybe some of that is comparing with post-spawn fish back then.
Loads of CNBG, from small to big. Some large HSB and a few tilapia, as well. No threadfin shad seen, so I'll need to restock in spring. Golden shiners might be worthwhile, too.
Stocked 25 8 to 10 inch HSB to replenish original 70. Also stocked 250 F1 LMB in 3 to 4 inch range to add some genetic diversity. Most will be eaten, but even if only a fraction survive it will be nice.
My water is soft, so they had to up the voltage. I plan to add 21 tons of ag lime soon to amend this issue. Ethan said that I need to get a lot more cover in the pond, particularly hardwood trees & shrubs. As it is, bass have to cruise the shoreline to chase forage, which limits their ability to put on weight, even though forage is abundant.
Also plan on stocking rainbow trout in early December as they become available. Last year they added much to winter fishing fun, and I have a friend who absolutely loves to eat them. Ethan told me that rainbow are getting a more popular with pond owners, orders tripled just last year.
Hi Augie, Hope you enjoyed the races at Lucas, Jesse was my cousin. We use to race against him, and I also helped him out some. We really miss him! John
Electro harvested 56 bass, pretty much completing goal for the year. They definitely looked better than they did in May, though maybe some of that is comparing with post-spawn fish back then.
Loads of CNBG, from small to big. Some large HSB and a few tilapia, as well. No threadfin shad seen, so I'll need to restock in spring. Golden shiners might be worthwhile, too.
Stocked 25 8 to 10 inch HSB to replenish original 70. Also stocked 250 F1 LMB in 3 to 4 inch range to add some genetic diversity. Most will be eaten, but even if only a fraction survive it will be nice.
My water is soft, so they had to up the voltage. I plan to add 21 tons of ag lime soon to amend this issue. Ethan said that I need to get a lot more cover in the pond, particularly hardwood trees & shrubs. As it is, bass have to cruise the shoreline to chase forage, which limits their ability to put on weight, even though forage is abundant.
Also plan on stocking rainbow trout in early December as they become available. Last year they added much to winter fishing fun, and I have a friend who absolutely loves to eat them. Ethan told me that rainbow are getting a more popular with pond owners, orders tripled just last year.
Frank. What was the determining factor when removing the 56 lmb? Length, weight. stunted or males? I am also wondering about the hsb. I am not so sure elec fishing for hsb gives a good picture since we are just now coming out of our summer water temps where the hsb most likely held close to the bottom due to cooler temps, so you think the hsb have moved up to the shallows where the e survey picks up the fish? I am thinking you may have more than the survey showed. None of this is really my concern, i guess i am just nosey
No problem with question, Tracy. I posted to remind myself of what happened so I don't forget, and also to help others who may face similar situations.
General rule of thumb I go by is to harvest 25 pounds of LMB per acre per year. For me, that's in the 200 to 250 LMB range, considering my average harvested fish is probably around 3/4-7/8 pound. Some are bigger, of course, but some are smaller, too. Try to focus on skinny fish, mostly males. I'd already harvested 139 before the electro harvest, so 56 more put me close to target.
If fish relative weights aren't great, I may harvest more. If RW looks good, I may harvest less. Electro guy told me that I probably have done enough now, bass are definitely healthier and not so abundant as to cause issues. Okay to take out really thin fish, but not absolutely necessary.
Somehow he could tell male from female LMB and did not harvest any females in good shape, even if less than 12 inches. Males got ruder treatment, but then we live in a feminist era.
I think part of his recommendation was based on how well the CNBG were doing, from YOY to bigguns. I feed, plus I grow some in a forage pond, which helps. Interestingly, the YOY CNBG moved to the rocks on the dam after their former home, the bushy pondweed, was knocked back. Lots for predators to eat, even though they must chase more than they should.
You're right about HSB, though they did see some nice ones. I'll harvest a few by hook & line this fall.
Went fishing and caught a fat 7# bass on a 5” pearl cane thumper under a Owner flashy swimmer! Should have hauled her to my neighbors lake but I was on the far side of lake and nothing to put her in .....
Replenished feeders, made MUCH MUCH easier by a little gravel roadwork so we can approach by car rather than trekking through brambles and hidden rocks while lugging 50 lb bags. We got feeder going in forage pond just to see what was happening and got a good response, obviously the four or five CNBG we stocked there have spawned.
I picked up a fishing rod and Sam(Golden Retriever) and headed to the pond as the morning sun came up. It was my first fishing trip since my fish kill back in July. We sat on the pier and fishing a drop shot rig we managed to catch 5 lmb. The lmb came in different sizes. The smallest was an 8" and the largest was in the 4 to 4 1/2 lb sized. I was really surprised to catch the larger sized lmb. I never expected to see that sized in the pond because of the fish kill we had. All the fish looked to be nice and healthy and a little on the fat side. While spending around an hr or so on the pier we had two flights of Blue Winged Teal come in on us. They were determined to land on the pond and paid little attention that we were there. They were something to see as the fly over with the wind whistling over their wings What a great morning it was at the pond.
So glad to hear that there are still some great fish in your pond, Tracy! I guess this reduction in biomass sets the stage for possibly faster & safer growth, almost like starting again. I've found the same pleasure in watching birds as you, except for those Z@#!&% cormorants.
By the way, how is the bushy pondweed doing now? Had mine treated with herbicide, about 95 percent of surface stuff vanished and has not come back. Still there on bottom, though, so it will try to return next spring. Hope grass carp will help keep in check next year.
Often when some fish are stressed a few who are able to continue functioning will feast on the stressed. Good example - we rotenoned part of a lake and the non stressed fish from the other end of the lake moved to the transition zone ( where clean water met rotenone) and dined on the dying fish. Got out a rod and caught 9 big LMB ( 5-7 lbs) on 11 casts using an injured shad lure .
Never heard of rotenone just part of a lake. Was this a deliberate strategy to feed some of the fish to others?
Up here they will use a low dose of Rotenone to kill Gizzard Shad, they are more susceptible to the Rotenone than the other native fish in the lakes. It won't kill all the shad, but a big portion of them. One local lake had 60% of it's fish biomass in Gizzard Shad.
esshup has good information. Also partial treatment using rotenone, often applying it to just one shoreline, is used to reduce or thin out small fish. Partial treatments using rotenone can be used a management tools as noted in several fishery books.
In this case we did about 1/3 of the lake to reduce trash fish. This was a river effected (about every 3rd year) oxbow type lake. Done in conjunction with Wildlife and Fisheries as they also wanted to see the results also. After everyone was finished I decided to fish.
Have also seen rotenone used on spawning beds to limit reproduction. Guarding fish swim off and rotenone mixture is poured around encircling the nest site.
My contractor informed me that he found a spring when he lifted up a ~500 pound quartz rock. Bad news is, it was found when he was digging the core trench for the dam. So, he's pushing my dam back about 25 more feet into the woods to allow the spring to infiltrate into the pond, and not inside the dam. This will require more tree removal. Good news is, this will ultimately make my pond bigger than I had anticipated.
Sharing an interesting article about rotenone laced pellets to selectively target carp. I'm surprised the company making the pellets didn't continue to try to add more fish meal or other 'flavorants' to cover the 'taste' that made fish spit it out. There is a fairly large need for a selective pellet based fish removal tool. Who ever made my Optimal make my hands smell awful at the same time made fish go crazy over its taste. They probably could take over this research!
Sharing an interesting article about rotenone laced pellets to selectively target carp. I'm surprised the company making the pellets didn't continue to try to add more fish meal or other 'flavorants' to cover the 'taste' that made fish spit it out. There is a fairly large need for a selective pellet based fish removal tool. Who ever made my Optimal make my hands smell awful at the same time made fish go crazy over its taste. They probably could take over this research!
Huh, I didn't think rotenone worked like that. From my understanding, it prevents the fish's cells from absorbing oxygen, thus suffocating it. I had no idea it would still be effective, even if processed through the liver. I read the study, and I'm being nit-picky here, but they never actually verified that it was, in fact, the rotenone-laced pellet that killed the fish. They basically said they found "material that could've resembled that of a fish pellet" in their stomachs. They also never mentioned how much rotenone was in each pellet. My initial thought was that the rotenone could've leeched into the water and that's what caused the few fish deaths they experienced. I just don't know how you could only target one species of fish with this tactic, like Bill said.
One way that food laced with chemicals could be selective is by having it be at different heights in the water column. A heavier pellet that would sink rapidly would target more catfish and carp rather than BG or LMB. Even if you did floating pellets isn't it the desire of every pond meister to reduce number of bluegill, GSF, and 14" or smaller LMB? Certainly this wouldn't be a great option for ponds with pellet trained HSB Not sure WE or SMB would be at risk depending on how pellet trained they are.
A larger pellet size would be a more selective way to target different fish. Large 'hand toss' pellets may not be as readily consumed by panfish Different fish have a different 'lethal dose'. Papers show befenthrin as a neurotoxin is more selective for carp than for gamefish in lower concentrations. Could consider a breadball laced with chemical or a different medium (fish fillet scraps soaked in toxin?) compared to a pellet.
It seems these studies are pursued in relatively small ponds, canals, impoundments where the goal of eradicating catfish or carp temporarily is a larger priority than any simultaneous loss of gamefish or panfish.
Whoa Nellie - not all pondmeisters desire to grow big LMB. Granted that seems to be the majority of folks interest but there are a lot of us that focus on other species - especially if the goal is table fare. I personally enjoy catching a 9" - 10" BG (sadly I have never caught one bigger than 10") as much as I do a large LMB. To me a big BG is more of a rare occurrence than a say an 8# LMB. As long as there are enough bass and no spawning habitat, channel cats can be controlled and provide great table fare - the key being to harvest which goes back to table fare.
My pond is 1-1/4 acres and was here when I bought the place. If it was bigger and I started from scratch the trophy LMB fishery might be a goal but adding habitat is difficult when the pond is already full. It doesn't take too much fishing to overfish a small pond and get hook shy LMB. I like to fish so I want species that I can wet a hook and do some catching not just fishing - especially when the grandkids are here. Maybe I am just not a good LMB fisherman.................
I went fishing yesterday with a small rooster tail and caught what is in the attached picture. The picture isn't very good and I didn't realize it before I let it go. Unfortunately I didn't get the tail in the pic. I think I hooked something like this but around 8" or so a while back. It shook loose as I was pulling it out of the water and didn't get a great look so just assumed it was a young LMB but after catching this I am pretty sure it wasn't an LMB.
I pulled up some pics of golden shiners and shad but I am not sure. In the pics I saw I didn't see the dark line running the length of the body. I have never stocked anything but FHM, BG and CC to add to the existing LMB base when I bought the place. A friend added me to a FHM and BG stocking route that a small fishery was making for some ponds he manages a couple of years ago. I have since decided to never use that fishery for other reasons. Lately I have caught an RES and now these. These are coming from somewhere and it is possible they were always here but seems like I am catching things I never have before and did not put in myself.
Can someone positively ID this fish - again, sorry about the pic. Also, how do I get an image to show up in the text instead of an attachment? When I click on the "Insert Image" link it asks for a URL address.
Can someone positively ID this fish - again, sorry about the pic. Also, how do I get an image to show up in the text instead of an attachment? When I click on the "Insert Image" link it asks for a URL address.
Looks like a small LMB to me, even though it doesn't have the markings yet. If you want to add pictures directly to your post, you need to upload them to an image hosting site, such as imgur.com. Once uploaded, you can get the URL to the image and add it to your post.
Here is the picture that MisterA posted as an attachment:
Thanks for posting the pic Steve. I have actually snagged a few fingerling bass on those mini rooster tails and they look like bass. This guy was different but the mouth does look like it could be an LMB. I am going to build and set a couple of fish traps and see what starts showing up. A friend of mine said it is a shad but the solid black line running the length of the body doesn't really look like any pictures I saw. I am sure it was not an HSB - I've caught tons of those in lakes and would recognize it even in micro size.
I pulled the floating pier across the pond to the shallows so I can change out one to three barrels. It is a a pain to change out barrels but I've done it before and I just have to be careful along with being safe. It is an ALL DAY Job.
Thanks - it seems the consensus is that it is an LMB. Now that I look at the mouth it sure seems that way. I was not aware that they could/would discolor. If nothing else this conversation has pushed me over the edge on addressing the water quality issues. Water isn't horrible because fish are healthy and growing but it is cause for concern. We finally received rain, seven inches, during the last hurricane. Unfortunately we had quite a bit of shore exposed, which is clay rich, due to the pond being so low and we also had done some clearing in the dry creek bed that runs into the pond so the water is very brown now and taking a long time to clear. I finally figured out that running the aeration was keeping the suspended clay from settling out so have shut that down but it is very slow to clear and it was never super clear to start with.
I may ask for more help on that issue but will move it to a different thread. Thanks again...............
Replaced the broken shear pin in my Minn Kota electric motor. Tricky because it is permanently attached to front of pontoon boat so had to do it over water at awkward angle. Also fixed broken motor shaft clamp with 3 C clamps of the right size. Foot control works for speed, but not steering, must be done by hand. I don't mind too much, but it sure seems like lots is going wrong that is not of my doing -- except for the shear pin, I ran into a submerged log going pretty fast.
Fish still taking food, but not quite as eagerly as back in spring and early summer. HSB took my little jigworm to the next county, there's no mistaking the sizzling long straight run of a big wiper! Also caught a few decent LMB, had on a really big one where the hook pulled out. All in all, good fishing.
Fred, my egret, has been joined by little Fred Jr. Fred barely tolerates him, but hasn't chased him off yet. George, the Great Blue Heron is still around, too.
Pat, getting a water analysis done is on the agenda. I'll be dropping off a sample at A&M next week. I know I have a very soft bottom that is likely very nutrient rich but I am going to wait for the water analysis before I formulate a plan. When I bought the place the folks we bought it from were running 30+ head on 21 acres (18 grazable) along with a couple of skinny mares. There wasn't a blade of grass over 1/2" on the entire place and lots of skinny cows. The only water source was the pond. That was 6 years ago but I understand the drought of 2011 was almost a death blow to the pond. I don't think it has ever fully recovered but I am working on it.
We changed out two of the metal barrels for blk plastic barrels on the floating pier One of the metal ones had a small hole in it from corrosion after 6 yrs. I hope the plastic barrels will last a little longer. It's pretty easy to change them out when all i have to do is set on the tractor, use the front end loader and bark out orders to my grandson. I'm going to miss him at the farm when he leaves for the Air Force in December.
Bob, why do you want the heron to get your large GSH? Are they too big for your bass to eat?
Yes, that one was probably over 6" and I have bigger ones than that. I just stocked the LMB this spring and some of them are about 12" now but I doubt they will ever be able to eat the bigger ones and I figure their just eating up food.
My 8 year old granddaughter is coming to spend a few days next week - one benefit of Covid is that she is still going to school online so she can come visit and not miss school. Based on a lot of recommendations on this forum I have ordered some Stubby Steve's fish bait. For those of you who use it, what is the best way? Can I just use it on a hook by itself or is it best to use as an attractor with other bait or artificial? We are going to be BG and CC fishing. Do they work with LMB also? She hasn't caught an LMB so that would be huge bonus. She loves to fish and her mom said she is non-stop talking about fishing since we lined up the trip so I want to make sure we are reeling them in. Thanks for any input.
Shiner or fatheads would make a better bait for LMB but you never know, I have caught lots lo LMB on grasshoppers many times . Cut BG also work on them. Good luck. I use this gold Aberdeen hooks a lot , no swivel, very small split shot for weight, smallest cork and usually catch them Hook live bait through lips
Worms work great for cc and bg. I would always have them in my tackle lineup if I was going to take a kid fishing. And lmb will also eat them if given the chance.
Saturday I packed a few muskrat tunnels full of bentonite and the last bit of soil floc that I had on hand. I'm going to need more of each. Along with wiping out virtually all of the rooted vegetation in the pond, those dang varmints really made a mess of the dam.
After I've finished packing all of the tunnels I'll rip-rap the dam and then bring in some more topsoil to smooth it back out, and re-seed it with grass and dutch clover.
It's been my intention all along to do the rip-rap. If I'd done it sooner I think it might have kept the rats from turning the dam into swiss cheese.
Both 1/4 acre ponds are the lowest they have been since first filling (one in late 2015, other in late 20i6). It's going to be a disaster if it doesn't rain soon. We have not had a rain with any run-off at all since the second day of July. DRY DRY DRY
Both 1/4 acre ponds are the lowest they have been since first filling (one in late 2015, other in late 20i6). It's going to be a disaster if it doesn't rain soon. We have not had a rain with any run-off at all since the second day of July. DRY DRY DRY
I know the feeling, my pond is down approximately 6 feet, the lowest it's been since 2008 when we renovated it and it was refilling. I am going to harvest a bunch of fish in the upcoming weeks to lower the biomass in the pond. I estimate the water volume is half or less of what it would be at full pool.
I'm in the same boat. They declared us in a drought a little while back and there is no rain in sight. I've lost most of what I gained back in the winter and spring. I hope something changes soon!
And duuusssty. "Dusting" in winter wheat in this area.
Oh and I have an announcement. Wife and I are going full retirement. Selling out the farm equipment and renting our land out to be farmed by my nephews.
Have not decided to sell the bulldozer or not. Might "need" to build another pond some day.
Mrs. Augie and I are very much looking forward to the end of our working careers. We've got a few years yet to go, but it's getting close enough that we can see it.
Congrats SNRUB -- From the looks of your place you have earned it. If you need someone just to keep that dozer lubed up and not sitting just let me know lol.
Oh and I have an announcement. Wife and I are going full retirement. Selling out the farm equipment and renting our land out to be farmed by my nephews.
Sat in my "pond" that isn't completed yet, and thought about the contractor that may or not be trying to screw me over. I paid $2500 down on a $10k project, and he's continually asked me for more money, with seemingly "good" reasons, i.e. has too many jobs out and not enough money coming in, or having breakdowns and needing money to get replacement parts. He seemed like a legit guy, said all the right things, and even played the "I'm a man of faith" card on me, to coerce more money out of me and keep me playing his game. I'm now $8500 in and he hasn't been out in nearly 2 weeks, but promises he will be there first thing tomorrow morning. I have a contract, and have documentation of all transactions I've done with him... I just don't hope I don't need to go that route.
Sat in my "pond" that isn't completed yet, and thought about the contractor that may or not be trying to screw me over. I paid $2500 down on a $10k project, and he's continually asked me for more money, with seemingly "good" reasons, i.e. has too many jobs out and not enough money coming in, or having breakdowns and needing money to get replacement parts. He seemed like a legit guy, said all the right things, and even played the "I'm a man of faith" card on me, to coerce more money out of me and keep me playing his game. I'm now $8500 in and he hasn't been out in nearly 2 weeks, but promises he will be there first thing tomorrow morning. I have a contract, and have documentation of all transactions I've done with him... I just don't hope I don't need to go that route.
The basic shape of the pond is there, but I have no dam yet, and its still full of trees that he's contracted to take to the lumber mill for me. He's taken a couple loads so far. He claims to be able to "do the rest in one day" so we'll see. He said he just bought a D9 dozer and was waiting for fuel stickers for it? No idea what that means, but its one excuse after another, and he never keeps me in the loop of what's going on. I'll give an update tomorrow to see if he actually shows up or not.
I certainly hope it goes well and turns around for you. But on this forum there are easily 94 dirt mover contractors like him that are unable, unskilled, unwilling, or un-honest enough to give you what they promised you to every 4 or 5 that can and will and do. (and the 4 or 5 that are able and willing will honestly tell you how busy they are and when they truly can focus on your pond even if that means a 2 year wait).
I know the 94 bad and 5 good add up to 99. The 1 out of a 100 (or 1 out of a million) is Mike Otto...
I certainly hope it goes well and turns around for you. But on this forum there are easily 94 dirt mover contractors like him that are unable, unskilled, unwilling, or un-honest enough to give you what they promised you to every 4 or 5 that can and will and do. (and the 4 or 5 that are able and willing will honestly tell you how busy they are and when they truly can focus on your pond even if that means a 2 year wait).
I know the 94 bad and 5 good add up to 99. The 1 out of a 100 (or 1 out of a million) is Mike Otto...
Yup, out of the 3 quotes I got, this guy was eager to get started, and had his equipment out to my place the very next day, before I even signed the contract or gave him money. The other 2 guys seemed uninterested. The problem is, its been over 5 weeks now (maybe 6?), and every time he's come out to work, its only been for 3-4 hours and then he leaves. I'm hoping he just has his crew spread too thin, but again, is that a sign of a good contractor?
We've had several huge rain events that have gone to waste because the dam isn't complete. I really wanted to get a few feet of water in there to at least get some minnows going, but its not looking like that will happen anytime soon.
Replying to Steve, I really hope this works out for you better then I think it will, I can see him needing to get 25% down for a commitment but the breakdowns and money problems are not your problem, if he is not manager enough to swing a little job that size he has issues, the Jesus card is usually my first alert, a person of faith doesn't really have to display it on his bumper. seems like the worst I get screwed over, or attempted to, is by the ones with the Jesus bumper sticker. Good Luck!
Replying to Steve, I really hope this works out for you better then I think it will, I can see him needing to get 25% down for a commitment but the breakdowns and money problems are not your problem, if he is not manager enough to swing a little job that size he has issues, the Jesus card is usually my first alert, a person of faith doesn't really have to display it on his bumper. seems like the worst I get screwed over, or attempted to, is by the ones with the Jesus bumper sticker. Good Luck!
Thank you for the support. Sadly, he never showed up this morning like he said he would. I called and left about a 2-minute voicemail. Its disconcerting that he has his phone off, because it went straight to voicemail, and has been that way for about a week now...in the beginning he would answer my calls. I guess I need to give him an ultimatum, "have it done by this date or I'm taking you to court."
I don't know what else to do at this point. It's funny about the Jesus thing, because the first guy that came to look at my property did the same thing. He even said, "All I can do is try my best and let God do the rest" or something along those lines, when I asked him how certain he was of this project being a success. I'm not religious, but it makes me angry to see people use this tactic to get money out of you, and reassure you that the job will get done. I should know better...
Summer heat is giving way to autumn chill. First frost of the season last night. Surface temp in the pond is down to 64°.
Switched from 24/7 aeration to daytime only. I'll run it that way until the ST hits 50°, then shut it down for the winter.
I've got the materials on hand to set up a bubble hose around the dock to keep it from getting locked up in ice when the weather turns bitter.
Been packing muskrat tunnels in the evenings after work. Think I've hit about half of them now.
The HSB seem to be adjusting nicely to their new home. I don't see much of them during the mid-day feeding, but they come out with gusto in the evening. It's nice to see those big splooshes when they grab a pellet, or a minnow that's nibbling at a pellet.
Was sitting outside looking at the pond when I heard a sound that is unmistakable, a B-17 at about 4000’ flying south , got the binoculars out and watched her go by .. my dad was a tail gunner on one and made 27 missions over Germany. What a beautiful sight and sound !
I think it is so cool to see those old planes. I would love to pilot some of those old war birds. And i understand why u would be proud. If it was my dad that took those risks to protect the world I would be proud of him also.
Pat, my Dad also wouldn’t talk about it. My Mom kept all of his letters that he wrote home. I have them from both Africa and Europe. He left about 2 months after they married. They were married on the day before Pearl Harbor was bombed.
My Dad and 2 of his brothers all in the army at the same time. 2 were at the battle of the Bulge. My Dad a little later fought in Japan. They also spoke very little of it. So proud of all of them and ALL our veterans!! Guess we got off subject of what we did at our pond today except Pat I agree there are things we see that remind us of the past while sitting at our PEACEFUL PONDS !!
My dad got a medal for a night bombing mission during the Korean War, but he was quite reluctant to talk about it. The most I could get him to say was that they often looked for places with lots of flak & anti-aircraft fire, because they figured the Norks were defending something valuable, like a bridge. When I asked why they deliberately put themselves in the riskiest part of the sky, he just smiled a little and said, "We were young."
Cut down a couple med sized cedars. Took the ol' sawzall only a few minutes. Got them to as big as I can manage by myself. Gave them the heave ho as far as I could. Didnt make it too far but oh well.
That coyotee ? I herd that some of those politicians and news people said there is no way a coyote can drag a child across our southern border. What do u think? Looks like a nice 8 in the pics.
Quarter Acre was nice enough to share some over production on his crawdads. I put them in the pond and it looks like they are doing fine. Hoping my SMB will give them a chance to get established. Thank you QA! Much appreciated. Jeff
Quarter Acre was nice enough to share some over production on his crawdads. I put them in the pond and it looks like they are doing fine. Hoping my SMB will give them a chance to get established. Thank you QA! Much appreciated. Jeff
I was lucky enough to get a couple shipments of those myself, If I didn't say it before, Thank You QA! they were a lively bunch and gone from sight in no time!
I did a little fishing and looking for fish out of the boat. I caught a 4+- lb lmb and was happy to see it. After stocking 15 Grass carp over the past yr I found 10 grass carp, most all of them looked to be in the 3 to 4 lb range. I was happy to find them in the pond after the fish kill because I am still seeing quite a bit of bush pond weed in the pond. Lacking experience with grass carp i wished I knew how many to have where they did not eat all the plants. It is like being on a teeter totter when it comes to balance of fish and plants.
Just observed the leaves coming down. Weird fall weather had the leaves dumping down yesterday and today. One of the downsides to a pond in the woods. Lots and lots of leaves.
Yeah I have heard that statement numerous times. So if I don't rake it then what? It doesn't grow? Being that it is fall and it appears that the growing has slowed, what does it hurt to rake it out? Also, by not raking I can not fish the areas taken over with the milfoil so darned if I do and darned if I don't. So to speak.
I hear you, Dean. Got bushy pondweed which does much the same. There are only a few solutions, some temporary.
First, kill it with herbicide. Second, stock grass carp (I assume they will eat it). Third, use dye to starve it of sunlight.
I used herbicide a few months ago, and have permission to stock grass carp.
There are folks who make a kind of pond blanket that blocks sunlight in a particular area. I got a couple, but never used them because herbicide took care of the problem. It won't solve the issue for the whole pond, but supposed to do well in opening up areas for fishing.
Oh, now I have this horrible coronavirus and that's why I'm in quarantine at home. The pond is the only place I can go and disperse. So now I'm just walking around
I do plan on beginning to treat with herbicide in the spring and I have stocked the pond with grass carp. I have not seen the results from them that I thought that I would. Or maybe they are eating in areas where I do not notice currently. I'm unsure if I should attempt to kill it all or if I should just treat the areas that would enhance the beauty as well as open up more fishing areas. Thoughts? From what I've read, doesn't a pond need vegetation to keep everything in balance? I attempted the pond dye and with the amount of flow through that I have I might as well purchased lotto tickets with the money and I don't play the lottery.
Dean, I have no vegetation in my ponds. I used some dye last year on a micro pond that I have but the pigs really solved the problem when they decided to make it a wading pool. And, I have a LOT of pigs and they are now keeping it so muddy that plants, including algae, won't grow. No fish currently in it anyway. I dyed it in the Spring to keep down mosquitos but the pigs muddied it enough so sunlight doesn't penetrate enough for bugs to survive or hatch.
Adding here. The veggies are mainly for small fish to escape predation until they get large enough to feed larger fish. That somewhat works but Lusk says that of all the eggs laid and hatched, only about 5% will reach maturity. They get eaten. And that's just Mama Nature( a cruel bitch) at work assuring that we don't get so many fish that an O2 crash occurs. However, that also is OK since fish lay an enormous of eggs.
I sometimes think about it like a rancher who plants grasses(hay) to feed cattle. The cows eat the grass and their manure feeds the grass and other plant life. If too many cows the grass gets over eaten, the sun bakes the ground, water runs off instead of soaking in and the guy has to buy supplemental grass(hay) to feed the cows. Much easier to sell off the calves , culling, when weaned than to attempt to reestablish the grass with too many mouths to feed. That's when he loses $$$. So the number one goal is to take care of the ponds and pasture environment and the fish and or cows will be fine.
Veggies don't do much for O2 generation. O2 mainly comes from wind wave action and sunshine with sunshine being the biggest contributor.
Martin, I'm sure you've heard this before, but please take plenty of vitamin D. Sunshine on skin is good, too. Baby aspirin has shown benefit against possible blood clots caused by covid, too, but you should consult with doctor before taking.
Checked a camera near my pond today. Piebald young buck on 11/9! First time to see him. We have 13" antler restrictions so hopefully no one kills him for a few years. Yes, the feeder leg is crooked and needs to be replaced!
When I was feeding yesterday evening I noticed what at first appeared to be a FHM or GAM fleeing from a bigger fish that was looking for a fresh meal.
This thing would jump 3"-4" out of the water and travel almost a foot with each jump.
Its last jump was straight into the side of the floating dock, where it stuck.
I took a closer look and saw that it was a PK shrimp. I flicked him off the dock and he was immediately slurped up by a RES.
I didn't realize the PKs could move that fast.
And the wind was down so I was able to broadcast a heavy dose of SoilFloc on the new rip-rap, and about 4' out into the pond from the waterline. I would wager that, for the moment, I own the slickest rocks in the county.
Augie, I must of missed something. I assume your pond is leaking since you're using Soilfloc? Is there a thread with more info about you using Soilfloc? I try to keep up with all the Soilfloc threads I can since I may want to try it someday.
I have so dang many pigs that I'm not seeing many deer.
First weekend of bow season, Grandson saw three bunches around a feeder. Make that 3 separate bunches. Deer leave in a hurry when they show up.
Dave,
The answer to this is build hog panels around your feeders. I use 11 panels and make a circle. I also cut the top square off so the fawns can jump it easily though that might not be necessary. Pigs don't hit it and honestly they vacate the property if neighbors of yours don't have them.
I'm in South Texas where there are hogs a plenty, but I rarely see them anymore. They've become more exotic because they can't get easy/free food.
Augie, I must of missed something. I assume your pond is leaking since you're using Soilfloc? Is there a thread with more info about you using Soilfloc? I try to keep up with all the Soilfloc threads I can since I may want to try it someday.
Pond was good until the great muskrat invasion of 2020. The no good varmints riddled the dam with tunnels, and they must have dug into some old tree root voids.
Now I have some seeps where there were no seeps before the muskrats arrived. I've packed all of the tunnels that I was able to access with bentonite, and applied 25 ton of 3"x6" crushed limestone to the water side of the dam. I have hopes that an application of SF on top of the rock will help to seal things back up.
Few weeks ago Paige (twin ) caught a fish. Today the other twin Payton got hers. The one in the back ground was excited for her. Lol Kids (head shake) and girls at tht. Not sure what the real name is of these. We always called them perch. Interested to know what these are called thou.
Don't know if any other members do leaf removal from their BOW, but in an attempt reduce leaves that will eventually become muck on the pond bottom, I've made multiple trips with a 8' kayak my wife gifted me last spring, this Fall. I use a couple different pool strainers and bring a 5-gallon bucket with me for the "harvest".
When we first bought the property I thought shading the pond water could benefit the summer water temps and provide some improved, lo-light environment for the LMB. Fast-forward 30+ years and growth of 10 to 15' saplings into mature trees, I now realize one should be very thoughtful about the quantity and type of trees located near the pond. Some of the trees were present when we purchased the residence, so I can't take ALL of the credit! Deciduous trees upwind and within 30' of the pond can be a big problem. My leaf harvest consists of Maple, Pin Oak, White pine (needles) and now Bald Cypress leaves. I made about half a dozen kayak trips in October and November combined for leaf removal from the pond surface. I estimate that I removed over 60 gallons (packed volume) of leaves from our 1/4 acre pond. The small size of the pond is part of the problem too, of course. I added aeration to the pond the summer of 2019 and I've seen a significant reduction in muck. It doesn't help, however, to have trees adding significant volumes of organic material to the pond every fall season. I now have earmarked three trees for removal next spring to reduce the organic material introduced into the pond which should reduce the number of Fall kayak trips for leaf removal.
Just be careful what you wish for with regards to shade trees planted near your BOW. 50' to 60' tall Maples and Oaks drop a LOT of leaves every year. And in the wrong location, many of the leaves will end up in your pond. And while paddling around in a kayak can be relaxing-- it's not as much fun scooping leaves from the pond surface from the kayak....
Refilled feeders in anticipation of trout stocking next week. Also put up posts around forage pond where we'll string up brightly colored twine across the water to deter cormorants. Great tip from a PB member!
I'm really blessed with good watershed, main BOW is full and overflow pipe is running. We saw a bald eagle flying across the pond, sight that always encourages us. Maybe even better, we saw no cormorants at all. How long that will last is anybody's guess. Expect Canada geese any time now. I dislike how they poo everywhere and snarf up fish food, but my wife loves their beauty & antics. We also observed tiny fish around dock, almost certainly CNBG spawned within the last few weeks. Beaver continues to wreak havoc on cattails, fine by me.
Limed a couple of weeks ago. As Bob L stresses, happy water is number one factor, without which none of the other stuff works. Still got so much to do, including felling trees into pond to create cover, adding grass carp to control bushy pondweed, but at least things are headed in the right direction.
Actually last night, but I pulled another dead HSB out of the pond. We lost them all this year due to blue/green algae and the heat, so we're starting over next spring. It's 2020, I would have expected no less.
Yep, and it's nothing to be played with. Some of my HSB were creeping up on 10#, and I lost about 5-6 years of growth. I'll restock, and not look back.
Are you sure it was the algae that killed your fish? I would suspect the water temp more. But I am just a farmer. In Nebraska we see blue green algae purty often and I didn't see dead fish.
Actually last night, but I pulled another dead HSB out of the pond. We lost them all this year due to blue/green algae and the heat, so we're starting over next spring. It's 2020, I would have expected no less.
Wow, sorry to hear that Al.
Seems like the more we push our ponds for production, the more we are on a knifes edge of being "too much".
I run into BG algae in the warm months of the year but surprised it is still a problem for you in December. But I guess we have had some unusually warm weather for this time of year. I noticed yesterday my FA on the bottom of the pond in shallow water is going gangbusters. Uggg. Makes me wonder what next spring will bring.
nehunter, I'm pretty sure it was the combo of B/G algae and then sliding into the 95 degree plus surface summer water temps. I did have a biologist on site. My big pond's really shallow, and there was probably no where to retreat, and the HSB were struggling since late spring. The HSB that floated up looked pretty rough, and my WAG is that it was the last survivor. I had a couple of small HSB coming to food last month, then none since then.
My 2021 plan is to start from scratch with the pond water, make sure I get all the numbers good, then reaccess my fish plans. It's all about the water.
John, you're right, we do push our ponds. It's just the gamble we take.
Had another 25 ton load of 3x6 crushed limestone delivered this morning.
The last load covered ~2' above and below the full pool water line on the dam. After eyeballing it for a few weeks I decided that more coverage below the water line would be a good thing.
I wonder how long it will take to hand toss 25 ton into the drink?
Eric, they were all the same age. I didn't ladder stock them because I was looking for those few( only 20 added) HSB that excelled, and not a steady HSB population. I also didn't want the forage base hammered by ladder stocking, and my LMB population made me leery of adding another top tier predator in volume. And you're correct, they were getting a little long in the tooth.
Got all the leaves mowed back into the woods, and dumped down 40 lbs of fescue seed in the bare spots. Not sure if it will come up in the spring, but I had the time now. Ha! Water level is down 2’ as our drought continues. Also saw a fish floating near the bank, but didn’t want to stop mowing. I went back later to see if it was one of my new HSB, but it was gone. 68 degrees here yesterday, maybe the turtles are active?
Actually last night, but I pulled another dead HSB out of the pond. We lost them all this year due to blue/green algae and the heat, so we're starting over next spring. It's 2020, I would have expected no less.
AL, you lost all your HSB in the big pond?? That's a shame.
This appears to be the 1st day of total ice over on the pond. Had build up around the edges but not covered. I couldn't imagine being up by New York right now. Seeing pictures of like 44 inches of snow on the net. I dont recall it ever getting much pasted knee deep here. Hope everyone is staying safe and warm as possible out there.
Scientists predict that climate change will increase Winter snow in New York. Seems the recent weather is consistent with that prediction. https://www.dec.ny.gov/energy/94702.html#:~:text=More%20Rain%20and%20Snow,storm%20events%20and%20heavier%20downpours.
The problem is that heavier single-event snowfalls will become more common, but the consistent cold and snow cover we enjoy will not. Being a skiing family and enjoying the snow, at least for the first two months, it is hard to think about the changes. Changes have already occurred as we used to have a vibrant snowmobile community with a large network of trails. That is becoming a much more difficult to keep going. Least of which is the expense of newer snowmobiles and the fewer days on which they can be used.
Seem to recall articles claiming that snow was just a thing of the past. Whatever is scariest & gets grant money, I guess.
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts," according to Nobel Laureate Richard Feynmann This is especially true when professional prestige and grant money are at stake. I'll take observational evidence any day.
Ever hear of Dunning-Kruger effect? We are all susceptible. I am not climate expert. Love to hear from someone who is. FYI - I initially dismissed global warming because I did not like the leftist rhetoric, but accepting science does not mean agreeing with political policies which do not necessarily directly follow from that science.
Follow The Money. Our climate has always changed from the beginning of time to now. Coruption and politics go hand in hand. It's always about the money. Like Frank said. "thats all I have to say about it". Now, can we get back to our ponds?
My Great grand daughter who is 5 went with me for a little fishing at the pond. She had her Barbie fishing pole, a bobber and some bait, a peace of pink plastic worm on her jig The first Bg she caught she was asking for help because of the fight in the fish. I told her she could do it don't give up keep reeling. It was a whopper of a bg at or around a pound. After she landed it she just wanted to touch it. We continued our fishing where she caught another 4 or 5 bg, not as big as the first but still nice sized bg. The attention of a 5 yr old does not last long so we kept 4 of the largest and cooked them up for dinner. The only downside of this is i did not take any pics but i won't forget the fishing trip and i am hoping she wont forget it either.
So glad she caught fish, Tracy! We need to encourage the next generation to enjoy outdoor sports like hunting & fishing, that's for sure. I particularly hate the perception that girls somehow aren't supposed to be hunters or fishermen. Good for you!
My daughter who became an optometrist has always loved fishing and hunting both. She has offshore fished and caught many large red snapper, king, ling, mahi-mahi’s and a tuna. This year dear hunting with a bow she took a 10 pt scoring 130 . Very proud of her!
All I have is girls (4) and they all fish. The older two hunt also younger ones not quite ready for that. Heres a picture of the oldest at Myrtle beach. We went 42 nautical miles offshore. Had a blast.
RStringer, 4 girls and I am asuming 1 wife? Whew! That is alot of Women under one roof. I am on my second one (wife that is) and 1 daughter along with one grand daughter and two great grand daughters. But never all of them under one roof. I have loved them all, but if you can keep all of them happy you are a better man than me
Was all under one roof til last 2 years. Oldest moved out and ended up with grandbaby which is a girl also ggrr. Still dont wanta think bout how tht happened. Oh man do I love all of them. My mom blames me for being a ladies man (mothers). Always has a soft spot for the ladies😉. Dont remember making them all happy at the same time (wife n kids) lol. Yes one wife also lol oh man couldnt imagine tryin 2 make more than one wife happy. Wife did smart off one day askin if I would want another wife. Laughed so hard I bout cried (hell no).
P.S. they are all spoiled rotten along with the wife. I have created monster (lord help me).
It has been a very mild winter around here so far, and a little extra warm the last few days. When I went over to the pond yesterday I saw a few frogs, so I thought I'd throw a few handfuls of feed out and see if anything came up but I never saw anything. I went back today it was even warmer and I saw a frog again so I threw out a little more food. Much to my surprise I had a lot of takers today. It wasn't an all out feeding frenzy but I would see as many as 4 or 5 BG at a time and at least 1 every 5-10 seconds. I only had a few handfuls with me and was wishing I had more,and I know the fish was wishing I had more. Lol!
I did not do much at the pond yesterday but my daughter called and said a bird flew down and grabbed a bg then flew around the pond to show off the catch. I laughed and told her about our resident Osprey. She also said she has seen two Bald Eagles hanging around the pond. I told her I was aware of one but not two. She is now building a home at the land and seeing what she called National Geographic pictures at the pond.
Too cold to be at pond and fixin to be real cold (3) .have no clue what to expect after this is over with. Wondering if there will be a fish kill since there is no ice yet. Been 25-27 for the last 3 days .
As John said above, I also walked on water, as did my wife...with shovels at -4F attempting to scoop several open areas on top of ice clear of 6" of snow for some sunlight as today was the first day of any sun in 12 days but snow was last night so I hope it makes a difference. edit; right now, 11:32pm MT, it's -19F.. Been a long time since we've had anything this Brutal, maybe 40+ years. Hope you all the best, stay warm peeps.
Our 18" of snow turned to about 6" on the pond ice. Top 3" of the ice is solid white, so I don't think shoveling here will do much good. I may go cut a hole over the deep diffuser and run it for a few hours to see how fast it will remove the 6" of ice that is over it. At the very least it should bring water up and out of the hole to melt snow - maybe.....
If it cools the water enough to kill the RES that are in the pond, I know of a guy that can get me more. LOL
How in the world do you guys deal with this kind of cold every year! I’ve only seen single digit temps once in my 69 years. Guess it’s the freezing rain @ 22 degrees that’s so tuff here and no electricity for days on end that’s the bummer.....
Our water temps here prior to this cold snap were in or around 50 depending on where and what time of the day I checked the surface temps. And this morning woke up to a 5" snow. Not sure where the water temps will go but I suspect there will be some survival of the lmb and cnbg. I am guessing the water temps will drop down to the low 40's and then right back up to the 50's by next weekend. Most snow I have seen here since about 1982 pr 83. Do you guys really expect to lose our cnbg and flmb?
How in the world do you guys deal with this kind of cold every year! I’ve only seen single digit temps once in my 69 years. Guess it’s the freezing rain @ 22 degrees that’s so tuff here and no electricity for days on end that’s the bummer.....
LOL, it's called winter clothes. Just like us asking you how ya'll deal with the 100+°F temps. There's only so many clothes I can take off before the neighbors start to get offended.
In your location and with current forecast (short term) most fish will be ok. The water temps at depth should not change more than a few degrees. Flas are at more risk than others. Flas have survived winters in OK with snow cover for 2 weeks. There was around 25 % mortality IIRC. Further north more mortality up to 100% in Wisc and Ill .
I don't know about FLMB in cold water, but I suspect they will tolerate it fine...Coppernose will suffer badly if even a thin icing over occurs. I imagine Arkansas hatcheries will lose almost all their supply this week...unless they are pumping water into the ponds
FLMB and CNBG have a similar genetic historical connection and many of the same traits WRT climate.
THE CUTTING EDGE � SCIENCE REVIEW By Eric West
Coppernose Bluegill vs. Regular Bluegill � which one for you?
A question we often get on the Pond Boss Forum is should I stock Regular Bluegill Lepomis macrochirus macrochirus or Coppernose Bluegill Lepomis macrochirus mystacalis also previously classified and referred to as Lepomis m. purpurescens . To answer that question we should look at the traits of both and use the one that will work best for the particular goals for the water in question. As we all know traits come from genetics. So what is the difference in the genetics of Coppernose vs. Regular Bluegill? Well it started a long time ago and it took a long time to get there. [color:#CC0000]Here is the basic story. Millions of years ago peninsular Florida was, like it is today, connected to the mainland. Bluegill were present all over the eastern US. Sea level rose and peninsular Florida was cut off by the sea from the mainland creating two separate populations. Bluegill on both the mainland and on the peninsula continued to evolve separately each influenced by local conditions with a divergence time of roughly 2.3 million years. After a few million years of this separate path sea level fell and the two land masses were connected again. However the two bluegill sub-species were now a little different genetically. The rivers were connected and the two subspecies migrated and integrated in a zone along the deep southeast where the two sub-species mixed. If this sounds familiar it should � it�s the same story as the Florida Largemouth Bass and the Northern Largemouth Bass where the divergence time between Northern (M. salmoides) and Florida (M. floridanus) bass is approximately 2.8 million years. If you know one story you should have a fairly good idea of outcome of the other. Surely as a pond owner you have heard the bass story.[/color] Florida Bass get bigger under the proper circumstance and do not due well in cold climates. Yes Bluegill have a similar story.
Coppernose Bluegill get bigger under the right circumstance but do not flourish in colder climates. In fact Coppernose are susceptible to poor results and substantial winter kill in northern US regions as are Florida Largemouth Bass. So how do you tell Coppernose and Regular Bluegill apart. Take a look at the pictures included. The Coppernose has a copper band across its head/nose in adult males, has fewer and wider vertical bars, has orangish/red fin margins and tail coloration , 12 anal fin rays and often light/white fin edges most visible when young. The Regular Bluegill has 11 anal fin rays and none of the other traits mentioned.
So how do they compare? Here are some points from a study on the subject titled Performance Comparison between Coppernose and Native Texas Bluegill Populations by John A. Prentice and J. Warren Schlechte in the 2000 Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies , Vol. 54 at pgs 196-206 looking at growth (size at age) , survival and catchability.
Coppernose Bluegill were significantly larger than Native Bluegill in all scenarios tested with the largest observed difference being 19.2 mm total length (.756 inch) and 33.5 grams ( 1.18 ounces) over 2 years. At 3 years there was a 16 mm (.63 inch) difference on average and at 4 years 24 mm (.945 inch). With other fish species present there was no difference in angling vulnerability between the types. Spawning activity of the brooders began at the same time (last week of Feb in 1995 and first week of March in 1997) and produced the same size offspring for tagging at the same time each year ( mid-April) in what appeared to be similar numbers. Survival of young of the year Coppernose was substantially greater than for Native Bluegill.
Before you draw to many conclusions note this was in Texas where the weather is close to that of the Coppernose�s native range. That is a critical key to success with Coppernose. While there is an often cited study titled Cold Tolerance in Two Subspecies of Bluegill by , A. J. Sonski , K. E. Kulzer , and J. A. Prentice, in the 1988 Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies , Vol. 42 at pgs 120-127 , that states Coppernose and Native Bluegill have similar cold tolerances the key is the test was done on bluegill all from the same area (Texas). Its purpose was to determine if Coppernose could survive the Texas climate. There is substantial observed and anecdotal evidence that Coppernose do not do well in cold climates (roughly north of the north line of Arkansas/Tennessee extended) . In the far northern US Coppernose become subject to high winterkill rates. This would be consistent with their similar relationship to Florida Largemouth Bass which have repeatedly been tested to do poorly and die in cold climates. The study first cited above was also in ponds with no supplemental feeding. Reported scientific evidence is substantial that in ponds the most common cause of reduced growth is a shortage of food. It is not known how much, if any, of the early growth difference between the two sub-species was due to limited forage. The two sub species will integrate (inter-breed) with the offspring exhibiting mixed traits and no apparent negatives but there is very little published data on them.
So the answer to the question should I stock Coppernose Bluegill or Regular (native) Bluegill or both is � it depends. Your location (climate) and your goals are key factors. If you are in the Deep South or the Southwest (including Southern California) and not at high elevation (Appalachian, Rocky or Sierra Mountains) Coppernose should be considered. In short is your temperature profile similar to those areas? To some extent management practices and the existing bluegill population, if any, are also possible factors. Whichever type you choose keep in mind that the most important factor to growing nice bluegill is to be sure they have enough food to eat and not to much competition.[color:#CC0000][/color]
Had some friends over and played in the snow. Went out on the pond and drilled a hole. It is right at 5 inches thick. Went around to several different places all bout the same thickness. It is pretty cool to see the frozen air bubbles. Got the side by side out (didnt take it on the ice) and drug the kids all around on skis n tubes. Oh man is it cold. As of this morning it is -9°. I dont see how people live year round in this. One evening of playin in it is plenty for me. Hope everyone is staying safe out there.
This past Saturday I went out to the pond and turned the aerator on briefly; I've pulled the diffuser up to about 6' depth from the 11-12' depth it normally resides in. After maybe 10 minutes it broke a hole in the ice which was at least two inches thick, perhaps three.
It also finally appeared on a Google Earth update, and using their distance measuring tool is 0.58 surface acres.
Just trying to deal with the cold here in Misery right now. Lots of snow on the ice. I'm staying off of it. Cow pond is plenty deep and nowhere near carrying capacity so I'm not worried about a fish kill there. Forage pond has been iced over pretty much every day since Christmas. I won't be at all surprised if I lose all of the BG in that one. There's nothing I can do about it, so I'm not going to fret over it.
Spent a couple hours thawing a frozen livestock fountain this morning. I noticed a cracked ball valve on another outdoor tap a few days ago, but it has gotten so stinking cold that one has frozen solid. I'll have to wait for the temps to increase to fix that. Good chance of breaking the poly pipe if I mess with it now.
The cold got the best of farm truck yesterday. 245k mile Cummins. It cracked right off yesterday morning, then started smoking out the exhaust. Looked like a tanker fire in my driveway. Waited on it to clear up, headed for town, made it about a mile before it quit. Had it towed to a buddies shop in town. He thawed it out overnight and changed the oil. Crankcase was completely full of diesel fuel. He drove it to the diesel shop and left it there this morning. Probably going to need a new set of injectors.
Just trying to deal with the cold here in Misery right now. Lots of snow on the ice. I'm staying off of it. Cow pond is plenty deep and nowhere near carrying capacity so I'm not worried about a fish kill there. Forage pond has been iced over pretty much every day since Christmas. I won't be at all surprised if I lose all of the BG in that one. There's nothing I can do about it, so I'm not going to fret over it.
Spent a couple hours thawing a frozen livestock fountain this morning. I noticed a cracked ball valve on another outdoor tap a few days ago, but it has gotten so stinking cold that one has frozen solid. I'll have to wait for the temps to increase to fix that. Good chance of breaking the poly pipe if I mess with it now.
The cold got the best of farm truck yesterday. 245k mile Cummins. It cracked right off yesterday morning, then started smoking out the exhaust. Looked like a tanker fire in my driveway. Waited on it to clear up, headed for town, made it about a mile before it quit. Had it towed to a buddies shop in town. He thawed it out overnight and changed the oil. Crankcase was completely full of diesel fuel. He drove it to the diesel shop and left it there this morning. Probably going to need a new set of injectors.
Where did you take it? the biggest problem is finding a good diesel mechanic but a cummins like that I would recommend Forrest Cunningham.
Took the opportunity to walk across the lake while the water was hard to check a few things, along with my wood duck houses, two duck huts and two home made ones, hadn't been anything in them except wasps and one had a hornets nest hanging from the bottom of it,about 6" in diameter, I had them out at a reasonable time last spring but the wood ducks were already here as I seen some when I put the nest boxes out, also seen them afterwards but they never did utilize my boxes last year but maybe they will this yr. Ice is approx 4 to 5" thick, would be thicker I think but we have at least 5 inches of snow on top of it that kept it from getting thicker, if it had been clean with the cold weather we've had we would probably be looking at close to twice that thick. I did see an otter track in the mud headed into the pond a couple weeks ago before the mud was frozen. gotta keep my eyes open, see if I can relocate him after it thaws out. Appear to have brighter days ahead with as high as 50 in the 7 day forecast, we have not been above freezing temps in a while, might be close to ten days, with a good bit of that being around 0 and a lot of double digits negative wind chills so 50 is gonna feel like spring. We have had geese flying north for a couple weeks and there are tons of cowbirds, red winged black birds and grackles already here, usually they don,t show up for another month, I had hopes for an early spring but it hadnt been that way yet, although this stuff can melt away almost as fast as it shows up so we still have a shot at an early spring.
Just trying to deal with the cold here in Misery right now. Lots of snow on the ice. I'm staying off of it. Cow pond is plenty deep and nowhere near carrying capacity so I'm not worried about a fish kill there. Forage pond has been iced over pretty much every day since Christmas. I won't be at all surprised if I lose all of the BG in that one. There's nothing I can do about it, so I'm not going to fret over it.
Spent a couple hours thawing a frozen livestock fountain this morning. I noticed a cracked ball valve on another outdoor tap a few days ago, but it has gotten so stinking cold that one has frozen solid. I'll have to wait for the temps to increase to fix that. Good chance of breaking the poly pipe if I mess with it now.
The cold got the best of farm truck yesterday. 245k mile Cummins. It cracked right off yesterday morning, then started smoking out the exhaust. Looked like a tanker fire in my driveway. Waited on it to clear up, headed for town, made it about a mile before it quit. Had it towed to a buddies shop in town. He thawed it out overnight and changed the oil. Crankcase was completely full of diesel fuel. He drove it to the diesel shop and left it there this morning. Probably going to need a new set of injectors.
Augie, yep, sounds like injectors. While it's there, have them change the fuel filter on the motor and also the one that is in the rear above the tank, that should be the water separator. .
Did it smoke like a tanker when your buddy drove it to the diesel shop?
Taylor Diesel is where I've always had any needed engine service done, but they don't have a tech on staff right now so they're only able to do pumps and parts. They recommended Fleet Specialties, so that's where it is now. It ran fine with no smoke after being thawed out and the oil changed. I decided to buy a new truck so I asked them to just let it sit. All I need out of it now is 35 miles to Capitol Chrysler on Saturday.
Taylor Diesel is where I've always had any needed engine service done, but they don't have a tech on staff right now so they're only able to do pumps and parts. They recommended Fleet Specialties, so that's where it is now. It ran fine with no smoke after being thawed out and the oil changed. I decided to buy a new truck so I asked them to just let it sit. All I need out of it now is 35 miles to Capitol Chrysler on Saturday.
I read the other post, sounds like an injector was stuck or partially plugged and once it warmed up it cleared right up.
So Friday morning I came by the pond and there was an otter running around on the pond by the edges, (some are pretty steep and wooded) he was trying to find a spot where he could get down thru the ice and under water, I got out and ran after him, the snow was deeper then he was and he couldn't get around too fast but too fast for me, I got pretty close to him a coupla times but about hurt my lungs, it was right at -4 degrees and that is not good running wide open thru the snow weather, my throat was hurting for a day, inhaling that cold air. we came running around a corner of a cove and a bald eagle was setting there, kinda surprised him and he got up outta there but it was a beautiful sight in the snow.
I bought my first Dodge truck at at the end of 2019. My son talked me into giving Chrysler a try. With the pandemic, I have less than 5000 miles on it. I bought the lowest end 4x4 2500. So far, so good, but it sits a lot higher than the old 3/4 ton trucks did. Tougher loading the bed with firewood! I got the special snow-camo version (white):)
My son and his girlfriend installed nerf bars for me. A lot cheaper and work fine. He put my front hitch on and installed a trailer brake unit as well. The truck had no towing point in the front. Used the truck to tow his 1959-Imperial restoration project on a 16' trailer about 80 miles back to store in my barn. The weight was so forward on the trailer that going over 50 got the whole rig rocking side to side. He did the driving. He loves the old Chrysler/Dodges. He has 3 others (2 trucks and a 1960's Newport) that he runs on the road, but still need restoring. I use a folding hitch step in the rear hitch to help me get up into the truck bed of the 2500. It works OK, but I wish that the fixed step I ordered had actually fit my truck like it said it would. Fortunately, it could be returned. Was definitely not made for my truck in spite of what the ad said.
I have heard that otters can be pretty formidable. Sounds like he almost killed you without ever touching you:)
Bingo, that's what I thought, I had my little 22 pistol with me that I check traps with but its not very accurate, 90 percent of the time I have my dogs with me but this time I didnt, just my luck.
The one I bought is the base model 2500, but it came with a nice options package. Class V receiver hitch, integrated brake controller, front tow hooks, 18" rubber, etc. I worked the step bars, bed liner, and gooseneck flip ball into the deal. Probably could have saved a few hundred on that stuff by dealing with it myself, but this way is almost zero effort on my part to get it done. I'll take it back to the dealer on Friday and it will be finished by the end of the day. It's likely I will invest in one of the steps that plugs into the receiver hitch. Old truck I just climbed on the tire to get into the cargo box. Tires are a lot taller on this one and I'm not getting any younger. It is going to take me awhile to get used to how stinking huge this truck is. It is bigger in every direction compared to my old Gen2 truck.
The one I bought is the base model 2500, but it came with a nice options package. Class V receiver hitch, integrated brake controller, front tow hooks, 18" rubber, etc. I worked the step bars, bed liner, and gooseneck flip ball into the deal. Probably could have saved a few hundred on that stuff by dealing with it myself, but this way is almost zero effort on my part to get it done. I'll take it back to the dealer on Friday and it will be finished by the end of the day. It's likely I will invest in one of the steps that plugs into the receiver hitch. Old truck I just climbed on the tire to get into the cargo box. Tires are a lot taller on this one and I'm not getting any younger. It is going to take me awhile to get used to how stinking huge this truck is. It is bigger in every direction compared to my old Gen2 truck.
The one I have now is a 4-door with 8' bed. Turning radius is like a school bus. I carry a step ladder to get in and out of the bed. Without running boards my knees were killing me at the end of the day. They are on this one.
My truck had the bed liner and 18" tires, but no running boards, front hooks, gooseneck ball, or brake controller. I got the deal that I wanted because my son negotiated it over a couple weeks. It helped that I could have waited on the truck, so I did not need to buy it immediately. The surprise was a free 52" smart TV because we bought the truck on Black Friday. The truck made it easy to get the TV home. Never would have spent the money on such a big TV, but it is nice. I have a regular cab and 8' bed. It's big enough as is without having a bigger cab. Even our Jeep is a 2-door which makes it suitable as a UTV on our place. Just cannot justify the high cost of a designated UTV. Maybe some day, but the Jeep does fine on our trails for now.
Traded old and busted fish hauler for new and shiny fish hauler on Saturday. No more diesel headaches for me.
Red Menace v.1 and Red Menace v.2
I love my diesel for towing, but all of the newer emissions crap has made me wonder if their worth it. I may go back to gas my next go around, because of the headaches I've had with the emissions. I had a 99 Powerstroke that gelled up a lot on me. I've had a 2004 and 2011 Duramax that have never gelled up and always started right up but the 2011 has gone into limp mode several times because of the emissions crap.
It depends on how far and how much you tow. I couldn't afford the gas, the poor fuel economy would kill me. I can have 195 gallons of water in the bed, pulling a 9,900# GVWR trailer @ 70-75 mph and still pull down in the upper teens mpg wise.
If not for the reduced reliability and increased cost of maintenance that current diesel emission systems impose (especially for particulate control), I would have bought a diesel.
410hp and 429ft/lb torque from the 6.4 Hemi, with 8sp automagic transmission. 24 valve 5.9 Cummins in the Gen2 truck was 245hp and 510ft/lb torque, with 5sp manual shift.
I could tow anything with the old truck, but it was slow, and there was way too much space between 4th and 5th gear. Ozarks hills with a heavy load were no fun at all.
Taking the camper to the trout park should be a much more pleasant experience now.
RAH, I believe emissions are covered by a 100K mile warranty. I know it doesn't help once the mileage passes that, but if the state doesn't have emission inspections there are ways to bypass them.
If not for the reduced reliability and increased cost of maintenance that current diesel emission systems impose (especially for particulate control), I would have bought a diesel.
All of this plus I'm one of the unlucky ones that after about 10,000 miles my truck started to regen 2-3 times as often as it should have to to clean the particulate filter and GM was of no help. So mine gets way poorer mpg than it should, about 4 or 5 mpg less than my 2004 did. I would have a hard time giving up my diesel and I may stay with a diesel and if I towed like Esshup I would, but with the trouble I've had and no more than I've been towing now days, I will have to take a hard look at gas engines.
Went out to feed the CNBG this afternoon, and there were 5-6 HSB swimming right under the dock, so I didn't lose all my HSB last summer. None of them were trophies, but I sure was glad to see the ones that were left. I'm guessing they were in the 4#-6# range. I went back to the shop to grab some Purina LMB pellets, and they ate heatedly when I got back to the dock.
Yesterday my pond still had ice covering about half of it but today it was all gone other than a few little spots on the edge. I seen a little movement at the edge on the side that gets more sun so I thought I'd throw out a little feed and see what happened. I had a lot of BG coming up to feed. I was kind of surprised since the ice just melted. I was also glad to see a lot of FHM swimming around in my sediment pond. I just put them in last year and didn't know if they would survive the winter since it isn't very big and not very deep. I trapped a bunch of them early last fall and put them in the main pond and it looks like I have plenty left to reproduce more. Hopefully it will help keep at least a small amount going in the main pond.
The ice has been off my ponds for about a week now. I was a bit concerned about the fish in the bait pond, but they seem to have come through fine. Checked it yesterday evening and found plenty of BG that were eager to come up for pellets. Cow pond surface temp is already up to 45°F. Lots of FHM and GAM cruising the shallows. Another week of mild weather and the YP should be blowing ribbons. I think it's time to wet a line.
I turned the feeders back on today after hand feeding for the last week, and I'm happy to say that our CNBG and HSB were eating like Sunil at a Golden Corral.
After all the ice melted, and the water warmed up a bit, I started driving around the pond making daily checks for morts. So far, only one 10" LMB has floated to the top, and that was the day after the ice was completely gone.
FishinRod When my sediment pond is full and over flowing it is close to 50' wide at the dam and about 70' long and close to 5' deep, it is triangle shaped. Most of the time it is probably only about 40' wide and and 60' long and 4' deep. If it has been very dry it will get even lower and smaller. The deepest part is a very small area, a lot of it is only 1'-2' deep. When it was iced over during that last cold snap it was probably about 4' deep. I should say that it was 3 1/2 years ago when it was made and I'm figuring that it silted in a little but it may of silted in even more. I also have an older pond that is silted in real bad and only about max 2' deep most of the time, it is probably about 1/5 acre. I haven't been down to check it yet, but last summer I seen some FHM in it and it had been a year or 2 since I put some in. So at least some made it over at least 1 winter in it.
40' x 60' is about 1/20th of an acre. That seems to be about the smallest viable "mini forage pond" that I have seen in multiple threads. I am impressed that they made it with only 4' of depth.
I like the concept of a few 1/10th - 1/20th acre forage or grow-out ponds where some fish can survive over the winter. That way when I mess up a big pond I can at least do a small corrective re-stocking.
FishinRod I might of just got lucky. lol! My sediment pond wasn't really planned and at first it was just a small dam pushed up because there was a chance of rain while they was building the main pond and he wanted to keep to much water from flowing in. He ended up going a head and building the dam up more but really didn't build it to hold water. The first year it didn't hold very well but got a little better each year. By last summer it was doing well enough that I put the FHM in. As I said it wasn't planned but I'm glad I have it now and wished I had put more thought into it. I've been think that someday I would like to try to dig it out a little deeper and 20' or more longer.
CNBG don't do well in the cold.. How many folks in Texas who endured that cold spell have an idea if the CNBG in their pond actually survived it? Maybe they are cold hardy for 2 weeks but not a whole winter?
CC, it's hard to capsulize how TX CNBG do in winter because of the size of TX. Amarillo TX is actually 200 miles closer to Denver CO than it is to Corpus Christi TX, so I would think the CNBG in the Amarillo area would handle the cold better than the ones in South TX. I've seen zero CNBG morts here, but I'm in NE TX. Also, winters here aren't like the ones you northern guys get. It's not unusual to have the heaters running one day, and have A/C running a day or 2 later. If our winters were real winters like you get, I bet they wouldn't do well at all.
In my real job we always have "safety margins" - so you don't have to rely on luck.
If the bare minimum is 1/20th of an acre and 4' deep in our region, I was planning to go a little larger on the surface dimensions and 6' deep.
Hopefully, you can expand the dimensions of your sediment pond a little when you are finally forced to dig out the silt. That way you will have lots of FHM to keep your gamefish fat and happy.
40' x 60' is about 1/20th of an acre. That seems to be about the smallest viable "mini forage pond" that I have seen in multiple threads. I am impressed that they made it with only 4' of depth.
I like the concept of a few 1/10th - 1/20th acre forage or grow-out ponds where some fish can survive over the winter. That way when I mess up a big pond I can at least do a small corrective re-stocking.
Great news. FH are extremely hardy fish and can endure cold , low DO , poor water conditions - just not very good at avoiding predation.
FishinRod The main reason the sediment pond wasn't planned was budget. If I could of planned it I would of shot for 8' deep.
My pond and sediment pond are built in a narrow wooded ravine and the ground around both is pretty steep. It would probably take a fair amount of work to make it much wider and then the banks around it would be steeper. I don't think it would be to hard to just dig a deeper channel down the middle and make it a little longer. The biggest problem will be what to do with the dirt. The wet sloppy stuff will probably have to be taken up the hill and dumped on the other side. The better dirt I might be able to use to level off an area near the sediment pond or even build up the sediment pond dam a little more.
FishinRod The main reason the sediment pond wasn't planned was budget. If I could of planned it I would of shot for 8' deep.
"Budget" is also my limiting factor. That is why I want to know the bare minimum - then I can design the dimensions considering the "best bang for the buck" for the project.
We have a lot of really smart people here on Pond Boss. I am waiting for them to invent a "money tree" that will grow really well beside a pond.
My wife will also take one of those in our backyard!
I know another thing to consider is if you plan to use a seine to remove the fish or minnows. I'm hoping that some will just wash/swim into the main pond when I get bigger rains and use my traps. If they get very thick I may try a seine.
Wait until the ice disappears and the temps warm up a bit. I will be looking into a forage pond that has FHM that was only 24" deep at max this winter...... It was kept partially open via aeration, but it had to get really cold.
Bobbss not sure if the picture in my head is right so hear me out. You basically dammed up a valley right? So the taller you make your dam the wider your sides get also. Not sure how wide the dam is but could you have clay hauled in and packed along the dam to get a lot of bang for your buck. Then topsoil and seed.
Rusto You are right, but some of the problems I would run into trying to do that would be the banks would get steeper if I raise it very much making it harder to walk around, I think it would bring the water up into some trees so I might have to remove some trees, and then there is the bigger problem of trying to get the dirt down to it. It would be at least 100' or more down a very steep hill to get the dirt down to it. No way a dump truck would make it so it would have to go down a bucket at a time. I've got a Can-Am Outlander Max 800 and wasn't sure if I should take it down it or not the first time and it is about as steep as I'm willing to try with it.
It crazy how ever situation is so different. Like the sayin goes " it depends ".
It is a good idea, just kind of hard to make it work in my case. As I said before, I was thinking I might be able to build it up some with the dirt I dig out if I hit good dirt but I was hoping to make it about 3' deeper and I think if I raised the dam more than 1' (if that) I'd have problems and have more work to do.
How about adding a peninsula in a favorable place? (Assuming your excavated material is not runny slop.)
It could be used as a good shore fishing spot for kids, scenic spot to place a bench for your wife, wave break to stop fetch in the direction of your prevailing wind, etc.
If you cut back the shoreline just a little approaching the peninsula, then you could have the same surface acres and an easy spot to place your excavation spoils.
FishinRod That would be even harder to do. The ravine my pond is built in is narrow and steep. My pond is kind of long and narrow and deep with very steep sides. Down by the dam is probably the only area I could maybe do it. My pond will be about 148' wide at the dam and 262' long. It will be about 19' deep near the dam and even at 200' from the dam it is probably around 8'-10' deep in the middle. I'm figuring it would take a lot of dirt to build up a peninsula.
My banks are so steep it is hard to walk around. It wasn't the best place to build a pond but it was the best place I had. Lol!
If possible, I would still try to build up at least a shelf at one spot on your banks. Just to give a little space to walk, have an exit from the water for someone that falls in along a steep bank, etc.
Thanks Fishinrod I would like to do something like that in a few places one of these days but it won't be easy. I have always planned at the very least to level off a few small spots with a shovel so I would have somewhere to stand and fish. I'm still waiting to see where my shore lines will be to do something like that. I wanted to build in a peninsula or two or some coves when it was built but my builder said do to the steepness there wasn't much I could do. After he was done I could see it would of been hard to do much else.
Something I realized last year also. The bigger the peninsula the more shore line. More shoreline means more to take care of. We weedeat ours right up the the edge so that adds alot of time. I'm not complaining because I love how mine has turned out so far but its alot of time during warmer months.
Something I realized last year also. The bigger the peninsula the more shore line. More shoreline means more to take care of. We weedeat ours right up the the edge so that adds alot of time. I'm not complaining because I love how mine has turned out so far but its alot of time during warmer months.
If you plant rushes and sedges along the shore, and only weedeat certain areas it makes it more difficult for geese to land on the pond and exit the pond to graze. The shorter rushes/sedges are easy enough to fish over, the band doesn't have to be wide, just look like a fence to them.
I ran the cormorants off yesterday and again this morning, lots of them along with about 50 ducks. Found several dead Bg dead and floating sizes were 3 to 7". Time to declare war.
Something I realized last year also. The bigger the peninsula the more shore line. More shoreline means more to take care of. We weedeat ours right up the the edge so that adds alot of time. I'm not complaining because I love how mine has turned out so far but its alot of time during warmer months.
If you plant rushes and sedges along the shore, and only weedeat certain areas it makes it more difficult for geese to land on the pond and exit the pond to graze. The shorter rushes/sedges are easy enough to fish over, the band doesn't have to be wide, just look like a fence to them.
I really like this idea for my future ponds.
In addition to a visual goose barrier, it would also mitigate some shore erosion, and take up some of the pond nutrients that might be utilized by the dreaded FA.
What do you think about laying down some old chainlink fence on the shorelines right after the dozer finishes dressing the slope? The shore plants should grow right through it. Would it be worth the effort as an erosion barrier while the plants were getting established?
What do you think about laying down some old chainlink fence on the shorelines right after the dozer finishes dressing the slope? The shore plants should grow right through it. Would it be worth the effort as an erosion barrier while the plants were getting established?
It won't create much of an erosion barrier, you need something more dense than that. It WILL minimize Muskrats and Beavers digging into the banks if the water drops quick enough. I have had Beavers tunnel into the bank in about 40" of water, Muskrats in about 24"-30" of water.
If the chain link doesn't get to that depth it won't help prevent them from tunneling under it.
If you have to do any work on the pond after you put it in, it will be a huge PITA to work around or get back out.
I like our pond well manicured edge. There is a plan for some lilly pads or lotus. The birds I know create some problems but I like them. All wildlife is welcome besides those lil tunnel rats. Others on here have a more natural looking pond and are beautiful. I guess the setting can make or break the look of it. My is literally prolly 50 from my bk deck.
I ran the cormorants off yesterday and again this morning, lots of them along with about 50 ducks. Found several dead Bg dead and floating sizes were 3 to 7". Time to declare war.
Went from 2 geese before the freeze to 24 to 4 now. Pretty, but they quickly learn to eat the fish food I've started up again.
About a dozen cormorants around the pond, we chase them off as best we can but they return as soon as we depart. I've strung twine all across the forage pond and have not seen them there, though it has not deterred the geese. Still unsure if any of the CNBG survived the cold there.
Trout and hybrid stripers very active, we caught a good number of them. Bass not quite as active but doing okay. No BG or CNBG caught or observed anywhere, they seem to come shallow & feed later than the other fish. Green tint to water, but viz easily 36 inches.
Caught 15 LMB in 3 hours, harvested 9. Three too small to harvest, three too large. Biggun broke my line on hookset, but at least my guest caught several nice fish!
About a dozen of the hated cormorants hanging around now. Four Canada geese like to snack on fish food when feeders go off. Trying to discourage the birds, but it's not easy. I did see a beautiful pair of bald eagles, though.
Still no BG or other panfish. Seems that they like higher water temps. Bass, trout, and hybrid stripers are active.
We'll put out hummingbird feeders very soon. Unfortunately, much of our landscaping got destroyed by the freeze, we'll see what comes back.
Thanks, Fishing Rod. The eagles drop by about this time every year, stay about three months. They always fly into a densely forested part of the property in the evening, perhaps a nest. Nearest reservoir is a power plant lake about ten miles away.
Always surprises me that the most common fish in the pond, the panfish, are last to come shallow. Trout dominate feeders now, though we also see bass & sometimes a striper. On warmer days, this is a great time to target gamefish. As you say, it feels good to take friends fishing when they will likely have success!
I know your waters are colder, but are you seeing fish activity pick up, too? Are your panfish feeding yet?
It does sound like the eagles are holding on your pond and land! Hopefully, they do have a successful nest in your forest. I think all of the eaglets would be out of the nest by July 4th in your area. You could sneak back in your forest and look for the nest after that, if you are so inclined.
We have had a pair of great horned owls for years, but I have never seen any young. I put up a deer feeder and game camera in a new spot last fall. I got good pics of an immature great horned owl sitting on top of the feeder. That one made me feel good and the kids laughed because he definitely reacted to the camera and has one shot looking right into the lens.
I currently have three tiny ponds (0.1 acres or less), and all need to be mucked out before stocking anything in the largest two. That is in the plans for when I get heavy equipment on location for excavating the new ponds!
Right now I only get to fish the creek with my kids.
I did check the creek last weekend while working at the farm. It is running about a foot deep. I did not see a single game fish or minnow.
We do have a few pools in the creek on our stretch. In the summer when the creek is only running 1" deep, they are full of fish.
The creek has to be warmer than the ponds in my area since it is mostly fed by subsurface water flows (at 52F). However, I never see any fish in March. I assume it is because the fish are currently spread over 100% of the water and in the summer they are concentrated in 3% of the water.
I think we caught 6 different species last year. My son even caught a white crappie. I guess they do well in reservoirs over 50 acres AND in streams 1" deep!
Our creek project for this year is to trap and identify all of the minnows and shiners in the stream. I will definitely need the PB experts for that.
Creeks are great fun, especially for kids. I well remember going creek & pond fishing with my dad, but I often ended up "fishing" for frogs, turtles, salamanders, crawfish, snakes, minnows, and the like. Dad figured I'd focus about 30 minutes on the actual fish, but didn't mind me splashing around the edges seeking what I could find. It would've been easier for him to leave me at home, but thank God he didn't.
Where do your mini-ponds get their water? Is it runoff, or maybe some creek overflow? If the latter, you might want to think about what kind of fish you'll get from the creek. But you're right that there are genuine experts here who can help identify the species.
If you have some kids who enjoy fishing, let me know when you're in my neck of the woods. I need to harvest bass every year, and right now I'm also trying to harvest the rainbow trout before they die in the summer.
I love creeks and wish I had one on my property. I just about lived at the creek the first 16 years of my life, until we moved about 45 minutes away and couldn't just walk to it anytime I wanted but I still went back a lot after that. I still go there now and then even if I can only stop for a minute and see the old Covered Bridge that goes over it. People in my general area may know of the Sandy Creek Covered Bridge State Park. When I spent most of my time there it was before it became a State Park. We would walk a long way up and down it swimming, fishing, camping arrowhead hunting and like Anthropic I would catch everything I could with snakes being one of my main targets. Sometimes we would catch fish and cook them on the fire. Didn't tasted the best but we had fun. lol! One of the things I liked most about the creek was you never knew for sure what all you would see that day.
Thank you so much for the generous offer! I am coming down south of Dallas to see some Texas friends this fall. However, since it is Texas, that could still be a looooong way from you. (I won't have kids that trip, but I may PM you to see if it would be OK just to walk around your place and get advice on what worked for you.)
My two 0.1-acre mini ponds are both about 80 years old. I think they were excavated with a dragline, based on the construction. They are set up to catch surface water flows.
However, I have monitored both of them very closely since we purchased the farm. Both are clearly tied to the groundwater level. The were dug in some clay, but there are a few sand layers in the soil profile.
I suspect they did zero sealing if they were using a dragline.
My bigger problem is that both of these ponds are within the floodplain. I can muck them out - if I push the spoil above the flood boundary line. Any other work would be a regulatory battle.
I do want to muck one of the ponds and use it for a forage or grow-out pond. No great loss if a 100-year flood gets those fish!
I am like you, and was a "creek" kid growing up. 3/4 of my children also love the creek.
The bridge at the county road is 10' above the normal creek level. We had two floods last spring that went over the bridge. The second went over the signs on the bridge - that are 6' tall.
I had several burn piles of invasive trees that I had cleared washed away by the flood.
The good news is that the floods blew out a huge pool in the creek that was about 5' deep and 150' long. When the waters went down it was absolutely full of fish. The kids had a great time, and we even caught 30" gar using only frayed out nylon rope as the lure.
Thank you so much for the generous offer! I am coming down south of Dallas to see some Texas friends this fall. However, since it is Texas, that could still be a looooong way from you. (I won't have kids that trip, but I may PM you to see if it would be OK just to walk around your place and get advice on what worked for you.)
You'd be more than welcome, FR. Our pond is pretty near Longview in east Texas. We have a small home on the pond where you could stay a night or two, if you'd like. I've made plenty of mistakes, large & small, which may help you avoid some of them. Cormorant deterrence in particular is a big issue on smaller waters, like my forage pond, so by then we should know if the twine idea worked. And if you have any luck fishing, maybe we could put up some fillets for your family to enjoy when you get home. Just PM me when appropriate.
In my last visits to the pond I have seen the cnbg dying off and the ones I see swimming are all under stress or at least that is what it looks like to me. Guess from the ice storm. No other reason why I am seeing them die off. They are mostly black in coloring and have some white spots on them along with maybe some fungus on them. I have not tested the water lately so maybe I need to test it but I see no reason why the water would change from it's baseline other than the ice storm. I did catch a lmb in the two-pound range and it looked perfectly healthy with good weight. I saw some other lmb that seemed to look good but the water is a little cloudy due to the snow and ice along with the recent rains. It has been tough on the fish the past 6 or 7 months.
Caught the first bass from my pond after stocking on 12 Sept 2020....the 50 LMB were "4-5 inches" according to the fish truck.
This fish was about 7.25" long and hit a 1/8oz white VibraRoosterTail in an area where I have a pallet stack and two Mossback RootWads in about 4' of water.
There still appear to be tens of thousands of FHM in the water near the bank riprap...
Up soon: resetting my aerator disc in the pond, placing four more Mossback Trophy Trees and four more Root Wads, having more riprap put around the water line, throwing some pea gravel into shallow areas.
Had an old fishing partner and his 13 year old daughter come visit and fish my pond. I CAN CATCH my LMB!! We landed 6 fish and had about a dozen more "boil" on the bait or swipe at it. They were all on the bank in 0ne foot of water spawning!! Couldn't see them because of water clarity but we could see them moving water on the banks. Largest was a 6 pounder and 20 inch long!! Fat full of eggs!! Caught 2 more over 3 pounds and 2 about 2 1/2 pounds. Also caught only one that was about 12 inch long. All were fat and healthy!! Caught every one of them on a big CHATTERBAIT. Also caught some huge 9-9 1/2 inch CNBG!! Best BASS catching day on my pond EVER!!
In my last visits to the pond I have seen the cnbg dying off and the ones I see swimming are all under stress or at least that is what it looks like to me. Guess from the ice storm. No other reason why I am seeing them die off. They are mostly black in coloring and have some white spots on them along with maybe some fungus on them. I have not tested the water lately so maybe I need to test it but I see no reason why the water would change from it's baseline other than the ice storm. I did catch a lmb in the two-pound range and it looked perfectly healthy with good weight. I saw some other lmb that seemed to look good but the water is a little cloudy due to the snow and ice along with the recent rains. It has been tough on the fish the past 6 or 7 months.
I went through the white spot fungus on my larger CNBG after a cold snap in Oct 2017. So far as I could tell, they all died, though no other fish did. Chalked it up to spawning in shallow water that was hit with sudden chill.
Have you thought about adding some salt, or maybe antibiotic in the feed?
I have just started reading about fungus problems in other threads.
Does the white spot fungus become prodigious in a pond after a big chill event, or is there always a little fungus in the pond and it becomes an opportunistic infection on the fish only after they are severely stressed?
I ask the question because the most recent "big chill" was clearly predicted with several days of warning.
Is there anything to do for fungus protection in our ponds that falls into the "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" category?
(Not counting the typical efforts made for year-round water quality management.)
Is there anything to do for fungus protection in our ponds that falls into the "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" category?
(Not counting the typical efforts made for year-round water quality management.)
After witnessing a massive fish kill due to a low O2 event at a fish farm where he was testing (IIRC 7) different brands of fish food I noticed that 2 cages of fish only had less than 10% mortality. Upon questioning the owner those 2 cages of fish were being fed Optimal Fish Food, but he had stopped about a month prior due to the difference in price.
I called the guys there at Optimal and while they wouldn't divulge the ingredients, they said they put a micro-nutrient package in the feed that helped fish get through stress events.
Read into that whatever you want, but that's one of the reasons why I use Optimal Fish Food and recommend to all my clients that feed their fish to use it too.
There is always fungus in the pond and it manifests itself when fish get weak. Same with us, the germs/bacteria/virus are in the air all around us and when out immunity system gets compromised, that's when we get sick.
"There is always fungus in the pond and it manifests itself when fish get weak."
That is what I suspected, thanks for the confirmation.
Is it also true that fish coming out of their winter low-activity period are weaker compared to the same fish after a few weeks of spring activity? (Not counting the stress as they move into spawning.)
I ask that question to evaluate some possible scenarios regarding ways to minimize the next "big chill" stress event.
Consider a scenario where a pond owner could warm up their pond a little earlier. (For example, strategic aeration to reduce ice, putting some leftover black pond liner scraps on the ice, or pumping in some 50F well water, etc.)
If you could move your fish a week or two forward in terms of pond temperatures, would that make them a little stronger to survive X amount of stress, or would it be worse because a subsequent big chill would be an even bigger shock to their "current" environment?
Well water is a good idea, but usually has little O2 so bear that in mind. As for melting ice, that would cause faster warming of water under warm weather conditions. However, it may also make the pond more vulnerable to another really brutal freeze, as the ice actually insulates the water from the very coldest temps.
Cold adapted fish also lower risk, such as northern strain LMB, BG, etc.
I was trying to ask about the level of stress on fish coming out of winter.
Instead, I added extraneous examples which "muddied the waters". It is very hard to express "tone" over the internet!
To rephrase: Are there any small actions we can take coming out of winter that can have a significant benefit to the health of our fish?
As regards the pond temperature issues:
I agree that ice over the pond is a good insulating blanket when the air temperatures are lower than the water temperatures.
Then there is the point where you have 39F water at the bottom of the pond and 35F at the top. 37F air would heat the pond without aeration, but with aeration you might actually cool the pond.
P.S. Thanks for your suggestion to add some cold-adapted fish.
In southern Kansas, I have managed to miss the sweet spot for warm water fish AND miss the sweet spot for cold water fish.
However, both Teehjaeh and Snipe have been giving me a bunch of recommendations to at least attempt a deep, cold-adapted fish pond at our farm!
After giving it some thought, I think the die-off of the large CNBG was due to the extreme cold spell we had just a few weeks back. These are Florida strain BG and do not do well in a pond that was completely frozen over for days and days. It was so extreme weather here in Texas that I remember hearing that some 28 people also died in this storm. One was found in his recliner at home where there was no heat because of lack of electricity. We learned that windmills and solar here in Texas did not work. So if the storm was so bad to kill Humans, then I find it not so unusual to kill my Florida stained bg. My plans are to restock some cnbg when I pick up the Tp order.
TGW1 where did your CNBG stock come from ? I have found that the Ark. based CNBG hatcheries' fish are more cold tolerant than fish directly from Fla or deep south -- local adaptation IMO over years of Ark cold winters.
After giving it some thought, I think the die-off of the large CNBG was due to the extreme cold spell we had just a few weeks back. These are Florida strain BG and do not do well in a pond that was completely frozen over for days and days. It was so extreme weather here in Texas that I remember hearing that some 28 people also died in this storm. One was found in his recliner at home where there was no heat because of lack of electricity. We learned that windmills and solar here in Texas did not work. So if the storm was so bad to kill Humans, then I find it not so unusual to kill my Florida stained bg. My plans are to restock some cnbg when I pick up the Tp order.
Them might have been Florida strain humans that perished in the cold snap as well.
The Texas solar/windmill thing was fake news. The vast majority of electric issues occurred due to fossil fuel plants that did not have contingency for the freak cold spell. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Texas_power_crisis
After giving it some thought, I think the die-off of the large CNBG was due to the extreme cold spell we had just a few weeks back. These are Florida strain BG and do not do well in a pond that was completely frozen over for days and days. It was so extreme weather here in Texas that I remember hearing that some 28 people also died in this storm. One was found in his recliner at home where there was no heat because of lack of electricity. We learned that windmills and solar here in Texas did not work. So if the storm was so bad to kill Humans, then I find it not so unusual to kill my Florida stained bg. My plans are to restock some cnbg when I pick up the Tp order.
My CNBG did not experience a die off, even in the forage pond where I fully expected the worst. Just found that good news today. I suspect mine must have come from Arkansas. If you can't find any from Arkansas, you are welcome to some of my cold-adapted breeders, they are just beginning to come shallow in pre-spawn now.
Don’t believe everything on Wikipedia - it has become political and its editors are not to be trusted on things like politics . Actual experience with that on clients and business matters.
Good news today -- My forage pond CNBG survived the Big Chill! Really surprised me, but the little pond is chock full of small CNBG, ranging from 1.5 to about 4 inches. Also, the criss-crossed twine seems to have discouraged the cormorants from raiding the little guys, though the geese aren't impressed.
Today is the first day of 2021 in which we caught CNBG in the main BOW. Large fish caught in fairly deep water close to shallow spawning areas. I'm betting that if the CNBG in the forage pond survived, then the main pond fish did as well.
Harvested two beautiful rainbow trout, one in excess of three pounds. Not bad for being in there for only three months! But the clock is ticking down on them, so harvest is the name of game now. Gonna try smoking them to see how it goes.
Had on a big momma LMB, unfortunately on ultralight tackle near wood cover. Got a good look at her when she jumped, had to be 7 plus, full of eggs. Ultimately she got into the cover and that was that. Still, it was a great fight & encouraging to see something that large.
Last but not least, several trees felled into the water, trying to create instant cover. We'll see. I did notice that fish seemed to congregate around the branches of one tree only a couple of hours afterward.
"Early critics pointed to the state’s lack of preparation, built around its energy-only markets, with a majority of the state having no interconnections to neighboring grids. The crisis – considered the worst since the Northeast Power Outage of 2003 – was compounded by failure to weatherize power plant infrastructure, in particular natural gas, which represents almost 50 percent of installed capacity in Texas."
Rah, Our past Governor Perry who was also Sec of Energy said that the solar and wind power systems in Texas only produced 40% of what they were supposed to do and that was before the storm. And just for comparison, it is said here don't use windmills for pond aeration because they are not dependable. A windmill is a windmill. And we all know solar panels do not work when it is cloudy. Seems like we went most of that month never seeing the sun. They have been shutting down the coal/natural gas power plants this past year here in Texas, even though they met all requirements for EPA. They changed to these windmills/solar systems because of the high prices of Natural gas at the time they were installed. But thanks to horizontal drilling and using fracking in these wells we are now the world's largest supplier of really cheap natural gas. If we have another Freeze storm and lose power next year like the one this year Heads will roll here in Texas.
The CNBG came from Todd. And I did not lose all my cnbg just the ones that were over 6". After losing my large lmb and hsb last July and now my large cnbg, it looks like I am starting over this year at the pond. Been a bad past 12 months.
Sorry about your fish losses. I have had one major and one minor fish kill in my 20-year old pond, both due to prolonged snow over ice. In one case, all my CC died, but LMB and BG populations came back. While I have not seen any dead fish yet this year, we had snow over ice for a long time.
I am no expert on energy production, but I did look into the Texas electric outage. It appears that gas wells froze up as did windmills due to lack of winterizing protection that is typically not needed in Texas. Isolation from the national grid, to avoid federal oversight, made compensating for the crippled local grid nearly impossible. Local officials and politicians made their decisions and then folks were forced to live with them (except for politicians that took their families on vacation to the Caribbean!). Energy experts had warned that this was inevitable. As a scientist, it always amazes me how common it is to "cherry pick" information that aligns with one's ideology, and discard information that does not (information bias). We also seem to avoid paying for upgrades to our infrastructure until it collapses, like buying homeowner's insurance after the house burns down.
That is true when it comes to the way we all lean towards our ideology and that is on both sides of the court. Rah, Natural gas does not freeze up in supply pipelines or at gas wells. If it does I have never seen it in my 45 yrs of experience in the industry. I love how you added that a republican took a vacation that just happened to be before the storm hit. There is that ideology that you speak of. OH! buy the way I am not a republican. A leaning Libertarian is more likely.
"Natural gas wells and pipes ill-equipped for cold weather are a big reason why millions of Texans lost power during frigid temperatures this week. As temperatures dropped to record lows across some parts of the state, liquid inside wells, pipes, and valves froze solid."
"Ice can block gas flow, clogging pipes. It’s a phenomenon called a “freeze-off” that disrupts gas production across the US every winter. But freeze-offs can have outsized effects in Texas, as we’ve seen this week. The state is a huge natural gas producer — and it doesn’t usually have to deal with such cold weather."
"Ted Cruz told reporters on Thursday that his decision to fly to Cancun with his family amid widespread power outages in Texas was “obviously a mistake.”"
Personally, I want the republican party to rid itself of Trump so I have choices in the next election. I am an independent, but like most on this sight, I find that government oversight of my property to be overreach. Particularly, permit requirements imposed by local officials resulted in me building a barn rather than a pond designed by the NRCS. The pond/wetland would have captured 80 acres of runoff from a neighbors farm field, including a 10" field tile. Now there is a great example of regulation protecting the environment!
"Natural gas wells and pipes ill-equipped for cold weather are a big reason why millions of Texans lost power during frigid temperatures this week. As temperatures dropped to record lows across some parts of the state, liquid inside wells, pipes, and valves froze solid."
"Ice can block gas flow, clogging pipes. It’s a phenomenon called a “freeze-off” that disrupts gas production across the US every winter. But freeze-offs can have outsized effects in Texas, as we’ve seen this week. The state is a huge natural gas producer — and it doesn’t usually have to deal with such cold weather."
"Ted Cruz told reporters on Thursday that his decision to fly to Cancun with his family amid widespread power outages in Texas was “obviously a mistake.”"
Personally, I want the republican party to rid itself of Trump so I have choices in the next election. I am an independent, but like most on this sight, I find that government oversight of my property to be overreach. Particularly, permit requirements imposed by local officials resulted in me building a barn rather than a pond designed by the NRCS. The pond/wetland would have captured 80 acres of runoff from a neighbors farm field, including a 10" field tile. Now there is a great example of regulation protecting the environment!
I'd like different choices myself next election. And yes I am really a libertarian in republican clothing, a RINO I suppose. Anyways, my faith in democracy has be tested these past 4 years, especially in the final months.
It is a pleasure having a civil discussion with you. Most folks that I talk to on both sides are in a rage. I just hope that we can find some common ground in our country.
Looking forward to the warmer weather coming. Just received 200 trees from the DNR and need to get planting. Substantial rain begins this evening. Still need to get a replaced yard hydrant completely covered back up as well. The old one only lasted 30 years, but it was not new when I put it in... The new one will probably outlive me. Have another one leaking from the faucet seals when running. My attempts to replace just the faucet on 2 previously leaking faucets failed. This last one actually had a pin hole in the vertical pipe underground and the inside was so corroded, the plunger would not move. The burry depth seem deeper than I remember. Must be the new metric system:)
I laugh guys because my pond sucks right now and I have not been able till now to do much about it. So conversations drifted. I think we are all friends or have things in common and I am betting we all would be better friends if we were to meet up no matter what our politics are.
Tracy, Most all the time I am very detached from politics. In election years, I barely watch TV but research candidates and watch debates. The only presidential election I have failed to vote was 2016. I just couldn't find inspiration but would have voted in the general election for any of the most prominent republicans who lost the nomination to Trump.
Just to be sure you understand, the reason I posted was to support RAHs desire to see my party take a different direction from Trump. It was the first such comment I have read here where there was a lot support for the former president last fall before the election in this very thread. I think it took a bit of nerve for RAH to say what he did, I just didn't want him to be alone in taking that stand.
I turned the feeders back on today after hand feeding for the last week, and I'm happy to say that our CNBG and HSB were eating like Sunil at a Golden Corral.
After all the ice melted, and the water warmed up a bit, I started driving around the pond making daily checks for morts. So far, only one 10" LMB has floated to the top, and that was the day after the ice was completely gone.
Getting flamed when you don't know about it is like a tree falling in the forest when nobody's around.....
So, it's not clear if the CNBG and HSB were really feeding strong or not.
Well, Al/FireIsHot owes me big time for saving him from drowning in a Nebraska lake late one night a few years back. Probably saved him from electrocution also...
Rod, I'll just say this about that night. One of the two of us was lucid, and a swiftwater rescue instructor, who is blessed with incredible spidey senses when things are about to go south. A 12' aluminum deck boat with aluminum lawn chairs loaded arm rest to arm rest, and rocking if anybody already on the boat took a small breath, activated those super powers. It was time to scat.
I turned the feeders back on today after hand feeding for the last week, and I'm happy to say that our CNBG and HSB were eating like Sunil at a Golden Corral.
After all the ice melted, and the water warmed up a bit, I started driving around the pond making daily checks for morts. So far, only one 10" LMB has floated to the top, and that was the day after the ice was completely gone.
Getting flamed when you don't know about it is like a tree falling in the forest when nobody's around.....
So, it's not clear if the CNBG and HSB were really feeding strong or not.
"Early critics pointed to the state’s lack of preparation, built around its energy-only markets, with a majority of the state having no interconnections to neighboring grids. The crisis – considered the worst since the Northeast Power Outage of 2003 – was compounded by failure to weatherize power plant infrastructure, in particular natural gas, which represents almost 50 percent of installed capacity in Texas."
Everywhere that intermittent sources of energy become large, costs rise & reliability declines. True in the UK, Germany, California, and now Texas. Also bad for the environment, as solar or wind turbines take hundreds of times more land for the same energy as a nuclear or fossil fuel plant. In California, this has led to wildfires since land near cities is expensive, so renewables must be located far away & the lines go through forests.
I strongly suspect part of the reason why the Texas grid wasn't weatherized properly against the Big Chill was that the climate experts told ERCOT that anthropogenic global warming meant milder winter temps. Why waste money preparing for something that won't ever happen?
That's it for me on the subject. Can we get back to ponds now? I'm really excited that my CNBG survived even in the forage pond!
There are actually TWO sides of the story to these tales of derring-do?
I might be worried if I were you Sunil, a fiery goat with spidey senses and swiftwater rescue skills does not sound like someone you want as an implacable foe.
As regards the buffet, I am a big eater, but I am pretty sure I cannot defeat a goat at the buffet!
A guest caught the pond record black bass today...and of course I was back in the woods on an ATV towards the end of the day when he caught it....so I didn't get to see it in person or weigh it...He caught it from the dam throwing out towards a submerged cedar tree on a pumpkin-seed colored plastic lizard type bait. The guy loves to fish and plays in an AC/DC tribute band....and yes he lost a bet and had to dye his goatee blue.
New Tilapitopia (V5) is up and running. We have Tilapia in the water and the feeders are set up. Time to see if we can raise them before it's time to set them free in the ponds.
Ammonia is .25 Nitrite is 0.5 and Nitrate is 0.5ish. The AOB and NOB are getting started! temp is 75ish F degrees.
So nice to feel the warm sun today. Going to see 60s for the next day or two
Pond water table continues to go down. The YP were glad to see the branches show up in the pond and draped their eggs over several of them. I also see several egg strands in the deeper water around some pallets. I'm going to keep almost all the strands in this year and see if we can actually get a good crop of youngster YP
My Optimal food came this week! Thanks to the crew who gets those orders shipped out right on time. I believe they used Fedex which seems to still be able to get things done on time. USPS is hopeless, UPS always a day or two late, and Amazon is doing the bait and switch lately. The ad says arrives in 2 days. You put it in your cart and suddenly the delivery changes to 3 days. Then you buy, they wait 2 days to finally get it shipped and then they move the expected date one more day out. I'm ready to cancel Prime membership. I never get 2 day shipping anymore so what am I paying for? (they say it is extreme weather or COVID or computer error, or driver error or this or that... I suspect it is lack of people willing to go to work anymore...)
I buy the Optimal BG and the BG Jr. sizes and mix them 50/50. I thought the 'length' of the pellet was smaller in the BG Jr. size, but to my eye it appears that the diameter is just a tad smaller on the extruder for the BG Jr. size. I see a variety of longer and shorter pellets in each bag. The point of mixing was to get more of the smaller pellets mixed in with the larger ones for a variety of gape sizes. If the bag already do that (blend size lengths) then I guess the smaller diameter of the BG Jr also helps.
I'm amazed how my spotfin shiners are immediately at the surface eating today. They didn't lose a speck of their pellet training and knew right where I would be to throw the first handful of the season. The water is exceptionally clear right now and they seemed unafraid to come into the clear shallows to chase the food. I'm really impressed at some of the size of the adults. Judging from the bank I would say I have some 5" adults. I'm not sure how big they can get but we have to be getting close to their top size. Looking forward to trying to dream up some new crevice spawning devices and would really like to focus on reproduction this year. I'd love to help others get these critters in their ponds. They are fun to watch and seem to be good survivors, at least in the chemistry of my specific water hole.
Has anyone ever experimented with taking live minnows/shiners, putting them in a water bath that has had 100% oxygen bubbled into it for a while to saturate the water, then slowly freeze the water and minnows and bubbles into a solid block of ice? Would they survive when thawed? Would this be a way to extend their life when shipping further distances in warmer weather conditions? If they could go into a hibernation mode then as the ice slowly melted they would slowly warm up, there hopefully would be plenty of dissolved oxygen, and their metabolism and oxygen needs at low temps would also be low. They may not hurt themselves by swimming around frantically in a bag everytime the box jostles in the truck or airplane too.
CC, The Optimal BG is 3/16" dia with different lengths and is 40/10 protein/lipid. The Opimal BG Jr. is 1/8" dia different lengths and is 42/10 protein/lipid.
I'd have to dig back through my notes to give you the lengths and the approximate % of each length in each bag. That was figured out a number of years ago.
Has anyone ever experimented with taking live minnows/shiners, putting them in a water bath that has had 100% oxygen bubbled into it for a while to saturate the water, then slowly freeze the water and minnows and bubbles into a solid block of ice? Would they survive when thawed?
I've never done that but will relate a couple of stories, one second hand the other a direct observation that may interest you.
My brother-in-law once kept gold fish over a period of 10 years or so in a plastic barrel used as a water trough. In a prolonged cold spell the water would freeze being as it was exposed over much of the surface of the container to the elements. In northern OK a prolonged spell would be say a week or a bit longer of sub-freezing temperatures. He claimed the water would freeze around the gold fish which he did not observe to move. His hypothesis was that if they were in open water under ice, they would be moving around. He didn't observe them to move and if one were accept the hypothesis one might agree that he observed them encased within ice. The gold fish survived the cold spells but I will let each decide if they were frozen.
In Junior High, we had a science show come to present in our auditorium. The presenter was demonstrating liquid nitro. He took a rose and shattered it and then he froze a live goldfish stiff as a board and dropped back into its bowl where it promptly sank to bottom motionless. He continued his presentation but after a while the goldfish was swimming about. He explained the goldfish by saying that he had frozen it externally but that inside it wasn't frozen. Thawing, allowed it move again but that the external freezing was not lethal.
Some things have be proven to withstand freezing being adapted for it. Two that come to mind are a cricket in New Zealand and the wood frop of the northern boreal forests of North America.
Was it a surprise to catch one, or was it a surprise to catch one in your LMB/BG pond?
I had a week of really hot weather last summer, surface temps got to 90 degrees and I lost at least half of the WE I stocked the previous fall, I found 23 of the 55 that I stocked floating. I figure I lost all of them and the ones I didn't find never floated, this was the first WE I have caught since that happened. My pond is only 1/4 acre so there isn't a good cold water refuge area in the summer. 90 degrees is the upper temperature limit for WE.
Hi Shorty, I have a similar situation with small pond and lack of cold water refuge for WE. What angling technique did you find worked to catch this WE?
Slip bobber, micro jig, and a small piece or worm in 2 1/2 feet of water on the wind blown side. WE were 5-8" when I stocked them. This was an experiment to see if they would fair better than YP did with the summer heat. 50 was the smallest quantity my supplier would sell me which was more than I wanted.
CC, The Optimal BG is 3/16" dia with different lengths and is 40/10 protein/lipid. The Opimal BG Jr. is 1/8" dia different lengths and is 42/10 protein/lipid.
I bought two bags of Jr. last summer. One bag was the varied length pellets, the other bag was all little round pellets.
The fish didn't seem to prefer one over the other.
Got a bag of BG last week. My fish are sizing up so I figured it was time to size up the pellets too.
Slip bobber, micro jig, and a small piece or worm in 2 1/2 feet of water on the wind blown side. WE were 5-8" when I stocked them. This was an experiment to see if they would fair better than YP did with the summer heat. 50 was the smallest quantity my supplier would sell me which was more than I wanted.
How many of the 50 did you expect lived till today? Do you ever get to see them when walking around the pond? Do you know what they are feeding on in that pond?
Looks like that one is 3-4x the original stocking length already!
CC, The Optimal BG is 3/16" dia with different lengths and is 40/10 protein/lipid. The Opimal BG Jr. is 1/8" dia different lengths and is 42/10 protein/lipid.
I bought two bags of Jr. last summer. One bag was the varied length pellets, the other bag was all little round pellets.
The fish didn't seem to prefer one over the other.
Got a bag of BG last week. My fish are sizing up so I figured it was time to size up the pellets too.
The last bag of BG Jr I bought last year was all round as well. I was about to call Dustin when I seen something on the bag showing the new shape.
Had a blast last few days out at the pond. Friend from Ft Worth fished and caught a 6 and 7 pound LMB, along with several very nice HSB and one he couldn't stop. Trout are biting, too. I joined in the fun with a 4 lb LMB and a big momma at least double that who jumped twice and spat the lure. Also caught some trout, but lost one that looked more like a salmon. Next time!
Only negative was that when a fellow pondmeister showed up to get harvest some CNBG together, the durn things wouldn't bite. Of course, the next evening they came in like gangbusters, but too late.
Two trees felled in the pond, would like two more. Cormorants still leave the entwined forage pond alone, looks like success. By clapping loudly, I've even kept in the dirty birds away from the main BOW. Geese, on the other hand, scorn my best efforts.
Hummingbird feeders went up yesterday, so far no takers. I fertilized the pond today, saw bald eagle, six wood ducks and a kingfisher. Geese didn't approve and let me know it. Don't know if the one I hooked recognized me, but I noticed that one of them stayed far away.
I bought two bags of Jr. last summer. One bag was the varied length pellets, the other bag was all little round pellets.
The last bag of BG Jr I bought last year was all round as well. I was about to call Dustin when I seen something on the bag showing the new shape.
Hmm... My bag didn't mention anything about it. It was an all black bag. The diameter was narrower but I had a mix of long, medium and very tiny extruded pieces. I wonder if there is a date of production on the bag?
anthropic, Sounds like your pond is a beautiful thing with all those sport fish and all that wildlife in one spot! Very neat that you have wood ducks and kingfisher as well. What kind of kingfisher do you have in Texas?
Ringed, green, and belted here in east Texas. Pretty sure I have a belted. What about in your very different neck of the woods? Are you still fighting snow, ice & cold?
I try not to cut down dead trees unless strictly necessary, as they are home for wood ducks and woodpeckers. Also, eagles love to perch there for uninterrupted view.
Honestly, it's been a long struggle to get my BOW up to snuff. Still not 100 percent where I'd like it to be, but the perfect is the enemy of the good. At least it's fun for my guests when the feeders go off!
Wish I could stock & keep tiger muskies to control LMB numbers. For that matter, I love smallmouths, too!
CC, The Optimal BG is 3/16" dia with different lengths and is 40/10 protein/lipid. The Opimal BG Jr. is 1/8" dia different lengths and is 42/10 protein/lipid.
I bought two bags of Jr. last summer. One bag was the varied length pellets, the other bag was all little round pellets.
The fish didn't seem to prefer one over the other.
Got a bag of BG last week. My fish are sizing up so I figured it was time to size up the pellets too.
That's weird. All the Jr is/was varied length. I wonder if they shipped some starter food by mistake? Those are all little round pieces.
I will find out soon enough, I should be getting the food I ordered shortly.
I fished my pond today. Made all of 2 casts. First one got whacked by a 3# HSB, 2nd cast this one slurped down the 1/4 oz. gold blade/chartreuse body chatter bait.
I took my (14) year old son to our property where our main pond is, and we took a 125cc dirt bike, his 90cc quad, and a Honda Monkey 125cc up to ride the trails.
Our property is 75 acres with a 4.5 acre pond at one end. I truly hadn't been in and around the remaining non-pond acreage for years, maybe a decade or more.
I had a rough time even tracking the property lines of my land as so much plant/tree growth has occurred since I've been through the area. There's a lot more trails as people are riding through that acreage fairly regularly.
After riding for a few hours, we came down to ride some trails around the pond. We stopped at a 'flat' area next to the pond and got off the vehicles to look around a bit (kid was on the quad). My son walked away from his quad for about 10 seconds, and when we turned around, the quad was rolling...towards the pond....and then into the pond. My kid was basically watching it as it submerged and then rolled on its side as a current started to move it 'downstream.' I told him (yelling) to get his ass in the water and get it. He did...after the shock wore off.
Of course, the water temps was around 50 degrees, and he had no change of clothes, so the riding ended as we built a fire to warm him up.
I then tried to shift him to the 125cc dirt bike, and myself on the Monkey. He took a few laps around our dirt road, and determined that he was too cold to continue riding.
It was about 60 degrees out, so a nice day for March in PA.
Quad is going in for service today. Water in everything.
So I fished and caught my first stringer of CC from the pond Sat, the biggest one weighed 2.6 lbs at just short of two yrs from stocked fingerlings, I have a feeder out but with the vast amount of fish out there the feed doesnt reach very far but obviously you will have some that tend to hang out right in that corner of the pond. I was checking what they were eating and several had little young crawfish in their stomach, which is good to know,, I was able to get several batches from Quarter Acre last fall but these were younger smaller then any of them so I must have had a population present already. Also seen Wood Ducks, many King Fishers, and a pair of beautiful Bald Eagles perched on a dead tree over the pond, witnessed one dive down to the water and catch a fish or something and then seemed to drop it or lose it before he got back to his perch, was surprised usually they take off when a person walks up to the lake but this time they didnt, were still there when I left. I stocked 300 WE and 500 YP a week ago, hopefully see what they will do.
That's weird. All the Jr is/was varied length. I wonder if they shipped some starter food by mistake? Those are all little round pieces.
I wondered about that. I still have half a bag of it. Wouldn't be any trouble to measure it and know for sure.
The Optimal web page still shows Jr. as varied length pellets. Starter #4 is almost double the price of Jr., so you'd think that they would be careful when labeling the bags.
WOWSER!!! 300 WE and 500 YP? That is a boat load of WE!!
I'm wondering if WE would prefer to use YP as their forage as your pond hopefully will have successful YP ribbons turning into millions of young YP. With 500 YP and depending on stocking size, perhaps at any spring time 100-150 could be laying eggs, it seems you will have an explosion of 2-3" baby YP which the WE should be able to feast on
Anyone with a YP/WE only pond know how that dynamic works?
When I first opened the bag I thought it was the #4 as well and was getting ready to call them. It's been about 6 months or so, so my memory is a little iffy but I think I was looking on the bag for any information I could give them before I called and found something on it about the change. I'm thinking it was a small tag but I could be wrong. I know I found something somewhere that made me not call. Also after looking at it more it did look bigger and with different sizes than the #4. I still have the bag and will take a look at it again.
Is there a good quality fish food for everything? I know it's not 1 size fits all type of thing. There everything from koi, catfish (dont care to feed them anymore), bass, Hybrid striped bass, perch , bluegill, crappie, crawdads. Just a mutt pond really. Like seeing all the action. I only hand feed also if tht matters. Normally just get the crap at local farm store but thought I would order some better quality this time. Any suggestions?
Is there a good quality fish food for everything? I know it's not 1 size fits all type of thing. There everything from koi, catfish (dont care to feed them anymore), bass, Hybrid striped bass, perch , bluegill, crappie, crawdads. Just a mutt pond really. Like seeing all the action. I only hand feed also if tht matters. Normally just get the crap at local farm store but thought I would order some better quality this time. Any suggestions?
I have a multi species pond and am mixing Optimal Jr and Optimal Bass this year in my feeder. If I remember correctly esshup knows someone who had tested different feeds in cages. The results of that test showed that the fish fed Optimal had the best survival and the cages grew less algae on them. Hopefully he will see this and respond. I was using Li’l Strike before and switched. Heppy
Is there a good quality fish food for everything? I know it's not 1 size fits all type of thing. There everything from koi, catfish (dont care to feed them anymore), bass, Hybrid striped bass, perch , bluegill, crappie, crawdads. Just a mutt pond really. Like seeing all the action. I only hand feed also if tht matters. Normally just get the crap at local farm store but thought I would order some better quality this time. Any suggestions?
I have a mutt pond. I feed a 50/50 mix of Optimal Bluegill and Optimal Bass food. ALL the fish seem to be doing really well on it.
Rusto, I know my FHM, GSH, BG and YP all hit the Optimal Jr., I don't know if my RES or LMB ever hit it. I thought I might of seen the LMB going for some but they were probably going after the FHM eating the pellets. The LMB probably want something bigger but I'm sure they get some by eating the smaller fish that ate the pellets I asked Dustin last spring if I should switch to the BG and he told me he would stick with the Jr. and that I really never had to switch. With the Jr being smaller and more pellets per cup it is easier for more fish to get a chance to get a pellet. I think I would maybe like to try mixing the two.
• The immense variety of cultured finfish species hampers efforts to simplify production industry wide. Approximately 170 taxa are currently cultured, including carnivores, herbivores, planktivores, and omnivores, each posing its own set of nutritional demands .
• Fish meal has proven to be an excellent dietary protein source for finfish, leading to its description as an ‘‘ideal protein.’’ The ideal protein concept is based on the premise that if the amino acid profile of the feed mimics the whole-body amino acid profile of the animal being fed, protein utilization and growth should be maximized
• Lipids, fatty acids, and their derivatives play a role in virtually every physiological process that occurs and for this reason dietary lipid composition and content represent a massive sector of overall nutrition. Nowhere is this more true than in finfish nutrition where lipid can exceed protein in the body composition of finfish, a testament to the physiological and energetic importance of this nutrient class (Tocher2003). Aside from physiological importance, lipids are indispensable energy sources, especially for finfish, which are not well-adapted to carbohydrate utilization.
• Dietary protein and energy must be kept in proper balance because a deficiency or excess of dietary energy can reduce growth rates. Fish fed diets deficient in energy will metabolize more expensive dietary protein to meet energy requirements. Excess dietary energy can decrease protein intake and suppress growth.
• finfish do not require carbohydrates in their diet, … complex carbohydrates cannot be digested and utilized efficiently by most finfish species. A general dichotomy exists in the carbohydrate digestive ability of warmwater omnivores and herbivores versus the inability of coolwater and coldwater carnivores, which lack the appropriate function necessary for digestion of carbohydrates.
• For this reason, diets fed to these fish rarely contain more than 20% complex carbohydrate
• Conversely, warmwater omnivores or herbivores (e.g., channel catfish, tilapia, common carp, and white sturgeon) adapt well to diets containing as much as 40% dietary carbohydrate .
• Although vitamins and minerals are required in minute amounts compared with protein, lipid, and so forth, they are critically important, … Every micronutrient has a deficiency disease associated with it, the effects of which are sometimes irreversible or fatal. For a few vitamins and most minerals, excess can be equally detrimental, resulting in toxicity.
I looked at my bag of Optimal Jr and it looks like the image on their website with the blue square in the left lower corner giving the description of the product. But mine says round floating pellets instead of mixed length floating pellets. I think mine said 3.5mm instead of 3mm.
We have a mystery!! I might be able to get my bag out of the bottom of the trash can before it goes to the curb? Someone from optimal used to check on the forum once in a while. Can we ask them to solve the mystery?
We have a mystery!! I might be able to get my bag out of the bottom of the trash can before it goes to the curb? Someone from optimal used to check on the forum once in a while. Can we ask them to solve the mystery?
Yes, there were some round pellets that went out accidentally last year. I thought I had called everyone affected, but it seems I must have missed a few.
We offer a few special lines of feed through a program we call the "Signature Series". Before we got the fancy printed signature series bags, everything came in white/black bags with a sticker. In the warehouse at that time we had both a "Junior" and a "Junior low phos" diet. Some of the new warehouse staff didn't know there was a difference and was filling online orders off the wrong pallet until we caught it.
The low phosphorus feeds have a formulation geared to minimize phosphorus, but are still designed to grow fish. The biggest issue would probably be that feeders likely throw a bit more of the round pellets. It most certainly will not harm the fish. If anyone has any concerns, they are welcome to give me a call 833-919-3474.
Yes, there were some round pellets that went out accidentally last year. I thought I had called everyone affected, but it seems I must have missed a few.
We offer a few special lines of feed through a program we call the "Signature Series". Before we got the fancy printed signature series bags, everything came in white/black bags with a sticker. In the warehouse at that time we had both a "Junior" and a "Junior low phos" diet. Some of the new warehouse staff didn't know there was a difference and was filling online orders off the wrong pallet until we caught it.
The low phosphorus feeds have a formulation geared to minimize phosphorus, but are still designed to grow fish. The biggest issue would probably be that feeders likely throw a bit more of the round pellets. It most certainly will not harm the fish. If anyone has any concerns, they are welcome to give me a call 833-919-3474.
Thanks guys! I got tied up today and didn't call. I guess I don't have to now!!
Harvested 8 LMB, 4 RBT (though we were expecting Stubby Steve lures to do much better), caught several 2 to 5 lb LMB we threw back. About a dozen CNBG in the 1/2 to one pound range, most returned. Trying hard to take out trout before they die in a month or two. Did not see any cormorants, but did see eagle, 4 geese, 6 wood ducks, kingfisher and a hummingbird. Oh, and a rather pale small heron along with the usual great blue.
Refilled 3 feeders on main BOW, fish eating vigorously. Good to see CNBG & BG finally moving in shallow! Tons of small minnow-like fish, I assume most are this year's LMB. Visibility around 30 to 36 inches, despite 25 lb of fertilizer I put in last week. Always a battle to get a good bloom, even after liming.
Herbicide treatment last summer knocked back almost all pond weeds, including those I liked. Almost nothing has come back yet, so I am reluctant to stock grass carp. Only a little algae so far, think I need to fell another couple trees to create cover. Waiting on threadfin shad stocking to help feed my HSB.
Harvested 8 LMB, 4 RBT (though we were expecting Stubby Steve lures to do much better), caught several 2 to 5 lb LMB we threw back. About a dozen CNBG in the 1/2 to one pound range, most returned. Trying hard to take out trout before they die in a month or two. Did not see any cormorants, but did see eagle, 4 geese, 6 wood ducks, kingfisher and a hummingbird. Oh, and a rather pale small heron along with the usual great blue.
That sounds like a really good day at the pond!
"Herbicide treatment last summer knocked back almost all pond weeds, including those I liked."
Did you treat for algae, or for other undesirable plants?
Can you cut back some on your treatment rate this year and see if you can achieve your target goals without wiping out the plants you want?
Which of your desirable plants did survive? (I am definitely going to need some "good" plants on my shorelines to combat Kansas winds.)
Took down two dead trees at the edge of the pond, each between 24" and 28" DBH. Needed a rope and a tractor to make sure they didn't fall into the pond. Now pecking at digging a 20' x 20'+ x 4' deep pond to see if SoilFloc will work at sealing sand if it's incorporated into the sand bottom first. If it works, then I will dig a couple of 1/20 ac ponds and use it to seal them.
I'm feeding Optimal Bass and Bluegill and some samples of baby bluegill and large bass pellets. Thank you Optimal for the nice pricing on samples. I've seen some bass or maybe two pound bluegills take the large bass hand throws. The catfish however have honed their senses to find the big hand throws in a sea of regular bass pellets. I have not seen "low phosphorus" feed online...I'd prefer it I think...and ready to order another bag of the regular bass size (which everything, including our dog, loves!)
I have not seen "low phosphorus" feed online...I'd prefer it I think...
I'd bet low phosphorus equates to less fish meal. Depends on what your growing ... but if there isn't a big difference in the price ... I'd probably stick with the regular stuff. Hopefully it's formula remains consistent over time.
Yeah, Rod, it was a really good day. April is my favorite fishing month, as just about everything is biting. High winds are the biggest headache.
I treated for bushy pondweed problem, but also wiped out my desirable american pondweed and pickerelweed. Algae is not a problem as the tilapia take care of it. If I don't get good weed growth this year, may have to dial back tilapia stocking since the algae will help yoy fish hide in the absence of weeds.
The low P Optimal is a special run made for a large pond supply/consultation company. IIRC it's only slightly less P than the normal stuff. And the normal stuff IIRC is less P than Aquamax.
Frank, I just added Sonar this week to treat the BPW (Southern Niad). One Qt to treat the 3+ acre pond that has a lot of the BPW even though it is early spring and last year's plants may not have had their seeds sprouted as of yet. I have some Aquathol Super K if I need it later on. Like you, I wish my favored plants (APW) would make a comeback. I really like that plant for the LMB/BG. I am concerned that later on this summer when I add some new APW plants to the pond, will they make it? How long does the Sonar last when it comes to killing off the plants? Does anyone know, time-wise, when it might be successful to replant the APW? I don't get much water change from the rains for dilution so I am guessing it may be a good while before I can get desired plants established after the treatment.
The Bald Eagle was resting in a tree overlooking the pond the day I treated the pond.
The low P Optimal is a special run made for a large pond supply/consultation company. IIRC it's only slightly less P than the normal stuff. And the normal stuff IIRC is less P than Aquamax.
I am totally unsurprised regarding the special order by the pond supply/consultation company. But I am curious. If they only wanted slightly less P, why didn't they just use slightly less of the regular stuff? Just saying ...
The low P Optimal is a special run made for a large pond supply/consultation company. IIRC it's only slightly less P than the normal stuff. And the normal stuff IIRC is less P than Aquamax.
I am totally unsurprised regarding the special order by the pond supply/consultation company. But I am curious. If they only wanted slightly less P, why didn't they just use slightly less of the regular stuff? Just saying ...
My guess is marketing. Just like calories or carbs, when have you heard an advertisement say just eat less?
Frank, I just added Sonar this week to treat the BPW (Southern Niad). One Qt to treat the 3+ acre pond that has a lot of the BPW even though it is early spring and last year's plants may not have had their seeds sprouted as of yet. I have some Aquathol Super K if I need it later on. Like you, I wish my favored plants (APW) would make a comeback. I really like that plant for the LMB/BG. I am concerned that later on this summer when I add some new APW plants to the pond, will they make it? How long does the Sonar last when it comes to killing off the plants? Does anyone know, time-wise, when it might be successful to replant the APW? I don't get much water change from the rains for dilution so I am guessing it may be a good while before I can get desired plants established after the treatment.
The Bald Eagle was resting in a tree overlooking the pond the day I treated the pond.
Tracy, I don't know how long the treatment lasts. I expected weeds to come back by now, surprised they have not. I get a complete turnover of water about every 9 to 12 months, so there should be very little herbicide left.
I'm gonna have to adjust my plans if weeds don't return soon. May not be any point to stocking TFS if there aren't weeds for them to spawn on. Fell some more trees, add some manufactured cover as well. Miss the APW, that's for sure.
How many gallons of water are in your 3+ acre pond?
I dug a 25'x25'x4' deep pond between yesterday and today, will treat the sandy soil with Soilfloc before I fill it with water, Not completely done, but done moving dirt. Small test pond. It would have gone faster if I had an excavator, but all I had was a FEL on the tractor. If the test works, I'll rent an excavator and put in some 1/20th - 1/10th acre ponds to raise some fish that aren't commonly easily found on the pond stocking market.
Fished a few minutes today and caught a real fat near 4# LMB on a crappie jig . Bloom is really heavy this spring about 16-18” vis. Last year no bloom at all till winter
Family enjoyed the day messing around on the pond. I caught two small BG with a live grub in a matter of minutes. Minnows are everywhere. Water temp is 65 degrees. 15-20" water clarity. Will be putting in LMB, HBG, CNBG and RBG next weekend.
I've caught one muskrat since I put the traps out last week. It might have been the only one in there. Water clarity is noticeably improved over the past few days. Placed 8~ cubic yards of rip-rap stone over the weekend, and started filling in the low spots with top soil. I hope to have the landscaping on the dam finished by the end of summer. I put a few pics of the progress on my renovation thread. I think it's going to look nice when I'm finished.
Placed 20 dozen golden shiners in my virgin pond along with pond muck from a local pond. Going to place a 25' downed tree in that location for habitat.
I finally got a really nice algal bloom yesterday - in the kiddie pool I keep in the dog yard!
Of course, the dogs drink almost exclusively from that pool rather than their nice bowl of clean city water.
If I bottle and sell the pool water as 100% organic, nutrition supplemented artisanal dog water, do you think I can raise enough money to start excavating some more ponds at our farm?
How many gallons of water are in your 3+ acre pond?
I dug a 25'x25'x4' deep pond between yesterday and today, will treat the sandy soil with Soilfloc before I fill it with water, Not completely done, but done moving dirt. Small test pond. It would have gone faster if I had an excavator, but all I had was a FEL on the tractor. If the test works, I'll rent an excavator and put in some 1/20th - 1/10th acre ponds to raise some fish that aren't commonly easily found on the pond stocking market.
Hi! Newbie here! Can I ask a question? I went into a bait store to buy fatheads for a new pond...they laughed at me!!!!! Why does every country man tell me my minnows won't "make it"? I ended up buying ruby reds, because the fatheads I bought through the mail died on my porch...and put them in last week since the water is not hot from summer yet. Is there a secret I do not know? I am just trying to establish a food source for future fish and healthy ecosystem boost. And your ponds are all large and beautiful compared to my pond!
I finally got a really nice algal bloom yesterday - in the kiddie pool I keep in the dog yard!
Of course, the dogs drink almost exclusively from that pool rather than their nice bowl of clean city water.
If I bottle and sell the pool water as 100% organic, nutrition supplemented artisanal dog water, do you think I can raise enough money to start excavating some more ponds at our farm?
All natural! So many people equate natural with good, but it isn't always. Mosquitoes, leeches, toadstools, droughts, are all natural.
Hi! Newbie here! Can I ask a question? I went into a bait store to buy fatheads for a new pond...they laughed at me!!!!! Why does every country man tell me my minnows won't "make it"? I ended up buying ruby reds, because the fatheads I bought through the mail died on my porch...and put them in last week since the water is not hot from summer yet. Is there a secret I do not know? I am just trying to establish a food source for future fish and healthy ecosystem boost. And your ponds are all large and beautiful compared to my pond!
The guy at the bait store was correct, The fatheads probably won't make it past 1 year, maybe 2 if you are lucky. BUT, that is what they are supposed to do - get the pond started on the correct foot. What he neglected to tell you is that the Rosy Reds are Fatheads too, just of a different color.
East Texas, Piney Woods. About an hour from The Woodlands I did have a fish farm mail me some (like a dumbass) and they came two days early with no notice so they were sitting in the heat on my porch while I was at work! My pond is only 13 feet deep, and maybe 50 feet across. Nothing like what all of you have!
The fish farm that sent you those without a notice or tracking number to let you know when they will be arriving, almost down to the hr was extremely irresponsible, I would be having a little chat with them. Your pond is beautiful, plenty of people on here have ponds like yours. Welcome to the forum!
I would like some advice from the group. We normally put weed and feed on our yard (ponds watershed). Is this okay to get up close to the ponds edge? How far away is advised if not next to it? Also it could be good for it I really dont know. The package says as long as it dosnt rain in 24 hours is how I'm reading it. I purposely cropped out the brand. I'm not here to promote it but it does kill them weeds pretty good. I'm sure this has been discussed on here before but this is what I'm doing around the pond.
2,4-D is a widely-used herbicide that affects plant cell growth and division. It affects primarily broad-leaf plants. When the treatment occurs, the 2,4-D is absorbed into the plant and moved to the roots, stems, and leaves. Plants begin to die in a few days to a week following treatment, but can take several weeks to decompose. Treatments should be made when plants are growing.
For many years, 2,4-D has been used primarily in small-scale spot treatments. Recently, some studies have found that 2,4-D moves quickly through the water and mixes throughout the waterbody, regardless of where it is applied. Accordingly, 2,4-D has been used for whole-lake treatments.
2,4-D is effective at treating the invasive Eurasian watermilfoil (Myriophyllum spicatum). Desirable native species that may be affected include native milfoils, coontail (Ceratophyllum demersum), naiads (Najas spp.), elodea (Elodea canadensis) and duckweeds (Lemna spp.). Lilies (Nymphaea spp. and Nuphar spp.) and bladderworts (Utricularia spp.) also can be affected."
Rusto, I am not an expert, but I do still use my college chemistry at my real job.
I couldn't find the product label for your bag. However, most of that type of product use 2,4-D as the main broadleaf herbicide.
From the quote above, you can see the 2,4-D is used as an aquatic herbicide. I ran the math on some products similar to yours. A 40# bag of weed and feed contains about a 1/4# of 2,4-D. The maximum treatment rate for ponds is 4# per surface acre of pond.
You could probably dump 16 bags straight into a 1-acre pond. (At least as regards the 2,4-D content.)
This makes sense, otherwise every river downstream of a city with abundant lawns would suffer massive fish kills every spring.
WARNING This is just one "non-expert's" calculation based on similar products. I think the product should be safe for Rusto to use on the grass around his pond if he follows the product use instructions. Further, the longer it stays on his grass and weeds prior to a rain event, the lower the concentration of the product that will make in into the pond.
There are many herbicides that are highly toxic to fish. I use some of them on invasive trees at my farm, and do everything possible to keep them from entering the water system.
Today was LMB stocking day... 5 2+lb LMB, 20 4-5" LMB fingerlings, 100 Readear and another grass carp was added. For the past month, been watching the BG and FHM in the pond.. The pond has a great many FHM and somewhere around 120 various sizes of BG. As soon as I can get Hybrid BG and CNBG, I'll be adding 100 of each. Y'all have a great weekend and send some rain my way...
Weedar 64 is what I use around the the edge of my pounds. It's aquatic friendly. I also use Navigate granular to help keep pond areas clear of emergent plants, and it's 2 4-D product as well.
Rod the plan is to put on my yard. Not in the pond. You are a researcher for sure lol. All those different numbers is to much for my simple mind. Dad always told me some are blessed with strong minds and weak backs. Some have weak mind and strong back. Some are blessed with both. I'm pretty sure I know which one I'm am.
Bought shiners from Todd Overton to see what’s in the pond . Removed a bunch of small bass . Caught a handful of BCP, one 5lb LMB and got broke off 3 times with really big something...... that usually doesn’t happen to me. Bad thing was the bullheads! How they got in I don’t know but those two left the lake..... fun day
You have no reason to apologize to me. I like how you research and understand things. Just sometimes over my pea brain lol. I was taking that tou thought I was putting it in the pond. You was saying that basically I could and shouldn't hurt anything.
Bottom diffusers are up and running. Gradually started them up and now at 8 hrs per day. I plan on going to 12 hrs per day. I will do that over the next few days. A few years ago I doubled the run time every day and when I went from 8 hrs to 16 it killed off some fish so I don't do that anymore.
Today was LMB stocking day... 5 2+lb LMB, 20 4-5" LMB fingerlings, 100 Readear and another grass carp was added. For the past month, been watching the BG and FHM in the pond.. The pond has a great many FHM and somewhere around 120 various sizes of BG. As soon as I can get Hybrid BG and CNBG, I'll be adding 100 of each. Y'all have a great weekend and send some rain my way...
LMB stocking day is always exciting! Congrats & good luck, Mongo.
CNBG and LMB are in shoreline cover, including some bigguns. Trout were biting like crazy a few days ago, but lost enthusiasm when temps rose. Trying to harvest them before summer wipes them out.
Also harvesting underperforming small LMB, 51 taken out this year so far after 206 last year. Cormorants seem discouraged, didn't see any. Geese, on the other hand, are bad. Eight on the pond when we left, though I suspect from the squabbling not all will be there tomorrow. I set feeders to go off at 2am to cut down on feathered fish food felonies. Wonder how LMB and CNBG feeding will go on the night shift?
Added 25 lb of pond fertilizer after initial 25 lb put in a couple weeks ago. So far, just a tinge of green, far less than I want. Still have another 25 lb I can use, plus I now have 3 bales of hay, 120 lb, to add to the shoreline. Even if no TFS end up being stocked, I figure the hay will add fertility as it decays.
Forage pond is bursting with small CNBG, ranging from 1 to 2.5". Aquamax 300 and 400 feed now in at Purina store, so hopefully I'll be able to get that to the little guys in a few days. Right now I'm feeding MVP, which helps but isn't ideal for this size. The crisscrossed twine over the forage pond still seems to work great against cormorants, which may be part of the reason they've left early this year. Tiny pond has very good bloom without any additional fertilizer other than fish food.
Osprey at the pond today diving. Completely ignored us and we were pretty close on the side by side.
One Bald Eagle and maybe two (the other was high enough hard to tell for sure).
Been discouraging cormorants from hanging around and that kind of scares the eagle off, but it comes back. Been around for a couple weeks. This is the third year and it hangs around quite a long time so am wondering if it has a nest around near.
Around 8am I was told (by the neighbors) that a Bald Eagle grabbed a fish from my pond and flew to a tree nearby, spending about 1/2 hour there eating. Then around noon a buddy brought is 10 yr. old son over to fish in the pond, (yes, he's 10. 5'-7" and 180#....) he caught and released an 18" SMB and caught and released a few HSB, one was kept because he didn't bring his net and dragged the first one up on the bank, so it went home with him. After that I grabbed my net for him.
Well that was certainly a good day bird watching at your pond!
Hopefully your fish are also having a good day.
What happened on your pond where the crayfish were crawling out on the ice? Did the fish in the pond make it to spring relatively unscathed?
Don't know about crayfish crawling out on the ice. I avoid sticking around when there is cold enough temperatures to make ice. Had a couple bluegill floating when I got home from Arizona so I presume the winter stress got to a few, but I fed a little several days ago and had lots of takers so at least a lot of them survived. I have not fished yet but a neighbor kid caught a 2# smallmouth and a few other fish.
Put out two bales of hay along the shoreline in hopes we'll get TFS stocked and they will spawn there. If not, at least the hay should deteriorate and help fertilize.
We have cold and a little snow yesterday. SFS still killing the optimal on the surface. I have amazingly clear water all spring. I have no idea why really. Eerie to see my cement blocks and pallets so clearly in 3 feet of water. I thought the YP would be very skittish given that I can more easily spot them as they cruise in to get the pellets but they seem to be undeterred.
I'm somewhat hopeful that some of the credit can go to some muck dissolving pellets that I tried out for the first time late last summer and early fall. AT that time the water cleared up in a big way and it stayed clear I guess. I'm hoping somehow those pellets didn't disrupt the tiny plankton and other critters that are necessary for the richer color of a fertile pond. I also know that water temps are still pretty much at early spring temps and not much will grow yet. I did put lawn fertilizer down once already and usually some run off from that jump starts some algae or a slight tinge to the water color. Maybe as water temps come up we will see some healthy water color.
I have no way to know if the muck dissolving pellets work for sure (didn't take before and after measurements of muck) but the price was OK and I see much less leaves and debris on the bottom in the shallows so maybe I inadvertently found a winner product!
Started my aeration system on Friday. Had a timer malfunction, or more likely, an operator head space malfunction. Was supposed to run for 15 minutes. Actually ran for ~6 hours. No harm done. The fish attacked the Optimal with their usual gusto Friday evening, so I went ahead and ran it for 6 hours yesterday. Full attack mode at feeding time. Guess I've got good water.
Thanks Dave. I have just turned my aeration diffusers to the 12 hr runs today. Most likely will stay at that 12 hr runs for the rest of the year, mostly because it won't be long before our days are long and hot and I don't really want to warm up the water temps higher by running the system 24/7.
Had a bright sun coming at the east side of the pond yesterday around 6pm. I thought I would try to capture cell phone video of the spotfins and YP feeding given nice bright lighting and clear water.. The glare on the water wasn't so nice but the water is rarely this clear. I had to slow down the playback to about 40% in order to allow better glimpses of the spotfins. They never stop moving and rocket around at full speed.
I'm amazed at the spotfin growth. I bought 'mature adults' in spawning colors so that I could be sure I got a mix of male and female. They were tubular and about 3" long. Now the adults have to be 5" long and have a wide spot in their midsection and a tapered forked tail. They look more and more like the profile of a shark as they fly through the water! They launch themselves out of the water sometimes in order to be the first one to get the fish food.
If the first section of the video is too fast I can slow it down more. Sorry for the bad audio, when you slow it down everything gets distorted. You can make out the american toads keeping up their calls back and forth in the video. Only a few stragglers left in the shallows, the bottom of the pond now is covered with strands of eggs.
it is interesting how the YP seem to make a pass towards the surface, then stop, circle and then make a final pass at it to swipe it.
What a difference a year makes! Electro-survey last year took 65 minutes to produce 35 to 40 LMB. Electro-survey today took 37 minutes to produce 120 LMB up to near 5#, 4 HSB up to 7#, plus some monster BG up to 1.5#. (Largest BG I've ever caught was 14 ounces, btw.)The survey guy said he could tell the big momma bass were deep, beyond where the current worked, but it was prime time to harvest the males who have finished bed guarding duties & were in shallow feeding.
Honestly surprised at LMB numbers, as bushy pondweed was killed in June last year and I'd have thought the yoy LMB would get eaten quickly without much cover. Apparently there was a huge spawn and 206 LMB harvested in 2020 should have been more.
HSB and BG doing very well, and even the few female LMB were in good shape. But we have too many LMB and I'll need to step up harvest. So far 154 taken out this year, two-thirds by electro, with 300 goal.
Big BG are to be expected in lakes with lots of LMB, but fortunately we also have lots of smaller BG. Feeding makes a difference! Also, forage pond is now full of small CNBG spawned last fall, I plan to put them in main BOW in a few weeks. Trying to fatten them up a bit first, I wanted to wait until after electro harvest.
Ten (!) more trees need to be felled into the pond to make for adequate cover. Some variable leaf pondweed growing now, not a whole lot of anything else. Fishery biologist very kindly added 25 lb pond fertilizer to the initial 50 lb I put in earlier to help the plankton bloom.
They didn't shock up any trout, so I'm guessing RBT are either dead or deep. Tilapia stocked to head off algae issues. A few F1 LMB were identified by their color & girth and released regardless of length.
So true. Thought taking out 206 would be enough, but the survey doesn't lie. I like fishing, but prefer to harvest with electricity than take out the most catchable fish.
Thanks, FR. Last year the biologist said that we shouldn't take out too many bass, numbers weren't great. This year the opposite. But last year's survey was done several weeks later when temps were considerably warmer. Also shows that you never arrive at perfect balance, at least, not for long.
That 1.5 lb coppernose bluegill was absolutely gorgeous, beautiful colors including some purple. So wish I'd taken a pic. I'll just have to catch him (it was a male) & get photo.
Spray day here. The water was getting sketchy again, so I treated coontail, bushy pond weed, and a rapidly growing ugly bloom. I treated 3 acres today, and will do another 3 acres after this treatment runs it's course. Probably a total of 4 treatments by the time I'm done.
Had a little bright spot after 3 years of failure attracting wood ducks to my duck huts. I had a male and 2 female ponds walking around on the grassy bank on the SW corner of the pond as I left for work this morning. The duck hut is on a PVC pole, mounted in the water about 20 feet away from where they were on shore. I thought what is the chance that one of those hens will go into that hut? Probably not much chance this late in the spring. But it still was great to see them. An hour later they were gone and never came back all day.
in the woods behind our house there are some natural swampy areas and another couple of shallow ponds (vernal pools maybe?) Neighbors see wood ducks on the ponds but they don't take to nest boxes there either. I think they have too many prime old trees with holes in them to pick from already.
Spent part of the day weedeating 475 ‘ of the dam today.... I tired! Watched fish attacking weed pieces that went in water
Topwater opportunity? I've seen fish go nuts on ponds where mowing sent grasshoppers fleeing into the water.
Went fishing today, harvested about ten. Nothing huge, but fun. Saw one dirty nasty cormorant. For whatever reason, hummingbirds have stopped visiting our feeders, a real disappointment.
Water still tinged green, but not nearly enough despite 75 lb of fertilizer so far. Even saw a few RBT at the feeder, but LMB, CNBG, and HSB dominated. Extensive CNBG beds now clearly visible around the pond in the usual places.
Unusually murky after 9 inches of rain. Emergency spillway no longer running, but clearly it did during the storm. Trout seem energized by cool new water, I caught my 2021 personal best after a savage fight. My fishing buddy also caught about a 4 lb HSB and a 1 plus lb CNBG.
LMB were a little off, though we did catch a few. Water got in lower unit of one TH feeder, didn't short it out but no longer feeds pellets to fan. We'll see if that can be fixed.
Water got in lower unit of one TH feeder, didn't short it out but no longer feeds pellets to fan. We'll see if that can be fixed.
Get all the food out and toss it. Clean the feeder well and put a fan on it to dry it. It should be fine. A friend had the largest size TH feeder at his pond, it was completely submerged. Got it out, washed all the feed out of it, put a box fan on it for 2 days, replaced the timer and battery and it is still working. That was a number of years ago.
Well, we pulled out the partially submerged TH feeder and got to work. Emptied feed, spun fan, but still wouldn't drop pellets Finally I hit it hard several times to try to knock loose any clumps in the bottom unit and lo & behold, IT WORKED!
Refilled, reset, and now it's doing just fine. Thanks to all for the helpful advice.
RBT still biting, I'm surprised to say. Guess it's been a cooler than average spring. HSB tearing them up, we've caught several in 5 to 7 lb range. CNBG doing well, too. LMB a little slow, but then we've taken out 125 the last two weeks so maybe that has something to do with it.
No cormorants. Nesting geese have left without goslings, maybe the raccoons got to the nest. Pond slowly returning to normal levels after big rain event, viz still murky but gradually beginning to clear.
Got lucky on the feeder Frank. I went fishing yesterday with a bunch of Boy Scouts that I volunteered my pond to for the day. Had a good LMB on that my neighbor guesstimated at 8# jumped close to where he was ..... she spit the hook...... quick release..... it was fun
Well, we pulled out the partially submerged TH feeder and got to work. Emptied feed, spun fan, but still wouldn't drop pellets Finally I hit it hard several times to try to knock loose any clumps in the bottom unit and lo & behold, IT WORKED!
Refilled, reset, and now it's doing just fine. Thanks to all for the helpful advice.
RBT still biting, I'm surprised to say. Guess it's been a cooler than average spring. HSB tearing them up, we've caught several in 5 to 7 lb range. CNBG doing well, too. LMB a little slow, but then we've taken out 125 the last two weeks so maybe that has something to do with it.
No cormorants. Nesting geese have left without goslings, maybe the raccoons got to the nest. Pond slowly returning to normal levels after big rain event, viz still murky but gradually beginning to clear.
Great!!! Take a hose and wash out all remnants of the wet pellets so they don't mold any fresh food you put in there. Take the clear plastic covers off and wash them out too.
Done nothing at pond.... manning the generator- power out due to very poor maintenance of tree limbs touching lines ... been out since yesterday about 8:00 pm. This is getting old
It's been mostly raining here for a week. Too muddy to work on rip-rap. Been snipping sprouts and planting some ground cover where the rip-rap is finished. Thinned some creeping phlox and some moneywort from one of Mrs. Augie's flower beds. I'm not sure how it will do out there, but most of it looks good so far.
Last summer the muskrats wiped out all of my APW and arrowhead, but I noticed yesterday that both are starting to make a comeback in a few places. Hopefully that will continue.
Your Moneywort should love the edge of the water line. Mine will expand up the bank into the ever-choking grasses and sporadically get out into the water about a foot or so. 99% of the roots are not under the water, but right at the shore.
The last remaining APW from what you gave me is still hanging on in a hanging bucket. I wasn't sure it was still there, but it has emerged this spring sharing the bucket with some Water Primrose.
Neopond sent me some seeds from his Yellow Flag Iris' last fall (somewhere near a thousand). I have that started in a large germination tray and have begun transplanting that to the pond. If all goes will in a month or so...I may have extra sprouts to share.
The moneywort that you gave me is coming back strong everywhere that I planted it, in spite of now being covered by a foot of crushed limestone. It's creeping out of the gaps between the rocks and starting to look happy again. The moneywort that I got from Mrs. Augie's flowerbed is the yellow type, which should nicely complement your dark green variety.
Iris is on my list of plants to put out there. I have a ton of it here - yellow, purple, blue, miniature, and some multi-color hybrids. Most of them came from my grandparents farmstead, others from Mom, and still others from the old abandoned farmstead across the road. They've all been in the ground long enough that they could stand some thinning, so it's just a matter of waiting for them to finish their bloom stage, then transplant some rhyzomes out on the pond dam.
I'm a bit worried about the pickeral weeds that I bought last summer. None of the three are showing any signs of life so far this spring. I caged all of them when I set them out, which saved them from the muskrats, and they seemed to be doing well last summer. Maybe those are just late to the party?
The cardinal flower, buttonbush, and marsh milkweed that we set out summer of '19 are well established and looking good. The mud plantain that was so abundant in '19 hardly showed itself last summer, and the muskrats wiped out what little there was. I'd like to see it come back.
Pickerel weed at my pond had a 50% come-back the first winter (maybe less), but those survivors have been reoccurring the last two springs. I think the trick is to get them established rather deep. My pond seems to get 10-12" of ice most years and I bet the PW established roots need to be a bit deeper than the ice gets. This year, the PW has been slow to show up and got hit by a couple of frosts. It's trying, but rather small so far....Fingers crossed for yours. The Thalia Dealbata (water canna???) is doing real well, however.
I am curious how your "yard iris" do at the pond. It's my assumption that the blue and yellow flag iris' are more adapted to being right at the water, whereas the common yard iris' may not like saturated soil...IDK.
I may hit you up for some buttonbush seed this year. I love that stuff and have none on my property.
I followed the destructions given by the nursery when I planted the pickerel weed. My pond was tip-top full when I set them out. By the end of last summer it was down a bit, and it stayed that way all winter. The pickeral weed was above the water line all winter. I bet it froze out.
The water in my pond has been much more turbid than usual this spring. It was looking nice early, but shortly after I started the aerator it began to get ugly.
Then a few days ago, Lamont's dim bulb got a little brighter. "Where's the float that you tied to the diffuser stand?" It's under water. Derp...
The stand had tipped over so the diffuser was laying in the mud on the bottom of the pond. I pulled it up, replaced the diffuser ring, replaced the pool noodle floats on top of the stand, and dropped it back in.
If the water doesn't start to clear up within a few days I'll shut the air pump down and give it some time to settle.
Surface temp is 72° F. The weather was hot and sunny for a change, so the wife and I took a swim after we finished our chores. We gave our Aussie pup her first swimming lesson. She likes the water, so it shouldn't take much time for her to get the hang of it.
Nope, she's a standard. Two weeks shy of six months and pushing 40lbs. One of the reasons I picked her was because she was the runt of the litter, but she has already outgrown that. Must be all of the Optimal she laps up when I'm feeding the fish. She loves that stuff.
I have a German shepherd that gets very vicious to the fish when I hand feed. When I go to get the food from a storage can on our fixed dock, he runs to the edge of the floating dock near where I throw the food and barks, growls, and froths at the mouth until I throw the food in. Then he dives off the dock and tries to eat all the food before the fish can get it. The fish have just learned to feed around him. The other 4 German shepherds just get excited and watch, although one of the females occasionally pushes him into the water before he is ready to dive in. Its all very strange but pretty consistent. I think this male just does not like fish eating what looks like small pellets of dog food. He does not do this with our other dogs and is normally well mannered. He even turns on his heel if called while chasing a varmint.
Our lab wasnt very happy that she couldn't catch the fish. I told her I understand lol. It waa feeding time. They were biting within a 2 feet of her and it was pissing her off. Animals can be so funny at times.
Added 105 pounds of red swamp crawfish to the pond. HEB had them left over from Memorial Day so I got them for $20. Put them in the shallow weedy areas. Dumb ones backswam out to open water where a school of LMB educated them. Hoping to get the RSC established but coons will probably have different goals. All in all - a lot of fun.
Had 7” rain last night, went to lake this morning to look at spillway culverts and remove log from in front of them, saw two 5# LMB guarding the exit..... saw a carp that was as long as my arm! How in the world did that thing get in there? Guess the same way as the bullhead cats ..... probably on fish truck in fatheads before I knew better. Oh well it’s a mutt pond anyway only thing not in there is GSF
The day before yesterday I went by the pond to make things ready for a fish delivery. When I walked on the dock I saw another gator at the pond. I am not sure the size of this one because he moved away from me. As he swam to the other side of the pond he left a large wake behind him. Might be the largest that has shown up over the past few years. For whatever reason, I have a gator showing up every year. Breeding season I am guessing. Yesterday we had to load delivered fish into my portable fish tank and take them to the pond behind my side by side. It is just too muddy for the delivery truck and I did not want to rut up my road with the heavy truck. We added 65 lbs of adult Tp and 1500 3 to 5" CNBG and 50 lbs of Fhm's. The minnows are to take the pressure off the spawning bg fry that was already in the pond.
Muddy water this spring. Diffuser stand had tipped over. Fixed that. Did a jar test. Didn't look terrible. After a week of sitting it looks like tap water. Well, tap water with bugs. Lots of teensy weensy little swimming critters. So I've shut off the air pump. Hopefully it will clear a bit over the next couple weeks. Only way to find out is to wait and see what happens.
Don't hold it against the guy who supplied your crawdads! My pond was around 18" visibility coming out of winter. The rains came, the crawdads got real active, and it's been at 10" visibility for a couple months now. I'm afraid my pond muddied up before I even turned on the air (mostly from inflow). Let us know if the absence of aeration calms it down.
I don't think it was the crayfish that kicked the diffuser stand over, so you're in the clear for now. lol
Coming out of winter the viz in mine was 4'-5'. When the monsoon came it turned to chocolate milk. It was starting to clear up, then I turned on the air. It's been a wreck ever since.
I've got room to create a small settling basin in the draw at the top of the pond. If it ever dries up enough to get in there. I don't think we've had even one ten day stretch of dry weather since late March.
Hopefully heading to my place later today. Dr. Appointment early. Anyway, we got another 1.7 inch rain and I just might be at full pool for the first time in years.
I've been experimenting, trying to figure out what it takes to catch my fish on artificial lures.
Mostly I've been doing this after the evening pellet fest is over. Yesterday I decided to try it in the middle of the pellet fest.
Put a brown grub body on a Trout Magnet jig head and it was on like Donkey Kong. Tried it under a 3/4" styrofoam float. Lot of swipes, but not many hook-ups. Dropped straight in and held still, wiggled a bit, or slow horizontal motion was the ticket. Red and black also caught a few, including the biggest, fattest RES I've yet seen. I threw a single barbless hook Rooster Tail knockoff a few times. Got one BG on that, but most strikes resulted in a miss.
I caught and transferred to the bait pond 18 5"-8" BG/HBG. Half a dozen over 8" went back in to grow. Caught one SMB, one HSB, and one ~12" YP.
I'm going to do this again, and be prepared with landing net, camera, ruler, and scales.
For the guys having the bottom stirred up from the diffusers try moving them off the bottom. I raised mine 21" and that stopped all those solids from being disturbed. I just built a table from wrought iron using the wielder. Made it in just a few minutes, after all, I did not care what it looked like it's underwater. It will also help to keep the pond's bottom a little cooler in the hot summer.
The day before yesterday I went by the pond to make things ready for a fish delivery. When I walked on the dock I saw another gator at the pond. I am not sure the size of this one because he moved away from me. As he swam to the other side of the pond he left a large wake behind him. Might be the largest that has shown up over the past few years. For whatever reason, I have a gator showing up every year. Breeding season I am guessing. Yesterday we had to load delivered fish into my portable fish tank and take them to the pond behind my side by side. It is just too muddy for the delivery truck and I did not want to rut up my road with the heavy truck. We added 65 lbs of adult Tp and 1500 3 to 5" CNBG and 50 lbs of Fhm's. The minnows are to take the pressure off the spawning bg fry that was already in the pond.
Have you feed trained the gators on cormorants & otters?
Spent a couple days at the pond with a friend. We harvested 18 LMB, now up to 203 for 2021. That's not counting sub 6 inchers, which we cut the tail & throw back to feed the bigguns. CNBG, HSB, LMB all active, and my friend even caught a rainbow trout. Their time is about up, I think.
Also opened up valve from forage pond to main BOW. Full of CNBG, ranging from 2 to 5 inches, poured into danger. One LMB caught near the valve actually spat up a 3 inch CNBG, likely from the uneducated forage population.
Multiple personal bests being set in CNBG, many over 1 pound. Still looking for 2 pounder, but may be next year before that happens.
A word to the wise: When you hire a power washer, be SURE to warn him not to power wash the feeder!
Still looking for a way to keep cool water fish going all year. Summer temps are okay below thermocline, but not DO levels. Nanobubbles don't do it, but I refuse to give up.
A word to the wise: When you hire a power washer, be SURE to warn him not to power wash the feeder!
Still looking for a way to keep cool water fish going all year. Summer temps are okay below thermocline, but not DO levels. Nanobubbles don't do it, but I refuse to give up.
Bummer, wet food or just all the decals blasted off?
One thing I haven't tried, but I heard one of Nate Herman's customers tried are Point Four micropore diffusers on the bottom of the pond in the deepest water and those hooked up to a Liquid O2 tank.....
If you adjust the O2 flow correctly, the O2 bubbles are all dissolved in the water before they move 4 feet.....
Saw something unusual. I hit a test throw on my TH feeder. Some of it landed on the edge of the pond next to me. I was watching fish feed and noticed small fish feeding at my feet. They were about 2 inch bluegills that would most likely have hatched in February. That doesn’t make much sense from a time standpoint.
BTW, I have more fish surviving than I thought. At first, after my green water turned brown, I saw 4 or 5 fish feeding. No more for a while. Now quite a bit more are coming to feed. Not like having enough fish but I’m wondering what is next.
BTW, bought and stocked 250 three to four inch bluegills today. That’s all I could get. And, as said, I have no idea what the real picture is at my place re fish. I keep seeing more when I feed.
I took a close look along the pond edges today, I have large numbers of daphnia and mixed in with some freshly hatched fry everywhere. I'm assuming the fry are GSH or RES as my redears are no longer on bedding in the shallow end. Some of the GSH I have been catching appear to have spawned, a few have them have been leaking eggs when squeezed. I've removed 53 large 6-7" GSH in the last week. Tadpoles of all sizes have been schooled up in large tight ball for the last several weeks, not sure what is going on them, they usually are scattered around the pond.
Soaked the lower unit of the TH feeder, along with all the pellets there. Smelly mess, jammed feeding mechanism. I called TH to see what they recommended & followed advice, but still have issues. We'll see.
This particular feeder has had multiple leaks along the seams last couple of years, so not a surprise power washing created problems. We've taped sides to keep water out, but it's getting to the point where it needs replacing even without power washing fiasco. If it can't be fixed, I have a replacement ordered. No real complaints, the internal guts are still going strong & nothing lasts forever.
Put in 1500+ Fatheads and 6 small pallets roped together. Only had 20 floaters which a couple of crows snacked on. I did notice fresh coon tracks near the pond; probably looking for the frogs creating the tadpoles around the perimeter. Will be putting in more habitat this week.
Haven't noticed much clearing of the water since I turned the air off. No surprise really, considering how much the bottom is being stirred up by the dogs playing. I'm starting to think that the cloudy water isn't necessarily a bad thing. I haven't had to use a drop of algaecide this spring because the FA has been nonexistent. The water is teeming with copepods, and there are thousands of grass shrimp in spite of a virtually complete lack of rooted vegetation.
Over the past two weeks Booger the Aussie pup has taught herself to swim. She isn't brave enough yet to jump off the dock with the Doberman, but she will swim from shore to the middle of the pond to fetch her ball. It took a whole summer to get the Doberman to that point.
I checked water temp yesterday at 5:00pm. 80.2° F on top, 63.4° F at 8'. I'm going to leave the air off for now and continue to monitor.
Spent a few minutes dipping the Trout Magnet, and got some weights and measures. Didn't hook any of the jumbo sunfish, but there's always another day. Put another half dozen <8" BG in the cage for transfer to the bait pond. BG 8" 7.87oz BG 8" 7.94oz HSB 9.5" 7oz HSB 11.5" 13.5oz RES 7" 5.4oz SMB 9.5" 5.5oz
Mrs. Augie has been wanting to go native in her aquarium, so I grabbed the pool skimmer net, made one quick swipe on top of the rocks near the dock, and hit the jackpot. 50-ish newly spawned GAMs, 1/2" or so in size, half a dozen grass shrimp, and three baby crayfish that might go 1/2". I had a pair of ~3" YP in the Z trap, but she said no to those. She doesn't want all of her new baby GAMs to be wiped out.
Catching those teensy crayfish reminded me that it's time to try bouncing a 1" rubber crayfish on a 1/32oz jig head through the rip-rap.
Put in 1500+ Fatheads and 6 small pallets roped together. Only had 20 floaters which a couple of crows snacked on. I did notice fresh coon tracks near the pond; probably looking for the frogs creating the tadpoles around the perimeter. Will be putting in more habitat this week.
Wish I'd put in a bunch of pallets when stocked fatheads! Smart move.
Great report! Sounds like you've established a terrific food chain, Augie. I tried stocking a thousand grass shrimp, but couldn't get them to establish despite having some pondweeds.
My only problem with the Texas Hunter has been leaks on the side windows. That caused feed to clump up and wound up sticking in the throwing wheel. That burnt up the motor. I’ve caulked it several times.
Augie, I wonder what it is about your water chemistry that keeps the shrimp thriving? I tried on a couple of occasions and can't seem to keep the shrimp going. I'm looking for a supplier to see if a larger starting dose might help them survive. I'd like to study water chemistry though and see if that is what is the thing that stops my success.
I have no idea why the grass shrimp are doing so well in my pond. I bought a 20-pack from the ebay dude and dumped em in. Now there are thousands of them. The Virile crayfish that came from QA's pond are indeed that, and to my thinking, are the main reason that my RES are in such good shape.
Went back and did the Wr calculations on the fish I measured the other day. The BG were both 110%+ The RES was 125%+ The HSB were both 100%+ The SMB, on the other hand, would seem to be about half starved to death, although he looked to me like he was in good shape. I suppose it's possible that I recorded the weight incorrectly.
Finding Wr calculator spreadsheets made that super easy. Those will be a great tool to track what's happening in the pond in the years to come.
Augie, Can you tell us anything about water quality, ph, hardness, alkalinity etc? Did you ever get a basic pool water quality kit and test?
I have tried to stock crayfish and they don't show up in traps. I caught some on the edges looking like they were trying to flee by land!! I wonder if they want a certain water ph/hardness/calcium content to thrive.
I bought 2 shipments of shrimp from the ebay dude, the first one got lost in transit during COVID and arrived with most dead. The seller very nicely agreed to replace once weather and COVID cooperated. I put that batch in later in the fall and still no real survival that I can see.
I have a lot more FA that they can hide in so I might try one more shipment but would be happy to pay you or some other pond boss meister who may have scads of them and be willing to help
Took the pool test kit out to the pond this morning.
Total alkalinity >150ppm Total hardness >500 The HTH didn't specify unit of measure, but according to their chart it is very high. Ph 7.5
I've put ~125 ton of crushed limestone in the pond since I cleaned it out. It also gets the runoff from ~500ft of the lane to my house. Most years it takes ~50 ton of inch-base crushed limestone added to that section to keep it in good shape. Every time it rains hard enough to run off the pond gets a dose of ag lime.
Alkalinity of 150 is good. Hardness of 500 is odd with that alkalinity. See PB mag new issue for article by Prof. Clyde Boyd - the authority on water quality.
I'm not convinced that pool test kits are completely accurate when testing pond water. There's a lot of stuff in pond water that isn't present in a properly maintained swimming pool.
The natural soil Ph here ranges 5.8-6.5. My property is on the low end of that range.
Caught 10 BCP from neighbors pond . 13-15” and transferred to my pond. Hope they are to big for the LMB to eat..... I’ll keep trying to get a catchable number in my pond again
Last evening in pond #2 which is currently low and void of vegetation because of grass carp, we added some cedar trees to the shallows for hiding for smaller fish.
Took the pool test kit out to the pond this morning.
Total alkalinity >150ppm Total hardness >500 The HTH didn't specify unit of measure, but according to their chart it is very high. Ph 7.5
I've put ~125 ton of crushed limestone in the pond since I cleaned it out. It also gets the runoff from ~500ft of the lane to my house. Most years it takes ~50 ton of inch-base crushed limestone added to that section to keep it in good shape. Every time it rains hard enough to run off the pond gets a dose of ag lime.
Wow, Augie! Even with liming, my total alkalinity & hardness are in mid 40s.
Had my BOW mapped today, DO levels to be measured Monday. pH 7.6, which is fine, alkalinity/hardness in mid to upper 30s. I was told this was acceptable level for east Texas, no need to lime this year. Good, because I limed just last fall! Sigh.
Bushy pondweed making a comeback as I have not been able to establish a good bloom despite 90 lb of fertilizer. Weeds cover only ten percent of lake, probably more a plus than minus considering I don't have a lot of natural cover. Despite stocking 100 lb of TP, lots of green (not neon) algae, which is probably fine for YOY fish. I was a bit surprised to discover that my max depths were 25 to 26 feet, not 20.
My new TH feeder came & I'm excited to replace my old stinky one on the dock. Feed has been leaking out internally, not just clumping, so it is time to make a change.
Tidbit: CNBG still taking feed eagerly in 85.5 degree water, but LMB and HSB didn't show. Maybe early morning or late night feeding with lower water temps might help the big guys? I really wish someone would do a scientific study on this strategy.
I have found out that the fish feed the best during low light conditions or low sun angles, even better if there is shade on the water. I have the TH feeder set to feed 45 min to an hour after sunrise and about the same time before sunset. If I throw feed at noon I still have a feed response, but nowhere near as good as early/late.
I have found out that the fish feed the best during low light conditions or low sun angles, even better if there is shade on the water. I have the TH feeder set to feed 45 min to an hour after sunrise and about the same time before sunset. If I throw feed at noon I still have a feed response, but nowhere near as good as early/late.
Re the short time after sunrise, you obviously aren't concerned with low DO levels? I have heard people warn against very early feeding for this reason.
I have found out that the fish feed the best during low light conditions or low sun angles, even better if there is shade on the water. I have the TH feeder set to feed 45 min to an hour after sunrise and about the same time before sunset. If I throw feed at noon I still have a feed response, but nowhere near as good as early/late.
Re the short time after sunrise, you obviously aren't concerned with low DO levels? I have heard people warn against very early feeding for this reason.
Nah, the sun is coming up, even if the O2 is a bit low it will be climbing as more sun hits the water. Most of the ponds that are fed are also aerated, so that mitigates most of the O2 swings.
Got on a 4 wheeler and went to closest pond. Hit a 2 second test throw and watched it. Then went to back pond, a mile away, and tossed out a big coffee can of feed. Saved some to feed the bg/gsf in the creek.
And then the humidity hit. Not fun. Headed back to home in the D/FW area and stayed inside.
Let us know if the absence of aeration calms it down.
After a week of no aeration there was a noticeable improvement in water clarity. It isn't clear by any stretch of the imagination, but it is naked-eye double what it was before.
That said, I started a slow-roll restart on Friday. Two reasons I can think of to do that... daytime air temps have snapped off into the 90°s and will mostly be that way through September, and there has been no FA present. I haven't needed to use a single drop of algaecide this year. Coincidence? Maybe. But it seems like a good trade to me.
Yes! I figured that out! It's embarrassing but I went to PETSMART and bought every minnow (Ruby) that they had! I put them in two months ago, and they are still there! That's a win! Now there is a lot more wildlife but I am getting weeds so my new concern is putting something n for weeds that is safe for wildlife! I was sort of wondering why we don't all put crawfish in as well?
Will, the bushy pondweed is back. Just two weeks ago i saw very little Southern Naid in the pond and then went out day before yesterday made a cast and hooked up with a nice 3lb lmb. It got hung up but got it in and the fish was covered up in the weed. This just sucked, i hate the weed it is just hard to control at my pond. I am going back in a day or so and add some Aquathol super K to the area. Keeping my fingers crossed plans are to make it around in the boat and see just how bad it is. Even with grass carp 15 added last year and with Sonar treatment that crap is still there. I just can't get a handle on how many carp survived the Texas freeze and apparently i must not have added enough Sonar or it was diluted back by all the rain we got this spring. A good note was the lmb was fat and healthy even better than I expected post-spawn.
Will, the bushy pondweed is back. Just two weeks ago i saw very little Southern Naid in the pond and then went out day before yesterday made a cast and hooked up with a nice 3lb lmb. It got hung up but got it in and the fish was covered up in the weed. This just sucked, i hate the weed it is just hard to control at my pond. I am going back in a day or so and add some Aquathol super K to the area. Keeping my fingers crossed plans are to make it around in the boat and see just how bad it is. Even with grass carp 15 added last year and with Sonar treatment that crap is still there. I just can't get a handle on how many carp survived the Texas freeze and apparently i must not have added enough Sonar or it was diluted back by all the rain we got this spring. A good note was the lmb was fat and healthy even better than I expected post-spawn.
Depending on how much water entered the pond in the first 3 weeks after applying the Sonar, it could have diluted it. Talk to your pond guy, he can send a water sample out to SePro for a FAST Test at week 2 to have them determine if the Fluridone has been diluted, and if it has, how much to add to bring it back up to the correct level.
What was the water temp when the Sonar was added to the pond?
Thanks esshup. Water temp? With my CRS I don't recall offhand, but am thinking it was in the 60s based on the time of year i added it. So, now my surface temp is in the mid 80's and I figure I am in the treat small areas at a time. I already have a bag of aquathol K but not sure what I will use after it is gone.
Went out in the boat and spot treated about 1/2 acre with Aquathol Super K for the Southern Niad that is still in the pond. Also discovered the aeration had gone down because the elec breaker had tripped. So it had been a week since i last saw it up and running. I have been in Venice La Red Fishing all week. Restarted the aeration with the usual startup plans. I hate that.
Sweated in the sun today. Cleared out defective feeder, assembled new TH feeder as replacement, filled with feed.
Around noon, almost zero feeding reaction from LMB or HSB. CNBG still willing to eat, however. Pond level lowest it's been in many months, maybe four inches below full pool of ten days ago.
We took considerable time cooling off & drinking lots of fluids after efforts. Hot!
After some hard rains overnight, about 3 1/2 to 5 inches depending on where you live, went out and caught a few CC and BG, probably lost as many CC as we caught, they are doing good and getting bigger by the day, landed two that were three+ lbs apiece, 1 was 3lb and 2 oz and the other was 3 lbs and 1 oz and another just under 3, am definitely going to have to take some better gear out there, its about 25 miles from home so I don't leave my best gear there in case its stolen but definitely am going to have to upgrade a few things, these suckers have some fight and know where the brush is. a lot of fun though even though Im not that much of a catfisher man other then on the river, and some superb eating. Their stomachs were loaded with crawfish, although my pond is loaded with baitfish, a gazillion of them, but did not find any baitfish in them, only crawdads, only one had signs of fish food in him, I do have one feeder where I have it going off once a day for 8 seconds but that doesn't go very far in a big pond, they have it all cleaned up in under a minute. pleased with results so far, also caught one LMB that was stocked as fingerlings last fall and he was a good 8 inches long and super fat.
Great report. I personally think that fish who've been on a crawfish or crab diet taste better than those that eat mostly other fish. Part of that might be my Louisiana roots, however.
Great report. I personally think that fish who've been on a crawfish or crab diet taste better than those that eat mostly other fish. Part of that might be my Louisiana roots, however.
Caught and saw LMB of all sizes for the 1st time!! Caught a 18 inch 3.2 pounder. Caught a 10 inch lmb. Saw a school of about 6 lmb that were only about 4 inch long. And I hooked up with a huge lmb that I couldn't even turn before she threw the bait back at me!! Visibility is still about 30 inch on secchi dish. And my new burmuda grass seed has sprouted and growing strong!! Caught lots of 9 inch cnbg but must admit they look a little skinny. I now have thousands of those "shiners" minnows all over the pond and lmb busting all along the banks edge! Had grandkids over and they had a blast. Nice to be able to see fish in the water. Still not running aeriation and pond is in best shape it has ever been! Very active pond!! Pond is about 4-6 inch low right now.
After some hard rains overnight, about 3 1/2 to 5 inches depending on where you live, went out and caught a few CC and BG, probably lost as many CC as we caught, they are doing good and getting bigger by the day, landed two that were three+ lbs apiece, 1 was 3lb and 2 oz and the other was 3 lbs and 1 oz and another just under 3, am definitely going to have to take some better gear out there, its about 25 miles from home so I don't leave my best gear there in case its stolen but definitely am going to have to upgrade a few things, these suckers have some fight and know where the brush is. a lot of fun though even though Im not that much of a catfisher man other then on the river, and some superb eating. Their stomachs were loaded with crawfish, although my pond is loaded with baitfish, a gazillion of them, but did not find any baitfish in them, only crawdads, only one had signs of fish food in him, I do have one feeder where I have it going off once a day for 8 seconds but that doesn't go very far in a big pond, they have it all cleaned up in under a minute. pleased with results so far, also caught one LMB that was stocked as fingerlings last fall and he was a good 8 inches long and super fat.
Have you noticed your CC getting hook shy or stop biting after you catch one? And thanks for mentioning the crayfish consumption, I was contemplating adding them to my Catfish pond, but wasn't sure how'd they do, and if they'd overpopulate without any LMB.
I got my DR brush mower running and mowed back of the dam as well as the inside of the pond, I mean hole. 15 months in and just now starting to get it reworked.
New feeder working fine. Friend & his ten year old grandson fished with success on a relatively mild day for this time of year, had a lot of fun. Kept one 9 inch bluegill for the table, along with half a dozen undersize LMB. Caught & released several giant CNBG, including my PB female.
TP were thick at the feeders, something I had not observed in previous years. Several had quite beautiful rose-tipped fins. Hope they make lots of babies for LMB & HSB to dine upon!
Bushy pondweed growing fast now, shallow areas are getting tough to fish. Despite 90 lbs of fertilizer earlier in the year, water clarity around 40 inches. May have to call for herbicide treatment again, though I don't really want to do so.
How'd the red fishing go? I love to eat them grilled on the half shell!
We fished for Bull Reds and they were hard to land when fishing in shallows where they would head to the brush and get off. But they are a blast to hook up on light tackle. It's like hang on Bro! Frank, sorry to hear about you fighting the BPW again. I am not sure I can let any of it get started back because it is so invasive and will flat out take over the pond and cause a fish kill. I used a sk of Aquathol super k for spot treating right now, I just hope it works. After using Sonar to kill it off or in an attempt to kill it off I was told no other plant will grow in the treated water to take up the nutrients. And I would love to get my APW back up and growing. I also found two large Red Swamp crawfish from under the boat. When I moved the boat from the shoreline and into the water. I always look to see what is under the boat and being careful when I move it because snakes like to rest under the boat and I don't like snakes. I did like seeing the crawfish because it has been around 2 yrs since I last added any to the pond
Caught a bunch of catfish and transported them to a neighbor's pond. Getting ready to pump the rest of the water out before it dries up.pond was built in 73 and has never gone dry. I guess it's a good excuse to remove the muck(6') from the pond and recompact it
Caught a bunch of catfish and transported them to a neighbor's pond. Getting ready to pump the rest of the water out before it dries up.pond was built in 73 and has never gone dry. I guess it's a good excuse to remove the muck(6') from the pond and recompact it
Just one word of advice: Remove the muck when it's dry. Otherwise it is very heavy & requires a lot more work & money to get rid of. Might be good garden soil, too.
How'd the red fishing go? I love to eat them grilled on the half shell!
We fished for Bull Reds and they were hard to land when fishing in shallows where they would head to the brush and get off. But they are a blast to hook up on light tackle. It's like hang on Bro! Frank, sorry to hear about you fighting the BPW again. I am not sure I can let any of it get started back because it is so invasive and will flat out take over the pond and cause a fish kill. I used a sk of Aquathol super k for spot treating right now, I just hope it works. After using Sonar to kill it off or in an attempt to kill it off I was told no other plant will grow in the treated water to take up the nutrients. And I would love to get my APW back up and growing. I also found two large Red Swamp crawfish from under the boat. When I moved the boat from the shoreline and into the water. I always look to see what is under the boat and being careful when I move it because snakes like to rest under the boat and I don't like snakes. I did like seeing the crawfish because it has been around 2 yrs since I last added any to the pond
Awesome fun! I caught a 10 lb red on a fly once and it was the best flyrod fight of my life. Those 30 & 40 lb bulls must have been fantastic!
Re the bushy pond devil weed, I'm in the same boat. After killing it last year, it didn't come back early, so I thought it would be okay. Silly me! If it would just stop growing right now, it would be beneficial, but I know from sad experience that won't happen in my rather clear BOW.
Maybe I should let it go & put in my 24 permitted grass carp. They won't control it now, but next year will help. Don't want to keep using herbicide annually if I can help it.
Anthropic yes I agree I have been dredging it out for years with a trash pump. Very slow process. Now I am using my excavator to put out what I can reach set the muck on the dry soil around the pond with our dry conditions and heat it is manageable after only a few days. It will be different when I have access to the whole bottom of the pond
Purple Santa dropped off a bag of Optimal Bass formula yesterday. The HSB that I stocked last fall are pellet hogs, so I thought it might be worthwhile to offer a larger pellet to them. They took to it immediately, as did some of the larger BG and RES.
Got a toad-strangler rain overnight. Pond is full to overflowing again.
That toad strangler is headed this way, just in time for shocking a pond with the Herman Brothers today...... I am putting a change of clothes in the truck just in case the rain suit doesn't do it's job.
I went and laid on the dock this afternoon and marveled at the huge number of fry currently in the pond, I'm not sure if I've ever seen anything like it. Three and half weeks ago I had a huge daphnia hatch, daphnia everywhere within 18" of the edge of the pond, this was followed by huge golden shiner hatch. The GSH fry that hatched in early June are already pushing 1"+, a few are already 1-1/4", the early hatch GSH are intermixed with new GSH fry that have hatched in the last few days. The number of daphnia seen along the edge of the pond has been significantly reduced in the last two weeks.
Underneath the dock in the shade there were hundreds of freshly hatched RES fry that are noticeably lighter colored and deeper bodied that the GSH fry. I went and grabbed a fine mesh dip net and ran it next to the dock for 10-15 seconds and pulled up 30-40 RES fry that were 9-12mm in length, these were the smallest RES I've ever sampled. The large number of fry likely has to do with removing 375 large golden shiners in the last 10 months out of my 1/4 acre pond. Last August-September I removed 308 GSH, and then another 67 in late May/early June, that's roughly 1500/GSH per acre in mostly in the 6" to 6-1/2" size range. I should see some good growth rates on my RES and SMB, I can tell you that the fishing has become extremely tough in last couple of weeks.
I loved reading your updates on your GSH Eradication thread. It's crazy how many adult shiners you had in a quarter acre pond. I bet all your other fish feel like they can breathe again. That's an incredible amount of biomass you freed up for other fish to grow.
.... The large number of fry likely has to do with removing 375 large golden shiners in the last 10 months out of my 1/4 acre pond. Last August-September I removed 308 GSH, and then another 67 in late May/early June, that's roughly 1500/GSH per acre in mostly in the 6" to 6-1/2" size range. I should see some good growth rates on my RES and SMB, I can tell you that the fishing has become extremely tough in last couple of weeks.
I concur with your take on this Shorty. I guess it is too early since restocking to have harvested any RES but at some point harvest of RES could help to increase YOY production in years going forward.
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I loved reading your updates on your GSH Eradication thread. It's crazy how many adult shiners you had in a quarter acre pond. I bet all your other fish feel like they can breathe again. That's an incredible amount of biomass you freed up for other fish to grow.
At standard weights ... Shorty has removed around 115 lbs/acre. This is very meaningful and I definitely agree that YOY production has been boosted considerably by the action.
Photo from my back deck and from down inside the pit. It’s hard to judge on how big it’ll be, somewhere between a quarter and half acre. I’m hoping for closer to a half. The guy’s also gonna dig me a small sediment/bait pond to go with it. Probably another week or two and it’ll be done! Still working on burning that pile of stumps in the middle. They take forever…
Looking good! You might want to consider pushing the excess stumps into a good area & depth for cover, rather than burning them. Depends on your goals, of course, but I wish I'd done more of that at my place!
Gizzard Shad, Common Carp and some species of suckers. The turkey vultures gotta eat too!
esshup, did u drag a net, electroshock? Removed from what size pond? Personal pond or one of your customer ponds? Pond goals? Tell us more, like why now? water temps? If i understand it correctly, down here water temps are too high for seining because it would stress out the fish I want to keep in the pond?
I added a half bale of Alfalfa to the pond to see if it would get a bloom going. It worked the first time I ever added it to the pond water.
I had Nate Herman come over with his electroshock boat. It was the soonest he could make it with his busy schedule. Customers pond right next to a creek that overflowed into it in 2017 when the creek rose 15 feet. 3 acre pond, was a sand/gravel pit in the 70's. Steep sides, water only fluctuates about a foot if there is no flooding due to the sandy ground. Goals are to grow bigger panfish. The biggest BG we saw were males on beds and they were 5" long. Gizzard Shad, Suckers, Common Carp. Water temps are in the low to mid 70's. LMB were all 110-130 RW, biggest we shocked up was about 2.5#. Very few Crappie seen, both White/Black are in there. Shocked up 9 Pumpkinseeds too. Roughly 15 gallons of Gizzard Shad, all about 8"-9" long - bigger than the bass could eat except for 1 that we shocked up. Only one 6" common carp, so at least the bass are keeping their numbers down.
Goal for the e-shock was to see what's in the pond to get a plan to move forward. Push the reset button? Deal with what's there? Customer bought the place about 7 years ago and has done a LOT of projects around there, now it's time to focus on the pond. He built up a berm and put in a flash board riser system, so the creek wouldn't back up into the pond unless he had a LOT of rain. That 2017 flood was supposedly a 500 year rain event.
Well, the next morning (yesterday) he sent me a few pictures. Creek rose a BUNCH over night and flooded into the pond again. Pond rose 4' overnight..... So that makes writing the report and a plan for the future easier. He had about 5" of rain in the span of a few hours and the approx. 600 ac watershed that feeds the creek upstream from his place was too much for the berm. It doesn't help that upstream there is less and less farmground and more and more sub divisions going in, so that means more runoff into the creek.
Looking good! You might want to consider pushing the excess stumps into a good area & depth for cover, rather than burning them. Depends on your goals, of course, but I wish I'd done more of that at my place!
Not a bad idea. Will it affect the water if the stumps are partially burnt?
Today I was looking out the window while talking on the phone and had to cut the call short as I could see a great blue heron standing on my floating island trying to gulp down something way too big to swallow.
I ran the stinking bird off, hopped in my boat, paddled out to the island only to recover a dying 10.25" female BG. Man, was I mad. I didn't know any of my females had achieved that size. The thieving birds are welcome to snatch some smaller BG. Why would they kill and try to gag themselves on a fish so large that it would surely choke them to death! Perhaps a full choked wild turkey load directed at their head and neck region would save them from a slow, painful death of strangulation by over sized forage consumption.
4Corners, I've had a similar experience. Went down the dock & discovered a really large CNBG, 10 inches plus, that had been speared & regurgitated, left to die. I don't really mind herons taking a few smaller fish, but not this.
Probably about a month ago I found one of my LMB that I stocked last spring, up on the bank with a spear hole. It was a really nice fish, 12" > and fat. Kind of made me sick to see it go to waste.
Most of Misery has been monsooned over the last several days. 5.5" rainfall at my place Wednesday/Thursday last week, much more to the north and west of here. Friday brought the coup de grace - 3.5" in 45 minutes.
The Missouri River at Jeff City went from 9' to 25' in 24 hours. It leveled off ~25.5', but it rained again most of last night and is still raining this morning. There was no time to move machinery etc. out of the river and creek bottoms. Any flooding is bad. Flash flooding is worse.
I spent most of the weekend repairing the lane to my house. I knew the pond drain was going to cause problems after a heavy rainfall, and I'd gotten started working on it, but I was too slow. The overflow got up onto the lane and cut it to base rock. Another spot above the pond is on a very slight incline, but long, ~400'. One track of that was cut to the base rock for 200' or so. I was fortunate to have ~35 ton of inch-base crushed limestone on hand, so was able to make some good progress towards getting the lane back in shape. I'll need another 50 ton or so to make it right.
6/25/21
6/27/21
There's a decent size willow tree down in the pond. It's rooted on neighbor guy's side of the fence on the back side of his pond dam. No way to get a machine in there to drag it out without causing a lot of damage, so I'll have to tie it off on my side of the fence, cut it, then drag it out with the tractor. It will be awhile before it's dry enough to get on the pond dam with a tractor.
The creek totally inundated my bait pond. It was 3' under by the time the rain stopped Friday evening. Went back there with a can of pellets yesterday evening and was pleasantly surprised to find some of the BG/HBG stayed home during the flooding.
No worries with the dam on either pond. Main pond spillway is on grade and gets away from the dam quickly.
Bait pond is a dugout, with just a low berm. It has developed a good turf since I built it. Didn't take any damage. Creek was on it for about three hours.
I had Nate Herman come over with his electroshock boat. It was the soonest he could make it with his busy schedule. Customers pond right next to a creek that overflowed into it in 2017 when the creek rose 15 feet. 3 acre pond, was a sand/gravel pit in the 70's. Steep sides, water only fluctuates about a foot if there is no flooding due to the sandy ground. Goals are to grow bigger panfish. The biggest BG we saw were males on beds and they were 5" long. Gizzard Shad, Suckers, Common Carp. Water temps are in the low to mid 70's. LMB were all 110-130 RW, biggest we shocked up was about 2.5#. Very few Crappie seen, both White/Black are in there. Shocked up 9 Pumpkinseeds too. Roughly 15 gallons of Gizzard Shad, all about 8"-9" long - bigger than the bass could eat except for 1 that we shocked up. Only one 6" common carp, so at least the bass are keeping their numbers down.
Goal for the e-shock was to see what's in the pond to get a plan to move forward. Push the reset button? Deal with what's there? Customer bought the place about 7 years ago and has done a LOT of projects around there, now it's time to focus on the pond. He built up a berm and put in a flash board riser system, so the creek wouldn't back up into the pond unless he had a LOT of rain. That 2017 flood was supposedly a 500 year rain event.
Well, the next morning (yesterday) he sent me a few pictures. Creek rose a BUNCH over night and flooded into the pond again. Pond rose 4' overnight..... So that makes writing the report and a plan for the future easier. He had about 5" of rain in the span of a few hours and the approx. 600 ac watershed that feeds the creek upstream from his place was too much for the berm. It doesn't help that upstream there is less and less farmground and more and more sub divisions going in, so that means more runoff into the creek.
Thanks for the information esshup. I'm a bit nosey and was curious after seeing all those fish on the ground. Hay! With the description, you made then maybe it might drum up some more ponds to look over. That's assuming you want more to take care of
I made it out to the pond yesterday morning to ck on the aeration and ck the feeders. I did a little lmb fishing and was pleased with what I caught. Four different sizes all of them fat and healthy. Have not seen any of the recently added HSB but I am sure they are around. Way happier than last year's June/July disaster.
My brother visited & we fished for about 90 minutes. He caught his personal best CNBG, BG, and LMB -- all on a fly. Relatively cool weather after rains this morning really helped, I was so happy for my bro to enjoy his time. He'll be back!
It's been a crazy week here Bobbss. It rained all of Sunday night and didn't quit until around lunchtime yesterday, then it started back up around 6:00pm and rained all night last night. From the looks of the radar screen there's more on the way.
I've been doing my no-rain rain dance but it isn't working.
On the bright side, my road repairs and pond drain expansion seem to be working. For now anyway.
Had the grandkids up at the pond over the weekend. New pond SMB record. 18.5” and 3.5 lbs. this appears to be the plateau for my SMB, because we have caught several about the same size the last few years.
We also caught a HSB! First one for our pond. We stocked 25 back in Oct of 2015, but had zero survive. Tried again last fall with 20 more. They apparently have survived and are doing well. We are catching lots of very small YP. Not many keepers. Hope they continue to grow.
I'm hearing that Golden Shiners are edible, and people cook them like they would a Smelt -- Beheaded, gutted, and fried whole. Maybe Shorty will give it a go, and report back. You know, for science.
I'm hearing that Golden Shiners are edible, and people cook them like they would a Smelt -- Beheaded, gutted, and fried whole. Maybe Shorty will give it a go, and report back. You know, for science.
No! I'm not a big fish eater, let alone shiners. One of my dog likes eating them whole, raw, and and still flopping, she thinks they are great.
We are still catching a lot of golden shiners. The smaller ones we rig up and use for SMB. The larger ones get chopped up with the small HBG and tossed out for the HSB.
SetterGuy, I know it was frustrating to never be able to catch one of your original HSB stockers, but what a great thing to be able to say that this time around they are alive and kicking! Post pictures when you can and I'm thrilled for you.
It is strange that your YP aren't reproducing and the next generation growing up. I too seem to have very little survival of the YOY YP in the last 2 years and despite an over abundance of egg strands this spring, cannot find the typical small YP on the bottom in the shallows like I used to see. I haven't see any baby or juvenile YP this year at all. I'm afraid the GSH that I have left are quite large and vacuuming up the YP fry as they swim up. I may have to just restock 4-5" YP at some point as my adult YP are getting 'long in the tooth'
we are catching very large GSH 7" or more on small hooks baited with corn or worms. If we could catch a bunch and save them they would make a great resale opportunity for large predator fisherman (catfish, northern pike, LMB, SMB) or the local baitshop.
We don't see any smaller GSH so hopefully the old females have become sterile.
I'm stunned by how many SFS babies we have this week. We got the monsoon rains (6-7" or so this past weekend) and the pond is up over the grass a couple feet into the front yard. The flooded grass unfortunately will die (again) and I'll have to reseed, but the tiny, tiny SFS babies are loving hanging out in the grass. My FA broke up and there are tons of floating small patches all over the pond. I'm leaving it for now as every floating patch is teeming with critters and the little minnows all have a place to hide out. The turtles even are climbing on top of the bigger floating patches and hanging out in the sun.
Still can't get them to go in traps so need to keep working on a way to sequester in a smaller holding cell (hopefully they will go in by themselves with attractant or something) and then would love to share this abundance with others. I was thinking that since they are strongly attracted to moving water and try to swim upstream in any current that I could maybe use a waterfall pump to pump a stream of water into a large plastic tote or water tank that is in the pond through a small opening. If they swim in on their own it might be easier to trap and net them out. I would try to seine them but they are the fastest fish I have ever seen so all I get is a big seine net full of mud and FA.
I only have a couple stacks of CDs for spawning structure no different than other years, but I also put in 4 fairly good tires horizontally under the deep end of some pallets this spring. I was hoping they might use the spaces left in the remaining tread lines on the tires to spawn in. Something went well this season!!
Others having bumper crops of FHM or SFS? With all the floating FA cover in the pond, and all the baby SFS for distraction for the predators (and the 4 new pallet structures) I was even thinking of trying another bag of FHMs. Before with hungry YP and no structure they never lasted but maybe... maybe this time we can establish some FHMs and get them to reproduce fast enough to stay ahead of the predators?
SetterGuy, your SMB must be growing like crazy with all those shiners!!
SetterGuy, I know it was frustrating to never be able to catch one of your original HSB stockers, but what a great thing to be able to say that this time around they are alive and kicking! Post pictures when you can and I'm thrilled for you.
It is strange that your YP aren't reproducing and the next generation growing up. I too seem to have very little survival of the YOY YP in the last 2 years and despite an over abundance of egg strands this spring, cannot find the typical small YP on the bottom in the shallows like I used to see. I haven't see any baby or juvenile YP this year at all. I'm afraid the GSH that I have left are quite large and vacuuming up the YP fry as they swim up. I may have to just restock 4-5" YP at some point as my adult YP are getting 'long in the tooth'
we are catching very large GSH 7" or more on small hooks baited with corn or worms. If we could catch a bunch and save them they would make a great resale opportunity for large predator fisherman (catfish, northern pike, LMB, SMB) or the local baitshop.
We don't see any smaller GSH so hopefully the old females have become sterile.
SetterGuy, your SMB must be growing like crazy with all those shiners!!
Thank you. It was a frustrating several years. Seeing all the pics and hearing the stories of folks catching HSB. Meanwhile we had seen zero. Well last year with Covid my son in law really fished hard. Caught countless SMB, and HBG. Still zero HSB. I finally threw in the towel. We had a lot of mortality with a several species of the original stocking. I am still not 100% sure I had zero HSB survive, but I’m 90% sure. Ha! The new ones appear to be doing well. I’ve got a few pics, but can’t get Photobucket to work any more. I guess I need to find another picture hosting service. The YP are funny. We were catching a lot of YP five years ago. But it seems like we have fewer and fewer every year. So I added 40 last fall when we stocked the HSB. I think a few of those, as small as they were produced some ribbons this spring. We are seeing a lot of little ones. I’m hoping they grow and reproduce next year. So I’m definitely keeping the feeder going. Im hoping also that the HSB will help with the explosion of HBG. That, and keeping every HBG caught might slow them down. Because I think the very high HBG numbers are what’s knocking down the YP survival. Two of the HBG we caught this last weekend were 1.5 lbs, and two of the SMB were over 3 lbs. We still do a lot of swimming in the pond, and the HBG strikes seemed reduced. Just maybe that’s due to the HSB. I am hoping anyway. Ha I may try stocking FHM again, but they were cleaned out pretty quickly when my HBG took off. I’m thinking I’d just be wasting resources. I’d sure like to add aeration some day. Maybe a solar package (affordable) will come along one of these days. Seems like prices are going in the other direction lately though. Good luck with your YP CC, they are still my favorites for the table.
We are still catching a lot of golden shiners. The smaller ones we rig up and use for SMB. The larger ones get chopped up with the small HBG and tossed out for the HSB.
Heck yeah, one of the huge advantages of having a predator fish that will eat cut bait. You never have to waste any fish by tossing them onto the bank. I can't wait to get some HSB in my pond.
Went and tried a new color jig tail first cast a small bass . Few cast later a3” warmouth! Guess the two I transferred in were male and female... then got broke off.... hmm
Caught a mess of CC again yest, kind of nice to go catch a meal of fish whenever one gets hungry for em, can't wait till my crappy get big enough to do that. The CC are definitely reproducing in my pond as I caught a few small fingerling sized ones which couldn't be from my stocking 2 yrs ago, I did catch one that weighed in at 3.28 lbs which is the biggest one yet, I feed sparingly, for about 8 seconds a day with one feeder which doesn't go very far in a 15 acre pond, just a sampling, and they clean it all up in under a minute, they fight over it so none of them get anywhere near full. my CC are always stuffed with crawdads, even tho they have an unending supply of minnows to eat, I do notice tho when the feeder goes off and the CCs show up the BG and other minnows stay away from them, they feed further out, the BG and minnows fight for the feed closer to the bank and cover. I am impatiently waiting till google maps update their pics so I can measure the actual size of the pond, the most recent pics they have are when the trees were partially cleared and the tractors and scrapers were parked onsite getting ready to go to work 2 1/2 yrs ago, my guestimation is from the aerial photo topo maps.
We are still catching a lot of golden shiners. The smaller ones we rig up and use for SMB. The larger ones get chopped up with the small HBG and tossed out for the HSB.
Heck yeah, one of the huge advantages of having a predator fish that will eat cut bait. You never have to waste any fish by tossing them onto the bank. I can't wait to get some HSB in my pond.
Steve, you've observed HSB eating cut bait? I have HSB, but didn't realize they'd do that.
Frank, I would think that any predator, (e g LMB and/or HSB) that was already trained on the lumps would also take cut bait. Try introducing when you feed the lumps. Throw a couple of lumps to get their saliva flowing and then throw the cut bait. They'll learn ... I am sure of it ... even though I don't have a pond or any experience with it.
Frank, I would think that any predator, (e g LMB and/or HSB) that was already trained on the lumps would also take cut bait. Try introducing when you feed the lumps. Throw a couple of lumps to get their saliva flowing and then throw the cut bait. They'll learn ... I am sure of it ... even though I don't have a pond or any experience with it.
Good idea, I'll try it in the fall when the HSB come back to the feeders. Sometimes I'll cut the tail off small LMB & put them back in the water, but I like this idea as well. I'll bet LMB will soon learn to join in the fun too.
Wanted to let any and all people that follow this that TJ has helped me tremendously with our farm pond (just dug in March 2019). He took time to call me twice and explain the evaporation vs. an actual leak. As Kentucky is in the middle of a drought and I am only losing about 1 1/2 inches per week he has advised to wait the drought out and see if the pond level starts back up. He said it might just be a small leak but he was siding on evaporation. I did mention to him that I was considering digging a well close to the pond to keep the level of the pond consistent no matter what the problem (drought, leak, or evaporation). He gave me some excellent advise on digging the well and what to expect. Great wealth of knowledge. Thanks TJ.
Put crown vetch / annual ryegrass around 1/2 the pond and covered with landscape netting. Took some lily pads, arrowroot and other plants from local ponds and will finish planting them tomorrow.
Lots of chainsawing, chaining up trees, and pulling put with the tractor. We had 80 mph straight line winds come through. I must have over 100 trees down. Many are over 100 yrs old. Worked all day yesterday and have one trail to the pond open. The long way around will take weeks. These are huge trees for my little saw and tractor. I’m retired, so taking a lot of breaks. No rush. Great exercise! No trees actually fell in the pond. The wind came in from the north, and that’s where the dam is. Looks like a tornado came through.
Lots of chainsawing, chaining up trees, and pulling put with the tractor. We had 80 mph straight line winds come through. I must have over 100 trees down. Many are over 100 yrs old. Worked all day yesterday and have one trail to the pond open. The long way around will take weeks. These are huge trees for my little saw and tractor. I’m retired, so taking a lot of breaks. No rush. Great exercise! No trees actually fell in the pond. The wind came in from the north, and that’s where the dam is. Looks like a tornado came through.
Friends of mine have a RV park up on the NE corner of Mark Twain lake area and they had RVs blown around, turned over and buildings down, looks like a mess, totaled quite a few RVs. we were pretty lucky here in central MO, lot less winds, just a few branches down.
There are a few big trees and a bunch of limbs down in my neighborhood, but we didn't get it anything like what happened up around MTL.
Got a big mulberry below the pond that's been leaning towards the arena fence for awhile. These past few weeks of saturated soils and heavy wind finally laid it down on top of the fence Friday night.
Yeah! I caught my first otter. It's been quite the year. Early round of blue/green algae, something eating my hybrid lily tubers, trapping beavers and nutria, and now otters. The thing I hate about it is that he was at my hatchery pond. I was growing out 20 7-10" HSB, and a load of very large CNBG for DD1. I'll seine next week, and see what's left. Good times.
Trying to get Photobucket to work. Finally got a few pics up. First is 7 yr old grandson with a SMB. Next is son in law holding first HSB ever caught on the pond. (Second attempt at stocking, this one was stocked last fall). And third pic is the mess I’m dealing with. Over 100 trees down due to 90 mph winds.
I'll bet your grandson had quite a fight with that SMB!
He did! He had the pond record for a day. His dad broke the record the next day. He’s a twin. His twin sister almost fishes as hard as he does. They were born during the initial excavation of our pond. Their mother (our daughter) was a little miffed at me for leaving their home and spending time at the pond site. Ha! She’s happy with it now.
I'll bet your grandson had quite a fight with that SMB!
He did! He had the pond record for a day. His dad broke the record the next day. He’s a twin. His twin sister almost fishes as hard as he does. They were born during the initial excavation of our pond. Their mother (our daughter) was a little miffed at me for leaving their home and spending time at the pond site. Ha! She’s happy with it now.
I'm so glad nobody told the twin sister that "girls aren't supposed to fish" or that fish are icky (whatever that means). Fishing is a wonderful sport for everybody!
So I had some time yesterday to do some fishing in the pond to evaluate whats there and how they were doing, caught a bunch of young LMB that were stocked in Oct of 2020, along with BC, have not been able to catch a single BC but the LMB that I caught are doing extremely well, full as a tick, I did however catch a three of the WE fingerlings that I just stocked this spring along with YP. the WE are growing really well to as far as I can tell, Ive never caught a WE I don't think, so don't know much about fishing for them, they were hitting on a Crappie jig in shallow water in a couple coves
Thanks Tracy. The one thing I’d still like to do, well there’s actually more than one, is to add a solar aeration system. I think the pond would benefit. I just haven’t pulled the trigger on a system. $$$$!
Pond was completed on Friday! Got some rain over the weekend and have about 2 ft of water in the bottom already. Put grass seed down over as much of it as I could. Raking hard-packed clay to get the grass seed to take wasn't fun, but I'm ready for it nonetheless!
Photos are of the "deep" end. At full pool, I'm estimating it will be between .3 and .4 acres.
Steve, looks great! Glad to see you got your pond! Are you going to try and get some FHM going soon?
You know, I was actually going to ask about that. I got at least 2-3' of water already in the deepest hole, maybe 30-40' across? Water is very turbid due to getting a rain storm the day after the pond was complete with all that exposed clay. Will FHM do ok in muddy water? I'd definitely like to get them started so I can stock it maybe later this fall if we get enough rain.
Steve, looks great! Glad to see you got your pond! Are you going to try and get some FHM going soon?
You know, I was actually going to ask about that. I got at least 2-3' of water already in the deepest hole, maybe 30-40' across? Water is very turbid due to getting a rain storm the day after the pond was complete with all that exposed clay. Will FHM do ok in muddy water? I'd definitely like to get them started so I can stock it maybe later this fall if we get enough rain.
I’m not an expert, and I only have one pond, but I stocked FHM with about the same exact water level and clay content when we built our pond. The next year there were millions. I did put in a lot of pallets (all from the excellent advice I received here). If I remember correctly, FHM like to lay eggs on the underside of flat surfaces. The pallets worked well.
Awesome, I'll try to get some from the bait shop this weekend. And of course, from the valuable advice here, will hand-check each one before stocking. The nearest fish hatchery is over an hour away, and it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to drive all that way for a pound or 2 of FHM when my puddle is this small and once they spawn a few times, that 2 dozen will quickly turn into hundreds, and then thousands.
I started mine with 5 dozen FHM and 3 dozen GSH from the bait shop, visibility was zero when they went in. I'm still working on getting the GSH under control.
I started mine with 5 dozen FHM and 3 dozen GSH from the bait shop, visibility was zero when they went in. I'm still working on getting the GSH under control.
Did your FHM take off like your GSH did? I'll probably add GSH too, as I plan on adding HSB at some point.
I got mine from the bait shop as well. I only wanted FHM but ended up with some GSH as well. I think I put 5 dozen in a couple of times and probably 6 weeks later they were everywhere.
We had an absolute deluge of rain this month (More than 7 inches!) that topped off the pond and then some. This opened up the option of FINALLY using the rest of my SoilFloc on my neighbor's pond and my pond. Absolutely no wind either day. Crossing my fingers and toes that it makes a difference as spot-treating feels like shooting blindfolded while on a Merry-Go-Round. However, the cloths I was wearing looked "interesting" when I cleaned up, like I got sneezed on by a sick dinosaur.
Otherwise have been so busy that I haven't fished, and only swam 3 times so far. The teenager has holed up in his room with friends on-line, and is near impossible to drag out. Good kid, but has low interest in outdoor things.
After the low water in winter tore the end segment of my dock out of it's footing, the dock is now a bit wobbly. The entire dock may need to come out and replaced by a pivot floater that can go up and down with the water level as the leak (if it still does after treatment) makes the dock look terrible as it sticks up like a sore thumb and only the last rung of the ladder is useful. I may pitch the buck and go aluminum if I can find a source (anyone?)
Checked on the grass seeding I did last weekend. I was pleasantly surprised to see 1-2" sprouts already after only 5 days, with no straw cover. I used a contractor's mix by Pennington, which I believe is a mix of perennial rye, annual rye and tall fescue. I used a stone rake to loosen the compacted clay on top of the dam and that seemed to be enough to get them started. Areas where I just tossed seed on the ground with no raking saw little to no germination, so I know what I'll be doing this weekend. More dreadful raking of compacted clay/soil. My blisters just healed from last weekend.
Steve, after all the trouble you had getting a pond, isn't it great to have these kind of problems for a change? Did you get some FHM yet?
Yes! I don't think I've ever watched the weather report as much as I have lately, lol. As much as I want rain to fill the pond, I really need to get all of this exposed clay covered with some vegetation, otherwise, I don't think my pond will ever clear up, and every rain will just make it worse. And I'm planning to take my son to the bait shop tomorrow and get some FHM and let him release them. He's just as excited as I am I think.
I’m with you Rah there is plenty to go around.... least for some birds...
I allow the Osprey and now the Bald Eagle to eat all they want. The herons? There is a no vacancy sign out for them.
Steve_, what about getting a self propelled rototiller to do the raking for you? I have one that goes on the back of my John Deere 342, it tills a 42" wide swath with every pass. The local rental yard has a JD tractor and 60" wide tiller that they rent for $300/day.
Steve_, what about getting a self propelled rototiller to do the raking for you? I have one that goes on the back of my John Deere 342, it tills a 42" wide swath with every pass. The local rental yard has a JD tractor and 60" wide tiller that they rent for $300/day.
I need to do something, because I have a LOT of exposed clay on steep sleeps and I’m just asking for major erosion problems. The pond guy said to throw down millet and said it would sprout in 2 days. For now, I laid down some brush around the perimeter to slow down the water flow.
Went to the bait shop for some FHM. They had “small, medium and large” which was a foreign concept to me in the minnow world. The last time I bought minnows was probably 20 years ago, and they sold them in 2 sizes, “perch minnows” and “bass minnows” which were FHM and GSH, respectively. Long story short, I bought 4 dozen of the small minnows @ $2/dozen. I get them home, and took a look at them, and they all appear to be small GSH. Insert face palm emoji here.
Kinda pointless to add GSH this late in the season, as I believe they only spawn in the spring. Looks like I might have to order my FHM from Amazon.
Steve If I’m not mistaken GSH spawn multiple times a year
It appears they begin spawning in the spring once water temps reach 68 and stop when they reach 81. Without a doubt my temps in my 2’ deep mud hole are higher than 81. Plus, I don’t really have any spawning habitat for GSH right now.
Steve_, if my memory serves me FHM stop brooding at 85 F, so the may not reproduce until mid to late September anyway. Just mention this because I think it would be OK to delay until you find a more reliable vendor for the species you want. Maybe fun to take a trip or you might could get a delivery where they drop them off or meet when going to another delivery.
Steve_, if my memory serves me FHM stop brooding at 85 F, so the may not reproduce until mid to late September anyway. Just mention this because I think it would be OK to delay until you find a more reliable vendor for the species you want. Maybe fun to take a trip or you might could get a delivery where they drop them off or meet when going to another delivery.
Yeah, that’s a good point. I got time to populate my pond with FHM before it gets too cold. I just REALLY want that done this year, so next spring there’ll be lots of food when I stock the real fish.
Steve, I think I only had about 3'-4' of water in mine when I first put the FHM in. I don't know what my water temp was but air temp pretty much stays at least 80s and 90s all summer around here. I thought I could spot new fry every week all summer long.
I pulled a few more shiners out last night, that's 244 large shiners since May 29th. Add that to the 308 I pulled out last August and September that's 552 large GSH in the last year out of my 1/4 acre pond. That's a density of 2208 large GSH/acre.
I pulled a few more shiners out last night, that's 244 large shiners since May 29th. Add that to the 308 I pulled out last August and September that's 552 large GSH in the last year out of my 1/4 acre pond. That's a density of 2208 large GSH/acre.
Those numbers are just incredible. Do you think it's because of the smaller gape of the SMB compared to a LMB that they can't keep up with the GSH? Would adding a few same-sex LMB help out?
Shortay, what's the biggest size of smallies you have in the pond?
13 1/2 to 14", those are shooters, most of the smallies are in the 9 to 11" size range. Overall growth rates have been poor with too many large shiners competing with with the SMB and RES for groceries.
I pulled a few more shiners out last night, that's 244 large shiners since May 29th. Add that to the 308 I pulled out last August and September that's 552 large GSH in the last year out of my 1/4 acre pond. That's a density of 2208 large GSH/acre.
Those numbers are just incredible. Do you think it's because of the smaller gape of the SMB compared to a LMB that they can't keep up with the GSH? Would adding a few same-sex LMB help out?
The GSH got out of control after my fish kill in 2019 that got most of my smallies. I restocked with 3" to 4" SMB. The shiners that hatched last summer are in the 4" to 5 1/2" size range. Basically lots of competition with a lot shiners that are too large for the predators currently in the pond.
another poster from NE earlier said it was recommended to use tiger musky to help target larger fish that may get out of control (like your large GSH or keeping ahead of skinny bass overload) That sounds good except for how hard it is to source Musky. Why is it not commonly suggested to use NP instead? It seems many bodies of water in northern lakes would have NP or do they just not do well in fish farms? I would think an adult NP or two in your pond would help clean up the GSH, no?
another poster from NE earlier said it was recommended to use tiger musky to help target larger fish that may get out of control (like your large GSH or keeping ahead of skinny bass overload) That sounds good except for how hard it is to source Musky. Why is it not commonly suggested to use NP instead? It seems many bodies of water in northern lakes would have NP or do they just not do well in fish farms? I would think an adult NP or two in your pond would help clean up the GSH, no?
Probably comes down to a sourcing issue, just like the Musky. Also, I think NP are far less heat tolerant, but in northern BoWs, it seems like a safer option as they don't get as big. Interesting fact about NP is that they can live for 25+ years.
I did stock eight wipers last summer in the 8-9" size range, I caught one on Friday that was 14 1/2".
One on the big reasons for removing the large shiners is so that I can see some SMB recruitment. In the past too many large shiners lead to almost zero recruitment of young of the year SMB.
But Shorty, wipers can't eat your large GSH? Are you hoping to just catch them all out with hook and line? Or do you think a few, maybe a single big mouth predator like a toothy pike/musky might help? I can see where even a single large CC or flathead would eat your SMB too
But Shorty, wipers can't eat your large GSH? Are you hoping to just catch them all out with hook and line? Or do you think a few, maybe a single big mouth predator like a toothy pike/musky might help? I can see where even a single large CC or flathead would eat your SMB too
Hook and line until the SMB get bigger. I'm pretty sure a 14" SMB can eat a 6" shiner. I pulled another 12 GSH out tonight, all were between 6 1/2" to 8".
But Shorty, wipers can't eat your large GSH? Are you hoping to just catch them all out with hook and line? Or do you think a few, maybe a single big mouth predator like a toothy pike/musky might help? I can see where even a single large CC or flathead would eat your SMB too
Hook and line until the SMB get bigger. I'm pretty sure a 14" SMB can eat a 6" shiner. I pulled another 12 GSH out tonight, all were between 6 1/2" to 8".
Our SMB are up to 19”. We can use any size GSH as bait. I’m surprised at the size GSH they will go after.
Shorty get out that seine and start sorting out GSH.
The big shiners like to hang out over deep water away from the bank, they aren't easy to seine.
I have good luck catching jumbo shiners with a cast net. I'm no Jose Wejebe, but if I toss a handful of Optimal before I toss the net, it will come up loaded with shiners every time. Normally I can get half a dozen tosses in before they spook and run off.
I finally got a day that I had enough time to mow around the pond. Strong north wind, so whenever the discharge on the mower faced north I got a grass clipping bath. One trip I got a facefull and wiped off my forehead. It wasn't grass, it was either a bee or wasp. Yep, got nailed.
About 10 minutes later I was in the same area, a bug landed on my left hand and just as I was brushing it off (without looking) I got nailed again. About 1/2 dzn "somethings" were flying around and as soon as I felt one land I'd brush it off as fast as I could as I was trying to push the "Lets get outta here as fast as we can" pedal through the floor of the mower.....
Going to spray the area with a hot mix of Diquat and then Wednesday night I'm going to have a bonfire..... By tomorrow the plants will be brown.
Today from my deck I just stared at my empty pond hole thinking about how I hope I don't have to wait long for it to fill up. We just renovated our lake, it's just shy of 3 acres, or at least it's supposed to be. I want it to fill up so I can see how well it holds water. I am nervous. It held water pretty good for its previous life and I am hoping we didn't screw it up while digging it out.
I want to stock the BG, FHM and CC this fall. It has a large watershed and the rain we had in June in my area would have filled it up but we had a lot of rain that month. It was crazy watching all the water gushing in one end and flowing out the cut in the dam on the other. Now it's bone dry around here. We just had some rain come through Friday and Saturday and it either went north or south of us.
I have an exam on Tuesday and once I get that behind me, I'll have the rest of the week to get some much needed work done before our next rain chance on the coming weekend. I need to seed the dam and spillway ASAP. I have a trashcan full of fescue see and another trash bag full but I don't think it will be near enough. I have a few straw bales I plan to spread out but I don't think that will be enough either. I was contemplating as to whether I should purchase sod for the spillway. That's the only outflow we have for this lake and for the previous 40 years that my father owned it and that I now own it, it's worked remarkably well. It has remained grass covered and has never eroded. I hope to keep that going but realize it may be tough if I get off to a bad start.
We seeded grass and a clover-chicory food-plot blend (in different spots) around the new pond yesterday because they predicted over an inch of rain early this week. Now they are only predicting trace amounts of rain over the next 10 days. All the best-laid plans...
Put 2.5 gallons of Cutrine Plus Liquid in my pond to combat the FA.
I have zero FA in my pond at the moment but most of the small ponds around here have lots of it around the edges. I pulled more large golden shiners from the pond this weekend, over 200 of them in the last three weeks, so far 328 have been removed since May 29th. Some of my early hatch GSH are almost 2" already so it will be interesting to see if I have removed enough shiners to the point where the FA starts to take hold or not.
Wow! Didn’t know this. Great news.. The SMB, and YP cleaned out the FHM in no time, but my GSH have hung in there.. I don’t have a ton of FA, maybe they are keeping it down.
Are there any downsides to adding GSH to a BG/LMB pond? I have algae growing in this pond pretty bad since the beaver ate up so many waterlilies. I though that I might wait for the lilies to respread, but perhaps GSH might work sooner. I have GSH in my YP/SMB pond that I could try and catch and use as stockers. My worry is that they might compete effectively with the BG.
Drove the 4-wheeler down a slope at pond to rake out a plum of FA last eve, front right tire fell in a hole and rig flipped over right on top of me in about 2' of water. Had me pinned against a slab of concrete under water. "somehow" I got it off of me and got my head above water. Didn't feel any panic until I climbed back up on bank and sat down.. then it hit me how bad that could have been.
You never know when something like that will happen. You can never be too careful around water. A friend of a friend just drowned jumping in after his son who had fallen out of a paddle boat. Kid had a life vest on and is fine...40 year old father, no vest...left 2 or 3 kids and a wife.
We seeded grass and a clover-chicory food-plot blend (in different spots) around the new pond yesterday because they predicted over an inch of rain early this week. Now they are only predicting trace amounts of rain over the next 10 days. All the best-laid plans...
I know the feeling. I seeded clover in a 1 ac strip of land, then the rain evaporated. We got a bit a few days ago but the germination is VERY patchy, and I think I will have to overseed it later when there is more rain in the forecast. I hate buying seed twice!!
Are there any downsides to adding GSH to a BG/LMB pond? I have algae growing in this pond pretty bad since the beaver ate up so many waterlilies. I though that I might wait for the lilies to respread, but perhaps GSH might work sooner. I have GSH in my YP/SMB pond that I could try and catch and use as stockers. My worry is that they might compete effectively with the BG.
In my opinion, no. The bass might eat all you stock though. Can't hurt to try!
Drove the 4-wheeler down a slope at pond to rake out a plum of FA last eve, front right tire fell in a hole and rig flipped over right on top of me in about 2' of water. Had me pinned against a slab of concrete under water. "somehow" I got it off of me and got my head above water. Didn't feel any panic until I climbed back up on bank and sat down.. then it hit me how bad that could have been.
WOW! Glad that you are OK. I am really leery of driving things on slopes, and carrying anything in a bucket on the tractor if the ground is uneven. Had a guy moving a bundle of concrete mesh with a forklift and the same thing happened, it tipped over, he didn't keep his feet inside, the leg that he stuck out to try and stabilize the mess got folded under the forklift. Had to take another lift to get him out - compound fracture.
Whoa Snipe. That is crazy and scary. Glad you are ok. Friend of our died this spring when his brand new zero turn mower flipped over on top of him into the pond he was mowing around. Way to stay calm in a horrendous situation. I’d say a guardian angel was on duty.
Glad to hear you are OK Ken. This reminds of a time canoeing when I thought I would be pulled under a snag capsizing the canoe. Life is surreal in the moments after.
Kenny, thanks for sharing that close call with us. We can use reminders. I'm grateful you came through okay. Unharmed? It is so interesting how our minds react to such a threatening situation. Your retaining your cool through that was commendable.
Funny how at the moment in time, it doesn't seem like a big deal until you realize what really happened.. No broken bones but a couple of bruised ribs and a gash about 12" long from my RH butt cheek up my back from hitting the corner of a broken piece of concrete habitat.. Not bad considering.. Even got the 4-wheeler running again today. Appreciate the kind words guys. I'll be avoiding that corner of the pond from now on.
Glad to see you are ok. 4 wheelers can be dangerous and when dumped into the pond on top of you they can be even more dangerous.
For me, the pond is down about 18" visibility is 18" and this is the first year I have not turned the water well on. Why? Because my son-in-law ran over the waterline with the bush hog. Have not gotten around to patching it because it has been just too dam hot outside for the repair work.
Spot sprayed some cattails today on the two wetland ponds. I don't mind the bullrushes yet but cattails are just rude and don't know how to behave. Twice a summer I turn them yellow with a little Cattplex and surfactant in my little two gallon sprayer to keep them from trying to take over.
Spot sprayed some cattails today on the two wetland ponds. I don't mind the bullrushes yet but cattails are just rude and don't know how to behave. Twice a summer I turn them yellow with a little Cattplex and surfactant in my little two gallon sprayer to keep them from trying to take over.
If you spray them in late September, that will be the most effective because they are taking nutrients down to the roots for the winter.
Spot sprayed some cattails today on the two wetland ponds. I don't mind the bullrushes yet but cattails are just rude and don't know how to behave. Twice a summer I turn them yellow with a little Cattplex and surfactant in my little two gallon sprayer to keep them from trying to take over.
If you spray them in late September, that will be the most effective because they are taking nutrients down to the roots for the winter.
I've never had any make it spot spraying twice in summer, within two days they turn yellow and die to the roots. I just get very small groups of them and pound them before they even think about making heads. As shallow as my wetland ponds are new ones still try to pop up early every summer along the edges here and there.
She loves anything tht hits the water. I will throw rocks from around the yard and she will dive under 4 them. Any guesses how much tht one weighs or if it looks good on weight.
Caught about 100 of these. Anyone know if this is a true RES, or some type of hybrid.
SG, a bit late but I would remove a good number of these if you suspect a high recruitment rate. I'm looking at the eye and would be concerned with growth rate. Eye is indicating to me a lack of food.
After about 4 weeks of working on repairing the damage all of the May rains did to the dam, finally getting time to enjoy and get some drone footage... ...Mongo's Pond
[video:youtube][/video]
Last week, I caught a nice 2.5lb LMB on my fly rod... Fly Rod and LMB
Mongos pond, thanks for sharing! The drone footage is outstanding! Beautiful, rugged, red soils, wow how nice.
-I'm told the forum software was upgraded so you can embed youtube videos directly in your post. You would go back to your post above and edit using the 'full editor' button. Then hit the button that looks like a director's 'take 1' device called 'Insert media tag' then choose the option for embed youtube video and paste your youtube link there. It should embed right in the message and play in the message without opening a new window. Try it and see if the forum software allows it now.
-secondly, I notice a very nice very wide rolicking boil from your aerator. Is it a two head/membrane diffuser or more? Horsepower behind it? How deep is it placed? I just can't seem to get the same power and width of the boil that I see in other folks ponds. I rebuilt my compressor and my 2 diffusers at 8 feet put out a very puny boil.
Good evening... Thanks for the tips on the video... I'm using an Airmax system (PS10) with one diffuser (4 membranes). Where I have it is about 22-25'. My neighbor's PS10 is about 30' deep and not near as much of a boil.
At times I wish it wasn't so much... With the pond being less than a year old, I'm still skimming all of the sediment, along with all of the runoff from 18" of rain this summer. The aerator is foaming up the sediment...along with the waterfall... Thanks for stopping by.
It also looked like great fun to catch that fat bass on your fly rod!
If you re-visit this thread, can I pester you with some questions?
We are still working on our pond and cabin design. What is the log siding that you have on your cabin above the stone work? Would you do it that way again, or would you do anything differently after a year of observations (and rain!)?
Also, the stone work accents really look good. Are you still appreciating spending the money on that versus other investments on your property? (Our budget is still pretty tight until business fully recovers from COVID.)
The log siding we have is pine... If we had to do it over...we'd go all stone/man-made with very little log siding/logs. We've built this place and move in 2006. I've stained/sealed the west/south side of the house five times... Okieland sun is brutal on logs. Don't get me wrong... Love the logs.. Just too much maintenance. As for the stone work, all of this stone/rock came from when we dug the pond. So it was a no brainer to use the rock for the landscaping. This is our retirement home...so we are building the dream my Mom and Dad had...
As for the pond work... We did all the work ourselves. We had a natural ravine with about 25 acres of watershed... Last year when we built the dam, we only had about 12-18" of freeboard above the spillway. We didn't use a overflow tube.
This last May we got 2.5" of rain in 15 minutes..it topped the spillway and dam blowing out the middle portion. Lessons learned.. We now have 4' of freeboard and spillway has three times the area now... We handled a 6" overnight rain followed by more than 10" over the next week... No issues. The 6" rain put about 8' off water into the pond.... Our spillway has three times the area now..
BTW, thanks for stopping by and yup, I'm a rookie fly fisherman and that was a blast!!!
"This is our retirement home...so we are building the dream my Mom and Dad had..."
It shows in all of the touches large and small.
I also like the look of the real logs - and was considering them for our cabin/house plan. However, if we do manage to build our dream place, then I will have much better things to do than climb up ladders to stain every few years!
It looks like you have everything above the surface in really good shape now - especially since you have corrected your freeboard margin on the dam. So I will just wish you good luck on what is going on below the surface and hope you keep growing your fishes!
Another walk around the pond today and no BH swarms this year. Only 1 last year that quickly disappeared. There is a group of 6-8in feeding when I hand throw but that's all. Feeling accomplished!
Saw my first cormorant on one of our ponds yesterday after 20 years of having our first pond built. Hope that it was a lost individual and not a scout!
Mrs. Augie and Booger made me go swimming and I was nearly devoured by BG that think they're piranhas.
Booger loves the pond. Not a day goes by that she doesn't go for a swim at least once.
She's almost nine months old now. She generally gets in from the bank and swims out, but yesterday, for the first time, she worked up the courage to jump in from the dock.
Getting stressed/worried about my exposed clay problem around the edges of my new pond. The grass seed took off beautifully on the dam, which is the silver lining. Got a bunch of rain last week, and added about a foot of water to my puddle, but when I waded around in it this weekend, there was already a bunch of silt/loose clay just sitting in the bottom from all the runoff.
I tried using a stone rake on the east bank, but the clay is packed so hard, its almost like digging through rock... I couldn't even break through it. Trying something different... I threw down a bunch of grass seed, and took buckets of mud/clay from the pond and covered all the grass seed with it (just a thin layer, barely enough to cover the seed), and will see if it takes off. I'm just worried that my 10' deep pond will only be 5' deep by the time it fills. The hard rains we had dug massive grooves into my very steep pond banks, which also has me worried.
I also checked on the water sample that I stuck in the back of a closet 3 weeks ago. In those 3 weeks, only about the top 2 inches of the water bottle had cleared. I really don't want to be fighting a muddy pond for the rest of my life, but this red clay is getting the best of me. My fingernails are still tinted orange from the work I did yesterday.
My next purchase will be a Rototiller if the grass seed doesn't take off.
Steve have you had a water test done? That can help with the clay not settling out. I had to add lime to clear mine up. Might add a little topsoil for the seeds to start in. Clay doesn’t grow much around here unless adding topsoil and hope it doesn’t wash in with the first rain. Mine washed ruts and gouges till got some weeds going.....how old is your pond?
[/quote] SG, a bit late but I would remove a good number of these if you suspect a high recruitment rate. I'm looking at the eye and would be concerned with growth rate. Eye is indicating to me a lack of food.[/quote]
Thank you sir. It was getting ridiculous. We were catching more of these than anything else in the pond. At least a hundred a day. We’ve been removing them, and now I see your post with relief! I’ve always liked my RES, and have thought they were good for the pond. But we hardly ever catch any that are big enough to clean. Just 100s of these small ones. I’ve got clouds of something that just hatched, along the banks right now. I’m not sure what else besides my golden shiners, that would be hatching now. Thanks again
Steve, what I did this year after rebuilding the dam, was any of the ruts on the face of the dam, I tore up sod chunks and packed in the ruts. Working really well.
Steve have you had a water test done? That can help with the clay not settling out. I had to add lime to clear mine up. Might add a little topsoil for the seeds to start in. Clay doesn’t grow much around here unless adding topsoil and hope it doesn’t wash in with the first rain. Mine washed ruts and gouges till got some weeds going.....how old is your pond?
Its new, just finished in July. I literally have all clay in and around my pond. The grass on my dam actually took off pretty good. I took the rake to it to loosen the top inch or so, threw down seed and it's doing great. I probably need to add lime to it eventually, but I'm assuming I wanna wait for it to fill up first? Would liming it now be beneficial?
Forgot to mention that my pH is in the mid-5 range. VERY acidic red clay. How does lime affect the clay settling? I thought it was just the aluminum sulfate that affected that.
Steve I think it would do some good now but you need to take a water sample and see what you got to start with. Mine was cloudy and it started to clear up in a few weeks
Steve I think it would do some good now but you need to take a water sample and see what you got to start with. Mine was cloudy and it started to clear up in a few weeks
Thanks Pat. Forgot to mention that my pH is in the low to mid 5's. Does acidity affect turbidity directly?
Steve I think it would do some good now but you need to take a water sample and see what you got to start with. Mine was cloudy and it started to clear up in a few weeks
Thanks Pat. Forgot to mention that my pH is in the low to mid 5's. Does acidity affect turbidity directly?
Does acidity affect turbidity directly? Yes and no.
Nature can grind sand grains finer and finer. From beach sand, to silt sized, all of the way down to some of the dust motes you see floating in the air in your house. However, sand (SiO2) is basically inert, regardless of the size.
Clay is the geologic term for an entire class of complex phyllosilicate minerals that display a wide range of interesting chemical and physical properties. Unfortunately, the very smallest size on the sediment grain-size chart is ALSO called clay.
THIS IS VERY CONFUSING! We use the same term for two separate concepts.
"Clay" on the sediment size chart means a particle that is less than .004 mm in size. "Clay" should more properly be used as the term to describe an entire class of minerals.
My best analogy is the person that calls every tiny fish a minnow. On Pond Boss, we know that it really matters if the tiny fish is a FHM or a green sunfish fry!
For this discussion, don't think of clay as tiny sand, think of it as a very special kind of tiny fish.
You cannot build a functional core seal in your dam by crushing and compacting sand grains. The wet sand grains will not form a ball in your hand, no matter what their size. However, wet clay grains will form a ball, and will lock together to make a sealed core in the dam due to the specific physical/chemical properties of clay minerals.
Finally addressing your question:
If the suspended "clay" in your jar will settle out in a reasonable time, then it is probably mostly clay-sized INERT sand grains. (*** At tiny sizes, even "inert" particles can have electrical surface charges, but let's skip that further caveat.)
If the suspended "clay" in your jar will NOT settle out, then it is probably particles of clay minerals that actually have a weak surface electrical charge. These are usually negative charges - and they are attracting the positive ions in your water. (Your low pH water definitely has positive ions.)
The positive ions are attracted to the negative charges on your clay particles and create a kind of "cloud" around each individual particle. These clouds push away the adjacent positive clouds surrounding other clay particles. (Like when you were a kid and tried to push two magnets together with the same poles touching.)
The best way to get actual clay mineral suspensions to settle out is to get the tiny particles to be attracted to each other and clump together. This is called flocculation. If you change the water chemistry (by adding lime) you can change the properties of the suspended particles and cause them to flocculate. [Basic (high pH) water chemistries would utilize alum to cause flocculation.]
*** Sorry for the very long post. I started typing a "brief" response, but my answer always seemed incomplete without additional background information. I decided to go ahead and make it long, because lots of people ask your same question!
Incredible post, FishinRod! I appreciate the time it took you to write all that.
Given my circumstance, it took 3 weeks for my bottle of muddy water to go from 0 visibility to maybe 2" so that seems like a major problem. I have very acidic red clay with pH in the mid-5 range, but I guess my main question is, would it be beneficial to add lime now? Will higher pH change the flocculation rate?
I currently have about 2 feet of water in a puddle that's maybe 40' across, in what appears to eventually be around a quarter acre pond.
Sooner you get lime in the sooner things will get better- in my opinion (don’t amount to much sometimes). With only 2’ water it will be muddy anyway for a while with all the runoff
I am a geologist for my day job, and definitely NOT a pond expert. I just gave you the full "science" answer, because so many people have the same problem you do and not a lot of the advice they receive makes sense without a firm grasp on the underlying problem.
To get a real expert answer, you might start a new thread in the Water Chemistry section. I would ask what properties you should have checked during the water analysis. Come back to the forum with your results and then you will get some valuable advice.
The water analysis is very cheap compared to all of the cost and effort to spread the wrong product!
Forgot to mention that my pH is in the low to mid 5's.
That is some seriously acid soil. In my area, 6.0-6.5 is the natural soil pH. To mitigate that for crop production it's typical to add 4 ton/acre ag lime.
I'd be looking to hire a spreader truck. If that service isn't available in your area you can have a bulk load delivered and dumped, then spread it with a tractor/FEL or skid steer, or even by hand if you have to. With the natural pH that you're dealing with you can't add too much crushed limestone.
With his pond just filling it would be a good time to lime the whole pond bottom. Lots of feed stores have lime service and can back up and sling it all around the pond and in it. Price around here is about 450$ per 6 tons
Hmm.. well now y'all got me thinking my cheap Amazon pH tester is off. I bought some cheap test strips, and I will try them to see how accurate my digital one is before I make any hasty decisions.
Well at my pond today...unfortunantly I dipped up a floating LMB. Saddest part was she was 5 3/4 pounds but ONLY 20 inch long. Relative weight was about 125%!!! Only dead fish I have seen in a VERY long time. water is almost 2 foot low and a beautiful emerald green color with near 36 inch visibility on sechi dish. She looked very healthy and no signs of trauma. i'm still not running my aeriation. Hoping that is not what caused it. Cooler weather is just around the corner! Pond has been over 3 foot low on several occasions with no fish kills but...I always had aeriation running. I might be shooting myself in the foot. I'm gambling I know but DANG the water is sooo pretty and clear!!
Yes Pat, I'm still feeding 3 bursts of feed in the AM and 3 bursts in the PM every single day. Records show I have caught 26 LMB just this year!! All were released. Best CATCHING year EVER!! Sooo much fun. I see 4-5 inch lmb in the shallows and have caught several 12 inch ones and many 3 pounders!! I know the BIG GIRLS are in there but don't want to hit my artificial lures. Hah! I finally got my clay banks covered with grass so no more muddy water!! Come on cool weather!!
Yes Pat, I'm still feeding 3 bursts of feed in the AM and 3 bursts in the PM every single day. Records show I have caught 26 LMB just this year!! All were released. Best CATCHING year EVER!! Sooo much fun. I see 4-5 inch lmb in the shallows and have caught several 12 inch ones and many 3 pounders!! I know the BIG GIRLS are in there but don't want to hit my artificial lures. Hah! I finally got my clay banks covered with grass so no more muddy water!! Come on cool weather!!
Congratulations! Good to hear that it is all paying off for you, James.
I had ~50 BG caged up in the pond for a scheduled date with Mr. Flathead. 04:30 yesterday pulled the cage to transfer fish to the boat and the seam between the bottom and sidewall of the cage popped. All but two of the inmates escaped back into the pond.
And to celebrate their new-found freedom, the ungrateful little brats bit me bloody when I jumped in to cool off after getting home from the river.
I had ~50 BG caged up in the pond for a scheduled date with Mr. Flathead. 04:30 yesterday pulled the cage to transfer fish to the boat and the seam between the bottom and sidewall of the cage popped. All but two of the inmates escaped back into the pond.
And to celebrate their new-found freedom, the ungrateful little brats bit me bloody when I jumped in to cool off after getting home from the river.
Well now that sucks, instead of you getting full on FH the BG got a mouth full of Augie.. Oh well, life goes on, better luck next time, how did you do on the river?
With no proper catfish bait in hand we switched to Plan B.
Launched at Bagnell and went bass fishing downstream from the ramp.
It was a good call. We didn't find the hybrids or white bass, but the black bass were more than willing to cooperate. We caught largemouth, spots, and several very nice smallmouth. First time I'd ever caught SMB that far up the Osage.
My buddy caught quite a few crappie, and a ~5lb smallmouth buffalo on a RoadRunner. Never seen that done before, either. lol
With only the house turbine running since last Thursday the river was as low as I've seen it. It would have been worth the trip even if the fish weren't biting. Now I've seen with my eyes what I'd only seen on sonar in the past. Saw some things that said "fish here" when the water is up, and saw some things that said "float on past" when the water is up.
I am pretty sure the fish would be correct about the "aliens", considering how they are sometimes subject to probing for sex identification, expression of eggs or milt, etc.
I hope we make it up to them with a good supply of slow-swimming FHMs or floating feed pellets after they have been teleported!
I am pretty sure the fish would be correct about the "aliens", considering how they are sometimes subject to probing for sex identification, expression of eggs or milt, etc.
I hope we make it up to them with a good supply of slow-swimming FHMs or floating feed pellets after they have been teleported!
I thought "FireIsHot" was just your screen name. I didn't realize it also referred to the surface temperature of your dock!
I hope all of your fish are also taking the day off and working on their tans. We certainly do not want any of them to suffer from Vitamin D deficiency!
The water surface temps were probably 97+, so nothing much goes on around here, fishing, spraying coontail, etc., until things cool down a bit. Summer is probably the worst season for anything but setting out brush piles around here.
I burned a brush pile here when it was about 102, because it was too hot to do anything else productive. It burned so hot with an 8 MPH wind that I got nervous, and I don't usually get nervous unless we are burning grass.
I think my new burn plan for brush piles is to only burn them when I see a big line of rainstorms on the radar about an hour away! Otherwise, I keep imagining a wind gust blowing an ember across the entire fire break, regardless of how much water I put on the pile.
Please be careful burning when conditions are dangerously dry. I had to put out 2 different fires in my fence row that were started by 2 different neighbors. One had left a fire burning and were not watching it, and the other was drunk. We had to ask a 3rd neighbor to put out a fire during a burn ban that they were not aware of. If our grasslands catch, things will get ugly very fast. We were lucky that when a 4th neighbor's house burned down it was very wet, because embers traveled a 1/4 mile into our place.
We can only burn here after calling in to the county emergency manager and getting approval!
I was burning during an approved time and the county had enough ground moisture that everyone's native grass was still green.
I don't think a 22 degree difference in air temperature while burning at 102 instead of 80 should make a significant difference in a brush pile fire, based on the high flame temperatures. Observing the fire, I think the big difference was the moisture content in the wood.
Usually the fluffy stuff sticking up in the air goes moderately fast right where I start the fire. The fire then progresses around the pile, and also downwards as the collapsing embers burn the bigger stuff at the bottom. It all takes a while and you can see the wood steaming and driving out water as the fire moves.
On the 102 degree day, the fire went around and down VERY quickly. With the whole pile burning at once, the chimney effect was very powerful and the fire was roaring as it was drawing in so much air.
I normally just babysit my brush pile fires. On that one, it felt like I was babysitting a rabid honey badger.
Trying to accomplish something when it was that hot, just increased my stress level. Usually, accomplishing something at the farm does just the opposite.
From about April/May on we don't dare light a match out in Utah, fire danger is so bad we probably can't look at burning anything until the snows come... Hope the snows come this year... Later J
I no longer burn my prairie areas. Even with lots of help, it just seems too risky. I don't burn brush piles anymore either. Just put them where wildlife can use them, or add to ponds.
Tested my pH again. Initial readings on my digital tester were in the low to mid 5's. Come to find out, apparently the digital ones need to be calibrated, even a brand new one, which was giving me bad readings. I bought some pH test strips, the ones with the 4 colored panels on them, and got a 6.75 average reading from them. Phew! Crisis averted.
Wife started killing willows on our 3rd pond using "the glove of death". Deep trench on 4th pond is about 3/4 full. Lotus is still struggling in our 3rd pond due to clay pond bottom. Not much rain in the near-term forecast, but we got enough to germinate the grass and oilseed radish around the 4th pond. Very pleasant weather in central Indiana right now. Got the ratchet straps tightened up on my ladder stands.
Very pleased to see multiple small schools of threadfin shad breaking the surface this evening! My pond is naturally infertile, wasn't sure how they'd do. My smaller LMB and HSB are undoubtedly having a good time chowing down, and I'm sure my CNBG appreciate a break from predatory pressure.
Still no cormorants, but I know it's only a matter of time.
Monday I caught a 1.25lb plus bass with two holes in his side, like 22 bullet holes going all the way thru and out the other side, one thru the meat and the other thru the stomach, I'm saying a blue heron. it must have just happened because when I caught him he was completely lively and normal otherwise and the holes were completely pink and fresh, almost bleeding. but he died within 5 minutes in the live well. I detest those damn birds, I dont mind them catching a few baitfish and eating them but just killing a big fish for the fun of it is crossing the line, goes in line with otters, and I hate otters. Ive caught and relocated these birds before and I may have to start doing that again.
A few months ago I found one of the LMB I stocked last year up on the bank. Looked nice, fat, and healthy other than a hole in it's side. With it being at least 12" and very fat, I figure it was way too big for a GBH to eat, and then I started worrying about how many others they might of killed. I run them off when I can, but I don't live there yet. Like Gehajake said, I don't mind them getting a new bait fish now and then but killing large fish is another thing. Maybe when I need to start removing fish I won't mind but for now I do.
Yesterday, drained the sediment pond, as it was getting low anyway. Found a couple of straggler CC from last year's grow out attempt, moved them to one of the bigger ponds. If this drought continues, I may be able to clean it out with the tractor bucket.
Ran out of the optimal feed. So I stole some gravy train from the dog and gave it a try. Those HSB I got from Snrub hammered it. Second night in a row iv did this. They hit them harder the second night than the first. Im sure the proteins isn't the best for them but it was fun to watch still.
Prepping for vacation. Pulled all of the traps from the cow pond. Released the captive RES back into the pond. Took some BG catfishing on the MO Saturday. The survivors went into the bait pond.
Mrs. Augie has been after me to hook and line some BG for a fish fry. She will get her wish next week.
All RES/YP/HSB/SMB that are caught will go back in. All BG <9" will come out. It's my hope that a handful of jumbo BG will keep the smaller specimens off the beds, and result in lower overall numbers of YOY coming out of the spawn.
Someone please correct me if I'm thinking wrong there.
Got tired of seeing a mud hole in my backyard, so I took 4 pounds of aluminum sulfate that I bought from Amazon, and did a water treatment to see if it would work. This was the crystalized form, intended for soil treatment and apparently for changing the color of hydrangeas and azaleas, which was new to me. I took a 5-gallon bucket and added about a third of the bag into some water, and stirred it to dissolve the crystals and made a slurry. I waded out into the water (about 3 ft deep now), slung the slurry around the pond and used a shovel to stir it and move the water around. I did this 3 times, using the entire bag. It didn't seem like I used enough, but man, when I checked the water this morning, for the first time ever, I can see all the way to the bottom! I'm not sure if this will affect future rain events, but I assume it will keep on muddying up after each rain, but I just had to see it for myself. Really happy with the results.
Sadie (the dog) was pissed the fish r eating her food. Looks like a baby jaws coming up. The lil fishy got lucky it wasnt them tht got ate. If you look close theres a lil fish right under the one breaching the water. Sadie jumped on top of them right after this picture lol.
Our oldest German shepherd acts rabid when I feed the fish and also jumps in. He tries to eat all the fish food before the fish can eat it. The BG just feed around him. Folks get frightened seeing him growl and froth at the mouth before jumping off the dock into the water. Its like Jekyll and Hyde.
Sadie (the dog) was pissed the fish r eating her food. Looks like a baby jaws coming up. The lil fishy got lucky it wasnt them tht got ate. If you look close theres a lil fish right under the one breaching the water. Sadie jumped on top of them right after this picture lol.
Decided it was finally time to start identifying the minnow species in our creek. It has been pretty dry lately, so the the creek is running about an 1" deep except for the pools (2-3' deep).
Threw the minnow trap into one of the pools and then watched all of the fish behaviors, instead of going back to work.
I did have a good school of minnows in the pool, but they were not interested in my bait (dry cat food). However, the school of 3" long minnows was constantly stalked by 4" long LMB. I never saw the bass hit the minnows, but I could almost see the little cartoon thought bubbles over the heads of the bass, "You just wait, one of these days I am going to be big enough to eat you!"
There were no large bass in that pool. Instead, the top predators were GSF. They were all sizes, but the largest were maybe 1/2#. They immediately hit any grasshoppers, leaf bits, etc. that get knocked into the water as I walk up to the pools.
I thought the behavior of these GSF was very interesting. This creek pool essentially has zero structure. When things calmed down after setting the minnow trap, the GSF seemed to take up station around the trap, a foot or two away.
I am used to seeing LMB hide in sparse cover, ready to spring out from ambush on any prey that happens by. It looked to me like the GSF had the opposite strategy, they took position OUTSIDE of the cover, waiting to ambush any prey that emerged FROM the cover.
(There were no minnows around the trap when the GSF had set up on their stations.)
P.S. I came back to the pool after a few hours of work and caught zero minnows. I think I chose poorly with my bait. My previous effort with bread caught only small GSF.
Got in our final weekend of swimming and fishing. Grandkids had a blast.. The water has really cooled off. A bit chilly when you first dive in. See from one pic that our water level is down about a foot. We’ve been very dry for the last 6 weeks. Looks like at least two more dry weeks ahead. However, my leak has definitely slowed down some. Soilfloc working and natural sealing taking place. I hope it continues to slow.
Lots of beautiful things happening in those pictures SetterGuy!! Kids and adults enjoying nature and learning while being outside together. Beautiful weather, beautiful pond and a very healthy looking SMB
I will say,.. you might call yourself a seasoned PondBoss veteran if you can admit like I must admit that I had a little 'pond envy' when I saw the beautiful thing showing up in the bottom left corner of your SMB picture.
I bet your YP and SMB will fatten up this fall and you will have a great YP spawn next spring with all the forage you have. I assume you don't have a bumper crop of bullfrogs or tadpoles anymore with the larger YP and SMB in there?
I saw the beautiful thing showing up in the bottom left corner of your SMB picture.
I bet your YP and SMB will fatten up this fall and you will have a great YP spawn next spring with all the forage you have. I assume you don't have a bumper crop of bullfrogs or tadpoles anymore with the larger YP and SMB in there?
Thanks for the kind words CC. The APW is no longer spreading. I’m hoping it can hold its own, and stay around. Every patch and there must be 8 or 9 patches, has many frogs just sitting in the leaves. I’m expecting we will have even more BF tadpoles. I don’t know if the YP and SMB hit the frogs like LMB do. I don’t see very much surface activity on the pond, unless the feeder is going off. We’ve had a late hatch of something. Either HBG or GSH. There are thousands of fry all over. I’m hoping the HSB I added last fall, will thin out whatever this hatch is. Once I shut off the feeder. I don’t feed very heavy anyway.
Staying out in storms is perfectly rational when the fish are biting. I don't care what anybody says!
I have experienced the fish biting in nearly a frenzy as a storm was approaching - on multiple occasions.
Wiser people than myself have advised that we should get off of the water. I have compromised by counting the seconds between the flash of the lightning and the sound of the thunder. I proposed one mile, but have been overruled to beach the boat when the lighting got closer than two miles.
I am still alive today to type on Pond Boss, thanks to some good buddies!
OTOH, it is terribly entertaining to have a bass hit your lure on EVERY SINGLE CAST!
Staying out in storms is perfectly rational when the fish are biting. I don't care what anybody says!
I have experienced the fish biting in nearly a frenzy as a storm was approaching - on multiple occasions.
Wiser people than myself have advised that we should get off of the water. I have compromised by counting the seconds between the flash of the lightning and the sound of the thunder. I proposed one mile, but have been overruled to beach the boat when the lighting got closer than two miles.
I am still alive today to type on Pond Boss, thanks to some good buddies!
OTOH, it is terribly entertaining to have a bass hit your lure on EVERY SINGLE CAST!
Actually if you can hear thunder, it's time to get off the water NOW.
I was driving through Indianapolis on my way to deliver fish, sitting in the turn lane to turn left. Sunny sky, dark clouds in front of me, no rain. Not 1/2 mile ahead a bolt of lightening came down and struck a light pole. No rain, no thunder except for that bolt. There was a lady driving one of those Can-Am Rykers to my right that was going straight ahead. She beeped her horn and asked if she could cut in infront of me. Sure!! Her eyes were pretty big when she looked at me and beeped the horn.
To be honest bobbss I have no clue. Iv had several friends put in some nice LMB over the years. Iv never bought any sticker bass. So I really have no clue on how fast they grow. My place I think is lacking on forage. I have some brush and sunkin barrels. Not nearly enough. But we swim in play in it alot. The family dont want a whole lot of stuff in it me included. Sorry for the rumbling lol. Where I'm getting at is mine prolly r on the low scale of WR'S. Never weighed or measured but I'm sure they r sounded.
Scott, I know little or nothing about shocking a pond. What’s the objective? Obviously to see fish, but will it give a total estimate of fish numbers? Can check health of fish? I’m assuming you check more than one spot? How many checks on a 1ac pond? How long does it take? Cost? I’m curious how many YP I actually have, as we just don’t catch that many, and my ribbons seem to be fewer and fewer every year. Could I just pick up all the HBG and not return them? Would it even put a dent in them? Just a few questions. Haha! Thanks Jeff
Objective is to get a good representative idea of the fish in the pond. It doesn't matter if they will bite a hook or not, they will be stunned and depending on the water visibility they can be scooped up with a net and placed in a live well on the boat. You turn the juice on and motor around the perimeter of the pond. Depending on the conductivity of the water and how the unit is adjusted, it affects a swath that is 6'-8' wider than the boat and goes down 4+ feet. We did a 4 acre pond and a 1/2 acre pond in 4 hours start to finish, including talking for a while with the pond owner. Some fish were netted and removed, some fish were left in but noted, some fish were netted, weighed, measured and released back into the pond. It doesn't matter if the fish are 1/2" long or 30+" long, they will be stunned and can be netted.
Cost all depends on travel time and miles.
For instance, we removed all crappie and catfish we stunned. There was a huge class of 4"-6" LMB, we removed about 50% of what we observed.
In the 1/2 acre pond, which was supposed to be a forage grow out pond for the larger one, we observed a big swirl when we pulled up. So, we plopped the boat in and pulled out a ton of 1 1/2" Bluegills saw 2 GSH, and pulled out a few 10"-12" LMB. Told the owner that he should pull the plug on the forage pond, letting everything flush into the bigger pond, then let the forage pond fill up to cover any depressions, then Rotenone it and start over. They had a 7" rain in less than 24 hours and the forage pond (which is actually a silt trap pond) overflowed the berm into the big pond. We can only assume a few LMB and at least a pair of BG swam upstream into the silt pond.
Thanks Scott. This might be something I’m interested in doing. I think I’m a little too far from you though. Also, I assume fish are not hurt in the process? Thanks again
I worked up the gumption yesterday to put a couple cubic yards of cobble down along the pond bank. This is the main gulley wash water collector spot, and was experiencing some noticeable erosion from the rainfall runoff. I heaped it up a foot or so from grade, and will come behind it with some smaller material to fill the gaps a bit. Hopefully it will stop the bank from cutting further, and collect some sediment that comes with a toad strangler.
I had a neighbor with a little yappy dog which never shut up (the dog, not the neighbor). Thought about throwing dog treats into the pond & teaching the dog to fetch. Feed my largest LMB, and restore domestic tranquility at the same time!
Actually from 10/10/21. I’m getting slower and slower as I get older.
Broke our pond record 19.5” SMB. Son in law caught it, (but their youngest takes better pics, Ha!) Our pond is down about a foot. Was pretty dry through September. Getting some October rain, but nothing with runoff.
I'm removing some biomass from the pond before winter. Here's yesterdays take: HSB 23.5" 5.95# 21.5" 5.7# 21.0" 3.98#
LMB 15" 1.98# 11.5" 0.79#
Goal is to remove 60# of biomass. RW's are low due to not feeding near as much this year as previous years and due to the low water level (between 5' low and 7' low all year) there was basically 0 spawning habitat for the fish so very little recruitment this year. If things don't change for next year I'm afraid I will have to poke a well in. Not looking forward to doing that cue to cost and then the monthly electrical cost, but if we don't get the moisture this winter/spring 2022, something has to change.
Sorry about your low moisture. Hopefully you get some favorable weather to avoid the expense of a well!
I believe I have seen (in my limited experience) bass RWs go UP when a pond initially drops a few feet below normal pool. I assume this is because the forage fish, crawdads, etc. lose their protective cover. Those ponds then seem to get WORSE from that point going forward - but that is usually correlated to a 1-2 year drought for the water level to stay low for an extended period.
Have you observed the initial UP and then the long term DOWN in relative weights in your experience? If so, any advice for fish management projects to be staged at that point? (Like your culling.)
P.S. Are you culling with hook and line? If so, are some of your hook-shy fish being caught more easily as they are starting to feel more hunger pangs?
My pond has been low since it was last at full pool in early June 2020. The rain faucet shut off and with the farmer running the center pivot the pond level had dropped to 7' below full pool by late October 2020. Rain/snow was sparse that winter and the pond only gained 2 feet of water by May. The fain faucet shut off again at the end of June and the 2 feet gained was lost. RW's were better last October than this October.
Angling to remove fish, both with lures and with Stubby Steves. Feeder is shut way down, set for 1 sec morning and evening, so even the pellet trained fish are hungry. Once the removal goal has been reached I will see if they still want food, but water temps should be in the high 40's by then. Water temp is now 54 and they are still feeding. HSB, YP for sure.
I made the mistake of accepting electrosurvey for 3 November, even though I wasn't happy about it being so late in the season. Now I see temps will be in the 40s that day, with rain.
In the future, if they want to schedule much past third week of October, I'll decline. Too much chance of cold weather driving fish deep, out of electro range. Bad for harvesting small LMB, bad for measuring what is going on with my fish. Disappointed they did this to a regular customer.
Stocked 10k GSH today. Loads of newly hatched CNBG in shallows. No sign of cormorants yet, but we did see a bald eagle.
Cold has driven large fish to deeper water. 5.3 lb LMB biggest shocked up. However we did catch LMB and HSB better than that with shad crankbait. One HSB just kept going, never even slowed despite firm drag. Harvested 64 small LMB.
I pulled the diffuser stand out of the deep water yesterday. Had a bit of trouble getting the cinder block base loose from the clay on the pond bottom. I'm sure it was quite the sight... old fat man standing in pond hopper boat yanking on a slimy rope while spinning in circles and spouting every profanity know to man. It finally popped loose and I was able to pull it up to the boat. I did do one thing right that made it easier to get the diffuser stand from the deep water to the dock - I bent a piece of 3/8" rebar into sort of an S-hook and hung that in an oar lock and over the gunwale and hung the stand from that rather than hauling the whole thing into the boat.
Once I recovered from that ordeal I took the other diffuser and suspended it like a chandelier from a line attached to the dock. The diffuser is ~18" below the surface in 4 foot of water. Time will tell if it's in the right place. I'd like to think it's in a spot that will prevent the dock from being locked in ice, but until we get ice, there's no way to be sure. It's easy enough to move it if need be.
I'm not sure that "normal" winters exist in Misery. I've seen winters where there was little to no ice, and I've seen them where the ponds froze in late December and didn't open back up until late in February.
Last winter we had a lot of ice for a long time. I was lucky that it didn't do any noticeable damage to my dock, but I can't imagine that it did it any good.
If the single diffuser can't keep the entire dock free I've got another one that I can hang on the opposite side of the gangway.
A lot going on at the farm right now. Dozer is building my Duck ponds which will also be used for raising forage fish. Did a walk around the pond to check on the feeders and it's time to refill the two TH Feeders. And I noticed the shorelines that get the most sunlight is loaded with small Bg of different sizes ranging from 1" to 4". Lots and Lots of them. And the smaller-sized lmb wait for one to make a mistake. And the Bauld Eagle is back and guarding the pond every day. I don't think he wants to share his dinner table. I believe he is feeding on the Tp that is slowing down and dying off due to colder water temps. Turned off the diffused aeration for the winter.
Got two truckloads of lime into the water today. Last year had one load, but didn't seem to help much with hardness & alkalinity. Doggone east Texas infertile soil & pines!
Those tiny fry I saw a few weeks ago have either been eaten or grown quite a lot. Now I'm seeing scads of one to three inch fish in same spots. Look more like BG now that they are bigger.
Fishing buddy caught lake record HSB a week ago, longer than the net & husky fellow. Didn't measure weight, had to be in 8 to 10 lb range. What few LMB we catch seem pretty plump. CNBG & BG have almost vanished into deep water.
Glad to report no dirty cormorants so far. I know that won't last, but enjoy it for as long as I can. And I still occasionally see schools of TFS, they haven't been wiped out yet!
Got two truckloads of lime into the water today. Last year had one load, but didn't seem to help much with hardness & alkalinity. Doggone east Texas infertile soil & pines!
Good job improving the productivity of your pond!
Originally Posted by anthropic
Fishing buddy caught lake record HSB a week ago, longer than the net & husky fellow. Didn't measure weight, had to be in 8 to 10 lb range. What few LMB we catch seem pretty plump.
Nice correlation. People that work hard to improve the water also improve the fish! I can't wait to see if you guys break the HSB and LMB records next spring.
Went fishing for a few minutes yesterday and noticed the slender spikerush is about to take over out to 6’. Anyone else have this stuff? If so can it be controlled with GC?
I have seen some articles that say that it is tough to treat with herbicides. Therefore, they recommend biologic controls - such as grass carp.
The link below recommends GC. It also lists Diquat or Fluridone (Sonar) as the recommended herbicides. (The Sonar would be really expensive for a pond as large as yours!)
I normally like the TAMU stuff and use their info where it applies in Kansas. However, their link to spikerush control say there are no good biologic controls. They also say there are four different species in Texas, so I included that link.
I can't remember if you have crayfish in your pond. The aquatic portion of the of the spikerush seems like something they would really like. However, I can't find anybody saying that crayfish will prune it back?
I also found you an old PB thread. No one had any great biologic answers in that thread. There were some mixed results on the Diquat.
I have seen some articles that say that it is tough to treat with herbicides. Therefore, they recommend biologic controls - such as grass carp.
The link below recommends GC. It also lists Diquat or Fluridone (Sonar) as the recommended herbicides. (The Sonar would be really expensive for a pond as large as yours!)
I normally like the TAMU stuff and use their info where it applies in Kansas. However, their link to spikerush control say there are no good biologic controls. They also say there are four different species in Texas, so I included that link.
I can't remember if you have crayfish in your pond. The aquatic portion of the of the spikerush seems like something they would really like. However, I can't find anybody saying that crayfish will prune it back?
I also found you an old PB thread. No one had any great biologic answers in that thread. There were some mixed results on the Diquat.
Hopefully you can get an expert or another Pond Bosser from your area that has beaten it to chime in!
Well it seems there is a lot of confusion about this weed. Mine is the totally underwater variety that Kelly Duffie pictured. Don’t know if grass carp will eat it or not. Even Todd Overton doesn’t seem to know.
I agree about all of the confusion. I have seen the totally aquatic slender spikerush AND the emergent terrestrial plant that grows where it only requires "wet feet".
Those seem like two different environmental niches to me. I suspect different species and perhaps even different genera.
Maybe you should post it in the "Controlling Unwanted Plants" forum? It sounds like it is well established in your pond. If it is hurting your fishing, then my 2 cents is to start battling it.
I’m just wondering if grass carp will eat it, TAMU says no but are they talking about the underwater kind or the dark green mostly above water clumpy kind that Mr Cody was probably referring to
Today is my 1st ice over the winter. It is very thin for sure but covered the pond which also looks cool. I have had some along the edges for last few days and little bit of snow. It's also been a fairly warm winter so far.
I turned the aerator off after we had the 10" of snow yesterday. I'll turn it on again once the hole freezes over and snow covers the hole. (which might be Saturday)
Dont fish very often but this weather begged me to. Caught like 5 little crappie and 2 bass. Does this looked stunned? I culled all of them but this one. Always heard that your supposed to throw 1st one back.
Well, first one is usually a very aggressive fish, and you want to keep these genes in the pond. Sometimes I'll throw back a so-so fish if it is super aggressive in terms of biting & fighting.
I tossed out some feed for the first time today and was pleased to see them hitting it as soon as I did. I would of liked to been able to stayed and watched but had to get to work.
I tossed out some feed for the first time today and was pleased to see them hitting it as soon as I did. I would of liked to been able to stayed and watched but had to get to work.
I thought about trying a little feeding but didnt have any with me when I was at the pond, we had a few really nice warm days earlier in the week, good to know they are starting.
Snipe can fill us in how that happens with Walleye. Most of the organizations that I know that do that don't kill the fish, they are just stripped of the eggs and milt and released back into the BOW.
There's a whole lot of science that is done in the video that isn't explained, to do that would probably double or triple the length of the video. I'm pretty sure those are Chum Salmon.
For information about gathering, collecting and fertilizing walleye(WE) eggs see this article in Pond Boss Magazine Jan-Feb 2020. HATCHING WALLEYE IN KANSAS. Sanderson and Lusk team up to show how KS DNR spawn walleye.
Yeah, we try and keep everything alive. Maybe 25-30 morts a year but that's out of several thousand walleye in 3 weeks time. Fertilization techniques have changed Thanks to aquatic invasive species but for the most part the article in Pond Boss still stands true as far as walleye.
It finally warmed up enough here in Misery to melt some of the ice off of my bait pond. Until last week there hadn't been any open water back there since the end of December. I took a look at it before the ice was completely gone, and noticed several dead BG. Also noticed a few not dead BG that swam up to see what I was doing. Went back there again yesterday afternoon. All of the ice is gone now, and I didn't see any dead fish. Saw one live fish, a ~6" BG that was badly infected with that white fungus stuff. I tossed a couple handfuls of Optimal BG, but nobody came up to eat it. Shallow as that pond is, after 8 weeks under ice I'm a bit surprised that any of the fish in that pond are still alive.
Haven't found a free minute to drop a line in the cow pond since the ice came off of it. I'm very much looking forward to seeing what the Snipe strain YP are looking like now. There ought to be a dozen or so that are >16".
I am hoping to build a bait/forage pond this year at about the same latitude (Kansas) as you.
What is the depth and surface area of your bait pond? Sounds like BG can overwinter in it but with heavy stress. I would probably need to get 1-2' deeper.
I would have liked to gone a couple feet deeper, but the soil conditions at the time I built that one simply wouldn't allow it. That creek bottom gumbo was getting super punchy by the time I called it good. I was afraid that if I kept digging I was going to break through and wind up in the soup. That would have been embarrassing because I'd have had to call good neighbor Dave to come over with one of his big John Deeres to pull me out, and then for the next 20 years I'd have to listen to him tell the story about that time I got stuck and he had to come save me. lol
My plans are generally based upon; determine the optimum situation from Pond Boss, and then apply that as much as the actual ground conditions will allow.
My planned ponds are mostly out in the middle of a grass field. The final pond dimensions will be accommodating to either favorable or unfavorable soil conditions.
At some point I will be excavating on wet clay. I have already arranged with my "big HP tractor" neighbor to pull me out if (when) I get stuck.
I will be much less embarrassed to make the call since I have given him prior notice that I was going to push the limits and almost certainly get stuck!
Have been riding my pond of LMB 3-5# to help keep a few more BCP from being munched. 7-8 so far and all the 10-15” ones that I catch- about 20 so far, most being released in my neighbors 25 ac pond.
Trying to rid of bigger ones also 6-10# , seems to a bunch of them. Seeing lots of explosions in shallows. It’s a problem that lots of folks would like to have…. Lol
Any plant that grows where it's unwanted can be considered a weed.
Likewise, any fish that swims, can be considered a nuisance or trash fish if it's in the wrong place, or if the numbers are wrong even though it might be in the right place.
Any number of BG in my cow pond are a nuisance. Any number of BG in my bait pond are bait.
3-5lb LMB are what I call a succotash fish. Filet it out, then cut it into chunks like you would a big ol catfish. Fry up some taters and onions, add a can or two of stewed tomatoes, throw in some sweet corn and butter beans, then toss in those ditch pickle chunks. Season it up with a big handful of Tony's or SlapYoMama, simmer until the fish is cooked, and then chow down.
I had a half hour to burn this afternoon, so I went fishing. 3 consecutive casts caught 3 different species of fish. I kept 3 Yellow Perch for Friday night dinner. I think the perch may have spawned already, the males were pretty skinny but still tipped the scales at a pound each. Not a female YP caught. I caught 5-6 trout, 5-6 YP and 2 SMB. All on a 3/16 oz pink jig head with a 2 1/2" white curly tail grub. Tossed out and slowly reeled it back in. Water visibility is about 7-8 feet, I could see the Trout down near the bottom at the end of the pier. The deck boards on the pier are 1x6's.
Bad angle on the SMB, it's not as skinny as it looks in the picture. Snipe, from the picture, any guesses as to what type of SMB it is?
That is some pretty productive fishing for a half hour! That is the kind of fishing I like. Nice.
It was, and all the fish came from the same spot. I think the wind was pushing the warmer surface water to that corner of the pond. Woke up today to 4"-5" snow, with a few more inches forecast for tonight. Temps tonight and tomorrow night are supposed to be in the mid teens, today and tomorrow highs in the mid 20's. 45°F for Sunday with sun.
from the picture, any guesses as to what type of SMB it is?
It is a "Lucky SMB", since only YP were selected for Friday night dinner!
I read lots of information on Pond Boss about how to sample a pond's fish population, since as a noob, I know I will initially be bad at that task.
Three different species on your first three casts is very impressive. Was that three casts with the same lure into roughly the same area, or were you changing your angling to determine which species were becoming active in your pond?
In my opinion, perch of similar size are easier to fillet. Of course, you may need to fillet more perch if they aren't large!
I use an electric knife for LMB. It won't easily go through the backbone, but will go easily through the ribs. Don't fillet all of the way to the tail, but flip the fish and use the electric knife to separate the fillet from the skin.
Then use a small, sharp knife to cut out the small section of the fillet containing the ribs.
I have used the same method for YP in Canada, but it has been so long since I was fishing up there I don't remember how the YP compared to my usual LMB cleaning (or to the SMB I was simultaneously cleaning with the YP in Canada).
from the picture, any guesses as to what type of SMB it is?
It is a "Lucky SMB", since only YP were selected for Friday night dinner!
I read lots of information on Pond Boss about how to sample a pond's fish population, since as a noob, I know I will initially be bad at that task.
Three different species on your first three casts is very impressive. Was that three casts with the same lure into roughly the same area, or were you changing your angling to determine which species were becoming active in your pond?
Esshup, DH Northern. Next time you get a chance, get a pic with mouth shut as it would be for a critical length measurement. We can verify the DH by the jaw bone. p.s. I like the tail on that pic and if I'm counting correctly, looks like 14 soft rays..
Esshup, DH Northern. Next time you get a chance, get a pic with mouth shut as it would be for a critical length measurement. We can verify the DH by the jaw bone. p.s. I like the tail on that pic and if I'm counting correctly, looks like 14 soft rays..
Will do. I'll fish a bit more next week. We had 5" snow last night, temps tonight and tomorrow night are supposed to be in the low teens and tomorrow it will only hit 22°F. Supposed to warm up for a bit next week.
azteca, filleting Bass is darn near illegal.. :-))
Best LMB I've ever had was prepared Hong Kong style. Scale, Clean & gut whole fish, stuff with lemongrass & garlic & ginger, steam for ten minutes or so. (Some lemon zest can sub for lemongrass if you like.) Delicious with soy sauce, garlic, ginger, bit of hot sauce & sesame oil dip.
Of course, this refers to 1 to 2 lb LMB from clean, cool water. Filleting is easier, but whole fish is so much better.
Danged if the battery wasn't dead and the hood latch frozen shut! This Bobcat (Kioti) runs melted snow from the hood directly onto the hood latch, so it freezes shut easily. I just finished changing out the torpedo heater for the battery charger, so maybe I'll get the implement connected before dark.
I have a total of 16 boxes up on my ponds and potholes... Nice watching a couple pair check out the digs I just cleaned up 8 days ago prior to the thaw.
Very very nice place for a duckhut! You are so lucky that you have a mounting tree right in the water! This looks great and I was hoping to drill through ice to mount a new stake in the pond and install my duck hut but ice is kind of sketchy already to stand on. I'll have to wait till ice out and find a boat or endure cold waters!
The earliest I have seen a Wood duck around the pond was about the first week of April but maybe they have been doing some fly-bying already.
Tossed a pint or so of Optimal BG in the bait pond this evening. Good numbers of smaller-ish BG/HBG came up to feed. Didn't notice any with the fin fungus that I saw on the one the other weekend. Also didn't see any that appeared to be in the 6"-8" size range. I expect that most of those bigger ones croaked while the pond was iced over for 8 weeks.
The fish in the cow pond appear to have done very well over the winter. A quart of Optimal around dusk had the water boiling with feeding fish and was gone in short order.
I still have a 26 ton heap of 4x6 rock that needs to be tossed into the pond. I'd hoped to be finished with that by now but it was just too stinking cold in February for me to have any interest in throwing rocks. The ground is completely thawed now and is way to soft to even think about driving the tractor anywhere that needs to be mowed. So I'll have to wait until things dry out a bit before I can put out what I hope will be the last load of rip-rap.
Lots of wood ducks and a pair of geese on the pond. No cormorants!
Fish were eating so well I had to increase feed times, though in view of the birds I added mostly in the middle of the night. Visibility around 30 inches, a little clear but I'm gonna add pond fertilizer very soon. Algae dominating, no sign of bushy pondweed yet, I know it will be there eventually.
Lots of small fish, from fry up to a few inches. Survival rates can't be good with so little protective habitat.
Sudden warm up to around 60 degrees! Wow that feels good after a bitter cold weekend. I have clear edges on the pond and a big mass of floating ice about 4-5" thick. I chopped a path out until the water would go over my knee boots. As I chopped I was amazed to find brilliant green under the ice. Mats of FA in the shallows. How does it survive over the winter under ice so well? Maybe just enough light coming through?
I was hoping to install my duck box pipe while standing on the ice but didn't get to it in time and now I have to wade. I want to move the box to the opposite shore so that the opening faces West. Right behind the new location on shore is a couple of spruce trees so it should give a feeling of protection hopefully. I pounded an old trampoline netting galvanized 1" pipe I had in the basement till it was sunk with the top flush with the water line. (about 24" off bottom) My pond is about 2 feet low right now so this way if I keep the pipe in we won't hit it while ice skating and as the end of skating comes and the water levels drop hopefully I can find the pipe again.
I slid the 2" PVC pipe that holds the DuckHut on it over the pipe and then hung on it and twisted it a few more times to try to get it to embed in the bottom so it doesn't rotate too much on the metal pipe. The goal would be to reuse the mounting pipe if I can mark it with paint in the future or find a way to find it as the ice melts in future springs
Last year I had pounded it on a wolmanized 2x2 wood post which was such a tight fit that I couldn't get the PVC pipe back off the wood. Probably the wood swelled with the water too making it expand. I had to rock the PVC till I busted the wolmanized. I ended up drilling out as much of the left over wood as I could from the bottom side of the PVC pipe and then pounded what was left back up inside the pole so it was out of the way.
We will have a cool down and around freezing at night (Glad for that as we are not doing well with maple syrup this season yet, another post for another time) so the floating ice will probably stick around for a bit yet.
Hoping to have an interested Wood duck pair stop by this year!!
Dug test holes for pond locations at the farm yesterday. We have been very dry since October, so I was also able to test the variability of my ground water.
Success! Found good clay in 9 out of 10 holes. Several holes had pure blue clay at the bottom. I think I could make a pond that holds water like a bathtub with that stuff!
My subsoils were dry down to 6-8', and then I struck water. It would start seeping into the hole at depth. I struck clay within the next 6" every time there was water. It appears that my clay layers are continuous and there is still a little bit of groundwater migrating in the last bit of permeable sediment just above the clay seal.
I was worried that I would be forced to move lots of saturated sandy loam soils on top of wet clay to excavate my ponds. I now think I can accomplish our pond builds WITHOUT great difficulty, if I can get working during a semi-drought period.
The first step is to clear about 5 acres of land.
Does anybody happen to know if the goat in Al's thumbnail pic is available for contract work this spring?
If the blue clay in your part of injun country is the same kind of blue clay that we have here in God's Country you ought to be able to make a pond that will hold water.
Dug test holes for pond locations at the farm yesterday. We have been very dry since October, so I was also able to test the variability of my ground water.
Success! Found good clay in 9 out of 10 holes. Several holes had pure blue clay at the bottom. I think I could make a pond that holds water like a bathtub with that stuff!
My subsoils were dry down to 6-8', and then I struck water. It would start seeping into the hole at depth. I struck clay within the next 6" every time there was water. It appears that my clay layers are continuous and there is still a little bit of groundwater migrating in the last bit of permeable sediment just above the clay seal.
I was worried that I would be forced to move lots of saturated sandy loam soils on top of wet clay to excavate my ponds. I now think I can accomplish our pond builds WITHOUT great difficulty, if I can get working during a semi-drought period.
The first step is to clear about 5 acres of land.
Does anybody happen to know if the goat in Al's thumbnail pic is available for contract work this spring?
You will have to talk to his wife, but for the right price I'm sure they are (they have 2 goats).
FishinRod, June, the goat in my pic, is a mix of diva and turd. June and Merle are Pygmy and Dwarf Nigerian crosses that we bottle fed since birth. Merle is a wethered goat, and all kidding aside, he may be one of the sweetest creatures on Earth. June didn't get the memo. Weather permitting, I take them for a foraging walk every day.
Yep, the blue clay looks really good. I made "Mike Otto" worms out to pencil size with no problems!
I was joking about the goats - but got sincere responses.
I have 20-30 acres of land that is too overgrown for wildlife habitat. It is too thick for the turkeys and the deer will only pass through along their hard-fought trails.
We have contemplated getting goats for land clearing and pets, but we don't live on our farm yet.
Questions:
If we live on the property (300 acres), can two adult goats survive in a coyote environment away from the house?
Could I fence off small areas in the "forest" for the goats to clear with a multi-strand electric fence, or would it require panel type fencing?
Will they clean underbrush and sticker vines? Absolutely. Will it break your and your spouse's heart when you see them eaten by coyotes? Absolutely. We didn't want a guardian, so we did several things. We did have to put up 5' woven wire panels, and that can get pricey. T posts with barbed wire at the top and bottom, so no digging or climbing coyotes. We ran electricity to their shed, mounted a led outdoor light, and have power for an infrared heater. With their pen being adjacent to the house, they've done fine. We've got bobcats and coyotes on our game cameras, but haven't had any issues at all.
Goats like any livestock require shots, shelter, fresh water, and definitely a guardian for large areas. Donkeys work well. I have a friend that has regular pasture goats, for exactly what you're referencing, and even with a pyrenees, he loses goats every year.
Goats can be great pets, but you may question your decision when your doing four 3oz feedings a day. Baby goats can be pulled 2-3 days after they're born, and doing that feeding is how you get a permanent bond with them.
Having said all that, they help me with brush piles. Before and after pics.
I know how much effort I have expended to clear 50'x50' patches of thick scrubby forest, and I think the goats could do it more efficiently (and happily) than I could.
I could set up 200' of panel fencing fairly easily, but I also have coyotes and bobcats so I doubt I could protect my goats effectively.
Sounds like a heavy skid steer with a mulcher will be more efficient but less enjoyable!
If I do get serious about the goats when we are moving out to the farm, then I will definitely open a new thread on PB for advice!
Here's some very incorrect advice, but if you only have one beaver hut on or near your pond, don't destroy it. Beavers, nutria, and otters will all use the same hut. Whack the beavers, then mark every entrance to the hut. If there are multiple entrances, block a few and leave a few open to provide access to the nutria and otters. They usually show up after the beavers go to rodent heaven. Yesteday I caught 2, one was leaving the hut, and one was going in the hut at another entrance. Conibears got both.
Here's 4 nutria that were digging up and eating the tubers on my hybrid lilies and blue iris. There are 2 more to hopefully trap tonight. Game camera said so.
Went and wandered around the pond this morning as it was too wet to start any dirt work. We discussed this years projects and priorities, hopefully we can get started on those this coming week. Saw some Canadian geese, mallards, black ducks, woodies, pintail, scaup, and buffleheads. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny, I’m looking forward to spending a good portion of the afternoon wandering and watching the activity. Thanks.
Spent a few minutes at the cow pond with a spinning rod this morning. Caught and caged several <9" BG. CPR one >9" BG, one >10" RES, and one SMB ~14". Pics are on my renovation thread. Haven't seen any YP ribbons yet, and the battery is dead in my thermometer, so I'm not sure what the water temp is, but it shouldn't be long before they start popping.
Took 20 or 30 shiners out of the pond today. Grandson was a good help.
Meanwhile, up by the dam my daughter and son in law were using the shiners to catch a few other species. They didn’t measure or weigh the SMB. Or the big YP.
Love seeing the kids get involved. I'd guess that YP to be 12"-ish. Nice size for the table.
I've been 100% C&R on YP up until now, and it seems that word reached the fish that the moratorium has been lifted, because I haven't caught one yet this spring. lol Had one about 8" in the B trap yesterday, but that's cheating so that one went back in the drink.
So I got a call the other day, it was a county assessor trespassing on my property to see if there were any additional taxes they could hose me for, she spotted a coon in a trap where I was catching some nuisance coons, and was making sure I was aware of it and taking care of them which I assured her I was and appeared to be ok with that, then proceeded to call the game warden who went out and wandered around the property an found a second coon in a trap, he turned them loose and was all bent out of shape, said he was ok with me trapping nuisance animals but I was supposed to let him know about it first, which I assured him I had talked to my local game warden, ( I live in another county) and he had told me to catch them and relocate them as needed. this game warden told me not to release them, to shoot em instead please, as there are too many of them around and if I was to relocate them they would just become someone else's problem which I let him know wasn't my problem, they had probably dropped them off here in the first place. I hadnt told him that They probably weren't gonna get relocated anyways. long story short, he gave me a ticket for not having my name on my traps, he told me to put my name on my traps and trap on. just let him know how many I caught on a regular bases. The assessor lady is not very high on my list of Christmas gift recipients right now, that's about as low as you can go I believe. The Game warden was actually not too bad to deal with, just a kid doing his part of saving the world, but his actions and words didn't make too much sense.
I guess it is out of the question to notify both the county assessor's office and the game warden that you have been having significant grizzly bear problems on your property - and you are therefore distributing a large number of Sawtooth #8 traps around your entire acreage?
I guess it is out of the question to notify both the county assessor's office and the game warden that you have been having significant grizzly bear problems on your property - and you are therefore distributing a large number of Sawtooth #8 traps around your entire acreage?
That would be OK except neither one of these lazy individuals ever got 10 ft from their vehicle, they drove around the trails in their vehicles. most of that is my fault, I've got to get a gate or locked chain or cable across the driveway, I haven't had very many trespassers and most of those were lost or something, I have cameras everywhere and running their license plates I can usually get their number reasonable quick and question their intent when trespassing. a phone call usually lets them realize pretty quick that the place is being watched.
I have some neighbors who absolutely love to fire off dozens of rounds whenever the mood strikes them, particularly weekends. Sometimes it's like they are practicing for a Russian invasion of Texas. Keeps potential trespassers away pretty well. Heck, nearly kept us away from buying the property before we got used to it & they realized we were okay.
Would not want to trespass in our neighborhood. Everybody is armed, some are eager to demonstrate shooting skills.
Dealing with govment folks can often be interesting. When we first bought our place it had a sewage lagoon in the back yard. We all hated it. We like to sit out back, and the often empty, leaky lagoon was horrible. I went to the county to try and get a septic system put in. The only option they gave me was a $12,000 system with pumps, and various field locations. That was more than I wanted to spend. So I borrowed a back hoe, dug a hole, bought a 1500 gallon tank and drain line, and just put in a system myself. I got a call from the county officer over sewage systems. She was in my back yard, and was staring at an illegal septic tank. I said, yep, I went ahead and did it myself. I was hoping the fine would be less than the $10,000 I saved. She said she did know of one contractor that could put in a drain field legally, and she would approve my system. I said, ok give me his number. She handed the phone to him, he happened to be right there! He said for $2500 I’ll redo your drain field, and you’ll have an approved system. So I gave the ok, and said when can you do the job? He said, I’ve got all my equipment right here! Wow, what a lucky break huh? I said I’ll be there in two hours, I’d like to meet you. I got there in less than two hours. He was done and gone. I mentioned the exchange to a neighbor that’s good friends with the sheriff. The lady was fired shorty after that, but not before she approved my septic system.. What a racket.
Your pond must be in the People's Republic of Boone County.
I had a similar situation come up with nuisance coons starting around this time last year. An acquaintance of mine caught wind of the fact that I was trapping and eliminating the vermin. He offered to relocate any that I caught. I politely declined and explained that relocation would just make a problem animal a problem for a different human. Dude took offense, called the Conservation department, and ratted me out. That didn't work out the way he was hoping it would. I had previously been in touch with the regional office here in CoMO to make them aware of the situation, and was given their blessing to destroy every one I caught until the problems went away. The agent told him thank you for calling, that they were aware, and please don't call us again to rat on Mr. Augie
Dad had 'coons tearing up his thistle feeders, so he put a live trap on the tray beneath them and one on the ground. The neighbors had friends out from the city. Dad caught a coon, and walked it down to the lake and tossed the coon in the lake, live trap and all. City people saw that and freaked out, calling the game warden. He shows up, talks to Dad. Dad showed him the chewed up bird feeders. The warden said keep it up, just give us a call when you catch one. The citified visitors weren't happy when the next morning they watched Dad do the exact same thing. They called again and were told "Yes we know about it, and he has our blessing to do that to them."
A. Make their way back to their original territory. This has been documented multiple times with squirrels also.
B. Will be killed by resident family of coons into whose territory you placed relocated coon.
The most humane and effective manner in which to deal with coons is to dispatch them. Scott's method is likely far better than my method of dispatching them inside the cage...very messy and frankly traumatic. Coons don't go quietly, at all.
Hope you see eggs soon Don! I spotted several egg strands on Thursday March 24 so not the earliest year and not the latest year for sure! But Friday night despite freezing temps, wind and icy rain they were laying eggs again. I have about a dozen clumps of eggs. This year a few more showed up on the east shore but most are SE corner like usual. They are using clumps of strange neon FA and leaves to drape their eggs around and under. I guess since I don't have sticks in this feels like structure to them. Some are draped over a bed of oak leaves in the shallow which is their usual spot.
Today I also took time to make a mallard straw tube nest device. The day after ice out the usual mallard pair showed up. The female is gone and the male stays circling in the pond. I hope she didn't make a nest in the adjacent woods already. The critters often raid the nests when they are under a pine tree etc. I had some welded wire so followed youtube instructions and made a mallard tube. I mounted it to a 2x4 and made a square-ish hole in the middle of the 2x4 and used my wolmanized 2x2 garden stakes to come up through that square hole to act as a mounting post. The orientation I guess is cross wise to any prevailing winds so wind can't blow down the barrel of the tube and about 3-4' off the water. I guess they lay eggs over a few days or a week or more so hopefully if they started a nest they might still find my straw tube attractive?
I may have to try to add PVC around the wood stake as a predator deterrant? Not sure as come to think of it the various videos I watched all make their posts out of steel.
Many said it might take a year for the tubes to be accepted and used by the ducks. Some tubes had 2 female sharing the tube for a double clutch of eggs. Some had an early and late comer using the tube over a longer time frame. All users found a much higher hatch and nearly 100% survival rate of the ducklings in the tubes compared to in 'nature' due to better protection.
A. Make their way back to their original territory. This has been documented multiple times with squirrels also.
B. Will be killed by resident family of coons into whose territory you placed relocated coon.
The most humane and effective manner in which to deal with coons is to dispatch them. Scott's method is likely far better than my method of dispatching them inside the cage...very messy and frankly traumatic. Coons don't go quietly, at all.
That was Dad's method. I just see that they have a lead/copper deficiency so I inject them with some as soon as possible and they quiet down very shortly after that. Anywhere from 17 to 40 grains of lead/copper or 60 grains of lead.
Your pond must be in the People's Republic of Boone County.
I had a similar situation come up with nuisance coons starting around this time last year. An acquaintance of mine caught wind of the fact that I was trapping and eliminating the vermin. He offered to relocate any that I caught. I politely declined and explained that relocation would just make a problem animal a problem for a different human. Dude took offense, called the Conservation department, and ratted me out. That didn't work out the way he was hoping it would. I had previously been in touch with the regional office here in CoMO to make them aware of the situation, and was given their blessing to destroy every one I caught until the problems went away. The agent told him thank you for calling, that they were aware, and please don't call us again to rat on Mr. Augie
The property is actually outside the Peoples Republic of Columbia, Boone county, which surprised me a little more, I would have expected that response from Boone county, this is in Randolph county, I had no intentions of relocating these to be anyone else,s problem, and have dispatched a fair amount of them in the recent yrs but I wasn't going to tell the GW that, but then he told me to get rid of them, not relocate after he had turned two of them loose.
CC do you have a picture of the duck nesting tubes? I’m trying to imagine it, but my imagination is letting me down.
Me too, not picturing it but I may google it and see what I can find, I have a couple duck huts out and a couple of homemade ones mad out of 8" pvc pipe painted khaki colors but don't think I have had any luck yet although I do have them around every spring and even had hatches of them but don't know where the nests were.
CC do you have a picture of the duck nesting tubes? I’m trying to imagine it, but my imagination is letting me down.
Me too, not picturing it but I may google it and see what I can find, I have a couple duck huts out and a couple of homemade ones mad out of 8" pvc pipe painted khaki colors but don't think I have had any luck yet although I do have them around every spring and even had hatches of them but don't know where the nests were.
Several good videos on this. In the UK they have seen a huge increase in the number of successful hatches and duckling survival with these tubes. I made mine with straw but watching videos they recommend 'grass hay' or Timothy Hay.
[video:google][/video]
or this one:
[video:google][/video]
or at the end of this one with video of ducklings jumping out!! I never knew that mallard ducklings did the jump out of the next like Wood Ducks but sure enough they do!
[video:google][/video]
and they used metal components perhaps as an additional predator guard. I like the design where the tube sits in a cradle which makes it easier to remove the tube to check and refresh the hay and leave the mount in place. In my pond I suspect I'll be taking it down and putting it back out in the pond at ice out. My wife says that it looks silly in the pond, like a wooly sheep without legs floating above the water..
CC, I can only say that my imagination was way off. Thank you for sharing. I’ve got most of the components around the farm, except for the cradle. Plus I’m assuming that needs welded. Got my work cut out for me. Thanks again Jeff
My design was all wood to make it easy. I laid out about 8 feet (wish I had done 9 feet) of welded wire I had laying around. Mine was a 2x4" weld pattern like in the second video above but you can use hardware cloth or chicken wire whatever you have. Roll a good sized 'inside hoop' I made mine about 18" or more in diameter. Then fasten that with hog wire clips or in my case I fastened it down to a 2x4 with screws and washers to grip the metal. Then pack in the hay/straw and roll up the rest of the way like a pumpkin roll.
I intend to add either a stove pipe over the wooden mounting stake or will split a pvc pipe in half and wrap the wood stake with PVC. Since my wood stake comes up through a square hole in my 2x4 it is pretty easy to lift it off the stake and then take stake out if needed.
It would be interesting to experiment with depth and 'jump height' for the ducklings.
Not getting my hopes up, they say often the ducks need a season to get used to it first.
Looking at bringing in a trackhoe to eliminate cattails while the pond is down three feet.
That sounds like a lot of work. Can you hit them with one of the cattail herbicides while you have that 3' safety gap? I think some of the good ones are glyphosate (RoundUp) based, which is considered "non-persistent" in the soil.
You might be able to hit them hard, without herbicide getting directly into the lake.
OTOH, those types of herbicides work best when the plant is actively growing. I don't know if your cattails will hit their spring growth spurt before you get your spring rains.
Looking at bringing in a trackhoe to eliminate cattails while the pond is down three feet.
That sounds like a lot of work. Can you hit them with one of the cattail herbicides while you have that 3' safety gap? I think some of the good ones are glyphosate (RoundUp) based, which is considered "non-persistent" in the soil.
You might be able to hit them hard, without herbicide getting directly into the lake.
OTOH, those types of herbicides work best when the plant is actively growing. I don't know if your cattails will hit their spring growth spurt before you get your spring rains.
Maybe experiment on a little patch?
No need for a trackhoe if you have a beaver. Boy do they love cattails!
Looking at bringing in a trackhoe to eliminate cattails while the pond is down three feet.
That sounds like a lot of work. Can you hit them with one of the cattail herbicides while you have that 3' safety gap? I think some of the good ones are glyphosate (RoundUp) based, which is considered "non-persistent" in the soil.
You might be able to hit them hard, without herbicide getting directly into the lake.
OTOH, those types of herbicides work best when the plant is actively growing. I don't know if your cattails will hit their spring growth spurt before you get your spring rains.
Maybe experiment on a little patch?
No need for a trackhoe if you have a beaver. Boy do they love cattails!
Looking at bringing in a trackhoe to eliminate cattails while the pond is down three feet.
That sounds like a lot of work. Can you hit them with one of the cattail herbicides while you have that 3' safety gap? I think some of the good ones are glyphosate (RoundUp) based, which is considered "non-persistent" in the soil.
You might be able to hit them hard, without herbicide getting directly into the lake.
OTOH, those types of herbicides work best when the plant is actively growing. I don't know if your cattails will hit their spring growth spurt before you get your spring rains.
Maybe experiment on a little patch?
They are currently not growing. I believe the best way to remove them to completely remove the plant. Results are mixed on getting to the root if using herbicides IIRC from reading here.
Got my buddy in CO set up with the first WAE eggs of the year today. Got 328,000 started today which is a great start filling an entire hatching jar with 4qts of eggs!
Got my buddy in CO set up with the first WAE eggs of the year today. Got 328,000 started today which is a great start filling an entire hatching jar with 4qts of eggs!
I am sure digging is best. I was just going for easier, but still worked.
If you get them 100%, does that give you a longer window before they re-establish in your pond?
Probably. Also makes it manageable to the eliminate the smaller clumps that do reestablish.
It will be a constant battle. I don't have any that I can see within 1/2 mile of here but I am still pulling individual volunteers every year that start to grow in the pond. Maybe seeds on the wind? I honestly don't know.
Got my buddy in CO set up with the first WAE eggs of the year today. Got 328,000 started today which is a great start filling an entire hatching jar with 4qts of eggs!
Will he do better than 50% survival to stocking?[/quot
Originally Posted by esshup
[quote=Snipe]Got my buddy in CO set up with the first WAE eggs of the year today. Got 328,000 started today which is a great start filling an entire hatching jar with 4qts of eggs!
Will he do better than 50% survival to stocking?
Good, viable eggs properly fertilized and cleaned of fungus will net 75% hatch rate. WAE have to be stocked out in grow outs or lakes 3 days post hatch.
Got my buddy in CO set up with the first WAE eggs of the year today. Got 328,000 started today which is a great start filling an entire hatching jar with 4qts of eggs!
Will he do better than 50% survival to stocking?[/quot
Originally Posted by esshup
[quote=Snipe]Got my buddy in CO set up with the first WAE eggs of the year today. Got 328,000 started today which is a great start filling an entire hatching jar with 4qts of eggs!
Will he do better than 50% survival to stocking?
Good, viable eggs properly fertilized and cleaned of fungus will net 75% hatch rate. WAE have to be stocked out in grow outs or lakes 3 days post hatch.
I was talking about what % will get to stocking size, accounting for post hatching mortality and cannibalism.
Picking up 2,000 on Tuesday morning. Fingers crossed. They come from a few generations of feed trained Walleye, so I hope they stay on the feed after being stocked in the pond.
Picking up 2,000 on Tuesday morning. Fingers crossed. They come from a few generations of feed trained Walleye, so I hope they stay on the feed after being stocked in the pond.
That will be awesome esshup!
Do you have a viable means of determining/observing if the Walleye are taking pellets after they have taken up residence in your pond?
If so, your reports on that experiment would probably generate a lot of interest in the forum.
Harvested 3 LMB and transported 7 CNBG to the forage pond. Mosquitoes are really bad, hope fish in forage pond will help. Need to fertilize again, greenish tinge.
Thanks, Rod. Dr. Swingle at Auburn found that 6 BG was the ideal number to stock a forage pond. Much more, and the adults ate too many of the little guys. I figured 7 was close enough.
You're right, the forage pond is naturally very fertile. Why that is, while the main pond isn't, is a mystery.
I feed AquaMax MVP to the adult BG. Not much at first, since there are so few, but gradually ramp it up as the fry get larger. I'll mix in some smaller feed as the summer goes on.
As for your forage pond, perhaps you should stock some fathead minnows a couple of months ahead of the BG. A few wooden pallets would make good spawning substrate for them. Wish I'd done that last fall, but you can't think of everything.
Have been harvesting a few LMB just to eat fresh out of the pond then kept some WE to try for some fresh eating as well, have very seldom got to try it. it was excellent, I put them in as fingerlings right at a yr ago, in late March, they are up to right at 15" now and make some really nice fillets. the LMB are biting good, fight hard and lively, as do the WE, BG are feeding at the feeder again but not much activity from the CC, did see a few, havent had time to try and catch any, having too much fun in my few spare minutes to catch LMB.
I've been trapping BG from my very small spring fed pond into my larger almost 2ac pond.
I have a chunky 3lb bass that has been hanging out under my dock and likes to grab a BG as I drop them into the pond. The first time he did it I thought it was a little bass so i dangled a jig and caught a nice fat bass. He came back a couple days later and since then has been a consistent feeder.
After work yesterday I fileted 30 7"-10" BG and made a big batch of ceviche. It was a lot of work, but well worth the effort. We're wrapping up a major infrastructure upgrade at work, and I had the project team out for supper as a small token of gratitude for a job well done. They have all had shrimp ceviche at the mexcan restaurant, but none of them had ever seen it made from fish. One of the guys commented how fresh it tasted. I said yep it's fresh alright, two hours ago it was swimming.
Close friends joined us for some weekend fishing --- and work. We assembled a TH Feeder & deployed it on the main pond, moved, refilled & reprogrammed old feeder on the forage pond, replaced the marine battery on the pontoon boat, washed & refilled hummingbird feeders. A bit of landscaping work as well, azaleas, camellias, and redbuds doing well. My bride fixed a great meal, too. Truth is, we did more work than fishing, but they didn't mind.
Some little BG/CNBG managed to survive in my nearly empty forage pond, but hopefully they won't interfere much with the big CNBG reproduction. Main BOW shoreline full of FA, but I'm happy because the YOY are well sheltered there & TP are only a couple of weeks away. Not seeing a whole lot of southern naiad yet, but it is only a matter of time.
Two nesting geese keeping other geese away. I've only seen a few cormorants this whole winter/spring, none this past weekend. Not sure why, but I'll take it. Kingfishers enjoying life, I don't mind much because they focus on little fish. Scads of small CNBG & LMB.
My buddy was bringing in a 14 incher when he noticed a huge HSB following right behind the struggling fish. Some of those stripers are double digits, I think.
Some little BG/CNBG managed to survive in my nearly empty forage pond, but hopefully they won't interfere much with the big CNBG reproduction.
The tenacity of living organisms never ceases to amaze me!
I am designing my forage ponds to be capable of being drained completely dry, because I don't trust my ability to manage the pond successfully against a competing pre-existing population that has OTHER goals.
Yesterday I saw a few of my LMB for the first time this year. One of them was from last year's spawn and looks like he grew more over the winter than I would of thought it would.
Some little BG/CNBG managed to survive in my nearly empty forage pond, but hopefully they won't interfere much with the big CNBG reproduction.
The tenacity of living organisms never ceases to amaze me!
I am designing my forage ponds to be capable of being drained completely dry, because I don't trust my ability to manage the pond successfully against a competing pre-existing population that has OTHER goals.
Mine was designed the same way, but never gets completely dry even during summer droughts. Ground water, I think. No question, life will find a way!
I watched the tube closely and no activity. We went on a road trip for spring break for 10 days and had a fair amount of rain when we were gone. We came home and the roll of wire with hay had gotten a bit water logged and had rolled over off the wood 2x4 base and was hanging over the edge. It looked squished and the wooden post was leaning due to the odd weight distribution. I decided it would be better to buy big worm gear clamps and clamp it more securely to the wooden base.
When unfastening the 2x4 from the vertical mount post I jostled the cage and out dropped 3 eggs!! Unfortunately they dropped into deeper water where they were hard to retrieve but I managed to get 2 of the 3 before one was covered with muck and leaves.
(Question, how long can these eggs be submerged before the embryo suffocates? Seconds? Minutes?)
Working some more and carefully feeling inside and found 2 more eggs inside so there were 6 eggs in there!! Amazing! I wonder if when the tube got water logged and rolled over if the nest was abandoned?
Anyway, worked quickly to make the hoop look more like a circle again, relined the bottom with hay so eggs won't fall through the metal mesh, reinstalled the pole and tube and carefully put the eggs back in a depression in the hay in the middle and packed hay around the rear of the tube for 'privacy' again.
Not sure if eggs are viable (they were dunked for about 2-3 minutes) and not sure if momma already abandoned but am very excited that the tube was accepted within a couple weeks time in the first season!
Not sure if eggs are viable (they were dunked for about 2-3 minutes) and not sure if momma already abandoned but am very excited that the tube was accepted within a couple weeks time in the first season!
Do you have a game camera? It sounds like this project might benefit from a little more info!
I watched the tube closely and no activity. We went on a road trip for spring break for 10 days and had a fair amount of rain when we were gone. We came home and the roll of wire with hay had gotten a bit water logged and had rolled over off the wood 2x4 base and was hanging over the edge. It looked squished and the wooden post was leaning due to the odd weight distribution. I decided it would be better to buy big worm gear clamps and clamp it more securely to the wooden base.
When unfastening the 2x4 from the vertical mount post I jostled the cage and out dropped 3 eggs!! Unfortunately they dropped into deeper water where they were hard to retrieve but I managed to get 2 of the 3 before one was covered with muck and leaves.
(Question, how long can these eggs be submerged before the embryo suffocates? Seconds? Minutes?)
Working some more and carefully feeling inside and found 2 more eggs inside so there were 6 eggs in there!! Amazing! I wonder if when the tube got water logged and rolled over if the nest was abandoned?
Anyway, worked quickly to make the hoop look more like a circle again, relined the bottom with hay so eggs won't fall through the metal mesh, reinstalled the pole and tube and carefully put the eggs back in a depression in the hay in the middle and packed hay around the rear of the tube for 'privacy' again.
Not sure if eggs are viable (they were dunked for about 2-3 minutes) and not sure if momma already abandoned but am very excited that the tube was accepted within a couple weeks time in the first season!
I raised wild waterfowl, Pheasant and Quail for many years.. First, Eggs are porous but have an air sac that acts like a diaphragm.. When eggs are collected, you never rub them to clean if planning to hatch out. dirt/mud/poop fills the pores and THEN you have problems. Mud can be rinsed from eggs, soaked in a 5-6oz dish of water with a tablespoon of clorox to sanitize even, without bothering embryo. They could be under water for 10-15 min and not hurt anything unless covered with mud. They can be rinsed but not wiped clean.
I caught my 10th Nutria last night. I'm not seeing any more dug up tuber chunks, so I'm at least holding my own. I've got 5 conibears set up on one abandoned beaver hut, and critters just keep coming.
[quote=canyoncreek]Update on the Mallard 'tube' !!
I watched the tube closely and no activity. We went on a road trip for spring break for 10 days and had a fair amount of rain when we were gone. We came home and the roll of wire with hay had gotten a bit water logged and had rolled over off the wood 2x4 base and was hanging over the edge. It looked squished and the wooden post was leaning due to the odd weight distribution. I decided it would be better to buy big worm gear clamps and clamp it more securely to the wooden base.
When unfastening the 2x4 from the vertical mount post I jostled the cage and out dropped 3 eggs!! Unfortunately they dropped into deeper water where I raised wild waterfowl, Pheasant and Quail for many years.. First, Eggs are porous but have an air sac that acts like a diaphragm.. When eggs are collected, you never rub them to clean if planning to hatch out. dirt/mud/poop fills the pores and THEN you have problems. Mud can be rinsed from eggs, soaked in a 5-6oz dish of water with a tablespoon of clorox to sanitize even, without bothering embryo. They could be under water for 10-15 min and not hurt anything unless covered with mud. They can be rinsed but not wiped clean.
Thanks for taking the time to explain this! The ones that hit the water were not dirty so was worried more about submerging time but sounds like that didn't hurt them. The others I rescued out of the straw and laid them on the bank of the pond for about 10 min and then all went back in the nest. The one that got under the mud couldn't be found due to water getting cloudy from us wading around in it.
I saw the male early this morning hanging out on the other side of the pond so not sure if the mom went back in the tube to check on the eggs now that the tube is upright and in proper position again. Lets hope! Otherwise, I can remove eggs in a week or so if they are abandoned and maybe we'll get a second batch from another mallard pair yet this season.
I caught my 10th Nutria last night. I'm not seeing any more dug up tuber chunks, so I'm at least holding my own. I've got 5 conibears set up on one abandoned beaver hut, and critters just keep coming.
Wow!
Coming soon to Pond Boss ... "Delicious Recipes for Nutria" and "101 Uses for Nutria Pelts"!
Nothing but big ol' water rats, and my guess is they don't taste like chicken. The one today was a juvenile, so that means more are coming. My place is at the top of the watershed for Lake Fork, and specifically Lake Fork Creek. I'm guessing they're coming up the dry creek bed behind our pond dam looking for food.
Nothing but big ol' water rats, and my guess is they don't taste like chicken. The one today was a juvenile, so that means more are coming. My place is at the top of the watershed for Lake Fork, and specifically Lake Fork Creek. I'm guessing they're coming up the dry creek bed behind our pond dam looking for food.
Nutria is GOOD eating. The one time I had it, it was grilled as kebabs- pieces of meat on sticks & on the grill. Very, very tasty. Texture like very tender flank steak & a not dissimilar flavor. I submit that Cajuns started eatin' them things, 'cos they's hungry, but kept eating them because they were tasty.
Same if any of y'all have to remove a beaver. That's a goodly chunk of great meat. Haven't tried groundhog or muskrat yet. Older folks 'round here eat groundhog & based on my experiences eating other large rodents, I'd bet muskrat's pretty tasty as well.
I'm fond of squirrel and rabbit and have heard that beaver is good. So why not nutria? One rodent I have heard to avoid is the porcupine. Not just that they have quills but also that they smell really bad. I've never been close enough to smell one so I can't say.
Goundhog is delicious. The YOY are the best, very tender and reminds us a lot of rabbit. The mature ones we usually put in the crock pot and it reminds us of a lean beef roast. Very delicious either way.
This reminds me of the story my Dad once told of him and one of his buddies that used to spend a lot of time hunting together.. They had shot a Rabbit for a gent that had never tried it. He got back in touch with them and asked if they'd bring him another sometime... My Dad's Crazy buddy shot a feral cat in the middle of nowhere, cleaned and gave it to him. Several weeks had went by and I guess the guy had called one of them to say that Rabbit was way better than the first one...???.... I'm "guessing" there was alcohol involved...
Goundhog is delicious. The YOY are the best, very tender and reminds us a lot of rabbit. The mature ones we usually put in the crock pot and it reminds us of a lean beef roast. Very delicious either way.
I saw a big one bookin' across the pasture while I was mowing. Followed him to his lair under our little reefer box/outdoor storage thingy. I'ma git him. Thing's as big as our Dachshunds, so minimum 15lbs or so. I'm thinkin' either groundhog kebabs or maybe some carne asada whistlepig tacos.
Sorry, I was raised by grandparents who were dirt poor farm kids during the Depression, so growing up, there weren't too many critters that were off limits as table fare. I'm also a redneck prepper & adventurous eater. Hell, even bobcat's on the menu, should the opportunity arise. It's a lot like lean pork, just don't over cook it.
Back on track. Took a walk around the pond & had a look-see, now that things have dried up a bit. It's about 2/3 dug & full to the brim. Apparently, the spring we tapped was a strong one, as it stays full. Visibility's ~2', with a pea soup greenish cast to the water, so I'm hopeful my H2O will be good to go. I have one of those Pond Master test kits on the way, so I'll have a better idea what's going on. Can't wait to get 'er done & start growing some tasty sunfish.
The mallard tube tipped a bit more and our 55 mph winds finally tipped it into the drink. The eggs i had put back in fell out again. No saving them this time and the mallard hen has not been back to check on them as far as I can tell.
Tipped it up, added a steel stake for better support, restuffed it with dry hay and we'll see if another hen decides to use it yet this season or not.
Eggs have a neat greenish tint of color to them. Just a fuzz more oblong than a chicken egg
Sorry, I was raised by grandparents who were dirt poor farm kids during the Depression, so growing up, there weren't too many critters that were off limits as table fare.
I wasn't raised by them, but certainly some of my best memories were from spending time with my "dirt poor farm kids during the Depression" grandparents.
As you said, not many critters were off limits for eating. My grandfather used to hunt rabbits with a thrown hammer. He said he was good for about one rabbit for every three tosses. We ate both rabbit and squirrel at their house growing up, even when food was plentiful. I think they both considered any "meat" a treat since in their younger days they had gone long stretches without it.
In addition to gathering critters, my grandfather knew where all of the pawpaw trees and sand plum thickets were down by the river to supplement the larder when in season.
He also used to noodle catfish in the river. He would never show us boys how to do that, and that was one of the few topics on which he clammed up under eager boy questioning. I believe he had a buddy drown while noodling based on something my grandmother told me years later.
Added 25 lb fertilizer only to deeper parts of pond so as to encourage a bloom more than plant growth. Refilled feeders and was surprised to see how differently they distributed feed despite identical throw times & same pellets. One feeder was half full, one 3/5 full, and one was maybe 1/4 full.
Decided to check out goose nest to see how many eggs she had. Transfer from boat to end of island didn't go so well, as grass clod gave way & into the drink I went. Problem: I was still wearing the face mask I used while throwing fertilizer. Even though I'm a fairly good swimmer, and I fell in maybe two feet of water, I couldn't catch my breath. When wet, the mask prevented me from getting air. Whenever I tried to inhale, I got water down my nose & throat.
Would have been ridiculous to drown that way, so I finally realized the problem & tore off the mask. Sopping wet, with pond weed in my hair, I made quite a sight for my wife. She was both frightened & amused at my antics, as was the goose.
By the way, there were seven eggs. That knowledge was definitely not worth getting my wallet, cash, phone & clothes submerged.
Oddly enough, Rod, I came closer to drowning today than probably any other time in my life. Still hacking up pond water occasionally. Sheesh!
Dang it!
Glad you came out of it OK!
I also had chills reading about Snipe's close escape from drowning when he was pinned under his ATV.
When planning my pond slopes, I was hyper-focused on the plant and algae areas and ease of pond management. I never once considered ensuring that my side slopes would facilitate a human being able to easily get out of the pond.
Fortunately, someone on Pond Boss added that reply to my planning thread. I have since noticed that someone adds it to most of the threads discussing the slope designs for a new pond.
Keep up the good work people! I come to Pond Boss to read about happy family adventures, NOT obits!
Nothing but big ol' water rats, and my guess is they don't taste like chicken. The one today was a juvenile, so that means more are coming. My place is at the top of the watershed for Lake Fork, and specifically Lake Fork Creek. I'm guessing they're coming up the dry creek bed behind our pond dam looking for food.
Since Ken isn't posting much, I have to take up the slack for him.
Here alone today. So I got to fish a little. My SMB are continuing to grow. Had a 1.5” rain yesterday, so I have water going out the overflow pipe. Makes for a relaxing moment. After I let that guy go.
(19.5” I forgot my scale.) More rain coming tonight. Going to scare up some turkeys with my grandson tomorrow.
Went to flooded timber upper end of pond with top water and caught 12 lmb to 4# most being over 2#. Had to horse them on surface to keep from hanging up in downed limbs and trunks. That was fun. Those Pop-Rs are fun to use
Surprised to find a 6" dead creek chub in one of our wetlands this morning. I threw a couple little ones in a few years ago, but assumed they would not survive since its maximum depth is only 4' when completely full, and maybe only 12-18" during summer droughts. The water is very clear though, except when the dogs get in. Maybe just died of old age?
I am trying to determine which "creek species" of fish on my farm would also flourish in my ponds.
Do you think any of your creek chubs pulled off a spawn in your ponds? Do you think any of your other species of small creek fish were able to establish populations in your ponds?
I would like to utilize indigenous forage fish to supplement the initial FHM forage in my ponds. I am even considering a small forage pond where I could start with a few brood stock from the creek and then transfer forage to the main pond after the population explosion.
I can manage almost every habitat need in the forage pond, EXCEPT moving water, so any advice on dual environment forage fish would be greatly appreciated. (From RAH, or anyone else too.)
I do not think that creek chubs spawn in ponds. If you can find lake chubsuckers, they will spawn. Of course, be careful what you add in terms of good ID and health.
I "potentially" have three types of shiners, bluntnose and bullhead minnows, speckled chub, silver chub, some dace, some darters, one species of stoneroller, and one species of killifish.
I predict I will be making lots of posts into the fish ID sub-forum.
I may have to rotate experimenting with a single species in a forage pond as the only way to find out what truly works!
It’s time for our annual spring toad mass breeding event. The pond has 1000s of toads around the banks. Just piled on top of each other. Not afraid of anything. The trilling sound is deafening. Already clouds of black eggs around the banks. In a few days there will be millions of tiny black tadpoles. If I could figure out a way to link in a video, you could enjoy the racket.
It’s time for our annual spring toad mass breeding event. The pond has 1000s of toads around the banks. Just piled on top of each other. Not afraid of anything. The trilling sound is deafening. Already clouds of black eggs around the banks. In a few days there will be millions of tiny black tadpoles. If I could figure out a way to link in a video, you could enjoy the racket.
I haven't seen any in my main pond this year, I wonder if the LMB have something to do with that? My sediment pond has a fair amount of them and lots of eggs of different types.
It’s time for our annual spring toad mass breeding event. The pond has 1000s of toads around the banks. Just piled on top of each other. Not afraid of anything. The trilling sound is deafening. Already clouds of black eggs around the banks. In a few days there will be millions of tiny black tadpoles. If I could figure out a way to link in a video, you could enjoy the racket.
I haven't seen any in my main this year, I wonder if the LMB have something to do with that? My sediment pond has a fair amount of them and lots of eggs of different types.
Very early the life of my pond we experienced a toad mass breeding event, but to my knowledge it hasn't been repeated. Back then we had a relatively small population of LMB, so maybe that was a factor.
I'd caged some CNBG for a really helpful neighbor that had 2 new ponds. We had caught plenty of males, but had very few females. Today, we caught enough females to balance out the spawning ratios, and get his bigger pond started. I'm guessing around 40 pounds of CNBG.
Originally Posted by ] I haven't seen any in my main this year, I wonder if the LMB have something to do with that? My sediment pond has a fair amount of them and lots of eggs of different types.[/quote
Very early the life of my pond we experienced a toad mass breeding event, but to my knowledge it hasn't been repeated. Back then we had a relatively small population of LMB, so maybe that was a factor.
I don’t have any LMB, maybe that’s why we keep getting these toad orgies.. I didn’t think there were this many toads within a mile of the pond. We also have thousands of big bullfrog tadpoles every year. I guess SMB do not bother with either of them.
Scott, still no 2#'s, but plenty of fatties. I still haven't turned on my feeders, and am hand feeding. After 2 years of blue/green algae, and very little rain since last September, I went rogue. No treating algae, no spraying weeds, no feeders, and no problems.
anthropic, RW is somewhere around 160%. Others can correct me if needed. Scale with ruler is zeroed out after the tray is wet down.
Scott, still no 2#'s, but plenty of fatties. I still haven't turned on my feeders, and am hand feeding. After 2 years of blue/green algae, and very little rain since last September, I went rogue. No treating algae, no spraying weeds, no feeders, and no problems.
anthropic, RW is somewhere around 160%. Others can correct me if needed. Scale with ruler is zeroed out after the tray is wet down.
I also did not use my automatic feeder last year at my main pond because of blue-green algae the year before. That and we are now raising so many pounds of fish already plus being fully retired and traveling more didn't think we could keep up with proper harvest.
The more a person manages a pond for performance, the more management the pond requires.
[/quote] I also did not use my automatic feeder last year at my main pond because of blue-green algae the year before. That and we are now raising so many pounds of fish already plus being fully retired and traveling more didn't think we could keep up with proper harvest.
The more a person manages a pond for performance, the more management the pond requires.[/quote]
Truer words were never spoken. The sharply increased cost of fish food & stocking forage fish has me rethinking my strategy. I suspect that I'm not alone in this. Pond management practices may need modification to account for different economic conditions.
Your neighbor appreciates that, Al. Hey but please don't stop with the glorious eye candy pics. Tell us about your neighbor's larger pond, his goal, and the stocking plan you are helping him to administer.
We drained our pond two years ago, finished digging it out and repaired the dam late last summer. It still has about two vertical feet left until it's completely full. We've put a lot of time into it and it seems like we have so much more to do in order to get everything where we want it.
We put aeration in two weekends ago and stocked it last weekend. Those were two big exciting steps for us and I finally feel like we are getting over the hump. My wife and I both had some anxiety once we first cut the dam and drained it. We had a huge 2+ acre mudhole in our yard and I wasn't sure if and when we'd get a full pond back or how much it would be improved.
We have rain coming over the next week, hopefully enough to finish filling it and then we will get to see if our spillway will keep it drained down from filling over the dock. We aren't sure and it looks like it's going to be close. Before the redo, it would keep it just a couple of inches below the dock. It was perfect. We don't have an overflow pipe. The pond has only drained through the spillway and never eroded for all the years we owned it so we kept it that way. I seeded it last year and have some grass growth, hopefully it's enough to hold the soil. It was awesomely thick before which held the ground well. It's wide and the flow tends to be spread out but the pond hasn't had overflow just yet and we're a bit nervous about how it's going to work for us this time around.
Yesterday I spread straw and seed across our far bank. It's pretty much clay and gravel and I'm hoping this is going to work. We did well late last year getting the dam, the two flow areas into the pond and the spillway seeded and growing. The bank adjacent to the lawn kept itself green for us.
Anyways, so many things I want to get done and others I need to get done, plus too much stuff not pond related to do. We'll see what we get but every item off the checklist is another small reward.
We have rain coming over the next week, hopefully enough to finish filling it and then we will get to see if our spillway will keep it drained down from filling over the dock. We aren't sure and it looks like it's going to be close. Before the redo, it would keep it just a couple of inches below the dock. It was perfect.
If the "new" water level turns out to be not quite perfect, you could still install an automatic siphon system. That would allow you to readily adjust the water level to perfect. Or even allow you to pull down the pond if that would help you in some future pond management project.
Good luck on your big project and getting your "new" pond in the optimal state for your family's use!
Your neighbor appreciates that, Al. Hey but please don't stop with the glorious eye candy pics. Tell us about your neighbor's larger pond, his goal, and the stocking plan you are helping him to administer.
The pond i put the CNBG in is approximately 3/4 to 1 acre, cashew shaped, and is still a tad muddy. There is one brushpile, and that's where the fish were added, and will be fed. Only 1/4" pellets will be fed.
My current plan is to manage the water numbers, and walk away. One of the most common pond issues is an overpopulation of LMB, and the difficultly in getting a forage/predator balance restored. I'm taking the opposite route by giving the stocked CNBG a year to spawn, and hopefully have 10's if not 100's of thousands of stunted CNBG fry and fingerlings. This fall, I'll stock another 100-200 3-4" CNBG from my hatchery pond. I'm up for our electroshocking next year, and will get it the last week of March, or the first week of April, and pull 15-20 female LMB out for neighbor's pond. If a male is accidentally stocked, then I would think the ravenous small CNBG would handle a LMB bed or two. Since 1/4" pellets are all that will be thrown to the small number of breeder sized CNBG, the YOY should have slow growth and hopefully be runts, and not outgrow the LMB gape.
The only real negative is the productivity time table being drug out until next year(the neighbor is good with that since he has other ponds), and the potential difficulty in catching the LMB with artificial lures.
The positives are that adjustments will be easy to fix by stocking additional LMB a few at a time, very low fish food usage, lower biomass, and no issues with high nutrient levels from fish waste. If the grand kids just want to catch CNBG, then the "jumpers" can always be fed by adding 1/8" pellets to the feeder, and accelerate their growth.
Bottom line, if the pond gets broken, it'll be easy to fix.
I'm taking the opposite route by giving the stocked CNBG a year to spawn, and hopefully have 10's if not 100's of thousands of stunted CNBG fry and fingerlings. This fall, I'll stock another 100-200 3-4" CNBG from my hatchery pond. I'm up for our electroshocking next year, and will get it the last week of March, or the first week of April, and pull 15-20 female LMB out for neighbor's pond. If a male is accidentally stocked, then I would think the ravenous small CNBG would handle a LMB bed or two. Since 1/4" pellets are all that will be thrown to the small number of breeder sized CNBG, the YOY should have slow growth and hopefully be runts, and not outgrow the LMB gape.
That does sound like an excellent plan. Which means I don't understand why it is not done more often?
Your CNBG are very tall dorsal to ventral (correct term?), so they are difficult to swallow. I assume you raised them in a well-balance pond. If they get overpopulated in your neighbor's pond, they SHOULD be somewhat stunted. They will be thinner, but will stunting also make them less tall? (And therefore easier to swallow?)
You also say you can correct the BG overpopulation problem if it runs away. What is the weight/length of the LMB that can eat the BG just below the size of your broodstock? What age would those bass be, considering they will be getting "Texas" growth rates plus abundant BG forage of every size range?
It seems to me, that the LMB would get the explosive "early" growth rate, like in a heavy FHM pond, but then also get the explosive "middle" growth rate due to the overabundance of BG.
I guess my basic question is, would that plan result in a superior LMB fishery (which goals?) more assuredly than starting the LMB earlier and trading "time" for "growth rate".
Thanks to AL or anyone else who replies, FishinRod
There's a really good chance of growing double digit LMB in as little as 4 years or so with that plan. I am in agreement with your thoughts and I am looking forward to seeing this fishery progress.
This is just observation stuff, so others chime in.
Rod, the pie plate CNBG are the more mature ones. I've never see 4-6" CNBG here that are round, but I have seen bigger ones that aren't either. Here at least, the 7-9" CNBG are rarely eaten or targeted by the LMB, and I do think it's partly because of the height of the fish is growing along with the length. We specifically pulled CNBG that we felt were safe, and had a much lower chance of being eaten. Historically, the LMB we pull out during electroshocking are 15" and below, and 4-6" CNBG seems to be their sweet spot. I'm guessing the 15" LMB are 2-3 years old.
I'm not sure it would result in a better fishery, but I do think it will be an easier one to manage. If the initial LMB numbers are limited, and feeder observation lets you know how many large CNBG are coming to feed, and have those numbers changed, then I think the benefit of tons of runts will outweigh fewer LMB.
After adding 120# GSH Tuesday, added 100# TP today. Tons of algae, so they should do well. I've learned to tolerate large algae blooms early in the year, as they seem to help the fry and YOY survive. When TP are stocked, algae tends to wane pretty quickly.
Electro survey was encouraging. Relative weight was a below average 81 last fall, now up to average 90. I could see that even the smaller bass had more weight, though most had already spawned. Top LMB over 6#, another over 5. Biggest CNBG 1.6, the largest I've ever seen up close & personal. Should hit the magic 2# mark next year! Also a 7# class HSB which they released quickly rather than stressing it by keeping for exact measurement.
Keys to improvement seem to be A) survival & flourishing of TFS which feed the smaller LMB & HSB; B) increased LMB harvest last year, over 300 removed; and C) heavy liming last fall, resulting in a better bloom with fertilization this year. Water viz was excellent, around 18 - 20 inches, instead of the usual too clear 3 to 4 feet. Perhaps this contributed to seeing far fewer injuries from herons.
Needed encouragement after sticker shock from fish feed, so good to see better results. Neither cormorants nor geese on scene, though ducks and a bald eagle flew around. This time I managed to stay in the boat, no diving allowed!
Boy Scouts are coming to fish pond for merit badges again this year. Hopefully remove bass , catfish and bg for their merit badges. They will be here next weekend. Wish them good fishing!
Beautiful bird Setterguy. Congratulations. We are allowed here in Colorado to have our dog with us when we turkey hunt. So my turkey CRAZY Australian shepherd sits at my side as I call in the toms. We called in a beauty with his harem two weeks ago. Gypsy gets to race to the tom after the shot and begin the plucking process. This morning was opening day in Utah. We travelled over to some habitat we'd wanted to scout. I haven't bought an out of state license yet, but after this morning I'm thinking it's a good idea. I got responses from 8 gobblers and saw 3 others that were spooked by the truck because they were 35 yards off the road. What a productive morning. The very best thing is not one hunter was out there. This is all public land. Incredible. I'm hoping to go back and actually hunt. BTW, I'd have to say your bird is "all wet".
Saw 2 toms in the woods today. We have too few birds for me to hunt them yet.
We have been continuously discouraging possums and raccoons from hanging around our place, and turkey numbers have increased. Most mornings we could hear five or six gobblers, and the game cameras showed groups of up to a dozen. They had a decent hatch last year. Hopefully even better this year. After the big wind storm last winter knocked down 100s of trees, there’s a lot of cover. We’ve even got a few quail.
Beautiful bird Setterguy. Congratulations. We are allowed here in Colorado to have our dog with us when we turkey hunt. So my turkey CRAZY Australian shepherd sits at my side as I call in the toms. We called in a beauty with his harem two weeks ago. Gypsy gets to race to the tom after the shot and begin the plucking process. This morning was opening day in Utah. We travelled over to some habitat we'd wanted to scout. I haven't bought an out of state license yet, but after this morning I'm thinking it's a good idea. I got responses from 8 gobblers and saw 3 others that were spooked by the truck because they were 35 yards off the road. What a productive morning. The very best thing is not one hunter was out there. This is all public land. Incredible. I'm hoping to go back and actually hunt. BTW, I'd have to say your bird is "all wet".
Ha! It was raining pretty good. They don’t seem bothered by the rain at all. Unlike myself. That is amazing to find that many birds on public ground. I was in western Nebraska last September. Lots of birds out there. Missouri’s turkey population is actually way down from 20 years ago.
With fur prices so low, our trapper friend can only sell the large raccoon pelts. Too many raccoons, possums, and skunks! We too have a lot of dead trees down due to ash borer. Will lose all the ash.
Well after two long years, our renovated lake can officially be declared full once again after last night's heavy rains. I am a bit worried that our overflow may be too high. I have less than a foot of depth left until water is over the far end of our dock. After work I am heading to the other end to get a look at the spillway which takes care of our overflow. (we don't have a pipe)
The guy we hired to do our work swears he didn't touch the spillway but he did push trees and brush across it which may have dropped some dirt and leveled it off a little higher. I'm hoping we won't have to make an adjustment and dig it down now that the grass is established and growing strong there.
It used to work perfectly and never cut into the ground with the grass growing there. I hope we can maintain the same thing. There's more rain coming and sooner or later here this Spring, we should know for sure.
Nice Bird! I have heard that the rain actually does mess with their vision, its so sharp that their eyes actually pick up the raindrops thus impairing their vision. We definitely have fewer birds then we had 15 yrs ago, I have made a huge effort to reduce the number of varmints in the area, I had a huge flock, over thirty birds, get together in front of my game cameras last Dec but hardly see more then a few at a time since, all winter, and even less during the turkey season.
Added 130# of crawfish today, lowest price this season & it's probably not going to get much lower. Maybe this will help feed my LMB, as they are still a bit underweight, relative weight is 90. One plus: Wr is lowest for my smallest LMB, steadily improves as they get bigger. 107 for 21 inch plus...but there were only three of them in that size range shocked up last week.
Double liming really helped bloom and alkalinity. First time I've ever had alkalinity over 50, though it took two truckloads of lime to get there.
Now looking at (too) expensive artificial habitat. I can see huge numbers of YOY CNBG that I'd like to help survive to be a full LMB meal. Maybe the crawfish will help divert LMB predation for a while. If not, I'll have to eat some spicy boiled crawfish myself to show them how it's done!
Nice healthy looking fish Shorty, do I see a Charlie Brewer slider jig in that redears mouth? thats my exact setup for panfish and have caught nearly everything on them with a variation of colors.
Nice healthy looking fish Shorty, do I see a Charlie Brewer slider jig in that redears mouth? thats my exact setup for panfish and have caught nearly everything on them with a variation of colors.
It's a Strike King "Ned Rage Bug", it's 2-1/2" long and I was targeting smallies. It looks like a small crawdad.
Nice healthy looking fish Shorty, do I see a Charlie Brewer slider jig in that redears mouth? thats my exact setup for panfish and have caught nearly everything on them with a variation of colors.
It's a Strike King "Ned Rage Bug", it's 2-1/2" long and I was targeting smallies. It looks like a small crawdad.
Strike King rage tail craws is my go to for bass, they kinda pricey but by golly the LMB seem to prefer them, your hits will slow way down if you switch over to another brand of fake craw. I will have to try some of those, theres somthing about the shaping of the flappers on a Strike King that give it an extra life like flapping when pulled thru the water at a proper speed,, very realistic looking.
Didn't actually do anything physical with the pond this weekend other than marveling at how nice everything appears while sitting on my deck with some cold beer.
The massive rains we got during the week super filled my pond. The water came up over the dock for a day or so. More was coming in than going out. Our curiosity was finally satisfied as to how full it would be once the outflow equilibrated the surface level. When it settled, it's about one inch below the platform of the dock. You could literally ride a kayak off the water on to the dock. Its a bit higher than I am comfortable with but I will see how the water settles from here and ride it on out for awhile.
The algae seems to have lessened but right now the water is brown from the heavy inflow. I've noticed this Spring as the pond has been filling that each time the level would rise, we would get a burst of algae. I think the newly inundated shoreline must be pretty fertile. I am not going to worry about it for now. Only once did it seem to get pretty extensive and after treatment with Cutrine and installing the aeration it has yet to get like that again.
We walk the banks and look for any sign of fish life. We started feeding right after we put the fish in a couple weeks ago but after a few days and no takers, I decided to pause for awhile. I finally spotted two fish after the flooding. One was a bluegill or redear fry that was in a spillway puddle. I tried to chase it back into the pond but lost sight of it. The other fish was a dead FHM laying on the dock when the water receded off of it.
My oldest daughter stopped by yesterday. She's itching to go fishing. I told her to bring very tiny hooks if she's that desperate. I will be trying to catch a few as the summer goes on though. I want to check their growth and health.
SherWood, you must have done a good job raising your oldest daughter if she likes fishing!
Doesn't sound like you lost many fish to the overflow. Typically, small BG are most likely to try to escape during flood events. After my first flood receded, we saw literally hundreds of small panfish drying on the spillway. No big ones, no bass.
SherWood, you must have done a good job raising your oldest daughter if she likes fishing!
Doesn't sound like you lost many fish to the overflow. Typically, small BG are most likely to try to escape during flood events. After my first flood receded, we saw literally hundreds of small panfish drying on the spillway. No big ones, no bass.
I was a single parent when she and her twin brother were very young. If I wanted to fish, I'd have to take them with me so they started at about age 3. It was hilarious how well they could handle a rod and reel. Then my second wife, who won me over by being a skilled angler, had a daughter with me and we had her fishing very early as well.
With the kids in tow, our allowed family crappie limits were so much more generous, LOL.
I put another 100 4” YP. We still don’t see as many as we used to. I tried adding in some more shiners to help the YP survive. (Even though we have a lot of shiners in there now). I didn’t see any ribbons again this year, but pond level was coming up at that time. From 18” down to full) We just used to catch a fair number of them, and they were our favorites on the table. So I keep trying.
Throwing feed in on pier in about 4’ water there is a 5-7# lmb that gives the bg what for…. Knocking them out of the water…. Not sure she is catching any but she has been there almost every day at various times … wanting to rid of a bunch of bg…. Fun to watch
Picked up some feed and started the season hand feeding. Had good participation in all the ponds except the sediment pond where recent rains made it pretty turbid. Lots of 2-3# CC that need harvested this year. The SMB pond had good activity. Even the forage pond that had quite a few of the HSB we raised last year quite a few came to feed. Took them longer than fish in other ponds and was beginning to wonder, but once a couple hit the top of the water it was game on. My fish have not forgot the thumping sound of the Polaris as the dinner bell.
Run the aeration for an hour of so, then turned it off. Will spend some time tomorrow bringing it on line.
I put another 100 4” YP. We still don’t see as many as we used to. I tried adding in some more shiners to help the YP survive. (Even though we have a lot of shiners in there now). I didn’t see any ribbons again this year, but pond level was coming up at that time. From 18” down to full) We just used to catch a fair number of them, and they were our favorites on the table. So I keep trying.
Hey SG, something I'm finding in my larger, 12"+ YP is crawdads.. don't know if that's normal-Cody may know-but sure is growing some nice YP.
Wife & I refilled all feeders. Very wide differences in how much they throw, even on the same throw time settings! Also, continue to reset toward earlier and later in the day when the water isn't quite as hot. HSB and LMB feeding seem to have tapered off, while CNBG continues heavy despite rising temps.
Speaking of feed, Aquamax MVP has not been delivered to my favorite Purina store in Marshall, Tx for several weeks. Had to pay through the nose to get it elsewhere.
Bloom has faded, viz now about 36 inches. May add a bit more fertilizer, but it won't be nearly as much as earlier in the year. Some algae, along with southern naiad and American pondweed. Hope the crawfish and tilapia will handle the algae sufficiently well that I don't have to do anything drastic.
We enjoyed wild blackberries that grow profusely at our place. Small, but tasty. Pair of geese still hanging around, eating fish food & pooping all over our dock & boat.
I put another 100 4” YP. We still don’t see as many as we used to. I tried adding in some more shiners to help the YP survive. (Even though we have a lot of shiners in there now). I didn’t see any ribbons again this year, but pond level was coming up at that time. From 18” down to full) We just used to catch a fair number of them, and they were our favorites on the table. So I keep trying.
Hey SG, something I'm finding in my larger, 12"+ YP is crawdads.. don't know if that's normal-Cody may know-but sure is growing some nice YP.
I added some a few years ago. We’ve been seeing them in the rocks around the edges of the pond. We haven’t kept a SMB this year, but I imagine the SMB are working them. Every SMB we’ve caught has been very close to the shoreline.
John, did the SMB learn to feed pretty quickly, or did it take longer than the BG?
I raised these SMB from fingerlings and started feeding them starter feed from the time I brought them home and put them in my forage pond. They were on feed at the hatchery (Keo in Arkansas) and I continued with some Optimal starter. Then I went to Optimal BG Jr as they got bigger. So they were accustomed to being hand fed from the beginning.
Story of my raising HSB starting about 2/3 the way down this page and several pages after. Gives the feeds I used as well as a link to NEDOC's thread on raising HSB. It was his experience raising HSB and my visit to his pond that got me excited about raising some HSB myself.
John, did the SMB learn to feed pretty quickly, or did it take longer than the BG?
I raised these SMB from fingerlings and started feeding them starter feed from the time I brought them home and put them in my forage pond. They were on feed at the hatchery (Keo in Arkansas) and I continued with some Optimal starter. Then I went to Optimal BG Jr as they got bigger. So they were accustomed to being hand fed from the beginning.
Story of my raising HSB starting about 2/3 the way down this page and several pages after. Gives the feeds I used as well as a link to NEDOC's thread on raising HSB. It was his experience raising HSB and my visit to his pond that got me excited about raising some HSB myself.
I had hoped to get started re-working the finish grade on the pond dam this weekend, but 2" of rain Friday night into Saturday shut that down.
So I spent a few minutes tossing pair of tandem-rigged marabou jigs thinking I might pull a couple BG out for the skillet, but the fish had other ideas. Instead of a BG I hooked a HSB that was all I wanted on 6lb test mono line. Was working on bringing it in when I felt another big thump at the end of my string, so now I've got two of the crazy things going at once. The fish on the trailing jig broke off before I got them close to the dock. The one that I landed was decent and still frisky enough to let a good bit of my blood out while I was removing the hook from its jaw. Think I'll switch to 20lb test braid before I try that again. lol
I didn't have the scale with me, so don't have a weight on it, but it was plenty solid. Pushing 17" - not bad for a 2yo fish, eh?
I think HSB make fantastic table fare. The flesh is firm and flavorful. They have a little dark meat that can have a bit of a whang to it, so I try to leave most of that attached to the skin when I filet them.
Haven't eaten any of the ones that I stocked in my pond - yet. For what they cost me I decided not to harvest them until they grow past 18".
Looks like a few of them will get to meet Mr. Knife sometime later this year.
Someone told me that they are close tasting to red snapper….. any fish that has a bloodline it should be removed before cooking, if they are like snapper I’m stocking some
Just be sure to stay away from that razor-edged gill cover, Augie. Several HSB anglers have been sliced at my place, including me one time! Mouth much safer than gill cover.
Just be sure to stay away from that razor-edged gill cover, Augie. Several HSB anglers have been sliced at my place, including me one time! Mouth much safer than gill cover.
When I was doing the offshore charter thing I had a bass fisherman lip a red snapper …. He regretted doing that when the snapper center punched his thumb with those hidden teeth. I had just told him not to lipgrab them and he said that he knew that you could do it….
Pat, I wonder if a really big RES might be able to clamp down enough to hurt if you stick your finger in their mouth. They crush snails and mussels, so...
I think HSB make fantastic table fare. The flesh is firm and flavorful. They have a little dark meat that can have a bit of a whang to it, so I try to leave most of that attached to the skin when I filet them.
Haven't eaten any of the ones that I stocked in my pond - yet. For what they cost me I decided not to harvest them until they grow past 18".
Looks like a few of them will get to meet Mr. Knife sometime later this year.
We caught one last year. After I stocked the fall before. We haven’t caught any this year. Hopefully they survived. I will say we haven’t caught any HBG this spring either. Lots of RES, SMB, and GSH. I’ve kept all the tips from years past on catching HSB. Hopefully I’ll get to see one up close this summer. That one you caught looks really healthy.
I think HSB make fantastic table fare. The flesh is firm and flavorful. They have a little dark meat that can have a bit of a whang to it, so I try to leave most of that attached to the skin when I filet them.
Haven't eaten any of the ones that I stocked in my pond - yet. For what they cost me I decided not to harvest them until they grow past 18".
Looks like a few of them will get to meet Mr. Knife sometime later this year.
Make a V cut on the edge of the filet and pull it out. It basically unzips itself. Makes a world of difference.
Rod, I understand why you went the fry route. Delicious way to prepare fish!
As someone trying to reduce carbs, I will sometimes try blackening fish such as salmon and redfish. Not every fish is suitable for this technique, as some fall apart when subjected to intense heat. Bluegill & bass, for instance, are better steamed or baked (or fried, but I'm trying to avoid that).
So what's your assessment of striper meat? Would it hold together well enough for blackening to work?
Rod, I understand why you went the fry route. Delicious way to prepare fish!
As someone trying to reduce carbs, I will sometimes try blackening fish such as salmon and redfish. Not every fish is suitable for this technique, as some fall apart when subjected to intense heat. Bluegill & bass, for instance, are better steamed or baked (or fried, but I'm trying to avoid that).
So what's your assessment of striper meat? Would it hold together well enough for blackening to work?
I have started to do a lot of blackened fish, my CC are at about 4.5 lbs and they make some amazing blackened fillets. salmon now I will put on the smoker, that's my favorite way to prepare salmon.
I will sometimes try blackening fish such as salmon and redfish. Not every fish is suitable for this technique, as some fall apart when subjected to intense heat. Bluegill & bass, for instance, are better steamed or baked (or fried, but I'm trying to avoid that).
So what's your assessment of striper meat? Would it hold together well enough for blackening to work?
I am so NOT an expert on this - that was our first time with stripers.
However, the striper filets seemed pretty cohesive to me, relative to other fish where the meat is flakier. So I would guess they would be good for blackening.
We have done the same type of fish fry with walleye in Canada on many occasions. That meat seems to flake into chunks when doing a beer-batter fry.
The battered walleye chunks are awesome to get kids to try and like fish, but not good at all if you are watching your carbs!
I posted this a couple places. Really happy that all the good advice I got here has resulted in a great outcome, I moved 5 small SMB to the LMB pond even though I know that they are highly unlikely to successfully spawn.
Nice looking smallies RAH. Those are from different generations, correct? So you’ve had some recruitment? I’m going to start keeping some this year. We’ve kept very few through the years. They are a blast to catch, that’s for sure.
Agree with SetterGuy, those are great looking smallies RAH!
I also like your idea to move a few of the SMB over to your LMB pond. Who cares if they reproduce there. They do occupy a little different niche than your LMB, so I think you can carry a slightly higher total weight of predators.
Hopefully, you can have someone catch a 5#+ SMB out of your LMB pond in a few years!
If it is a kid, just imagine the smile after all of the work required to get that SMB on the bank.
Bill - I got 10 SMB stockers from Jones, and 10 from Clear Creek. Hoped that they might have different genetics. They were stocked in consecutive years for a total of 20 fish. Looks like that worked out well.
The monsoon has arrived and is keeping me from chores, so I've been fiddling at removing BG from the cow pond.
I've put ~40 <9" in the cage over the past two days. Yesterday I caught and released two that were >10", along with three RES that were right at 11" if not a bit over. One of the RES was a bit odd on the topside. Possibly an old injury that has healed up?
Mr. Water Snake got stuck in the B trap and drowned yesterday. Didn't take long for QA's crayfish to find him. Think I'll let the trap soak until the snake has been consumed. I'm curious to see how many I can catch on one snake. lol
Wow Augie, my RES have been stocked since April of 2015, and I’ve never seen one that big. We have a lot of them, but I haven’t caught many that I would even consider cleaning. We haven’t seen but one snake this year, and two snapping turtles that decided not to stay around.
Augie I'm looking for a way to harvest a bunch of CC this year. I'm interested in that trap of yours. You call it a B trap. Is it purchased or home made?
My thinking is some sort of trap that I can leave open ended, put feed into it daily through maybe a piece of PVC pipe from the surface on the dock, then when the CC get used to getting fed in it close the trap end off. That is how it works in my minds eye. How it would actually work I don't know.
Anyone with good ideas to harvest CC with minimal effort would be appreciated. We like to fish for them but catch a few and I think they send out a signal or something for the others to quit biting. I would like to get 10 or 20 at a time so we can clean a bunch at once.
I bet I have a hundred, for sure at least 50, that I should remove this year. I see lots all around the pond when I feed. Lots in the 2-3# range and I see one every now and then maybe around 4#. Time to get them out and invite them to dinner.
snrub - Visualize a B trap as half of a cloverleaf trap. Maybe not the right tool for catching catfish. My Grampa Wilkie used a lot of slat traps when he fished commercially on the Missouri River. He built his own, but they were very similar to this one: https://www.netsandmore.com/products/fishing-accessories/slat-traps
esshup - Heron strike seems likely. There are several of those nasty things that pond hop the neighborhood every day. Mrs. Augie likes them. She thinks they're "pretty", and has made it clear to me that if anything bad happens to one of them, and she finds out about it, somebody is gonna be in big trouble, so they get a pass.
I come from a financial background, so my wife puts it this way: "Shoot those birds, and there will be a bear market in the domestic tranquility index!"
snrub - Visualize a B trap as half of a cloverleaf trap. Maybe not the right tool for catching catfish. My Grampa Wilkie used a lot of slat traps when he fished commercially on the Missouri River. He built his own, but they were very similar to this one: https://www.netsandmore.com/products/fishing-accessories/slat-traps .
Couple of good videos associated with the traps. Thanks!
I spent the whole day mowing at the farm yesterday, but not around the pond. I got to the pond for a few minutes, and I did notice that all the little black toad tadpoles are gone. They must transform into toads very quickly. Either that or they are hiding in the pond weed. The pond weed is taking off again this year. I suspect I’ll eventually end up with it all the way around the pond. Hope it helps my YP fry to survive.
One grass carp will easily eat 4 to 6 times or more that amount of American pondweed. Age of GC makes a difference as to how much it eats per day or year. When those plants encircle the pond consider adding 1 grass carp to thin it out but not eliminate the pondweed. This is a very good habitat plant for the small fish. The plant growing along the edges also competes with filamentous algae and helps reduce amount of FA along the shoreline.
One grass carp will easily eat 4 to 6 times or more that amount of American pondweed. Age of GC makes a difference as to how much it eats per day or year. When those plants encircle the pond consider adding 1 grass carp to thin it out but not eliminate the pondweed. This is a very good habitat plant for the small fish. The plant growing along the edges also competes with filamentous algae and helps reduce amount of FA along the shoreline.
Thank you! I didn’t know it helped reduce FA. That’s very good news. I’ll add one GC once the pond weed gets all the way around the pond. Thanks again.
I spent the whole day mowing at the farm yesterday, but not around the pond. I got to the pond for a few minutes, and I did notice that all the little black toad tadpoles are gone. They must transform into toads very quickly. Either that or they are hiding in the pond weed. The pond weed is taking off again this year. I suspect I’ll eventually end up with it all the way around the pond. Hope it helps my YP fry to survive.
I like the level of pondweed showing in your picture. Too bad you can't just wave a magic wand and set the level at exactly the correct amount of cover for your small fish!
P.S. I also like your forest pond look! But then again, my property is in the middle of the prairie.
I like the level of pondweed showing in your picture. Too bad you can't just wave a magic wand and set the level at exactly the correct amount of cover for your small fish!
P.S. I also like your forest pond look! But then again, my property is in the middle of the prairie.
The trees are a mixed blessing. They look great, and there is always a shady spot on the pond. But they also pull a lot of water, and drop a lot of leaves and pollen. We love them though. They block a lot of the wind, and we don’t have aeration, so I worry about a fish kill, but so far so good. This is just the second year for the pond weed. Hoping it doesn’t get out of control. If it really picks up there will be one grass carp in the pond.
After several years of a reprieve from curly-leafed pondweed in my smb/yp pond, it appears to be coming back with a vengeance. I thought that the papershell crayfish had it under control, but with so few submerged plants over the last few years, perhaps the smb knocked them way back? Hopefully, the crayfish population will build back up and a balance will be reached, rather than boom-and-bust cycles.
After several years of a reprieve from curly-leafed pondweed in my smb/yp pond, it appears to be coming back with a vengeance. I thought that the papershell crayfish had it under control, but with so few submerged plants over the last few years, perhaps the smb knocked them way back? Hopefully, the crayfish population will build back up and a balance will be reached, rather than boom-and-bust cycles.
I think you have just described an example of the reasons for boom-and-bust cycles in nature.
As your crayfish prune back the cover used to avoid predation, the predators are then much more capable of pruning back the crayfish population. If the crayfish are not extirpated from your pond, then they should come back subsequent to the come back of your submerged plants.
Do you have any rock available? I think the more angular the better - to create jumbled stacks in the pond with lots of crevices.
You could place some on a shoreline that is causing you erosion problems and extend the stone placement out into the water for the crayfish.
If the "look" of the exposed stone doesn't match the preferred vision for your pond, you could put some stone below the normal water level in a few spots around the pond. I don't know how small of a stack could still serve as a crayfish refuge from your SMB?
If you are contemplating placing some stone, maybe you should start a new crayfish thread. Another option would be to PM Quarter Acre, he is definitely one of our crayfish experts!
Built this jetty before adding the crayfish. It is completely submerged after raising the water level by 12 inches. Placing all that rock by hand was a job! Since the SMB population is larger now, perhaps the cycles will give way to a balance, or at least be less extreme.
RAH, I like that. Stone of any kind is getting really expensive down here, so the day's of just calling my delivery guy without shopping around are over.
Built this jetty before adding the crayfish. It is completely submerged after raising the water level by 12 inches. Placing all that rock by hand was a job! Since the SMB population is larger now, perhaps the cycles will give way to a balance, or at least be less extreme.
RAH,
I definitely like your jetty. I assume your crayfish like it even more than I do!
Even if you still go through some population cycles I think you have created a nice crayfish refuge such that the SMB cannot wipe out your entire population.
Based on your design, you must have had some additional purpose for your jetty. What other benefit is it adding to your pond?
P.S. I am sure placing all of that rock by hand was a serious chore. OTOH, just think how much money you saved compared to the current cost of a gym membership!
Just built the jetty for crayfish so they could feed the SMB. Seemed like all the nooks and crannies in the rip rap would work well. I thought having these at various depths might help.
Just built the jetty for crayfish so they could feed the SMB. Seemed like all the nooks and crannies in the rip rap would work well. I thought having these at various depths might help.
Dang, that was an impressive amount of work. Those crayfish should at least buy you a "Dad of the Year" coffee mug.
We used to fish a very rocky lake in the spring, and the crayfish were certainly an important part of the bass diet.
We would catch a lot of spotted bass in the 10-12" range. I would estimate that 90% of them had crayfish feelers poking up out of their gullet when you looked down to remove your hook.
We seldom observed the same thing in the fall.
Maybe you can monitor how much of a contribution the crayfish are making to the SMB forage by asking your buddies to check when they are doing spring catch and release fishing at your pond?
Well Al, you do have a buddy that has more rocks than any quarry.
Dave, you and I are to old and broke up to even think about rolling rocks anymore. Now we could tell your grandson and my son that they can't do it, and sit back and watch them try to prove us wrong.
Watched our 5 y/o Dachshund learn to swim in it. He's an obsessive hunter & went in, chasing after a frog. Not sure he's exactly comfortable with it, but it certainly didn't freak him out enough to keep him from doing it a couple more times today. Don't know if our older female Dachshund will go in or not. She'll romp & run after the frogs & put her front paws in the water while she sniffs & watches, but hasn't gone in after one yet. She's a stone killer, but isn't the spazzed out psycho that the younger one is.
Yesterday I discovered lots of fresh golden shiner fry hanging around the daphnia (water fleas) along the pond edges, 3 weeks ago daphnia numbers exploded.
Yesterday I discovered lots of fresh golden shiner fry hanging around the daphnia (water fleas) along the pond edges, 3 weeks ago daphnia numbers exploded.
I’m thinking we had a golden shiner hatch also. I was swimming in the pond yesterday and there were 3/4” fish everywhere. Hitting on anything floating. Including me, but they can’t tear into me like our HBG used to do. We have very few HBG any longer. Two years of trying to eliminate them seems to be working. Only fish hitting a worm under a bobber are RES.
I put the puddle jumper boat in the pond on Saturday. Chopped up and removed the scary snake tree that fell into the pond last summer. Now Mrs. Augie can go swimming without fear of being swallowed by the giant anaconda.
With the tree out of the way I was then able to drag the diffuser stand out into the sippy hole and deep sixed that thing. Getting a late start on that for sure. Will slow-roll the startup and just add 15 minutes/day to the run time until I hit the four hour mark, then I'll add an hour a day until it reaches nine hours run time. Water temps were 75° at the surface and 60° 10' down.
Had some extra muscle on hand, and was able to get the last of the mud poles added to the dock so it's not swaying with the breeze anymore.
I hope you also removed the shark habitat from your pond so Mrs. Augie can swim safely. With the weather we have been having lately, I certainly hope that a Sharknado doesn't drop a few unwanted guests into your pond.
P.S. What are the "mud poles" on the dock? (That is a new term to me.)
Mud pole is just a piece of pipe that slides through a bracket attached to the dock frame, and then gets pounded into the mud on the pond bottom. They allow the dock to move vertically with the water level, while holding it in place horizontally.
It took 5 years to see the water turn green in my 3rd pond (built 2017), but it finally must have had enough nutrients wash in to fuel a bloom! Hopefully, this will help the FHM, lake chubsuckers, and spotfin shiners build up their populations. Lotus may finally stop struggling as well.
Glad you got a bloom going on, my neighbor gave me a handful of lake chubsuckers for a start. How long does it take them to establish? If they didn’t get eaten
I got a good population going from 12 fish in a couple years in my 2nd pond (0.9 acres). I base this assessment of dozens washing out the overflow pipe after heavy rains. The SMB have grown fast in this 2nd pond which may, in part, be due to the LCS. I moved 19 of the one's that came through the pipe to this pond (my 3rd pond) a couple years ago.
Finally got around to applying a badly-needed coat of TWP to the swim dock.
Got started on the removal of dead trees below the pond dam. Jammed a stick in the hydrostat linkage on the tractor while pushing brush off into the sippy hole and wasn't able to reverse out. Pops' old Minneapolis Moline didn't have enough weight to move it, so I called good neighbor Dave out on a rescue mission. He dropped by yesterday after he finished up in the hayfield. Pulling Nanner out was a walk in the park for his big John Deere.
Another big water snake met its doom in the B trap. QA's crayfish jumped in to help with the cleanup.
Glad to know you got the tractor out and that the craws are doing good...they look delicious. I have seen a lot less craws in my pond so far this year. I am thinking that the CC that were stocked last year are doing their job along with the added BG to help keep craw recruitment down. Hopefully I have found a balance between the craws and the fish. I will miss trapping them some and sharing the harvest...time will tell.
I have seen a lot less craws in my pond so far this year. I am thinking that the CC that were stocked last year are doing their job along with the added BG to help keep craw recruitment down. Hopefully I have found a balance between the craws and the fish. I will miss trapping them some and sharing the harvest...time will tell.
Glad to hear you are getting a good balance with your crayfish.
However, it was entertaining to read threads with lines like, "Quarter Acre's crayfish are really doing a job on the weeds in my pond."
Called EZ Dock folks to get a five foot extension for walkway to my dock. This will place dock in somewhat deeper water, important during droughts like now. Shade in hot summer is good habitat! Also gives fish more time to devour food pellets before prevailing wind buries them in shoreline vegetation.
Tough call to spend money on stuff like this now. On the one hand, you know it will cost more in the future, maybe a lot more. Rapid inflation militates against savings that lose value quickly. On the other hand, it's important to have something in reserve to meet rising costs. In this case, the economist in me is in a fight with the nervous retiree!
I have the same problem re inflation. And, although I know I can afford to spend $, I start remembering when I couldn’t. And also understand that those times just might come again through inflationary pressures.
Went by the pond yest and I guess the feeder had been empty for a day or so, the fish were going nuts for feed when I filled it, more then I had seen in a while, I don't feed very much, just a 6 second flurry once a day in one corner of 15 acres you wouldn't think would make much difference but they love some free food, what I did notice lately are LMB at the feeder, a month ago I noticed a couple floating around and grabbing a pellet or two when I tossed out some feed but yesterday there were a bunch of them right in the middle of it grabbing their share of the grub. I have one little cove in the pond with reasonably shallower water and the BG spawn all summer long it seems in the point of it. I love tossing some feed in above the nesting area and the little suckers churn the water to get to it.
Also been seeing a few cormorants making them selves at home on a brushpile on the pond. they have a predictable weird way of flying away, the pond is surrounded by tall trees on hillsides except for the dam area so they take of and circle a few laps to get above the treetops to take off, their line of flight brings them conveniently close by the dock, I can get a closer look at them as they fly by, if you know what I mean. there don't seem to be as many hanging around as there used to be, maybe they are migrating on. Also pretty much confirmed that the purple martins have nested in one of my homemade wood duck boxes, have seen them on it before but they were sitting in the doorway yesterday, female or juveniles, love that, i been wanting to put purple martin house out for a couple yrs but never have.
Pulled cattails at the new pond (at least 50) and a couple of phragmites. This was a former crop field and one of the phragmites was a large stem coming up threw 7-8 feet of water (glad that the water is warm). This plant must be coming up from a dormant rhizome rather than a seed based on its size and the depth of the water. There have been no phragmites in this area for over 30 years. Can phragmites rhizomes remain dormant in the soil and be viable after that much time?
I've been slowly increasing the run times on my aeration pump. Last night it ran the full summertime measure - midnight to 7:00am. Dunked the thermometer in at lunchtime today to check the water temps. Had 74.5°F surface temp, 71.1°F at 8.5', and 59.9°F at 10'. The diffuser is sitting 4' off the bottom in ~15' water. Will be interesting to see how long the thermocline holds up.
Pulled cattails at the new pond (at least 50) and a couple of phragmites. This was a former crop field and one of the phragmites was a large stem coming up threw 7-8 feet of water (glad that the water is warm). This plant must be coming up from a dormant rhizome rather than a seed based on its size and the depth of the water. There have been no phragmites in this area for over 30 years. Can phragmites rhizomes remain dormant in the soil and be viable after that much time?
We have a couple of big lakes in Kansas that fluctuate fairly regularly and Phrag seems to maintain well in about 12'. Their rhizome can shoot 4-6" a day to stay at the water's edge.. any chance the water was a different level at one time?? Usually not a single plant though..
This pond site has been in field crops since the 1950's at least based on historic areal pics. I dug up one old clay field tile run when I built it. The presence of pretty large diameter shoots, one plant in very deep water, baffles me. I know that cattail seeds can last over 50 years in the soil, but these phragmites look like they are coming from some larger rhizomes and have not found any info on them being able to lay dormant for that long. I suspect the site was quite wet before it was tiled, but was farmed in recent times.
Pulled cattails at the new pond (at least 50) and a couple of phragmites. This was a former crop field and one of the phragmites was a large stem coming up threw 7-8 feet of water (glad that the water is warm). This plant must be coming up from a dormant rhizome rather than a seed based on its size and the depth of the water. There have been no phragmites in this area for over 30 years. Can phragmites rhizomes remain dormant in the soil and be viable after that much time?
I don't know about 30 years but I have been told rye seeds can remain dormant underground for over a decade.
I looked at my pond today and thought "If I was managing this pond for a customer, I'd get fired because of all the FA that is floating on the surface." On the "to do" list now is spray the FA. Since the trout are now MIA (assuming dead) I don't have to worry about killing them with the Cutrine Plus.
Like the cobblers kids shoes, my personal pond is the last one to get taken care of.
I DID stock 19 8"-10" feed trained WE in it today though. Those were left overs from some that I picked up June 10th.
esshup, I'm relating very well with your predicament. I used pond dye this spring just to see if it would help the bad FA I had last year. I would say it did well at first at least. Then whether it was timing of water warm up or if it was timing with my first lawn fertilizer application, but I have an explosion like you. It seems mostly floating (last fall I had a carpet on the bottom of the pond). I feel I can rake most of it without having to wade out too far. But that sounds a lot like work in this heat we have been having. I then hope that it is providing some cover for young minnows while I build up courage and time.
I have been too busy to put out my turtle floats, partly because last year they were big logs that I couldn't keep floating the right way up. I have ideas in my head on making my own like others on the forum did but no time and energy again.
I also didn't put out my SFS spawning structures same reason, need to make some more, no time. But I saw the other day a fair number of sliver sized minnows cruising around so once again the SFS found their own structure!! I do have pallets in so maybe they used them somehow. My first goal is to pull the pallets out, clean algae off and use my circular saw to create some 'crevices' or grooves of various depths and widths and see if that will help.
Please tell us how your WE do. Will they stay feed trained? Will you be able to witness them eat the pellets or will they only feed at night? How fast will they grow?
How low is your pond and will you have to keep the depth at full depth to help assure their success in a 'groundwater pond' or is that a myth about Walleye?
CC, all good questions. Hopefully they will stay feed trained, they have not seen another fish to eat except their brothers and sisters. I was told that they will grow fast if kept in a RAS, On 4-5-2022, 3.25" fish that were hatched on 2-5-2022 would be 10"-12" in length in October. As to seeing them feed, I have no idea. When I had the smaller ones in the RAS, they were being fed sinking feed.
Maybe there will be some genetic "memory" in these fish, as it's been a few generations that the parents/grandparents, etc. have solely been on feed in a RAS system.
My pond is currently about 48" low, but I have plenty of depth.
I usually sneak up on the pools to see what is in them before the fish startle. I did see a large red eared slider happily munching away on the FA in the creek. I didn't know they ate that!
I then checked the best pools for minnows. All of the big minnows were gone! The pools are now full of fat sunfish and 5" long bass. The only minnows I could see were a species that was too small to be caught in my trap.
I think there are still some large minnows in the riffles. That is the only safe space from the predators in the creek. I really need to get better at my trapping, because I suspect the minnows that live in the riffles are a different species than the ones that prefer living in the pools.
I usually sneak up on the pools to see what is in them before the fish startle. I did see a large red eared slider happily munching away on the FA in the creek. I didn't know they ate that!
I then checked the best pools for minnows. All of the big minnows were gone! The pools are now full of fat sunfish and 5" long bass. The only minnows I could see were a species that was too small to be caught in my trap.
I think there are still some large minnows in the riffles. That is the only safe space from the predators in the creek. I really need to get better at my trapping, because I suspect the minnows that live in the riffles are a different species than the ones that prefer living in the pools.
A lot of the minnows in our creeks are Red Shiners and one with a lateral stripe I haven't identified yet. These typically hang out behind riffles. In the riffles I catch a lot of darters. It appears the minnow spawn I over locally.
3.46 pounds. Didn’t measure him/her. We also have always had lots and lots of bullfrog tadpoles, but very few mature bullfrogs. Now with all the American Pond Weed, we have lots of bullfrogs staying around. Swam around the edges yesterday with my grandson. We counted 27 bigger frogs in the weeds and on the banks. Hopefully they won’t attract too many snakes.
Best news of the day. My daughter, while trying to net a frog for her daughter got a net full of small crawfish and glass shrimp. We haven’t seen the glass shrimp for several years. I thought they were killed off during the last drought when the pond got pretty low.
Best news of the day. My daughter, while trying to net a frog for her daughter got a net full of small crawfish and glass shrimp. We haven’t seen the glass shrimp for several years. I thought they were killed off during the last drought when the pond got pretty low.
GSF don't play well with fingerling LMB While emptying weeds gathered into my pond boat I boat, I rescued a small LMB, possibly 3.5" long. I introduced it to my 30 gallon aquarium. The 4" and 5" BGs and 6" GSF were curious but not aggressive about their new neighbor. This morning went I went to feed the bunch I saw No bass, a greenie lacking his usual food aggression, and sporting a nice round, lumpy belly. So, that rescue didn't go so well for the little bass. At least in a fish tank, a 6" GSF can consume a bass more than half his length.
4Corners - Very good experience and observation about the abilities of green sunfish. When in college, I conducted a student research project where I put one equal length BG and one GSF into small test aquariums. ALWAYS in each test the GSF killed the BG within a few to several days.
I wouldn't have thought a 6" GSF could swallow a 3.5" LMB. Sheesh.
Visited pond & refilled feeders yesterday, lowest water level I've ever seen, maybe 18" below normal pool. Will extend walkway to dock soon, definitely needs more depth. One of my pontoon boats hitched to the dock is stuck on dry land! More water birds than usual trying to take advantage, likely larger LMB are doing the same under the surface.
Artificial habitat getting prepped, will deploy in a few weeks. Low water actually a benefit for this, makes placement easier. Plan on using plastic "lilies" to mark exact location of larger structures.
Frank, sounds like lots to do while the water is low. Be thankful it is not like Lake Mead!
My pond is doing well with 8 and 1/2 years into it. And Frank, I had an old friend over from Dallas and he hooked into what I believe was the nice female you gave me years back after my fish kill. Like a lot of big ones, it was not landed but got a good view of it and big bass might be an undersized comment. One of those bass of a lifetime maybe. We caught a lot of nice bass that morning.
Went by and tossed some feed out right by the daily feeder, the swarm of fish waiting and depending on the feeder is incredible, the pond is pretty big and I have no intention of trying to feed everybody but they seem to just congest around the feeder big time, and now the LMB have discovered the feed as well, they will literally destroy the feed in a matter of seconds, churn the water and it seems like only a pellet or so apiece and its gone, the CC are a little too slow to the table as they are a little slower eaters, they are around 4 to 5 lbs now, after the feed is gone they are left swimming around under the surface, like they are wondering where the hell the feed went. My concern is when the otters and cormorants realize this congested area of fish they could do some major damage really fast. All the brush piles and stuff are holding a ton of yoy fry, looks like everything is going great, my biggest wish is I had more time to spend around the lake. but oh well, maybe one day I will be able to move there. its about 30min away.
Frank, sounds like lots to do while the water is low. Be thankful it is not like Lake Mead!
My pond is doing well with 8 and 1/2 years into it. And Frank, I had an old friend over from Dallas and he hooked into what I believe was the nice female you gave me years back after my fish kill. Like a lot of big ones, it was not landed but got a good view of it and big bass might be an undersized comment. One of those bass of a lifetime maybe. We caught a lot of nice bass that morning.
Tracy, I'm delighted! You've always been my superior when it comes to growing trophies, this one apparently had the right F1 genes to take full advantage. Congratulations and I hope next time you get a good picture!
Good deal Tracy! Congratulations, sometimes it doesn’t matter if you land it or not , especially if you get a good look at it. The two largest bass that I have caught I didn’t get a pix of and didn’t even take them out of the water due to stressing them…. As long as you have a memory of it that’s good enough….. well done!
I saw something I never thought I would see ... not today but yesterday ...
My son was fishing with a free swimming BG and a turtle took it. Not unusual but two ~18" LMB began trying to take it way. Went on for about a minute until one of the LMB took it (or maybe most of it?) from the turtle.
I saw something I never thought I would see ... not today but yesterday ...
My son was fishing with a free swimming BG and a turtle took it. Not unusual but two ~18" LMB began trying to take it way. Went on for about a minute until one of the LMB took it (or maybe most of it?) from the turtle.
I saw something I never thought I would see ... not today but yesterday ...
My son was fishing with a free swimming BG and a turtle took it. Not unusual but two ~18" LMB began trying to take it way. Went on for about a minute until one of the LMB took it (or maybe most of it?) from the turtle.
Not on that cast Pat. We just barely hook (less than 1/8") into the fish. They have to be carefully casted or the fish will be tear where hooked. So in trying to get the fish away from the turtle, his hook tore through.
But it may be that he caught one of those two fish on a later cast. We were using 2" to 3" BG and an ultra light. The hook was a fly hook in size 10. It's too small really but most of the time we hook up. It requires tearing the hook out of the BG when setting the hook and almost always sets in the lip. Takes patience. The fish must be completely taken in its mouth and the LMB needs to be facing some direction other than facing directly to successfully get a hook set. He catches about 60-70% of his takes which I think is pretty good.
Another experience with LMB occurred when I lived in CO (and I know Pat will get kick out of this story too). I liked to fish an irrigation reservoir for crappie during times around the spawn. I would wade so I could cast farther and reach staging fish. Used a 1/8 chartreuse jig and either a red or black tube with chartreuse tail. Love that lure for crappie. Anyways, I'd string the crappie until I reached the limit. But one day, a particular LMB would come up and try to take crappie off my stringer. It was around 20". It exhibited the behavior several times and I would only notice when I felt him forcefully strike a crappie on my stringer. My wife was fishing beside me that day and she thought it was hilarious ... she had no issues (but not as many fish on her stringer).
Yup have had LMB take 6-8” LMB when fishing with small jig a hang LMB then big LMB decided to eat it, had that happen maybe two weeks ago. I don’t fish for bg on purpose so haven’t had the LMB take them but have had lots of BCP stolen (saw them), each time it was 7-8” BCP that got et. Think the reason that they not to crazy bout BG is all the barnacles and stickers all over BG…… try grabbing them…. Lol
I think stealing prey from other predators is an effective strategy.
I have had multiple hits (and sometimes caught multiple fish) when using crankbaits on spotted bass in the spring.
When the initial bass is hooked on the back treble hook, the other bass are intently focused on the crankbait to see if it "escapes". We would frequently observe a trailing bass as the hooked fish became visible as it was reeled to the boat.
I think our record is five bass brought right to the edge of the boat - with one hooked and four in pouncing position!
Fished minnows for a couple of hours today. Caught 4 crappie, one huge copper nose, and 5 or so LMBup to 4#. The LMB have definitely taken over the brush piles. No crappie at all in the usual piles or falls.
Fished minnows for a couple of hours today. Caught 4 crappie, one huge copper nose, and 5 or so LMBup to 4#. The LMB have definitely taken over the brush piles. No crappie at all in the usual piles or falls.
They there to scarf up the BCP. Same thing at my pond
I went to the doc yesterday at dark and caught a handful of bass under a pound on a small crank bait, looks like might have a light bloom going on, the water isn’t as clear as it has been
I dug up three willow bushes coming up on the dam. Man are they heavy. After I pulled the last one out I grabbed a handful of FA and threw it back over the dam. Two tiny spotted fawns came bolting up out of the fescue on the back of the dam. Twins are ok as we took three does last fall.
I do have one question. I have a bunch of cottonwood trees coming up at the base of the back side of the dam. Must be 20 small trees. They cover about 30 yards across the mid section of the dam. My dam sits on the property line, so almost all of the trees are on my property. I’ve decided to remove them before they get bigger. My question is, doesn’t that signal where a leak would be? Aren’t cottonwoods attracted to water? I usually see them along creek or river banks. So, not a particularly good sign, but it does show me where my leak is.
FYI, it’s a small leak. We are in a near drought, and the pond is just down about 8”.
I have them in various places on our property also. (Mostly along creek banks.) This grove just popped up in a thick patch right at the base of the dam. I thought it might mean something, I guess maybe not.
Could mean something. We have clay soil, but on sandy soil, cottonwoods may need more of an inflow of water. My 4th pond seems to have a leak. I knew it was a real risk due to the sand veins that I hit. Sealing them was like trying to dig a hole in a jar full of marbles. It has been really dry, but this pond had dropped more than double that of any of the other 3 ponds. I know where the water shows up about 100 feet behind the dam since it forms a very small trickle into a shallow trench that leads to the stream below. It always was a seep, even before the pond was built. Time will tell if it gets worse, stays the same, or decreases. I am hoping suspended clay will eventually seal it up, but I really don't expect that.
Days are heating up, harder to fish during the middle of the day. But my brother lives right on the Grand River where the kids can almost always catch bluegill, SMB, or even this crazy looking fish! Looks like the fish is eating well and was right under the swim dock (an old pontoon deck) Bowfin? Must be a reproducing population still in Lake Michigan and its watersheds.
The cameras out there show dozens of gar pike at night but still no success in catching those.
have so many white bass 2 to 4" the prop on motor shredding them as you drive through schools of fish pond or lake is 200 plus acres. Flat head catfish? Blue catfish? Northern pike? Tiger Muskie? Or Rotenone?
This grove just popped up in a thick patch right at the base of the dam. I thought it might mean something, I guess maybe not.
I agree that it MIGHT mean something.
Could be a small leak in the dam.
However, there should be "extra" water at the backside of the dam, solely due to the surface run-off from that slope.
Could even be as simple as the cottonwood seeds preferentially settling in the wind lee behind your dam.
Regardless of the actual reason, I would still cut and poison them. IF there is a small leak, those cottonwood roots will eventually expand the leak and pull water from your pond through their massive transpiration capability.
Jeff, It's hard telling about your cottonwoods. I noticed a groove of cottonwood saplings at my pond just the other day, but they are growing at the inlet of the pond about 5 to 15 feet from the bank. It's not like the pond would be leaking there, just damp. I also have a huge cottonwood growing at the base of my dam along with a willow of similar size. They about 24 inches in diameter. They are real close to the drain pipe. The dam does not leak, but the water table is very close to the surface there.
I'll cut my saplings down as soon as it cools off this year just to keep an opening for wind to come through. As far as the large trees at the base of the dam...they have been there since the pond was originally dug (50's or 60's) and have not caused any trouble. No roots were discovers when the pond was renovated in 2016. They will stay for beautification reasons as I would bet the roots are going down to the water table and not up to the pond through the dam.
Days are heating up, harder to fish during the middle of the day. But my brother lives right on the Grand River where the kids can almost always catch bluegill, SMB, or even this crazy looking fish! Looks like the fish is eating well and was right under the swim dock (an old pontoon deck) Bowfin? Must be a reproducing population still in Lake Michigan and its watersheds.
The cameras out there show dozens of gar pike at night but still no success in catching those.
Thanks for confirmation Dr. Luke. I also learned that the picture you posted above is a male fish. The male bowfin have the telltale black spot on the tail. They also do not get very large. The one in the picture above looks female although can't see the entire tail. The one in the picture looks big enough to be a female as well. I've read they are aggressive and can bite anglers just to be nasty. I hope this angler was cautious around those teeth! They are omnivores and often even show cannibalistic behavior. I'll think twice about swimming there with all those toothy gars and aggressive dogfish/bowfins... In reality the relatives have been swimming in that area for some time with no issues. Not even getting nipped by bluegill
have so many white bass 2 to 4" the prop on motor shredding them as you drive through schools of fish pond or lake is 200 plus acres. Flat head catfish? Blue catfish? Northern pike? Tiger Muskie? Or Rotenone?
I would think there are plenty of predators to eat a good many of those YOY white bass
have so many white bass 2 to 4" the prop on motor shredding them as you drive through schools of fish pond or lake is 200 plus acres. Flat head catfish? Blue catfish? Northern pike? Tiger Muskie? Or Rotenone?
I would think there are plenty of predators to eat a good many of those YOY white bass
Tiger muskie are a great choice if summer isn't too hot. They don't reproduce & are very aggressive!
Thanks for confirmation Dr. Luke. I also learned that the picture you posted above is a male fish. The male bowfin have the telltale black spot on the tail. They also do not get very large. The one in the picture above looks female although can't see the entire tail. The one in the picture looks big enough to be a female as well. I've read they are aggressive and can bite anglers just to be nasty. I hope this angler was cautious around those teeth! They are omnivores and often even show cannibalistic behavior. I'll think twice about swimming there with all those toothy gars and aggressive dogfish/bowfins... In reality the relatives have been swimming in that area for some time with no issues. Not even getting nipped by bluegill
Or called a grinnel. A buddy in Arkansas caught a 15# one while fishing for Largemouth just a few days ago.
If they bite an angler, I'm sure that the angler stuck his fingers in it's mouth. Usually fish stay away from larger critters than themselves if they can.
The trickle 100 feet behind the dam of my 4th pond has dried up. If it was fed by a leak, the pond being down about 18" might have reduced the water pressure enough that the leak has really slowed down to the point where it does not make it that far, or maybe the leak is at that level either in the pond or the high spot in a sand vein. Or maybe the trickle was not the water leaking out at all. I don't have x-ray vision, so it remains a mystery. In the mean time, seedling cattails continue to sprout on the banks. Darn deer flies are a real pain! Been picking up a few deer ticks too. Our dogs are treated, but I always wonder if they bring some back to the house and they abandon ship (and we are the life boats)...
"Or called a grinnel. A buddy in Arkansas caught a 15# one while fishing for Largemouth just a few days ago."
Thanks for the added information. I love that this odd looking fish has so many cool nicknames.
"other names are dogfish, grindle, grinnel, cypress trout, swamp muskie, black fish, cottonfish, swamp bass, poisson-castor, speckled cat, shoepic or choupic, and beaverfish."
I think my favorite one is Swamp Muskie.
If you have not yet been introduced to Ginger Billy's youtube clips they are hilarious, outlandish, VERY immature and at times uncouth. But he has millions of views and probably makes an extreme income by poking fun of southern hillbillies and outhouse talk. One of his clips was funny where he built his own swimming pool and turned himself quite blue after using a bit too much pond dye (see I was tying this back in to pond stuff eventually)
I can hear him already recording a new clip starting in his southern drawl:
'Me and my buddies are heading out to catch us some Swamp Muskie'
Was fishing today with a baby bass crank bait and hung a 6-7” LMB and was reeling it in and a hoss grabbed it next to the boat soaking me. She were a big gal…. That is fun when you get to see it happening. Poor little bass had most of the scales removed
Was fishing today with a baby bass crank bait and hung a 6-7” LMB and was reeling it in and a hoss grabbed it next to the boat soaking me. She were a big gal…. That is fun when you get to see it happening. Poor little bass had most of the scales removed
I have heard of guys pellet training their bass, but it is very impressive to train your big bass to scale and clean your little bass for the frying pan!
Was fishing today with a baby bass crank bait and hung a 6-7” LMB and was reeling it in and a hoss grabbed it next to the boat soaking me. She were a big gal…. That is fun when you get to see it happening. Poor little bass had most of the scales removed
I have heard of guys pellet training their bass, but it is very impressive to train your big bass to scale and clean your little bass for the frying pan!
Not only that, the little guy probably had all the poo scared out of him. Less mess filleting!
Was fishing today with a baby bass crank bait and hung a 6-7” LMB and was reeling it in and a hoss grabbed it next to the boat soaking me. She were a big gal…. That is fun when you get to see it happening. Poor little bass had most of the scales removed
I have heard of guys pellet training their bass, but it is very impressive to train your big bass to scale and clean your little bass for the frying pan!
Not only that, the little guy probably had all the poo scared out of him. Less mess filleting!
Driving around the SMB pond a couple times today, really noticed big schools of gams around the edge. Water is probably about 10" below full pool and not nearly as much vegetation in this pond as the last couple years. So I would assume the grass carp and/or the crawdads are doing their job of cleaning it up. Also the water has a nice green tint where the last couple of years has been so clear from the vegetation taking the nutrients. So I liked the water.
But back to the gams, as I drove or rode around the pond it would scare the gams and the predators were really working on them when they shied away from the shore line. Saw some mud swirls, several strikes and a few of the gams almost jumped ashore trying to get away. I've quit hand feeding the SMB in this pond since the weather has turned so hot, so I suspect they are pretty aggressive toward the bait fish.
Spent the weekend literally spoon feeding my small BG. Stocked them a couple of months ago they were supposed to be 1-3" but when I got there they were all 1" or less they don't seem to be interested in food my Fhm will devour food chasing it around till it's gone. I am hydrating aqua max mvp and then mash it up then sit on the dock and drop a little at a time. Just enough that they clean it up in 10-15 seconds to try to get them to feed aggressively
Went out in pond in boat to see if I could identify the schools of one inch fish in 3-4 bunches hitting the surface in groups 4-6’ diameter. Got close enough to see that there were thousands in each group. They were moving feeding so couldn’t id them . I had shad up until we got that freeze two years ago. Temp got to -1 and skim ice in surface so can’t imagine any survival of them….they surface late in the evening to feed. I have GSH also but never have seen their YOY in bunches. Also have LMB, BCP BG. Any body got any ideas as to what they are? Thanks
Went out in pond in boat to see if I could identify the schools of one inch fish in 3-4 bunches hitting the surface in groups 4-6’ diameter. Got close enough to see that there were thousands in each group. They were moving feeding so couldn’t id them . I had shad up until we got that freeze two years ago. Temp got to -1 and skim ice in surface so can’t imagine any survival of them….they surface late in the evening to feed. I have GSH also but never have seen their YOY in bunches. Also have LMB, BCP BG. Any body got any ideas as to what they are? Thanks
Try ripping a treble hook thru the school and see if you can impale one.
Went out in pond in boat to see if I could identify the schools of one inch fish in 3-4 bunches hitting the surface in groups 4-6’ diameter. Got close enough to see that there were thousands in each group. They were moving feeding so couldn’t id them . I had shad up until we got that freeze two years ago. Temp got to -1 and skim ice in surface so can’t imagine any survival of them….they surface late in the evening to feed. I have GSH also but never have seen their YOY in bunches. Also have LMB, BCP BG. Any body got any ideas as to what they are? Thanks
Try ripping a treble hook thru the school and see if you can impale one.
Ethan from Overton's came out, along with a couple of helpers, to deploy artificial fish habitat. Pond about 30" below full pool, lowest level I've ever experienced, but this was actually helpful in placement of structure.
Focused on dock area, fallen trees, feeders, and corners of the dam. Small "bushes" in shallows, "trees" in deeper water. Had to keep in mind that wherever would likely be 2' deeper in a few months.
I greatly appreciated the use of plastic "water lilies" to mark spots where fish habitat was sunk. Not every bush or tree, but every group. The lilies look fairly natural and are designed to adjust for water levels & minimize hangups.
Ethan remarked that in ponds with deep water, Florida LMB often seem to stay deep other than when spawning. This is especially so if there's not a lot of shallow habitat, which is true at much of my place. Hopefully the habitat will draw them up where they will be more available for anglers!
I especially like having a visible marker for the structure. I have caught lots of bass that I missed the first time, and then threw back into the same spot and caught them on the second chance!
Ethan from Overton's came out, along with a couple of helpers, to deploy artificial fish habitat. Pond about 30" below full pool, lowest level I've ever experienced, but this was actually helpful in placement of structure.
Focused on dock area, fallen trees, feeders, and corners of the dam. Small "bushes" in shallows, "trees" in deeper water. Had to keep in mind that wherever would likely be 24-30" deeper in a few months.
One thing I greatly appreciated was the use of plastic "water lilies" to mark spots where fish habitat was sunk. Not every bush or tree, but every group. The fake lilies look fairly natural and apparently are well designed to adjust for water levels & minimize hangups.
Ethan remarked that in ponds with deep water, Florida LMB often seem to hang deep other than when spawning. This is especially so if there's not a lot of shallow habitat, which is true on most of my place. Hopefully the habitat will draw them up where they will be more available for anglers!
So that was the picture that I saw Overtons post! The fish will love it.
Rod, I remember seeing a very nice LMB on a shallow nest in cattails. I was flyfishing & decided to see if she would bite my bead head fly. Dragged it by her again and again and again, nearly forty times until she got annoyed enough to inhale it. Happened so fast that the first thing I noticed was that the fly was no longer visible. Great fight, and she was returned unharmed.
Must say I'm really impressed with the design of artificial lilies, how they will rise & fall with the water level. Also have tubing to protect connection from hooks. Ethan remarked that he was skeptical of them at first, but has become a fan.
Ethan from Overton's came out, along with a couple of helpers, to deploy artificial fish habitat. Pond about 30" below full pool, lowest level I've ever experienced, but this was actually helpful in placement of structure.
Focused on dock area, fallen trees, feeders, and corners of the dam. Small "bushes" in shallows, "trees" in deeper water. Had to keep in mind that wherever would likely be 24-30" deeper in a few months.
One thing I greatly appreciated was the use of plastic "water lilies" to mark spots where fish habitat was sunk. Not every bush or tree, but every group. The fake lilies look fairly natural and apparently are well designed to adjust for water levels & minimize hangups.
Ethan remarked that in ponds with deep water, Florida LMB often seem to hang deep other than when spawning. This is especially so if there's not a lot of shallow habitat, which is true on most of my place. Hopefully the habitat will draw them up where they will be more available for anglers!
So that was the picture that I saw Overtons post! The fish will love it.
Ethan from Overton's came out, along with a couple of helpers, to deploy artificial fish habitat. Pond about 30" below full pool, lowest level I've ever experienced, but this was actually helpful in placement of structure.
Focused on dock area, fallen trees, feeders, and corners of the dam. Small "bushes" in shallows, "trees" in deeper water. Had to keep in mind that wherever would likely be 24-30" deeper in a few months.
One thing I greatly appreciated was the use of plastic "water lilies" to mark spots where fish habitat was sunk. Not every bush or tree, but every group. The fake lilies look fairly natural and apparently are well designed to adjust for water levels & minimize hangups.
Ethan remarked that in ponds with deep water, Florida LMB often seem to hang deep other than when spawning. This is especially so if there's not a lot of shallow habitat, which is true on most of my place. Hopefully the habitat will draw them up where they will be more available for anglers!
So that was the picture that I saw Overtons post! The fish will love it.
Thanks, I didn't see it. Where is their post?
It was on their FB page. Anything there look familiar?
...Must say I'm really impressed with the design of artificial lilies, how they will rise & fall with the water level. Also have tubing to protect connection from hooks. Ethan remarked that he was skeptical of them at first, but has become a fan.
Ethan's a very deep thinker. Be sure and ask him all the hard questions you can.
Made another ford across a small stream using 240 cement block. I am getting too old for this... My 1st ford using this method was made over 30 years ago and is still good. Keeps the water clear and the stream healthy when driving across. Should thank my lucky stars that I am still able.
Made another ford across a small stream using 240 cement block. I am getting too old for this... My 1st ford using this method was made over 30 years ago and is still good. Keeps the water clear and the stream healthy when driving across. Should thank my lucky stars that I am still able.
I am glad you survived. Constructing that ford probably counts as your workout for the whole month!
Can you post a pic or diagram?
I would certainly like to copy and adapt a ford design that has lasted for 30 years!
No strength in that orientation to vehicle traffic. The holes will fill with sediment over time. Need boards when taking metal-tracked machines across them though.
Do you put any underlayment fabric beneath the blocks?
Your soil there looks pretty clay-rich, did you just tamp clay for a relatively flat base and then lay blocks on that foundation?
I like the curvature of the top surface of your blocks that comes up and "meets" your road. Did that mitigate big channel ruts forming due to erosion of your wheel tracks?
Now that I have a full-size backhoe, I remove the muck down to the gravel base, including an area wider than the stream where it is soft on top, and lay the block on that base and a bit up the bank. The big risk is that the block most downstream dislodge during flooding, This is why I lay the block parallel with the flow of water (to resist tumbling), but sometime I need chunks of concrete downstream to stop that anyway. I also smooth out the tops of the blocks by pressing everything down with the back of the backhoe bucket, which cuts down on hand digging before laying them. I did not have the backhoe when I built my first one, but I was 30 years younger. You still get wheel tracks when everything is real wet, especially if sand deposits on the banks, but it's not too bad. I have had poorer results using culverts before I had the backhoe because water was able to work its way through outside of the pipes due to poor compaction (by hand), or passes over during flooding. The fords hold up better for me and reduce debris getting stirred up when crossing. Our main goal is wildlife habitat restoration, and this seems most compatible with that, These are really drainage ditches, but when all you have are ditches, you call them streams:) The price of block has almost doubled, as has diesel, so they are a lot more pricey to construct now. I have put most projects on hold, but wanted to get this one done while I can still move block.
While the water flowing over my oldest ford is normally inches deep, it has flowed 7 feet deep during the worst flooding. A covered walking bridge that we built a decade before the big flood did not fare as well when a tree trunk smashed into it during one of those floods. The bridge was 5' above the normal water level. I no longer have that bridge. During the peak of the flood, water was running 2 feet over the bridge deck.
Refilled feeders today, one on the fritz so I'll have to get a replacement part. Not really a big deal, but frustrating. For some reason, this particular feeder tends to get bad corrosion where it mates up with the battery.
BG still feeding fairly well when I tested, but not with same enthusiasm they did a month or two ago. Didn't see any LMB or HSB activity whatsoever.
Pond is even lower now, down 3' from normal full pool. Wonder if this is a good thing -- prey flushed out of usual haunts -- or a bad thing -- extra stress. We'll see when it fills up again. Makes me really glad to have a relatively deep pond by Texas standards!
Removed 37 GSH from 9 to 11" today via a light wire #14 hook with a piece of Optimal Jr wedged between barb and shank. Surprisingly, I had 3 SMB between 11-14" take a piece of Jr too.
Removed 37 GSH from 9 to 11" today via a light wire #14 hook with a piece of Optimal Jr wedged between barb and shank. Surprisingly, I had 3 SMB between 11-14" take a piece of Jr too.
Interesting! Floating? Weighted? Just curious. Thanks
GSH don't usually school in large numbers like shad. They will often be in groups of smaller #s but don't feed like shad (large schools early morning and late afternoon on the surface).
GSH don't usually school in large numbers like shad. They will often be in groups of smaller #s but don't feed like shad (large schools early morning and late afternoon on the surface).
Thanks Ewest Didn’t think shiners did that , so I’m not sure what they are….. had shad until it got down to -1….. maybe a few survivors made it
About to gear up and extend the 3" inlet pipe that fills my hatchery pond from the big pond. Water level's dropping like a rock, and there's no end in sight. I'm now able to walk out and reload brush piles in my Mucks, and not get wet. This isn't the lowest the big pond's been, but it's getting close.
About to gear up and extend the 3" inlet pipe that fills my hatchery pond from the big pond. Water level's dropping like a rock, and there's no end in sight. I'm now able to walk out and reload brush piles in my Mucks, and not get wet. This isn't the lowest the big pond's been, but it's getting close.
Good job. If all you have is lemons, you might as well pull on your Mucks and make some lemonade!
I pride myself in respecting the science of meteorology, and the up and downs that may occur. I got the pump running as the sky turned black. I raced back to the house, opened all the shop and garage doors, and bent a wiper, rear window, on my wife's suv. 1.6" deluge in 20 minutes. I'll roll down one of her windows when she gets back.
EDIT: We're at 2.25", and water's running out of the hatchery pond overflow pipe. 8-10" rise, and the pump's now off.
Me too Pat. My spring fed creek has dried up. My small water holes are bare. My 1/4 acre GSF pond has just about had it. My 2 to 3 acre pond is down about 3 to 4 ft.
I'm down about 1 foot. We havnt had a good down pour in a while. Keep getting storms around us but not pond fillers. Iv got cracks in the ground that makes ya want to step over them.
Here in central MO we were on the verge of getting really dry, yards starting to burn up, not near like I seen them in S Mo a couple weeks ago tho, but wound up getting a few hit and miss showers and seemed to sorta green things up pretty nice again, the crops look like that went a long ways to making them, but I did hook up to the plow yest to turn some ground for a fall deer plot and man is that dirt hard! and its a nice sandy topsoil bottom ground field. I bet some of these pastures have to be getting pretty hard. that old plow did some grunting to get it to go in the ground. Had my nephew in from Arizona for a week with his gf and we went out and caught some BG, bass and CC, didnt have any luck on WE, they may be down pretty deep this time of yr. they did get some good looks at the resident baldy that hangs around the pond, a lot of times there are two of them.
I don't see any opposable thumbs, how will he hold a rifle?
He does look like a beaut! Have you been feeding through the summer?
During the hot/dry spell, I have only seen fawns at my farm. I have almost stepped on them down in the grass. I have no idea where their momma's are. There are lots of deer tracks on the sandbars in the creek, but that is also some of our best deep shade.
I think that he shoots those tines like a porcupine (no thumbs needed)... I don't need to feed these guys; we have built prime habitat over the last 30+ years. Had 8+ different bucks on the cam over the last 5 days. We were dry but got good rain lately, but we have no shortage of watering sites. We built 4 ponds and over a half dozen wetlands, several of which have never gone dry. We hold deer pretty good, but they may show up anywhere which keeps things interesting. Also saw 3 big turkeys when I went out to change the card in my trail cam today. Took an old deer last year and let 2 higher scoring young ones walk. Cannot tell how old this guy is from the pics. He kinda looks young since his belly appears tight, so I may need to let him walk too. I would be shot on site!
I agree that he looks young and that is why I have elected to take older deer and let younger deer with higher scoring antlers walk in recent years. I am aiming for a 170+ trophy hopefully in my future. Still fill the freezer with does though. If all goes well, I'll be hunting this Fall without glasses for the first time ever. Had cataract surgery on my left eye last week and ended up with 20/15 in that eye. Next week I'll have the right eye done. A bit stressful, but it is great to have modern medicine. It's like seeing the world in hi-def for the first time!
Had cataract surgery on my left eye last week and ended up with 20/15 in that eye. Next week I'll have the right eye done. A bit stressful, but it is great to have modern medicine. It's like seeing the world in hi-def for the first time!
Wow.
That may be one of the best "What did you do at your pond today" responses I have seen in a while!
These guys showed up at the mineral lick the other day, was getting sorta antsy as hadnt been seeing the number of bucks this summer as I have in the past.
Will the biggest bucks still hang out as "buddies" until they become rivals at some point before the rut? Or is there an alpha buck in the area, and he does not suffer the company of lesser bucks at any time of the year?
(I am trying to compare the sample of what I actually observe, compared to our true population.)
I agree that he looks young and that is why I have elected to take older deer and let younger deer with higher scoring antlers walk in recent years. I am aiming for a 170+ trophy hopefully in my future. Still fill the freezer with does though. If all goes well, I'll be hunting this Fall without glasses for the first time ever. Had cataract surgery on my left eye last week and ended up with 20/15 in that eye. Next week I'll have the right eye done. A bit stressful, but it is great to have modern medicine. It's like seeing the world in hi-def for the first time!
That's encouraging, I'm gonna have that done as well. Didn't even realize I had cataracts until visit with ophthalmologist last week. I see okay, but your hi-def comment got my attention.
My cataracts caused so much glare at night that I could not drive safely anymore. My cataracts were on the back of my lenses which apparently grow faster than other kinds. When they shined lights in my eyes and asked me to read the smallest line of letters, I could not even tell there were any letters there... Driving with one eye at night (until I get my second eye done) requires me to close the non-fixed eye so that the starbursts of light don't overpower the fixed eye. I just did not realize how bad things had gotten. When it comes to surgeries, I tend to push things out as far as possible, but I don't recommend this approach to others...
Will the biggest bucks still hang out as "buddies" until they become rivals at some point before the rut? Or is there an alpha buck in the area, and he does not suffer the company of lesser bucks at any time of the year?
(I am trying to compare the sample of what I actually observe, compared to our true population.)
For the most part they all hang out as a group thru the summer months for whatever reason it seems like. Thats awesome RAH, I had very good vision for most of my life till in the last ten yrs it has went down hill quite a bit, from having to hold a newspaper at arms length in order to read it to my arms not being long enough, break out the readers. my distant vision still seems to be decent.
Got back from Montana, and feral hogs welcomed me back. The drought has moved hogs out of the river bottom, and they've moved to available food and water. Unfortunately, that's my big pond. Besides tearing up the banks, they're digging up my hybrid water lily tubers. I put out 5 cameras, and borrowed one huge trap from my next door neighbor. They're coming his way also. We're seeing sounders of over 30.
My plan is to trap, and gear up in a Ted Nugent loincloth and a spear instead of his Byrdland. If that doesn't work, I'm also upgrading my 300blkout for this occasion. I'm on a quest.
Ugggh not a good problem. Sure, someone could use the meat.
Can you contact the Optimal people and have them come up with a good fish food product based on ground up feral hogs?
Customers can call them to drop off a bag of fish food at their door and have them take away five hogs they just culled the previous day. Win-win for everybody!
Bad thing is that the big boars aren’t to edible….. if they stink feed the yotes…. The meat tastes just like it smells…. Ugh. If the boars are under 100# they’re usually good. Killed one over 300 that had been cut and it was fine. There are tons of them here now that I don’t even mess with unless a big boar…. Haven’t been many of them around as I wore them out early in the year . Wish could find someone to eat them but they want you to clean, quarter and bag before they take them ….. sooo yotes and buzzards get the call
The low water and heat caused a fish kill here. Only in one single pond out of 5. My RES/SMB pond had about 50 SMB and HSB floating along the south bank a couple days ago. All about the same size, about 14 inches long. Pond is about 18" low and we got a hard and fast cold 2.3" rain and cool down in air temperature. I suspect the quick change was just too much for the fish to handle. I am pretty sure the pond was over populated and needed some removed. Mother nature beat me to it.
The strange thing is, my old pond right next to it, no problem. My big main pond and the associated sediment pond and forage pond, no problem (but they all get night time aeration with the exception of the old pond). Just the one pond had the problem.
I suspect, but don't know for sure, the reason the old pond did not run into a problem was because of the size mix of fish. The RES/SMB pond had those 50 fish all nearly the same identical size. Only saw one or two slightly smaller. In the old pond I have a few larger LMB that I suspect keep the smaller fish thinned out. In the RES/SMB pond too many of the same size fish with no big lower number apex predators to thin out the smaller population. Thus over population of that one size class.
Was a sad thing to see but the way it goes sometimes. That sudden cold water runoff going to the bottom of an anoxic pond was a death blow to the larger fish in that pond. At least that is my theory. The other ponds with aeration or a better variety of fish predator sizes seemed to fair much better.
I've not been feeding anything because of the heat and low water situation. So added feed was not the problem.
I’m butt deep in hogs. When we shoot one, we drag it out where buzzards can get to it. I’ve never been one that wanted to make any animal dead that I won’t eat. I make an exception on hogs. Dang things on my place are loaded with ticks so we are careful when handling them..
Some day, just about every rural land owner will have them.
I hope not, but I suspect I’ll see it eventually. I was at our place all week working on food plots and deer stands. I have problems with the pond, but that’s on another thread. I did see a dead armadillo by the road yesterday. Not that far from Hannibal MO. I guess the hogs won’t be far behind. If you guys need someone to come down and shoot….
Spent a some time removing some weeds from my pond that has a massive amount of gelatinous balls attached to it. I am still trying to figure out exactly what it is and how to get rid of it.
On a positive note, the buzzards I think were happy today.
I am impressed with your dedication to managing the "total ecosystem"! Still sorry about your fish kill though.
For a separate positive note - based on your postings I believe part of your pond management efforts are due to a pursuit of knowledge. I hope you enjoy starting a new project on the RES/SMB pond now that it has become a blank slate. If so, then I expect some entertaining Pond Boss postings in the future!
On a positive note, the buzzards I think were happy today.
I am impressed with your dedication to managing the "total ecosystem"! Still sorry about your fish kill though.
For a separate positive note - based on your postings I believe part of your pond management efforts are due to a pursuit of knowledge. I hope you enjoy starting a new project on the RES/SMB pond now that it has become a blank slate. If so, then I expect some entertaining Pond Boss postings in the future!
From the fish I observed on the bank, they all seemed to be suspiciously almost the exact same size. I did not see any smaller fish at all. So if I am lucky there will still be plenty of smaller SMB that will come roaring back. The HSB are probably toast because the ones I put in were all in the same size class so I am guessing most of them were among the 50 or so fish that were floating along the bank. Fortunately we put HSB in the other ponds so I will still have lots of those.
I knew that pond was pretty heavy with SMB based on my observations last fall feeding them for a month or so before winter. It was probably a mistake when we put the HSB in there, only adding to the likely over population problem. The weird part to me is that none of the other ponds had an observable problem. No fish floating on the banks.
This is one more situation about multiple ponds I have noticed before. They can have vastly different outcomes and situations despite being right beside each other. If I only had a single pond my observations and perhaps conclusions might have been different when something happened, compared to where I have multiple ponds and a certain situation only happens in one or two or them. They can be so close together, yet act so differently at times. Can be clarity, weed pressure, fish catchability, or a bunch of other things I can't think of at the moment. The fish kill is just another episode of how one pond can act completely different than an adjacent pond when seemingly exposed to similar conditions.
Glad to hear that it might not be a total blank slate!
If your family does catch some of the large HSB this fall from your other ponds, are you planning to re-stock a few back into the RES/SMB pond?
I would hate to see the entire current size class of RES and SMB all grow bigger without ANY predation. I think there is a chance they could consume all of the forage in their preferred consumption size.
(Just throwing out some wild speculations since you certainly know more about that topic than I do.)
Are you going to throw out some hand feed in that pond this fall? That might give you some rough visual sampling to observe the size and species of the fish that survived.
I will probably do some fall feeding again just to condition the fish for winter. The problem is we are hardly ever around. Since having the farm auction and my nephews doing the farming of our land, there is not much to keep us home. So we travel a lot. But I think I can put a feeder out there on a pallet, set it to just a small amount of supplemental feed, and maybe get back in time before it runs out. Already have the rest of the summer, fall and winter travel already planned out.
Since full retirement, the ponds have been kind of neglected. Too busy to fish any more.
As I recall, you had a lot of very expensive looking green "iron" at your place. I hope you got a good price for it - to finance a very busy retirement!
The clean up auction was May 15, 2021. We had decided to fully retire the fall before and sold about half the equipment by advertising it. The auction cleaned up what was left plus 50 years of tool and miscellaneous accumulation. We rented the farmland and farmstead (buildings and grain storage) out to my nephews.
So Carolynn and I have been foot loose and fancy free for over a year now. Heading for Bonaire, N.A. this weekend for a month of scuba diving. Then back for a couple weeks then to Moab, Utah and SW Arizona for off road vehicle trails for about six weeks (Polaris RZR pro 4 seat). Then home for a week or two then back to Bonaire the first part of December for the winter three months (for a lot more scuba diving - I do 150-200 dives a year) and back home next year in April. Put about 4,000 miles on a new Kawasaki KLX230SE dual purpose dirt bike on gravel and black top county roads the last couple months around locally. Carolynn saw I was having so much fun, we got her a Honda Trail 125 and she goes with me sometimes.
We don't let much grass grow under our feet. Speaking of grass, I think we could have hay baled our yard when we finally made it back this last spring. Enjoying retirement! I'm a teenager again! (only with more money and toys!). Hitting that deer with the motorcycle last December 6 slowed me down a bit, but I am managing around the remaining difficulties.
I'm only 2 hours from Moab. You may be driving within 3 miles of our home, if you come over on US 160 through Durango and then Colorado 184 from Mancos up to US 491 out west of Dolores. Give a shout; I'll give you directions. You could even bring some of those HSB youngsters. Haha. Roger
I'm only 2 hours from Moab. You may be driving within 3 miles of our home, if you come over on US 160 through Durango and then Colorado 184 from Mancos up to US 491 out west of Dolores. Give a shout; I'll give you directions. You could even bring some of those HSB youngsters. Haha. Roger
You might even convince him to go scuba diving in your pond, do a survey of what you have in there. Love to scuba dive but hadnt done it in a while, did some commercial diving back in the day, worked for a company out of Lafayette LA doing underwater construction and welding on offshore platforms after hurricane Andrew tore a bunch of them up in 93 I believe it was.
Snrub, I’m with you on retirement, four wheeling, and dual sport motorcycles. A buddy and I just completed the Idaho and Wyoming BDRs. The plan is to pack in as much fun as we can,, until we can’t.
I am at the farm. The battle with pond scum continues. Bought a big skimming net, but no wind has the slime spread out. Hoping for wind.
I'm only 2 hours from Moab. You may be driving within 3 miles of our home, if you come over on US 160 through Durango and then Colorado 184 from Mancos up to US 491 out west of Dolores. Give a shout; I'll give you directions. You could even bring some of those HSB youngsters. Haha. Roger
Thanks for the invite! Have not decided the route to take yet. Not sure about where the best route is to go over mountains with 22' trailer in tow. Debating on going out of the way north and just use I70 or a more direct route. Coming back from there in a car we used hwy 50 in Colorado to 400 in Kansas. Any suggestions?
I dive in our pond occasionally to clean off the aeration diffusers. It is no fun, LOL.
Green murk so you can't see past your elbow in the first few feet down, then totally black when on the bottom.
Originally Posted by gehajake
Originally Posted by 4CornersPuddle
I'm only 2 hours from Moab. You may be driving within 3 miles of our home, if you come over on US 160 through Durango and then Colorado 184 from Mancos up to US 491 out west of Dolores. Give a shout; I'll give you directions. You could even bring some of those HSB youngsters. Haha. Roger
You might even convince him to go scuba diving in your pond, do a survey of what you have in there. Love to scuba dive but hadnt done it in a while, did some commercial diving back in the day, worked for a company out of Lafayette LA doing underwater construction and welding on offshore platforms after hurricane Andrew tore a bunch of them up in 93 I believe it was.
I dive in our pond occasionally to clean off the aeration diffusers. It is no fun, LOL.
Green murk so you can't see past your elbow in the first few feet down, then totally black when on the bottom.
Your commercial diving sounds like an interesting occupation.......for a young guy!
Snrub, I’m with you on retirement, four wheeling, and dual sport motorcycles. A buddy and I just completed the Idaho and Wyoming BDRs. The plan is to pack in as much fun as we can,, until we can’t.
I am at the farm. The battle with pond scum continues. Bought a big skimming net, but no wind has the slime spread out. Hoping for wind.
I am impressed! I've been watching a bunch of Youtube videos on the various BDR's. Looks like fun but I'm afraid I'm a bit past my prime for doing such things. I would have to bypass most of the technical sections and I'm just way too inclined to a nice bed at night to camp. But I sure like the idea of doing one, or at least parts of one.
I am impressed! I've been watching a bunch of Youtube videos on the various BDR's. Looks like fun but I'm afraid I'm a bit past my prime for doing such things. I would have to bypass most of the technical sections and I'm just way too inclined to a nice bed at night to camp. But I sure like the idea of doing one, or at least parts of one.
The Idaho BDR (Backcountry Discovery Route) is rated the second easiest of the 11. The only other one I may try is the Mid Atlantic. The Idaho one pushed me to my limits. 1400 miles. Very fun though, and incredibly beautiful. There are lodges along the way, if you don’t want to haul camping gear. It’s just a lot more fun on two wheels!
Made progress on cleaning up the back of the dam. Before: After: From the other side:
The middle has had the trees cut down, but not mowed. Too steep for me. Looks like weed eater territory.
Sycamores had taken over. Some were 8” diameter at the base. They grow fast, as the dam is only 8 yrs old. Lots of briars and poison ivy thrown in for good measure. I’m not going to let it get out of control again. The pics don’t show the actual slope very well.
Looks like a nice place for deer to transit now that you have cleaned it up.
Do you own a brushcutter? I have a Husqvarna 345FR just for situations like that. You clip it into a harness so the weight is on your hips, rather than your shoulders and back.
In addition to working on slopes, I use it for small cedars. I used to have to cut several branches before I could reach the cedar trunks with my chainsaw. Now I can just walk in with the brushcutter and get most of them with one swipe.
Looks like a nice place for deer to transit now that you have cleaned it up.
Do you own a brushcutter? I have a Husqvarna 345FR just for situations like that. You clip it into a harness so the weight is on your hips, rather than your shoulders and back.
In addition to working on slopes, I use it for small cedars. I used to have to cut several branches before I could reach the cedar trunks with my chainsaw. Now I can just walk in with the brushcutter and get most of them with one swipe.
Sounds like the right tool for this job. I’ll have to look around for a used one. I have the blade attachment for my weed eater. It’s a heavy duty one with the straight shaft. I haven’t tried it on Russian Olives though. The section I still have to clear isn’t that big, but I sure wish I could just back the tractor with the brush hog on it, down that slope. Just too steep for me. I figure I’ll get down there, and won’t be able to get back up. Another rescue job that will entertain my neighbors for years.
I would try the blade attachment on your weed eater.
See what size of olive trees you can safely clear without ruining your machine.
Do you ever perform prescribed burns on your property? That is another good way to get rid of small trees, especially up slopes. If you can get rid of the small trees and establish some grass, that may burn hot enough to kill some of the bigger trees?
I think this might be a tricky place to burn. Not sure though. The back of the dam was all nice fescue eight years ago. If I would have stayed on top of it, it would still be in fescue. The trees shaded out the fescue. I’ll have to get it going again. It’s just near the base of the dam that the fescue died off.
Don't burn if it is not easy to make your fire breaks!
I agree with the lament of "staying on top of it". I am amazed at how quickly little problems at our property can turn into big problems!
Maybe Al (FireIsHot) can loan you a few goats.
If I knew 20 years ago what I know now, I'd never own a weed eater. When weather permits, we take the goats on a daily walk to the areas that need grooming. Right now, they're eating the crab grass and bahia grass out of the hay meadows. Goats are extremely trainable if you keep a pocket with acorns or pecan halves handy. They can also be a royal PITA.
It has been a long time coming, but it's a labor of love (and helps fill the freezer).
If you are ever stuck at your computer on a rainy day, I would love to read a detailed post about your long-term improvements at your property to improve your deer habitat and your deer herd management! (I have read snippets in some of the deer threads.)
What went right AND what went wrong would probably be very enlightening. I know some things would be specific to your particular area, but if you stated the reasons why it worked, then the rest of us could probably apply the appropriate tweaks to fit our different conditions.
No real magic: food, water, cover, and harvesting lots of does. I also have multiple areas of thick cover that we never go into unless tracking a wounded deer or controlling unwanted woody invasives (off season). I hunt the edges only. I have really just tried to favor all wildlife and mostly stick with native plants. There are some more specifics at a FB group page that my daughter set up for me: https://www.facebook.com/groups/442011656723370/ Its pretty rinky-dink though. If you are ever traveling through the Indianapolis area (out of deer season), I would enjoy giving you a tour!
Don't burn if it is not easy to make your fire breaks!
I agree with the lament of "staying on top of it". I am amazed at how quickly little problems at our property can turn into big problems!
Maybe Al (FireIsHot) can loan you a few goats.
If I knew 20 years ago what I know now, I'd never own a weed eater. When weather permits, we take the goats on a daily walk to the areas that need grooming. Right now, they're eating the crab grass and bahia grass out of the hay meadows. Goats are extremely trainable if you keep a pocket with acorns or pecan halves handy. They can also be a royal PITA.
So, I'm guessing you have a weed eater for sale cheap?
O.K, this wasn't "my" pond, but a customers. This also was yesterday, not today. His pond is stocked with Hybrid Bluegill and some Regular Bluegills, along with other fish. The banks are very steep 3:1 or steeper once you are in the water and he's having a heck of a time getting underwater weeds established in his pond, either due to turtles or crayfish.
SO, he had us get some Lily plants and some American Pondweed and he made some cages from PVC and hardware cloth to cover the plants so the craws/turtles couldn't eat them.
I was in the pond swimming and planting the plants when one of his bluegills latched on to a part of my skin and tried to rip it off. DANG that hurt!! It felt like it was about a 10" fish, and it seemed to grab and twist like a gator rolls when trying to rip off a piece of something to eat. I wasn't bleeding, but DANG that fish had TEETH and it sure hurt!!!!!
EWEST, where is that picture of the RES with red eyes and blood dripping from it's teeth? I had visions of that being the thing that grabbed me, except a BG/HBG and not a RES.
esshup - My bluegill could use more food as well if you want to take a swim in my pond:) Have you done an analysis to see how nutritious you are? BTW, my son had blood drawn on his nipple and thought it was funny. Never deterred him from swimming.
esshup - My bluegill could use more food as well if you want to take a swim in my pond:) Have you done an analysis to see how nutritious you are? BTW, my son had blood drawn on his nipple and thought it was funny. Never deterred him from swimming.
Was at the pond today reviewing the scum situation. (It’s as strong as ever). I saw a critter swimming across the other side. Looked like an otter. Swimming along the bank it would dive down and come back up, shake its head, and it would have a fish in its mouth. I just never thought I’d get an otter here. Maybe a muskrat. I watched it catch and crunch on four or five fish. Got to thinking, this isn’t going to work. I think he’s gone for good. Hopefully. Here’s the tracks where he came in. Can anyone tell if it’s an otter or a muskrat?
When I bought some HBG I asked the seller if they would bite swimmers. He said he’d never heard of them biting anyone. Haha! I used to have to wear a shirt to swim. We eliminated as many as we could catch. I can swim without a shirt now, but every now and then I’ll hear a scream.. I don’t think the RES attack like the HBG.
Muskrats don't eat fish.............. Unfortunately, Otters target the slowest moving fish in the pond first, they are the easiest to catch, and most times they are the biggest fish. Better do what you can to get it out of your pond and persuade it from ever coming back.
Muskrats don't eat fish.............. Unfortunately, Otters target the slowest moving fish in the pond first, they are the easiest to catch, and most times they are the biggest fish. Better do what you can to get it out of your pond and persuade it from ever coming back.
I was very persuasive. I don’t believe I’ll be seeing him again. Hopefully he was a loner.
I just read where an otter will eat it’s weight in food every day. Unfortunately he works the bank where my SMB like hang out.
Muskrats don't eat fish.............. Unfortunately, Otters target the slowest moving fish in the pond first, they are the easiest to catch, and most times they are the biggest fish. Better do what you can to get it out of your pond and persuade it from ever coming back.
I was very persuasive. I don’t believe I’ll be seeing him again. Hopefully he was a loner.
I just read where an otter will eat it’s weight in food every day. Unfortunately he works the bank where my SMB like hang out.
Unfortunately otters might eat their weight in fish in a day but they will kill a lot more then that if they are plentiful, I have seen plenty of half eaten fish or not much eaten from them at all. one has to be very persuasive to keep them from coming back,, I get the drift.
He won’t be back. I was trying to observe him as closely as possible. As he worked his way down the dam, I hid on the other side. I wanted as close of a look as possible, so I remained relatively hidden. He was easy to keep track of as every minute or so he would stop and eat. I kept hearing the gnawing and munching of my fish... I do think he was mostly eating larger GSH. Haven’t seen any others, I’m really hoping he was a solo act.
I've finally gotten caught up to the point that I have some time to spend on the pond. I got the weed whacker out on Saturday and trimmed the undesirables from the dam. Yesterday after work I placed two loader buckets of limestone cobble on the pond side of the dam. Also brought up several bucket loads of topsoil and spread that on the backside of the dam where I cleaned up a few dead trees earlier in the summer. Putting the finish grade down on the dam and reseeding is still a goal to be completed before winter if time allows.
I should be working on my pond excavations right now, since it is bone dry out at our farm right now. Unfortunately, I am still swamped at work.
I did feed some of the creek fish that I have been keeping in aquariums for practice.
We had shrimp for dinner tonight, so I peeled the last little bits of meat out of the tails and threw it in the tank with some bullheads. They immediately pounced on THAT treat!
I also have some Gambusia in that tank. Generally that bullheads stay in their pipes on the bottom and the Gambusia cruise the surface. The shrimp meat sank to the bottom and the two largest Gambusia swam down to the bottom to peck at the shrimp.
I know there have been some threads about the benefits of adding Gambusia to a pond for forage and mosquito control. I would just like to add that the Gambusia seem to have an appetite for a wide variety of foods. They have so far pecked at every single thing I have thrown into their tank.
You can’t just work on the pond all the time. Took a short break from the slime war. Scale reads 1.3 is in kg, so 2.86 pounds. 18”. Not sure if this was an original stocker. At least the otter didn’t get him. After that, I got the rest of the back of the dam cleared off.
I didn’t know where else to post this. (So here it is) My wife found it cleaning out some boxes at her mother’s home. She recently moved her mom into a nursing home (93). Was taken in 1977 (I think) or right about the time we got married. This is myself and my father in law. He took me fishing in a farm pond not too far from their home in Chillicothe Missouri. He was the assistant principal at the VoTech school. He knew every farm kid in the county, and had for several years, and had exclusive permission to fish many of the ponds. My first time pond fishing. We were on the water at first light. Using hula poppers, and jitter bugs for the most part, and boy did we catch a lot of fish. All the smaller ones, he would give the death grip to. Left them for the turtles, of which there were many. After several tries, I’d finally get the hula popper near the bank, right where he wanted me to cast it. Then he’d tell me to just leave it there for a bit. Then it was, ok give it a twitch, then all heck would break loose. Haha! I will never forget it. When we got back to his house in town, he told my brand new wife, “I’ve ruined the boy, he will think it’s going to be this good every time we go out.” [img]http://[/img]
Setterguy, I know an old timer that built a hundred ponds around Chillicothe Mo and the surrounding counties back in the 70s and 80s, hes not being able to do anything anymore, still kicking tho, Donnie Lamp, Still go fishing with him every once in a while, winter fishing for catfish on the Grand, above Brunswick MO, hes always ready to go when ever he can get somebody to take him. cant go by himself anymore. Great picture btw!!
Your buddy must have been a good pond builder. I don’t remember a single pond up there that was plagued with low water. My Father in-law was a tough old guy. Both of his folks died when he was young. His relatives took him from the cemetery to the police station. Dropped him and his four siblings off, and said they just couldn’t take care of them. He never saw three of his siblings ever again. He was adopted by a couple near Lexington MO. Became their only child, and worked hard at their farm. He was given an old bird dog that had been blinded in one eye by an errant shotgun pellet coming back out of a fence row. It was his first English Setter. He had many, and they were all very good dogs. He helped me with my first Setter, and now I'm on number six. Unfortunately he died too young. I wish he could have fished our pond, or have seen our little farm.
My great regret is that my dad, a terrific fisherman, never was well enough to visit the pond. He'd have slayed them, especially on flies. Sadly, he had a stroke right after the pond filled.
Our little pond is still only about 3/4 excavated (long story that doesn't matter) & is full. Some Map turtles have moved in, along with a small snapper. Wife's become infatuated with the pond & critters & asked about goldfish. Explained why that was a bad idea & she asked about minnows. What the heck, they're cheap & I doubt the remaining excavation would kill them off. Why not get a jump start on growing forage, right?
So we ran to the bait shop a month ago & picked up 5 dozen rosy reds & FHM, all around 2" & tossed 'em in. I'd guess we lost close to half that first day, but we'd occasionally see a couple here & there around the pond. There are no other fish in the pond & a decent bit of submerged or semi submerged grass scattered around the pond.
We went to a local fish farm on Wednesday & picked up 3lbs of rosies, all 1" or less. All rosies, no plain ol' FHM. Seeing small schools of the rosies here & there & then I saw a couple of what looked to be FHM fry. Smaller than the rosies we just added. Is it possible the little jokers have pulled off something of a spawn already? I have added absolutely no cover/structure of any sort yet & no idea if any of the vegetation is "close enough" for them to utilize. Makes me wonder why I didn't just put a few pounds in earlier in the summer. Going to get some PK shrimp in shortly & hopefully have some decent forage growing by the time we're able to start stocking some fish (hopefully) next spring.
Heck, if you got your wife infatuated with the pond, then perhaps you are not Crazy after all!
You should probably post a tutorial on Pond Boss covering that particular topic.
Lol! I wish I had that kind of mystical knowledge. She's a city girl, born & bred & it took me 16 years to get her to move to the country. Once I got her out here, she just fell in love with the woods & all the critters.
She already liked to fish & after I bought a little fishing boat a couple months ago, she's all about getting out on the water & trying to catch some supper.
snrub, sorry it has taken me so so long to get back to you. I've been on the road turkey, blue grouse, and dove hunting so much I've neglected my daily visits to the forum! Even made it to the western Kansas line to Coolidge just so I could turn around and say to my dog, "Gypsy, we're not in Kansas anymore!" Let me know when you head over here. I'm getting ready for heart surgery (mitral valve repair) so may be occupied when you pass through. Unless you are familiar with and comfortable driving a high mountain pass, avoid Wolf Creek on highway160. This past week as I drove it in my pickup, there was a semi trailer overturned, a small car wrecked, and a pickup hauling two beautiful pontoon boats on its roof, boat parts scattered across the road. There are good runaway truck lanes on the west side, if a driver were to get into trouble.
On a more general note about muskrats not eating fish: while fish may not be a regular part of their diet, I have actually seen them munching on sluggish bullheads in a partially frozen irrigation ditch. They're known for eating freshwater mussels. I can imagine they'd grab fish on other occasions if the opportunity presented itself, but just not actively pursue healthy fish.
Got home yesterday afternoon from a long weekend of sprint car racing at Lucas Oil Speedway. Unpacked/cleaned up the camper and got started packing the truck for the annual pilgrimage to sunny Florida.
My fish were happy to discover that they hadn't been abandoned forever. They put away two feedings worth of Optimal in less than 10 minutes. I expect they will be ready to bite my hook by the time we get home from the GoM. I badly need to remove half a dozen or so HSB before winter. Also need to pull at least 30lbs of BG, so I've got something fun to look forward to after vacation is over.
I finally saw the unknown schools of 1” long fish up close…. They are shad! -1 degree temp and below freezing temps didn’t kill the parent shad I guess. Even had skim ice all over pond. Yay!
If TShad can find a thermal refuge, they can survive a cold spell. That is why they can live in big resv. when it gets cold. Provided there is O2 they can go deep and find warmer water for a spell.
I finally saw the unknown schools of 1” long fish up close…. They are shad! -1 degree temp and below freezing temps didn’t kill the parent shad I guess. Even had skim ice all over pond. Yay!
That is pretty good news, Pat!
How deep is the deepest hole, and what is the average depth on your 5-acre pond?
I finally saw the unknown schools of 1” long fish up close…. They are shad! -1 degree temp and below freezing temps didn’t kill the parent shad I guess. Even had skim ice all over pond. Yay!
That is pretty good news, Pat!
How deep is the deepest hole, and what is the average depth on your 5-acre pond?
Sprayed about 1/4 acre or more of watermeal. Low water levels for the past 2 years and less wind due to the pond being 5'-7' low (vertical measurement). Dang waterfowl must have brought it from the neighbors pond.
I am mowing grass now that should have 5 to 6 feet of water over the top of that dirt.......
Deepest is13’ when full …. Down 3’ now…. Really need rain. Not sure what average depth is
Very impressive that 13' water could provide a thermal refuge.
Do you have gizzard shad? (I was thinking it was very impressive that your threadfin shad had survived the cold.)
P.S. Hopefully you will get some rain soon. The cold front got some good rains going here in Kansas, but I don't think this front is going to push all of the way down to your area.
Good news and bad news at the pond this morning. The good news is that the scum (algae) has gone away. I guess it got cool enough or it ran out of nutrients. It’s nice to see clear open water again. The bad news is, FOUR otters on the pond. Just having a grand old time feasting on fish, frogs, and crawdads. I gave them a stern lecture. Hopefully they’ll leave. I guess I was crazy thinking I’d just have the one a few weeks ago and not see any more. Ah! The problems of pond ownership. Haha!
Yes, the Missouri Dept of Conservation brought them back. From what I’m hearing, they are providing traps to help control them now. That’s not official, as I would guess they aren’t admitting publicly what a mistake it is/was.
SetterGuy i was thinking about your algae problem while I battled mine. It seemed like one day a switch flipped and the algae just disappeared. It was like it ran out of nutrients and then self-destructed. I had bought some algaecide but then never got around to needing it. Water is clear as ever now! I even put some lawn fertilizer on and next day had downpour with runoff. I was afraid of kicking the algae into high gear or at least starting up the bloom again, NOTHING.
I finished cleaning up a summer's worth of raked algae off the shore and happily dumped a few hundred pounds of nutrients into the woods.
Thanks CC. I guess once one comes in it must leave some kind of a scent trail. Four this time. After our discussion and they left, I ran the feeder. Fish seemed the same. I guess I’m going to have to get some traps. I was still seeing a very small amount of algae along the bank, but it’s 90% gone. I was just at the pond four days ago, and it was still pretty thick. We didn’t get this cool front until last night. Don’t know if that had anything to with it.
I went to pull up record fish in Texas. I saw that the largest Tiger Musky caught in Texas was only 9 pounds. Y'all need to be stocking some more TM!! I think they would have plenty to eat in Lake Texoma or those other big impoundments full of bait fish. The YP record was also surprisingly skinny. Maybe it was a different variant of YP (Rio Grande YP?) (I was curious what the record Pumpkinseed was and there was no record, does that mean there isn't any PS in Texas?)
I found it very interesting that Texas has categories for LMB/SMB hybrids and LMB/spotted bass hybrids.
How the heck did they identify a LMB/spotted bass hybrid without genetic testing?
Are LMB/SMB hybrids semi-common in Texas? I have never caught a black bass in a lake that had populations of both LMB and SMB where the fish did not clearly look like one or the other. (But perhaps I am just clueless!)
Thanks, Al. I've definitely got hybrid striped bass that would beat the 7.3 lb private lake record. Nothing remotely close to the 19.66 public record, though!
As for tiger musky, I think it would be difficult for them to survive a Texas summer. Looked into tech that would oxygenate below the thermocline in hopes of raising TM, but not all the bugs have been worked out quite yet.
Rod, the hybrid categories are fairly new, so I'm guessing they are tested by TPWD. I see a few hybrids on the Texas Fishing Forum on Ray Roberts and Ivie. Texoma should have a great LMB/SMB hybrid in it, so I'm surprised it doesn't have more records.
After spraying Stingray a few times and Diquat a few times on the watermeal in the pond I threw in the towel and treated it today with enough Fluridone to achieve the 90 ppb rate in the whole pond. Time will tell. The pond is low enough that some of the APW is up out of the water. Any in the pond proper is a goner. The Curly Leaf Pondweed is a goner too. Lets see if the 2 Spatterdock plants that are trying to get a start get whacked too.
Back at the pond today. No evidence of any living otters. There’s a film on the water, but most of the algae is still gone. Fish are still really getting after the food when the feeder goes off. Lots and lots of small GSH still in evidence. Not seeing any additional HSB. I hope I didn’t catch the only survivor from stocking two years ago. Edit. Noticed a few big swirls out near the middle of the pond. I’m thinking there’s a few HSB still out there. Pretty peaceful morning.
That is a beautiful fall morning pic Setterguy! My water is getting clearer again as it does every fall, being able to see fish and structure much deeper then I can thru most of the summer.
I hope what is going on beneath the surface of the pond is as favorable.
I hope so too! Couldn’t find a turtle this morning. Could be first time in 8 years they haven’t been out there. May have been otter casualties. But we only saw the otters eating fish, and found partially eaten crawdads.
Back at the pond today. No evidence of any living otters. There’s a film on the water, but most of the algae is still gone. Fish are still really getting after the food when the feeder goes off. Lots and lots of small GSH still in evidence. Not seeing any additional HSB. I hope I didn’t catch the only survivor from stocking two years ago. Edit. Noticed a few big swirls out near the middle of the pond. I’m thinking there’s a few HSB still out there. Pretty peaceful morning.
Nice picture Jeff, there is just something about looking across a pond.
I've been seeing the smaller LMB eating pellets for a while now, but I was really happy today to see at least two of the original stocked LMB eating them. I think next year I'll get some feed more for them.
I've been seeing the smaller LMB eating pellets for a while now, but I was really happy today to see at least two of the original stocked LMB eating them. I think next year I'll get some feed more for them.
Seems like when they start eating pellets they train the rest of them pretty fast to take advantage of the slow moving food. LMB that is.
Made it home in one piece from vacation in sunny Florida. We spent 10 days in Pensacola Beach. Weather was perfect. Unpacked the truck, spent most of Friday resting up from the drive. Saturday did a few chores in the victory garden, placed four loader buckets full of limestone cobble on the pond dam, and then took Mrs. Augie out there to see if I could get her on one of the HSB.
Those fish haven't been super easy to catch on artificials, and using nightcrawlers results in catching a lot of BG/HBG/RES, so we sacrificed an old pair of pantyhose to use as a wrapper for Optimal Hand Throw pellets. I rigged a smallish casting bubble at the end of the mainline, then used a short piece of Berkely Vanish to a #1 Owner circle hook on the terminal end. Hook a corner of the pantyhose bit, place a pellet, then hook up the other four corners. Simple and effective.
She caught two of them and I put both of them to the knife. This one measured 19.75" and weighed in at 3.66lb, which is a bit shy of what the Wr chart I'm using says it should have weighed. The other was 19.5" and 3.44lb. Both fish had a ridiculous amount of belly fat so I'm a bit perplexed by the Wr results. I was also slightly surprised by the gut content of these fish. It's been three weeks since they got any pellets, and with the numbers of small BG/HBG/RES/YP in the pond I expected to find their gullets full of fish. What I found was gullets full of crayfish. My theory is these pellet munchers are too lazy to chase fish so they're going for the slow moving mudbugs instead.
After the 2nd HSB was landed I switched her over to nightcrawlers just to get an idea of how the panfish are doing. She caught several nice RES, one eater (7"-9") BG, and this one that measured 9.5" and weighed .74lb, which is right at 100% Wr according to the chart. I wouldn't have killed this one, but it was hooked a bit deep and I figured it would croak anyway so it went into the butcher bucket with the HSB.
Did the wise powers that be reintroduce otters to your area? I know they did in parts of Texas.
anthropic any time the fish mostly stop biting, it raises my otter suspicions.
I think I’ve still got one or two otters. Found a few tracks around the edges of the pond. Not showing up during the day any longer. I ordered two traps that will hopefully be in soon.
I think I’ve still got one or two otters. Found a few tracks around the edges of the pond. Not showing up during the day any longer. I ordered two traps that will hopefully be in soon.
My buddy caught 20 LMB in 24 casts off the dock this morning using a four inch worm. They were busting threadfin shad and biting anything, he had a great time! Largest 5 lb, several 3s, most in 1 to 2lb range. Ten harvested.
Water about 2 1/2 feet low, but fish taking feed enthusiastically. They really enjoy cooler temps. No HSB this time, but I think that's coming soon.
Bush hogging nearly done, much easier to get around the pond now. Electro survey next week, hopefully we can cull a bunch & get a better idea of how things are going in low water conditions. No forage pond this year, sad to say.
My buddy caught 20 LMB in 24 casts off the dock this morning using a four inch worm. They were busting threadfin shad and biting anything, he had a great time! Largest 5 lb, several 3s, most in 1 to 2lb range. Ten harvested.
Remember when you were worried about your pond not producing big bass to your satisfaction?
I think a little more time and effort are going to get you to your goals!
Fin clipped 100 CNBG from Harbin in Oklahoma and tossed them in my pond. Put YP from Snipe (from Colorado) that will go to Bill Cody in the Spring as long as he can segregate them from his other YP, more CNBG and some SMB from Snipe in one of Cecil Baird's 1/10 acre ponds that I had seeded earlier this year with 100# of GSH and 50# of White River Crawfish. Stocked another of his 1/10th acre ponds with 100 SMB from Snipe. Will be tossing roughly 50# of FHM into each of those ponds in about 10 days. Will spray watermeal on my pond with Clipper tomorrow.
If the pond was full, where the truck is parked, it would be in 5'-6' of water........
Watermeal on the pond..... The water level should be up to the green on the island. The pond at full pool is almost 1.25 acres. Right now it is at 0.6 acres. Still have about 14' water depth.
The gangplank should be parallel with the ground..... The post at the end of the pier closest to me where I was standing to take the picture? The top of the post should be even with the top of the deck of the pier.
Here's some pics of the CNBG that were stocked. I fin clipped them so I can tell if they survive the winter, or if they die, and if they survive, then I can tell the stockers from the offspring.
^^ Same fish
These last 2 pics are the same fish. To give you an idea of size, this last fish is 7" long.....
"Might be world record if there ever was one." Ethan McWhorter, Overton Fisheries
Electro harvest today a mix of good & bad news. Good news is that twice as many 15 inch plus LMB were found as during spring, topped by a 21.75 inch 6.3lb LMB. And they shocked up what Ethan described as possibly a world record!
Bad news: Still way too many small, thin LMB, despite vigorous harvest & feeding efforts by yours truly. Crawfish, threadfin shad, tilapia all stocked, feeding CNBG year round. Despite this, relative weights did not improve, and even declined slightly. Ethan said that my place is one of the most prolific breeders of LMB he's ever seen. I wish it weren't!
He also noticed that unlike previous years, there was a large gap in CNBG sizes. Plenty of 2 to 3 inchers and bigguns, but not much in between. He suspects that the drought brought out the prey fish from the shallows early on, and the LMB pigged out. But once the 4 to 7 inch size class was depleted, the larger LMB went on an involuntary diet. TFS are great for the small LMB, but don't sustain bigguns. At least the shad are booming at my place, despite relatively clear water with viz around 3 to 4 feet.
No tilapia were collected, though I've seen a few around the feeders so they aren't completely gone. Ethan suggested increased stocking TP next year to take some pressure off CNBG. Also, if rainbow trout available this winter, could help feed the bass.
The putative world record? Well, Ethan sent me a couple of pics, including one of the weight, and it was incredible. He checked the pics with experts, and they validated his finding that this 11 1/2 inch, 0.45 lb fish was a threadfin (not gizzard!) shad. He's never seen or heard of a TFS remotely that large. Maybe I should try raising shad rather than bass!
We have not received any significant rainfall in 50 days, with many of them hot days. The ponds are now at their lowest points since construction in 2015 and 2016. A lot of the structure I put in lies exposed. We need significant rain soon. The last rainfall we received with any runoff at all was on August 20. I caught a few grasshoppers. The hungry bluegills devoured each one instantly as it hit the water. I have been feeding too, but, with the low water levels, afraid of overfeeding.
...The putative world record? Well, Ethan sent me a couple of pics, including one of the weight, and it was incredible. He checked the pics with experts, and they validated his finding that this 4.5 lb fish was a threadfin (not gizzard!) shad. He's never seen or heard of a TFS remotely that large. Maybe I should try raising shad rather than bass!
...The putative world record? Well, Ethan sent me a couple of pics, including one of the weight, and it was incredible. He checked the pics with experts, and they validated his finding that this 4.5 lb fish was a threadfin (not gizzard!) shad. He's never seen or heard of a TFS remotely that large. Maybe I should try raising shad rather than bass!
Maybe .45 lb?
Yeah, you must be right, Al. I examined weight readout again, it showed "045" lb, which must mean 0.45, not 4.5. The fish was 11.5 inches and plump, but not THAT plump. Unless, of course, some sinkers accidentally made their way down its gullet Lake Erie style!
Mystery poop.. Three of these floating in one corner of the pond this morning. It’s been a few weeks since my grandkids were here, so I don’t think it was one of them. 😂 The otter scat I found was green, and on the bank, so I don’t think otter. Any ideas?
Finally getting a few drops of rain. Just a drizzle, but it’s better than nothing. Hopefully we will get .5”.
Food plots are barely hanging in there. Not much rain. But we are starting to see a few decent bucks around. Probably should wait on this guy, but he’s tempting.
Probably should target this one. I think he only had one antler last year too.
Setterguy you shared with us pictures of your pond covered in some sort of algae and then it disappeared. It undoubtedly settled to the bottom and started to decay. Big clods of dead and decaying algae (organics) will float to the surface and can look just like that. I found two online articles, both in FLorida where reports of floating 'feces' alarmed the public but on review and testing of the water quality and the clods it was decided it was not feces after all.
It fits with the description of your massive algae collapse that some floating decaying organics may resurface?
Maybe that isn't what this is but outside of Bigfoot using your pond as a latrine, I'm hoping it is just good old organic debris.
here is one article. I'd love to know what sort of suction rig can suck up that organic material so well. Sign me up for one of those vacuums!!
CC, thank you so much! There wasn’t any odor, and I got pretty close. The wind had once again blown everything into one corner, so the floating “stuff” came along. I tried to move one and it practically dissolved. It’s just been a weird year with the American Pond Weed, then the giant algae bloom, then the otters, and now mystery poop. Still had lots of fish, frogs, crawdads, and glass shrimp. And herons and kingfishers. Two painted turtles that have been there for years have made their presence known since the otters seem to have left for an easier life elsewhere. Thanks again.
Good news if it just falls apart. Just more recycling of nutrients I guess. I wish I could unlock the secret of ghost/grass shrimp. I think you have to have magic vegetation and then magic water quality. With all your predators you still have a healthy population it sounds like. I'm tempted to keep trying to stock more and hope it takes hold but with no change in my water characteristics (relatively soft ground water with a hint of iron) and very little vegetation, I'm afraid it is money burnt up for nothing.
I love painted turtles. We had about 8 enjoying our turtle floats this year. I don't see young ones so not sure if eggs didn't hatch or maybe eggs weren't laid this summer. I didn't catch any turtles making nests.
I’ve found three turtle nests this year. All were dug up and the eggs destroyed. A lot of coons have decided never to return to our place, but they have a lot of relatives. We do have more turkeys than we’ve ever had, but the poor turtles can’t get a hatch off. Those shrimp really surprised me. Maybe yours will too. I thought they were cleaned out after a bad drought and low water levels. We’ve been near full for a few years now, and they have really come back. I don’t think we’ve got nearly as many SMB as I thought we did. Maybe that’s why they are doing well.
Put 100 PK grass shrimp in today. Very minimal vegetation in the pond yet, but with nothing to share the pond with besides FHM, a few map turtles & possibly a couple paper shell crawfish, I'm hoping they'll be all right.
Had wanted to get the minnows & grass shrimp in earlier, but with the last of the excavation not done till recently, I wasn't sure if that'd be a good idea or not.
I can say the FHM have definitely spawned/reproduced. Saw several small schools yesterday afternoon & there are way more of the normal colored FHM than we stocked. Not an ideal situation for the forage currently, but at least they won't have to worry about predators till April or May & I hope to have some beneficial vegetation planted by then. Guess we'll see.
Finally got my BC stocked in my pond, somehow they got missed in the earlier stocking, I should be catching and eating some by now. I will try to post a pic but don't know if it will work, I haven't been able to open or see anybody's pics in a little while, don't know if its just me or if something is off.
Got the ol tape measure out today and im sitting at 30" inches low. GGGrrrrr we even had a couple small storms roll thur. Nothing that amounted to much but its the only moisture we have had in a couple three months.
RS, we haven't had a rain over .15 since may 14... If I had a watershed pond, I believe I would be in trouble. Small lakes and ponds in the 150 mile range of us are drying up-and have never been dry in my adult lifetime.. A couple of western KS community lakes have been salvaged in the last month, never seen it like this before.
Finally got my BC stocked in my pond, somehow they got missed in the earlier stocking, I should be catching and eating some by now. I will try to post a pic but don't know if it will work, I haven't been able to open or see anybody's pics in a little while, don't know if its just me or if something is off.
Put the picture on an on-line image hosting site and then copy/paste the image link here. No idea when UBB will fix the attach image part of this forum.
Went to pull out some weed(slender spike rush) the underwater kind and pulled out a glob and noticed hundreds of grass shrimp flopping around,so I put it back in so not to kill them. Pond is over 3’ low with not much hope for rain till next year…. Don’t look good . Got a trackhoe coming and gonna clean out flooded timber in upper pond so I can fish it if it fills back up
Went to pull out some weed(slender spike rush) the underwater kind and pulled out a glob and noticed hundreds of grass shrimp flopping around,so I put it back in so not to kill them. Pond is over 3’ low with not much hope for rain till next year….
That is pretty impressive Pat!
I would have been worried that the dropping water level would have left your grass shrimp with no place to hide from predators. They appear to be bunching up very effectively in the cover that is still available.
Went to pull out some weed(slender spike rush) the underwater kind and pulled out a glob and noticed hundreds of grass shrimp flopping around,so I put it back in so not to kill them. Pond is over 3’ low with not much hope for rain till next year….
That is pretty impressive Pat!
I would have been worried that the dropping water level would have left your grass shrimp with no place to hide from predators. They appear to be bunching up very effectively in the cover that is still available.
Well Rod the weed goes out to 6+’ deep and as the water dropped the weed just follows it out… it’s a problem that I don’t think there is a cure for, carp won’t eat it and poison won’t touch it
Well Rod the weed goes out to 6+’ deep and as the water dropped the weed just follows it out… it’s a problem that I don’t think there is a cure for, carp won’t eat it and poison won’t touch it
In that case, I hope Black & Decker is developing a line of tiny weed-whackers that your grass shrimp can operate!
I still hope your cover protects your forage broodstock, but your top predators used this opportunity to feast while the water level is low.
Have you caught any fish this fall and observed the relative weights?
Well Rod the weed goes out to 6+’ deep and as the water dropped the weed just follows it out… it’s a problem that I don’t think there is a cure for, carp won’t eat it and poison won’t touch it
In that case, I hope Black & Decker is developing a line of tiny weed-whackers that your grass shrimp can operate!
I still hope your cover protects your forage broodstock, but your top predators used this opportunity to feast while the water level is low.
Have you caught any fish this fall and observed the relative weights?
Rod I don’t think the shrimp are qualified to operate machines that well…. Worth a try though. The larger bass seem to be almost thin, where the 12-14” are ok due to eating shad schools. Lots of 2” bg in weeds but lacking on 3-4” bg. Haven’t fished that much due to higher temperatures. Got tons of larger bg that live under the semi-floating pier an come to feeder.got a good bloom going that helps the bunch of shad,and hopefully shiners. Will see what shakes out as weather cools a bit. After dark the fish have been busting the surface all around the pond
The larger bass seem to be almost thin, where the 12-14” are ok due to eating shad schools.
Darn, I was hoping your large bass were getting fat and happy!
When I started reading Pond Boss many years ago, I was so excited to realize that pond management is a science. I concluded that if you did everything right, then you would have a great pond.
Now that I have read much more, I have realized keeping a pond in balance is hard work. Eventually, it will go out of balance despite our best efforts. You then go back to the science and start performing the corrections.
Good thing there are so many knowledgeable posters on the forum to help with that complicated process!
Haven’t fished for the big guys since it has been so hot…. Think the large ones have plenty to eat as the 6+” bg are very plentiful. Gonna start going after the jumbos soon now that it is cooling off some
Went to pond today, threw out feed for bg, and was surprised to see 4-5 cc and several bc coming up for first time since they were stocked in 2013! Bought some Purina 500 and the cats were hoovering the feed. Wonder what’s up with them now coming up!
Went to pond today, threw out feed for bg, and was surprised to see 4-5 cc and several bc coming up for first time since they were stocked in 2013! Bought some Purina 500 and the cats were hoovering the feed. Wonder what’s up with them now coming up!
Your catfish obviously read the Pond Boss forum.
When they heard you were starting to go after jumbo bass, they knew it was safe for THEM to be seen at the feeder!
Went to pond today, threw out feed for bg, and was surprised to see 4-5 cc and several bc coming up for first time since they were stocked in 2013! Bought some Purina 500 and the cats were hoovering the feed. Wonder what’s up with them now coming up!
Them CC should be getting pretty decent size from 2013. I thought them things are the first ones to the feeder but I havent been seeing them much at the feeder myself the last 4 months, till the other day I did see a couple again. They probably feel the winter time coming.
I'm well aware this will not be the most popular opinion but...... I think its kinda cool we have had such a drought as we have had. Believe me i wouldnt wish it on our farmers. I obliviously cant control it but it nice to be able to see whats below the surface again. Its helped me be able to re slope mine in some areas.
Well, Rusto, I've seriously considered doing a deliberate drawdown in time past. Good way to flush out the prey for my predatory LMB and HSB, or so I thought. But when nature did it for me, it hasn't worked out so great.
My predator density is high, particularly for my shrunken pond, so they almost eliminated all my mid-size CNBG in the initial feast. Afterward they didn't have enough left to eat. Relative weight on my LMB actually declined, the opposite of what I was expecting.
RStringer, I think its the old lemonade from lemons theory coming into play,, glass half full type of thinking. I like it! So far Ive been extremely lucky, Im down about 8" maybe 10 at the most, thinking closer to 8.
RStringer, I think its the old lemonade from lemons theory coming into play,, glass half full type of thinking. I like it! So far Ive been extremely lucky, Im down about 8" maybe 10 at the most, thinking closer to 8.
I’m down closer to 14”. But I’ve got a very small leak, on top of the drought. Plus my trees are taking their share. Last good rain we had was back in July. We now have one of the few water sources around for the deer heard. My pond may end up being a better attraction than my wilted food plots. Ha!
Cold snap really put the fish out deeper, much less CNBG and LMB activity now. Last week, a buddy caught 20 LMB in 24 casts off the dock. Now you have to work hard to get a bite.
Still 3 feet low, maybe even a bit more. Desperately need rain. Some tilapia are still active, so the water obviously hasn't gotten to 52F yet. Feels like low 60s.
Rant: I hate the XY@#*@ stupid foot control electric motor on my pontoon boat! After a few years, no longer steered motor. Now, motor is completely dead even though battery registers as fully charged. Give me a simple, straightforward hand control electric motor every single time!
Bad news: First clear indication of poachers, a discarded beer can & fishing line on far shore opposite our dock. Good news: Happened within the last few days, after frost, so likely they didn't get many fish.
Fun news: We are setting up food plots for deer & my son & grandson got in some target practice this weekend. Hope the poachers will heed the dangers of trespassing on land where deer hunting is taking place.
Hope it doesn't come to that. The more hunters we have, the less opportunity for poachers. But it might get tense if they start that stuff. Game warden, cops, confrontation.
Pond water in NW OH is down to low 50's. I pulled two of my diffusers for cleaning and winter storage. One left in the pond in case it is needed for thick winter extended snow cover.
Pond water in NW OH is down to low 50's. I pulled two of my diffusers for cleaning and winter storage. One left in the pond in case it is needed for thick winter extended snow cover.
Same temp in N Central Indiana. I think I saw 50°F when I was delivering fish on Thursday.
Cold snap really put the fish out deeper, much less CNBG and LMB activity now. Last week, a buddy caught 20 LMB in 24 casts off the dock. Now you have to work hard to get a bite.
Still 3 feet low, maybe even a bit more. Desperately need rain. Some tilapia are still active, so the water obviously hasn't gotten to 52F yet. Feels like low 60s.
Rant: I hate the XY@#*@ stupid foot control electric motor on my pontoon boat! After a few years, no longer steered motor. Now, motor is completely dead even though battery registers as fully charged. Give me a simple, straightforward hand control electric motor every single time!
Bad news: First clear indication of poachers, a discarded beer can & fishing line on far shore opposite our dock. Good news: Happened within the last few days, after frost, so likely they didn't get many fish.
Fun news: We are setting up food plots for deer & my son & grandson got in some target practice this weekend. Hope the poachers will heed the dangers of trespassing on land where deer hunting is taking place.
I hate the XY@#*@ hand steer trolling motor on my boat, I have a ft controlled one on my main fishing boat but a cheaper hand controlled unit on a little flat bottom boat that I leave at the lake, that way if they steal it they aren't getting much but trying to fish and steer a boat by hand is for the birds. Is there a place the poachers cross to get in to your place that you could be set with a camera that transfers to your phone? some times a well placed down tree or brush pile will guide them to a regular crossing place, much like deer. how far do you live from your pond?
I agree with gehajake about a foot-steering motor. It is a must when YOU are also fishing.
We wore out one of the original Minn-Kota foot pedal motors. Turns out the cable could bulge out of the wrapping and therefore fail to turn the motor. The new motors do not operate in the same fashion. However, I would consider looking at it yourself or taking it into a dealer to see if there is some possible inexpensive repair. Depending on the model, you may just have a set screw that has worked loose or there is a cable adjustment that might bring your motor back into proper functioning.
If not, then maybe buy some of their '22 stock on sale at the end of the year when they are trying to clear the shelf for the new motors.
As for the trespassers, read the fine print on trapping regulations in Texas and hope you find approval for setting a few bear traps.
Removed this prehistoric beast this weekend. My nephew was trying for LMB and snagged this guy on the bottom. I'd estimate ~ 40 lbs. The turtle was...annoyed with me. They can really snap that head out and around their shell, so gripping at the back 1/3 is highly recommended.
Removed this prehistoric beast this weekend. My nephew was trying for LMB and snagged this guy on the bottom. I'd estimate ~ 40 lbs. The turtle was...annoyed with me. They can really snap that head out and around their shell, so gripping at the back 1/3 is highly recommended.
Good job DrLuke!
I need to run some conduit to repair a bad electrical line. How much do you charge to run your automatic conduit cutter?
Had a nice chat with the county game warden today. Game camera footage & trespassing signs are helpful, though not absolutely necessary to convict poachers. Purple stripes at eye level on trees serve as valid markers of property line, too.
He said that, unlike a criminal case, bad intent need not be proven, just that any reasonable person would understand they were trespassing. Promised to add our property to their patrol, which I appreciate. I'd prefer not to prosecute, just to deter, but if it takes jail and/or hefty fines pour le encourager les autres, so be it. We've invested far too much time, effort, and money to let thieves steal fish!
Had a nice chat with the county game warden today. Game camera footage & trespassing signs are helpful, though not absolutely necessary to convict poachers. Purple stripes at eye level on trees serve as valid markers of property line, too.
He said that, unlike a criminal case, bad intent need not be proven, just that any reasonable person would understand they were trespassing. Promised to add our property to their patrol, which I appreciate. I'd prefer not to prosecute, just to deter, but if it takes jail and/or hefty fines pour le encourager les autres, so be it. We've invested far too much time, effort, and money to let thieves steal fish!
Unfortunately, if not prosecuted, there is a good chance that you will be looked at as an easy mark, just like a dog that just barks and doesn't bite isn't much of a deterrent, especially if they are barking all the time.
Yeah, if they are old enough to drink beer & make the long trek to my pond, they are old enough to prosecute. And, as you say, if they get away with it, others will follow. I may unlimber my rifle and do some target practice, too, as the sound should have some deterrent value.
FishinRod, that's a Blue, out of the river tho, my pond is only 3 yrs old. this one went a little over 75#
Dr Luke, that's a pretty impressive sized snapper, and clean, I don't think Ive ever seen one that clean, most of them are nasty muddy looking, Ive even seen them with algae growing on the shell
Dang it, I missed a good joke! I forgot your pond was only 3 years old.
Did that big Blue make it to the hot oil, or did you put her back in the river?[/quote]
Usually we would have put it back but we had a newbie fishing with us over the weekend and due to a wild fire running us out of our campsite boat ramp, he had to move some vehicles and couldn't be with us when we pulled him in, off of a bank pole, so we kept it so that he could see and get some pictures made with it his first monster fish. so yeah, it wound up in the grease.
FishinRod, that's a Blue, out of the river tho, my pond is only 3 yrs old. this one went a little over 75#
Dr Luke, that's a pretty impressive sized snapper, and clean, I don't think Ive ever seen one that clean, most of them are nasty muddy looking, Ive even seen them with algae growing on the shell
His back 1/3 was actually covered in mud/silt. He also smelled like death/decomp (rotten fishy smell). Truly nasty critters.
His back 1/3 was actually covered in mud/silt. He also smelled like death/decomp (rotten fishy smell). Truly nasty critters.
Some people consider turtles (including snappers) a delicacy to eat. (I have never eaten one.)
I know pigs smell nasty, yet I love bacon, honey-roast ham, etc.! We humans sure are weird.
I've had turtle soup, reputed Southern delicacy. Unlike fried okra, gumbo, boiled crawfish, boudin, etouffee, blackened alligator, grilled redfish, spoon bread, and beignets, however, one taste was more than enough.
I have never eaten any catfish that large. I assume you have a specific cleaning technique for big river cats.
They are tasty if cleaned properly and fixed right, a tad more fatty but pretty good. nowhere near a Flathead or yellowcat as some call them but damn good. its all in the cleaning and prepping. gotta get rid of the red meat veins.
I have never eaten any catfish that large. I assume you have a specific cleaning technique for big river cats.
They are tasty if cleaned properly and fixed right, a tad more fatty but pretty good. nowhere near a Flathead or yellowcat as some call them but damn good. its all in the cleaning and prepping. gotta get rid of the red meat veins.
Used to run bank lines on a large creek as a kid with my grandfather, fishing for big cats. Anything over the ~10lb mark, he'd chop the end of their tail off, hang 'em by their lower jaw & bleed 'em out. Pretty sure he trimmed out the red meat, but can't remember definitely. I can tell you we ate a LOT of catfish & I don't recall any of it ever having a muddy or "fishy" flavor.
I have never eaten any catfish that large. I assume you have a specific cleaning technique for big river cats.
They are tasty if cleaned properly and fixed right, a tad more fatty but pretty good. nowhere near a Flathead or yellowcat as some call them but damn good. its all in the cleaning and prepping. gotta get rid of the red meat veins.
Used to run bank lines on a large creek as a kid with my grandfather, fishing for big cats. Anything over the ~10lb mark, he'd chop the end of their tail off, hang 'em by their lower jaw & bleed 'em out. Pretty sure he trimmed out the red meat, but can't remember definitely. I can tell you we ate a LOT of catfish & I don't recall any of it ever having a muddy or "fishy" flavor.
We do the same, anything over 10 12 lbs we let them bleed out good, We have also theorized how much firmer and better meat a river cat has then a lake cat, especially the bigger, older ones, seems like the currents or something must keep them more active or something maybe, the lake caught catfish seem to be even fattier, and the meat was more mushy, not as solid, firm.
Went fishing in the pond Sat and caught several LMB BG and a half dozen WE, the biggest one was right at 19" and probably over 2 lbs, ( I didn't have a scales with me). not too bad for just being stocked a yr ago last April at under 3", I don't know what the relative length and weight should be for them, the chart I printed out didn't have WE on it. beautiful fish tho. https://imgur.com/pTt1Vjy
I may try to get some WE this year. I think my numbers of bigger fish are down due to otters. The GSH will take over. Where did you get your walleye? I hear there’s a hatchery near Vandalia or Curryville.
Originally Posted by gehajake
Went fishing in the pond Sat and caught several LMB BG and a half dozen WE, the biggest one was right at 19" and probably over 2 lbs, ( I didn't have a scales with me). not too bad for just being stocked a yr ago last April at under 3", I don't know what the relative length and weight should be for them, the chart I printed out didn't have WE on it. beautiful fish tho. https://imgur.com/pTt1Vjy
Went fishing in the pond Sat and caught several LMB BG and a half dozen WE, the biggest one was right at 19" and probably over 2 lbs, ( I didn't have a scales with me). not too bad for just being stocked a yr ago last April at under 3", I don't know what the relative length and weight should be for them, the chart I printed out didn't have WE on it. beautiful fish tho. https://imgur.com/pTt1Vjy
Relative weight charts are in the archives. Here's one for BG, PS, CP, BC, WC, RBS, YPO & WE:
We do the same, anything over 10 12 lbs we let them bleed out good, We have also theorized how much firmer and better meat a river cat has then a lake cat, especially the bigger, older ones, seems like the currents or something must keep them more active or something maybe, the lake caught catfish seem to be even fattier, and the meat was more mushy, not as solid, firm.
Makes sense to me. I'll have to harvest a couple catfish from Truman, say around Fairfield & a couple from the Sac or Osage & do a taste test sometime.
Thanks Esshup, according to that, at 18.5 to 19 inches I should be real close to 100% weight to length ratio, granted I am rough guessing the weight and even the length I had to take a piece of wire and get his length then measure it later.
Setterguy, there is a fish hatchery around Curryville, I think that's actually the name of it, I have been dealing with Harrison Fishery though, which is a ways north of there, north of Mark Twain Lake I think, Hurdland MO is their address, have had real good luck with them.
Pretty weird this year. All the leaves came down at once. I’m thinking it’s the lack of rain. Usually it’s spread out over a few weeks. Almost looks like I could walk on these. Strong south wind has them all up against the dam.
Pretty weird this year. All the leaves came down at once. I’m thinking it’s the lack of rain. Usually it’s spread out over a few weeks. Almost looks like I could walk on these. Strong south wind has them all up against the dam.
It might be a fool's errand, but after tonight's storm (they're calling for thunderstorms with winds up to 35 mph), I'm going to attempt to use a skimmer/dipnet to get the leaves out of mine. Very high percentage are oak leaves & I don't want to run the risk of issues from the tannins or future muck build up.
Carl, that was my first thought when I saw all the leaves. Then I started thinking about the shear weight of all those wet leaves. I get this many every fall, and haven’t removed any yet. A few months ago I waded the circumference of the pond, about 10-12 feet from shore. I was really surprised at how few leaves I was finding. Maybe they dissolve or just drift deeper.
Carl, that was my first thought when I saw all the leaves. Then I started thinking about the shear weight of all those wet leaves. I get this many every fall, and haven’t removed any yet. A few months ago I waded the circumference of the pond, about 10-12 feet from shore. I was really surprised at how few leaves I was finding. Maybe they dissolve or just drift deeper.
Yeah, I have no idea. Probably just overthinking things. At least my sweat is free & the pond is small. Lol!
Your picture looks like a perfect set up to get the leaves out with a pool skimmer net.
Organic decomposition is strongly dependent on water temperature. As the water temperature cools, the leaves that sink to the bottom will barely decay over the course of the winter. The first spring rain that brings some silt into your pond will begin to cover the leaves and remove (bury) them from the oxygenated water/bottom interface where most of the decomposition occurs.
I have observed sunk leaves held up in shallow water within BG beds, cattle hoof prints, etc. If your pond has relatively uniform slopes, then I suspect the leaves that make it into your pond work down to the deepest portions of your pond.
I guess I could get some out. I’ll be back up this week. Like I said, that many leaves, and more get dumped in every fall. I think you’re right about where they end up. Down in the deepest parts of the pond. 15’ deep, I used to get to the bottom, but not for the last few years. I do not have aeration in the one ac pond. Thx
I have similar "stupid" physical labor projects to perform at our property.
My justification is, skip a workout at the gym and count the labor at the farm as a double-dip for getting exercise and accomplishing a marginally beneficial project.
It would definitely be more peaceful to me to be skimming leaves at your beautiful pond than working out inside a noisy gym!
Friends harvested 15 smaller LMB the other day. Largest LMB caught & released around 3 lb. They enjoyed a tough fight with a 23.5 inch HSB. Fortunately, they released it quickly. They also caught several giant CNBG which were returned.
Foot control trolling motor bit the dust, irreparable. Replaced with similar power hand control motor which works quite well. New mounting bracket fabricated by my handyman friend, who actually caught the big HSB.
Pond is still close to 3 feet low. Needs a lot more rain!
My pond is still 3’ low also. I bet those stripers are fun to catch . I would stock a few but can’t seem to be able to keep any BCP so for now will have to pass on them
If I can just keep the poachers out, stripers seem to do fine. Great fun on light tackle. They do take feed readily, so fishing for them near feeders often works.
Temperature has dropped close to 50 degrees over the last 2 days and is now in the 20s (and it is snowing). Opening day of gun in Indiana, but I am all tagged out until muzzleloader. It looks pretty outside, but I am kinda glad to be inside with a fire going in the woodstove. I have not heard any shots from neighbor's properties which is odd since the first snow usually gets the deer moving. Maybe they are all in my place:) Will be keeping our dogs away from the edges of our property this weekend... Forecasts predict below normal temps for the next 10 days. Winter appears to be here.
Same here, but without the evil white stuff. 75 on Thursday, high of 34 today, with a low in the high teens tonight. Knew it was coming & got the wood furnace fired up yesterday afternoon in preparation. Got 4 cords of seasoned, split oak laid in, so we're good to go for winter.
Fortunately, all the grass seed & straw I started putting down around the pond in late September is paying off. We had way more worked/raw earth than I was willing to pay for the straw to cover it all, but I did focus on the areas that would receive the most runoff. It's not near as thick/established as I'd like, but is growing in pretty well, considering the weather & timing. Hoping it helps to keep the worst of the erosion & silt at bay.
Been flat on my back with the covid since 11/5. Felt great on the 4th, woke up to a living hell on the 5th. I'm starting to improve, but I wouldn't give a nickel for me right now.
I used a pellet fly to catch this HSB on 11/4. 19.75" 4.665lb 112% Wr
The two I butchered a few weeks ago were full of crayfish. This one was full of Optimal Hand Throw pellets. I didn't pay attention to the livers of the other two, but I'm thinking this one should be a different color?
Been flat on my back with the covid since 11/5. Felt great on the 4th, woke up to a living hell on the 5th. I'm starting to improve, but I wouldn't give a nickel for me right now.
Sorry to hear you are laid up with Covid.
Hopefully, your improvement slope keeps moving upwards!
HSB have been shown to get morbidly obese when they eat carbs from some pelleted fish food.. I would expect that to exhibit in fatty livers.
Processed carbs do the same to me. Fortunately (???) I have diabetes, so am forced to eat a healthier diet than I'd prefer!
Hope you are recovering well, Augie. I've had healthy friends who went through the mill with Covid, sometimes after getting the shot. Not a fun deal.
Pond report: Fish still come to feed, but few if any CNBG or BG. LMB and HSB pretty much all I see, along with tiny YOY fish in the shallow weeds. Some of the LMB are good size, though it's difficult to judge exactly when they're in the water. Not a tilapia in view, I suspect most or all have already perished of cold.
May put in some RBT, which apparently are more available this year than last. That will give me a good excuse to keep feeders going all winter!
I went over to the pond about an hour before dark today to feed the fish and couldn't, already had ice covering the whole pond. Seems a bit early. Yesterday there was a little ice around the edge, but I still had fish coming up to eat.
I went over to the pond about an hour before dark today to feed the fish and couldn't, already had ice covering the whole pond. Seems a bit early. Yesterday there was a little ice around the edge, but I still had fish coming up to eat.
A week ago, first day of our rifle deer season, my fish were still feeding voraciously, but a week of cold weather put the kabosh on that, by this Saturday I couldn't get one to come up and eat, pond is still not froze over but some ice around the edges, some of the smaller ponds are frozen over completely. I dont have any thermometer but I wonder how much that water temp dropped in a week. I had a friend went on the Missouri to do some fishing sat and it was already down to 44 degrees I think he said. I was surprised that the fish were still eating on Nov 12th because usually they quit in early Oct I thought, so I let them run out in the feeder, but when I did some hand feeding in mid Oct they were still feeding good so I got them another bag of feed
Hope you are recovering well, Augie. I've had healthy friends who went through the mill with Covid, sometimes after getting the shot. Not a fun deal.
Thanks. Still getting my stamina back, but I no longer feel sick. Had enough energy to get a few light chores done over the weekend.
It's said what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. If that's true I should now be faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.
Covid doesn't give a hoot whether you're vaxxed or not. I had the one-shot J&J. Mrs. Augie had the Pfizer and three subsequent booster rounds (she's an RN at the VA).
FishinRod, all I can say for sure is BG in the 4"-6" range. There could of been others but I didn't have time to hang around. It did take a few minutes for them to come up to feed and it was pretty slow. Wednesday I seen BG and LMB, all sizes. Last weekend I seen BG, LMB and YP.
FishinRod, all I can say for sure is BG in the 4"-6" range. There could of been others but I didn't have time to hang around. It did take a few minutes for them to come up to feed and it was pretty slow. Wednesday I seen BG and LMB, all sizes. Last weekend I seen BG, LMB and YP.
Good deal.
I have no clue about the science of over-wintering fish. However, I would imagine that your BG going through the winter with an extra 10% or 20% on their body mass can only help them grow faster and reproduce more the following spring.
Cold snap had a light skin of ice on the pond, so my idiot cat chased acorns all over it while watching us work.
"A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way."
-- Mark Twain
You cat is lucky it didn't learn the lesson "in no other way" about how enjoyable it is for a feline to go through the ice into a cold pond!
He got wet yesterday, fortunately just a few inches from the bank. Just a little ice left in a shaded corner & he just had to do it. Heard it creaking & started to turn around, when one hind leg went through & when he tried to jump, the other went as well & he got wet up to his butt. Took off for the yard like his butt was on fire, leapt into a pile of leaves & began licking himself furiously. That fur ball is not right in the head.
If he has learned his lesson, then he is a smart cat.
If he plays acorn hockey in the near future and goes through the ice again - then "that fur ball is not right in the head".
We have both smart cats and dumb cats at our house. I wish I knew what the smart cats were thinking when they are watching the dumb ones repeat a prior stupid behavior!
If he has learned his lesson, then he is a smart cat.
If he plays acorn hockey in the near future and goes through the ice again - then "that fur ball is not right in the head".
We have both smart cats and dumb cats at our house. I wish I knew what the smart cats were thinking when they are watching the dumb ones repeat a prior stupid behavior!
Pretty sure this one got an extra dose of the "not right gene". Seen him 30' up a tree, stalking birds & watched him jump from the porch rail to our 12/12 pitch roof in order to chase leaves like a crackhead. Dude even follows me around outside like a dog. He's pretty sharp on the uptake, but he's goofy as all get out. At the rate he's still growing, I'm guessing he's not quite a year old (he's huge), so he's still got a healthy dose of kitten craziness.
He was a street kitten that jumped into my wife's arms when we walked out of a bar an hour from home one night while we were out with friends. She suckered me into bringing him home & darned if he ain't decided I'm his person. Big, affectionate goofball & a heck of a mouser, averaging 2-3 mice or moles per month.
The pond is so low, I cut down all the cattails with long bladed loppers, then mowed the stubs off with a walk behind brush cutter, mangling them. Hauled away the big pile of long leaves. Lots of potential debris was kept out of the pond. We are still in a drought.
Augie, glad you’re feeling better. We have been lucky with the Covid. Have dodged it so far. Probably helps that we are natural hermits.
I got to spend some time in a ladder stand with my grandson. Five hours of nonstop conversation. I must have said, “let’s try to whisper” about 100 times. Lol. I ended up taking a big doe that evening. Came out behind us on my left. No shot for the little guy. Just about time shooting hours ended. He helped me drag her in. He’s just not strong enough to hold that rifle steady. If it’s not out front where he can rest his rifle on a shooting rail, he just has to wait.
Watching you take a deer might actually give him more confidence and calmness when he gets a chance to take his own shot! Perhaps better than him taking a shot and missing.
Had to look up RBT. I may have to look around and see if I can find a few. How many do you stock in a 1 ac pond? What are possible side effects? Decreased numbers of GSH, and smaller YP would be my guess. Will the RBT hit top water in the winter? When do they have to be harvested, in order to avoid them dying from warmer waters? What length RBT did you stock, to already have fish large enough to harvest? Or do RBT survive year round in your BOW?
My (fuzzy) recollection is that trout do perform well in ponds if you optimize the stocking timing and your conditions. However, they are a somewhat pricey treat due to several factors that occur in warmer water ponds.
It all depends on the customer and their goals as to how many are stocked. I will put between 50 and 100 pounds per acre in my pond, I stock a city park pond with 250#/acre but they get fished out pretty quickly. Minimum delivery is 50# or it just isn't worth the time and expense driving to a pond to stock them. They are more fragile than other fish, so more care has to go into hauling them than other fish which equals to more overhead.
Stocking starts when water temp is in the low 60°F range and the trout will live until the water temp warms up to 70°F the following Spring. Only one customers pond had the trout survive over the summer but his pond is exceptionally deep and we did some playing with the aeration system to get the deepest water oxygenated while still keeping it cold enough for the trout. If someone wants to do that to their pond we can do that, but I won't say here on the board what we did to get them to survive - we have to keep some of what we learned over the years to ourselves and not give everything away. Does KFC give out their batter recipe?
During the winter the trout will continue to eat floating pellets providing the pond is not iced over so I think they will hit top water. For sure they hit spinners/spoons/curly tail jigs/crank baits at a greater frequency than any other fish in the pond during the winter. When ice fishing they are caught more frequently than even Yellow Perch. I talked to a guy at the city park pond that caught and released 342 of the 1,000 trout that we stocked last year, and some of the trout that he caught were caught before, they still had the hook in them. If hooked deeply, he'd just cut the line and release them.
I stocked a dozen Golden Rainbow Trout in a very good customers pond as a prank without telling him. I got a phone call when he pulled one out, "What the @#&! is this fish? I've never seen it before??" He wasn't upset, just wondering just what this golden colored fish was. He caught all 12 while ice fishing, and the pond is 4 acres.
Up here, they need to be harvested by mid May to the end of June, depending on the year to get them out before they die.
We typically stock RBT that weigh a pound each, but we have stocked fish that were two pounds each. just due to availability.
Trout will put on weight exceptionally fast if fed a good fish food. I stocked a few of the 2#'ers in my pond, and when caught in early June they were 7# and 24" long. It seems that trout will convert a good commercial fish food like Optimal Bass food at almost a 1:1 ratio.
Thanks for the info. Lots to consider. I’m just not sure we would get them fished out in time. I don’t like eating them that much. Would be fun though.
Thanks for the info. Lots to consider. I’m just not sure we would get them fished out in time. I don’t like eating them that much. Would be fun though.
I am not a big trout fan, but smoked trout is a different story.
Yesterday I sent the last cageful of BG/HBG along with a few GSH and crayfish to my buddy's quarry lake. Traps are all out until spring. I still need to pull the deep diffuser and set one up shallow. As low as the water is right now I'm a little worried about getting the truck hung up putting the boat in. It might be a better idea to use a tractor instead of the truck.
My Christmas present to myself arrived at the stealership last week. Picked it up on Saturday. I liked the '21 model so well that I decided to upgrade trim packages and paint job.
Nice truck Augie! Every time I watch an episode of Yellowstone I think I need a 3/4 ton Ram with the Cummins. Just because I’m a mixture of Kevin Costner and Rip. Hahahah!!! My apologies if you haven’t seen Yellowstone.
I typed a YP egg question and immediately thereafter read a post with a discussion covering that exact topic from azteca, titled "Yellow Perch Eggs". (Dr. Perca even answers some questions in that thread.)
I knew the Pond Boss Forum was awesome. I didn't realize that the forum was also prescient!
LeighAnn so pleased to see your post. What is up with the pictures? They seem to be loading for me. What was the problem and what was the fix? Thank you for whatever you did!
Mounted a trailer hitch ball on the back blade and put the pond hopper boat into the water. Pulled the deep diffuser, cleaned it up, then hung it shallow off the dock for the winter. Using the tractor was a good move. The rear wheels were in the water by the time the boat floated off the trailer. I'd have buried the truck if I tried with that.
Will be happy to see some precipitation return to the middle of Misery.
Augie, that's a good idea to mount a ball on the back blade. I've put a receiver hitch on my bucket which I use for moving trailers around, including for launching my pond boat. Would you mind posting a pic of how you attached the ball to the blade? I share your concern about backing the truck into the water. I'll have to measure just how far my rear wheels will be submerged if I were to use the back blade orientation. As it is, my front tires get wet; In 4-wheel drive, I've always been able to back up out of the pond even if I have to lock the rear differential. Tractors seem to pull forward better than backward, so your orientation may have advantages. BTW, that's quite the industrial-grade machine you have there. It looks like it could drag my 25-hp Japanese Ford all over the property!
It was super easy on this blade. All I had to do was wrench it down. You can see where a previous owner welded hitch balls on the other side of the blade. I would have used one of those but the blade is too long spin around when its mounted to the tractor. Was worth the $10 for a new ball to avoid the aggravation of unhooking/spinning/rehooking twice.
Thanks, Augie for the explanation and pic. I do have reason to spin my back blade around for the occasional gravel or snow surface smoothing. But it's rare enough that I can remove the ball when I need the blade for that purpose. I'll try it.
Augie and 4CP, I decided to diy a ramp at my pond with a 16 foot Jon boat. I’m happy with this decision. The only thing I have to do is get the battery in/out of the boat to charge for the trolling motor. The one thing I would change is using a treated 6x6 instead of a 4x4 where the winch mounts on the upright post. It’s an easy build with treated 2x4’s, 6x6, a bag of quikcrete, 4 inch x 20 foot pvc pipe halved lengthwise, 4 inch x 10 foot (2 5 foot guides driven in the pond bottom, deck screws and a hand winch. Here are a few pics.
Augie and 4CP, I decided to diy a ramp at my pond with a 16 foot Jon boat. I’m happy with this decision. The only thing I have to do is get the battery in/out of the boat to charge for the trolling motor. The one thing I would change is using a treated 6x6 instead of a 4x4 where the winch mounts on the upright post. It’s an easy build with treated 2x4’s, 6x6, a bag of quikcrete, 4 inch x 20 foot pvc pipe halved lengthwise, 4 inch x 10 foot (2 5 foot guides driven in the pond bottom, deck screws and a hand winch. Here are a few pics.
Looks great!! I was going to do that same thing except use the teflon strips that they put on boat trailer bunks to make the boat slide on/off easier. Good idea about the vertical guides and the winch. I was just going tp pull it up by hand. I do have an aluminum pontoon boat canopy that has 3' brackets on each corner on the sides. I was going to put that low to the ground so the boat just slid under it, that would keep a lot of sun and rain out of the boat.
Augie and 4CP, I decided to diy a ramp at my pond with a 16 foot Jon boat. I’m happy with this decision. The only thing I have to do is get the battery in/out of the boat to charge for the trolling motor. The one thing I would change is using a treated 6x6 instead of a 4x4 where the winch mounts on the upright post. It’s an easy build with treated 2x4’s, 6x6, a bag of quikcrete, 4 inch x 20 foot pvc pipe halved lengthwise, 4 inch x 10 foot (2 5 foot guides driven in the pond bottom, deck screws and a hand winch. Here are a few pics.
Looks great!! I was going to do that same thing except use the teflon strips that they put on boat trailer bunks to make the boat slide on/off easier. Good idea about the vertical guides and the winch. I was just going tp pull it up by hand. I do have an aluminum pontoon boat canopy that has 3' brackets on each corner on the sides. I was going to put that low to the ground so the boat just slid under it, that would keep a lot of sun and rain out of the boat.
The pvc is used for the same purpose as the Teflon strips. Outdoor weather is hard on the seats, covering them would be a good idea. One thing I forgot to mention is to make sure you pull the plugs after your boat is docked. The rain will run out into the pond. Oh yeah, be sure and put the plugs in before you launch! Don’t ask me how I know this!
Got up this morning and had to have a discussion with a large male coyote that was having breakfast with a yearling buck on the opposite side of the pond. After a quick lesson on the effects of lead poisoning I am sure I won't have that problem with him again
If he had been feeding with the buck I might not have a problem with it. But this is the fourth deer that I have seen them kill on my property. I am usually able to take care of the problem if I am there but this is a second home
I have not witnessed my coyotes on an adult deer kill yet, but they help clean out excess fawns in spring. We have a lot of yotes! Have pics of 5 at a time on my trailcams.
If he had been feeding with the buck I might not have a problem with it. But this is the fourth deer that I have seen them kill on my property. I am usually able to take care of the problem if I am there but this is a second home
Wow!
I also didn't know that coyotes were taking adult bucks.
Is there deer hunting pressure adjacent to your land? I sometimes find deer carcasses on my farm when no one has been hunting and there are no poachers on my cameras. I assume these were wounded deer that headed towards our heavy cover.
Think it is possible that the coyotes are preying on wounded deer?
Fishnrod no hunting pressure it is well past the season. And we don't have an excess amount of fawns or deer in general. This wasn't what I would call an adult buck less than a year old but bigger than a new fawn. A few years back I saw four coyotes chasing a nice three by three buck down the hill looked like they had already tried to hamstring it. Grabbed my ar15 and followed them they had it cornered in the bottom of a pond that I was working on he was trying to defend himself looked like he got antler into at least one of them. Dropped two on the spot hit another one as it fled by the time I got on the last one it was in hyperdrive. Emptied the rest of a thirty round magazine at it. Don't think I hit it but put the fear of God in it or at least the fear of colt manufacturing
If he had been feeding with the buck I might not have a problem with it. But this is the fourth deer that I have seen them kill on my property. I am usually able to take care of the problem if I am there but this is a second home
Wow!
I also didn't know that coyotes were taking adult bucks.
Is there deer hunting pressure adjacent to your land? I sometimes find deer carcasses on my farm when no one has been hunting and there are no poachers on my cameras. I assume these were wounded deer that headed towards our heavy cover.
Think it is possible that the coyotes are preying on wounded deer?
A buddy was driving out here from Chicago and watched a pack of 5 take down an adult buck in a cut corn field not too far off the highway near Wanatah, Indiana.
My bet is that they are killing fawns as fast as they can catch them.
I rarely get turkey vultures at my farm. Sounds like I probably need to always go check what they are after when I see them congregated.
If the yotes catch a fawn, they take it back to the den for the pups. I don't think there would be much left to interest the turkey vultures. I remember a video made of a pair of coyotes at the den. By the time the pups left the den the parents brought back 80 fawns. This was in Indiana somewhere, but a number of years ago. Dr Grant Woods did a study, and if the fawns are young enough the coyotes also consume everything they can of the fawn, including the hooves.
Our ground is fairly flat, but there are some large dug dens. I can now identify the armadillo dens based on their distinctive trails. I thought the larger dens were for badgers. I now suspect they are for coyotes, since I have a lot more of those than badgers. I probably need to set up a game camera the next time I see a fresh burrow.
I have never even take a shot at a coyote. Time to read up on all of the relevant regulations.
Following along. I had no idea coyotes took that many fawns. One neighbor shot one and another neighbor shot two (coyotes) during deer season. We always bury the gut piles, but this year I got pushed up against a hard departure time. So I dumped a pile at the edge of a field, and put a game camera on it. I’ll see what comes in. We’ve seen a few in game cameras, plus coons, and possums. Saw a news article yesterday that two brothers in Missouri got a 35 pound coon. It looked huge.. Although it looked so fat, I doubt it was running down much.
Our ground is fairly flat, but there are some large dug dens. I can now identify the armadillo dens based on their distinctive trails. I thought the larger dens were for badgers. I now suspect they are for coyotes, since I have a lot more of those than badgers. I probably need to set up a game camera the next time I see a fresh burrow.
I have never even take a shot at a coyote. Time to read up on all of the relevant regulations.
Rod, now is the time of year to start trapping them. If I were you, I'd contact the Kansas Fur Harvesters Association and see if they can recommend a few trappers that target coyotes in your area and have them get to trapping on your place NOW. Fur is prime, while the prices aren't great there are some guys out there that still trap. That's the best way to reduce their population and if you don't know how to trap all you will be doing is educating them. Traps work 24/7 not just when you are out there.
Hunting coyotes at night has become a big thing around here, they have made it legal to hunt them with lights at night, and its a blast, some use night vision scopes but even without, on a bright moonlit night with snow on the ground and a coyote call they will come in close a lot easier then they will in daylight. They even have a competition up in northwest MO, similar to a bass tournament, everybody meets up at a predetermined location and takes off at a designated time and reports back at a predetermined time and place the next morning, with a monetary prize for the most and the biggest coyote. I have a friend that is set up with night vision binoculars and scopes and even has a gopro camera mounted on his gun, its crazy how fast they come barreling in to a predator call. I am definitely going to try it this winter on my place, I dont have many and they are not hurting my deer populations but I do see them on the cameras pretty regular. I have been successful in trapping a bunch of coons, and my turkey recruitment shows that it is helping.
Hunting coyotes at night has become a big thing around here, they have made it legal to hunt them with lights at night, and its a blast, some use night vision scopes but even without, on a bright moonlit night with snow on the ground and a coyote call they will come in close a lot easier then they will in daylight. They even have a competition up in northwest MO, similar to a bass tournament, everybody meets up at a predetermined location and takes off at a designated time and reports back at a predetermined time and place the next morning, with a monetary prize for the most and the biggest coyote. I have a friend that is set up with night vision binoculars and scopes and even has a gopro camera mounted on his gun, its crazy how fast they come barreling in to a predator call. I am definitely going to try it this winter on my place, I dont have many and they are not hurting my deer populations but I do see them on the cameras pretty regular. I have been successful in trapping a bunch of coons, and my turkey recruitment shows that it is helping.
I'd love to at least dabble in something like that. I have a small collection of federal tax stamps, so I've got the gun & a muffler, but have no NV or thermal toys.
A friend showed me a NV scope he'd bought. Forget which, but I'm thinking he said it was around $3500 & it was incredible. Light years better than the PVS-14s I used for years in the Army & makes the PVS-2 Starlights we used to mount on either our M60s or M2s look absolutely primitive. Made me wonder how on earth I was ever able to drive at night in blackout mode with the -14s. I'd love one for myself, but holy smokes. My wife's a tolerant woman, with the patience of a saint, but that might be pushing my luck a bit too far
Hunting coyotes at night has become a big thing around here, they have made it legal to hunt them with lights at night, and its a blast, some use night vision scopes but even without, on a bright moonlit night with snow on the ground and a coyote call they will come in close a lot easier then they will in daylight. They even have a competition up in northwest MO, similar to a bass tournament, everybody meets up at a predetermined location and takes off at a designated time and reports back at a predetermined time and place the next morning, with a monetary prize for the most and the biggest coyote. I have a friend that is set up with night vision binoculars and scopes and even has a gopro camera mounted on his gun, its crazy how fast they come barreling in to a predator call. I am definitely going to try it this winter on my place, I dont have many and they are not hurting my deer populations but I do see them on the cameras pretty regular. I have been successful in trapping a bunch of coons, and my turkey recruitment shows that it is helping.
I'd love to at least dabble in something like that. I have a small collection of federal tax stamps, so I've got the gun & a muffler, but have no NV or thermal toys.
A friend showed me a NV scope he'd bought. Forget which, but I'm thinking he said it was around $3500 & it was incredible. Light years better than the PVS-14s I used for years in the Army & makes the PVS-2 Starlights we used to mount on either our M60s or M2s look absolutely primitive. Made me wonder how on earth I was ever able to drive at night in blackout mode with the -14s. I'd love one for myself, but holy smokes. My wife's a tolerant woman, with the patience of a saint, but that might be pushing my luck a bit too far
I neither hunt nor allow any hunting/shooting of the song dogs on my place. Why? First, I realize that they eat deer. But, they also hammer the pigs that we are loaded with. The pigs are taking over the place. I no longer can plant wheat patches for deer. The hogs root the whole crop up. I’ve declared war on them since TPWD and other Guv Agencies have retired from the field. I hunt them year around.
I neither hunt nor allow any hunting/shooting of the song dogs on my place. Why? First, I realize that they eat deer. But, they also hammer the pigs that we are loaded with. The pigs are taking over the place. I no longer can plant wheat patches for deer. The hogs root the whole crop up. I’ve declared war on them since TPWD and other Guv Agencies have retired from the field. I hunt them year around.[/quote]
I can see your point, I probably wouldn't either in that case, the lesser of two evils, so to speak. we don't have that problem yet, but if the coyotes helped much, wouldn't they have slowed the spread of hogs in the first place? or maybe they have. I can see a coyote having a meal of young pigs but they prob wont have much effect on the adults. That would really suck, having everything uprooted, they probably absolutely destroy any kind of vegetation, I know tame hogs do if not managed.
Dave, I have to disagree with you. If the coyotes ate that many piggies, then Texas wouldn't have the pig problem that they have. If they weren't also targeting the fawns and deer on your place, then how do you explain why the deer numbers are way lower on your place than they were 15-20 years ago? IIRC you had good deer hunting on your place back then compared to today.
I bet that if you removed a bunch of the hogs and targeted the coyotes you would have the deer population rebound.
Old habits are hard to break when I saw a documentary on how may fawns a single female yote feeding pups. 80 in a single breeding year! That’s hard to imagine. But you ave a valid point about them helping knock pigs down a bit but I think it doesn’t help all that much seeing how a sow can have three litters a year…..
can you not use selective poison 'pills' for the hogs? A favorite treat laced with toxin that is situated in a feeder or at a height or location that hogs are most likely to enter?
Agree that the odds are overwhelming. But, they are the only ally we have. TPWD has thrown in the towel. No money involved coming their way.
Trap and sell? There is a market, but I don't know if the price per pound is high enough to recoup your investment. I have seen videos of remote triggered traps. Watch on the game cam and when enough are under the trap, push the button to drop the trap.
I have 2 hog traps but haven’t set them in quite awhile.
I am, like most rural Texas land owners, loaded with pigs. A couple of years ago my Grandson and his buddy trapped about 20 in 1 night. Most were small but they butchered all of them. A couple of days later my Grandson started running a high fever and was hospitalized. No idea what caused it but the docs expected it was a a tick bite that they couldn’t find. Hogs are loaded with ticks. We almost lost him. He is 23 yoa, 6’5”; a big healthy man.
I’ve heard of this happening to others.
Most around my place aren’t all that wild. Wife and I were tossing fish food at a 1/4+ Acre pond at the back of my place. A bunch of hogs showed up and started swimming around. She got spooked and got on the 4 wheeler and left. I followed her and the hogs followed both of us. I’ve ridden up within 6 feet from them without them spooking. I have phone pics of that. Texas Parks and Wildlife has all but conceded the battle to the hogs. They breed quicker than they can be controlled. I don’t use any wild animal for target practice but the pigs are changing my mind.
Twenty years ago we didn’t have them. In another 20 or 30 an awful lot of you guys above the Mason Dixon Line will be enjoying their company and wonder where they came from. When that happens, keep a can of OFF bug spray handy. You’ll want more than one can.
I was warned by a lawyer not to let anyone on my place to hunt, fish, etc. if they got a tick bite, gotten sick or worse, I might be sued. Especially since I understand the potential problem.
Damn, that's awful Dave D1, sounds like its about time for a silencer on a gun and do some elimination. I don't like to waste wildlife or food, but I have a hard time letting it destroy property. eat all you can and can what you can't eat.
Jake, if I shoot one, I walk away or pull it to a place where the buzzards can get to it.
Place it in a setting where you can shoot coyotes off of it. Curious, what will them darn things do to a fence, I know domestic hogs are hard on a fence, hard to keep them in one, if they can get their head thru it they will tear it out and gone.
Added some dead spruce trees on top of the ice in 3rd pond while its down 3', and before the snow and frigged temps get here. Hoping that spotfin shiners can use as spawning structure.
I doubt the spotfin shiners will use the dead spruce trees as spawning structure. They need fairly deep narrow crevices for egg deposit. You might get GSH shiners laying eggs on the filamentous algae that grows on the spruce branches.
It's hard to see in the pics above, but the bark is exfoliating on these spruce trees due to their dying of disease (needlecast), so I was hoping the crevices might be deep enough under these "bark flakes", but maybe just wishful thinking. The surface resembles peeling paint.
Jake, I don’t molest coyotes. I know they are fawn predators but they are the only thing that hunts and eats pigs. A couple of years ago, I was hunting over a corn feeder when a sow and young ones showed up. Suddenly, a coyote ran through and left with a piglet in its mouth. At that point, we became brothers.
I rarely see a coyote but often hear them. When we butcher out a deer or pig, we haul the carcass, guts, and hide about 200 yards from the house. Within a short time, if at night, we get serenaded. They are the only thing that stands between me and the pigs and I tell the kids and grandkids that hunt my place to not molest them or use them for target practice.
Lake effect snow hitting and winds are right behind it... Bummer because I have 3" of clear ice on the edges, about 3.5" a few feet further in. Would be glorious skating if a bit thicker but now will have 20 or so inches of snow on it plus who knows how much drifting. Not sure how to get all that snow off with ice under it that can hardly support a man and a 2 stage snowblower...
And we are only expected to get 2", and I am not complaining! We are going to be very cold for about a week, but better than a snow dump! Nowhere near the snow that they were predicting.
We've been suffering below zero temps since yesterday here in the middle of Misery.
I glanced at the pond long enough to see that there's air coming out of the diffuser and maintaining a section of open water.
I got to the livestock fountain just before it locked up this morning. Those things are generally trouble free in cold weather if you have enough critters using them to keep them open. Three horses don't drink enough water to do that so I have to help it out every now and then.
It's a little easier when looking at forecasts with highs in the 50s by Thursday here in central Indiana. Went for a short walk with the pups today and my face froze up, even with my winter beard... The wind is brutal with negative temps.
Lake effect snow hitting and winds are right behind it... Bummer because I have 3" of clear ice on the edges, about 3.5" a few feet further in. Would be glorious skating if a bit thicker but now will have 20 or so inches of snow on it plus who knows how much drifting. Not sure how to get all that snow off with ice under it that can hardly support a man and a 2 stage snowblower...
This wind should blow a lot of the snow off of it. It's howling here. We had -10°F this morning and we aren't supposed to break +10°F until Monday morning.
Dave, not true about the coyotes being the only thing that kills and eats pigs too. Humans do. Like I've said before, coyotes eat more deer than pigs. If you were a hungry predator, which would you rather try to eat? A pig that is protected by a momma 24/7 that has sharp teeth or a fawn that is left alone while momma is off foraging for food for herself? I'd pick the fawn every day of the week.
I checked the pond, sadly one corner has warm water stress holes and water under snow, the other 2/3 still has hard clear ice with fluffy snow on top. The pond is in a low spot so snow seems to collect in it rather than blow out of it. About 18" drifted snow on the pond now. So tempted to go clear it but lots more snow coming and the windchill and bare skin do not mix.
Hard to believe that next week when most people will be rescheduling their Christmas get togethers it will be in upper 40s and raining...
Birds have taken over! One magnificent bald eagle spotted, along with 7 Canada geese and 7 dirty birds (cormorants). Scared off dirty birds, but sure they'll be back.
Pond has risen maybe six inches due to heavy rain a day or two ago. Hopefully we'll get more precipitation soon, still have 2.5 feet to reach full pool. Fish cabin plumbing okay despite cold snap, we left cabinets open & taps dripping. Feeders still being used, we think mostly by trout & hybrid stripers.
Went fishing and caught quite a few fatties including a 7+ and a 5+ that I transferred to a neighbors pond. Have never seen the fish of all sizes this fat. Had an inch of rain and it came fast so pond came up a bit but it muddied up the whole thing…. Still caught fish in 12” Visibility….
Went fishing and caught quite a few fatties including a 7+ and a 5+ that I transferred to a neighbors pond. Have never seen the fish of all sizes this fat. Had an inch of rain and it came fast so pond came up a bit but it muddied up the whole thing…. Still caught fish in 12” Visibility….
Catching two large fatties at the end of December in murky water is very impressive!
Sounds like an excellent combination of good pond management and good angling.
Went fishing and caught quite a few fatties including a 7+ and a 5+ that I transferred to a neighbors pond. Have never seen the fish of all sizes this fat. Had an inch of rain and it came fast so pond came up a bit but it muddied up the whole thing…. Still caught fish in 12” Visibility….
Catching two large fatties at the end of December in murky water is very impressive!
Sounds like an excellent combination of good pond management and good angling.
Lol Rod you can’t accuse me of either! Dumb luck…… if I could just get lucky to get my BCP to not get eaten by the LMB….
I didn't weigh them and released them. I have too much stuff in the fridge now.
I tell the Boy Scouts that the easiest place to carry your water and food is in your belly.
If those trout had gone from the pond to the frying pan to your belly, then your fridge would have been none the worse off!
(And from the look of those trout, your belly would have been quite happy.)
I have venison, prime rib and a freshly made antipasto type salad in the fridge. Lots to cook/eat right there.
I have stocked trout before at 2# each, and while I wasn't feeding them as much as I am doing now, from late Oct to the 4th of July they grew to 24" and 7#. Trying to break that record this year, hopefully by the end of May.
I have stocked trout before at 2# each, and while I wasn't feeding them as much as I am doing now, from late Oct to the 4th of July they grew to 24" and 7#. Trying to break that record this year, hopefully by the end of May.
No one ever broke a record by eating their stockers.
Good luck on your trophy trout project.
One of my favorite things on Pond Boss is reading the posts and seeing the pictures where people have broken pond records or even state records!
Went fishing and caught quite a few fatties including a 7+ and a 5+ that I transferred to a neighbors pond. Have never seen the fish of all sizes this fat. Had an inch of rain and it came fast so pond came up a bit but it muddied up the whole thing…. Still caught fish in 12” Visibility….
Nice fish Pat. Just curious, but has the spikerush died back? If so, I wonder if disappearing cover threw the forage to the lions.
I have stocked trout before at 2# each, and while I wasn't feeding them as much as I am doing now, from late Oct to the 4th of July they grew to 24" and 7#. Trying to break that record this year, hopefully by the end of May.
No one ever broke a record by eating their stockers.
Good luck on your trophy trout project.
One of my favorite things on Pond Boss is reading the posts and seeing the pictures where people have broken pond records or even state records!
These stockers have to get eaten or removed from the pond by the end of June (at the latest) or they will die due to higher water temps.
Went fishing and caught quite a few fatties including a 7+ and a 5+ that I transferred to a neighbors pond. Have never seen the fish of all sizes this fat. Had an inch of rain and it came fast so pond came up a bit but it muddied up the whole thing…. Still caught fish in 12” Visibility….
Nice fish Pat. Just curious, but has the spikerush died back? If so, I wonder if disappearing cover threw the forage to the lions.
That might be what is happening, went fishing today and caught 3 over 7# and a bunch 2# and up all fat . Also 6 crappies on 3-1/2” pearl cane thumper/with flashy swimmer. Had several other large bass on and lost them at the bank. My daughter said “ Dad you got a kick .ss bass pond”
Freeze then thaw, freeze then thaw, freeze then thaw. Currently thawed, which is good because it's time to start targeting YP.
But first I need to find some nightcrawlers. I had three boxes of them in the garage fridge, but they froze solid when the outside temps fell below zero and stayed there for a few days.
Freeze then thaw, freeze then thaw, freeze then thaw. Currently thawed, which is good because it's time to start targeting YP.
Are you harvesting only YP? Do you have specific lengths you are taking? How many, if you don’t mind my asking. And how are you catching them? Thanks Augie. I was up at our pond last week. Iced over with pretty thick ice, but 70 degrees today, I imagine it’s opening up.
This winter/spring will be the first for YP harvest from my pond. Any sub-9" BG/HBG and any/all HSB that are brought to hand will also be removed.
The YP were stocked in the fall of '19. 200 fingerling and 70 plus-size. I catch plenty of young ones in my traps so I know they're successfully reproducing.
Intent would be to remove 50-ish in the 8"-10" size range. I know they're in there, I just need to figure out how to catch em.
I don't think so. Last weekend we looked at some pictures from a camera my friend put out and we seen 7 bucks together but we also seen what he said was a bully buck that might of ran off a bigger buck that was hanging out at my property. Here is a few pictures from today, would of been real nice bucks in another year or so.
I don't think so. Last weekend we looked at some pictures from a camera my friend put out and we seen 7 bucks together but we also seen what he said was a bully buck that might of ran off a bigger buck that was hanging out at my property. Here is a few pictures from today, would of been real nice bucks in another year or so.
Can you get a tag from the DNR to keep them (or should I ask do you need a tag from the DNR if you want to keep them)? A friend of my neighbors found a pair that were bigger than that in a ditch, dead. They maybe had been dead a week or less. The one that was locked inside the bigger one had a 4.5" main beam circumference not 4" from the end of the beam. Both were monsters. He got a tag and they are now at the Taxi being turned into a European Mount.
I don't think so. Last weekend we looked at some pictures from a camera my friend put out and we seen 7 bucks together but we also seen what he said was a bully buck that might of ran off a bigger buck that was hanging out at my property. Here is a few pictures from today, would of been real nice bucks in another year or so.
Can you get a tag from the DNR to keep them (or should I ask do you need a tag from the DNR if you want to keep them)? A friend of my neighbors found a pair that were bigger than that in a ditch, dead. They maybe had been dead a week or less. The one that was locked inside the bigger one had a 4.5" main beam circumference not 4" from the end of the beam. Both were monsters. He got a tag and they are now at the Taxi being turned into a European Mount.
My friend called them and they told him they will send him 2 tags. He was planning European but his Taxidermist said he would like to try full shoulder mounts and would cut him a deal.
I was working at the same location in SW Kansas all week. Saw a group of whitetails with a nice 8-pt buck and five does. His neck was still enlarged, or he was just that stout?
Also saw a group of mule deer several evenings. That group also consisted of one buck and five does.
Does only one buck in each group mean the deer are still in the rut? Or that hunters selectively harvested a lot more bucks?
In past years I have seen rutting behavior (rut = chasing/breeding does) in October thru January. It all depends when a particular doe comes into estrus. BUT the majority of the rut happens in late October or early November, depending on the moon cycle that particular year.
A 12k acre ranch adjoing ours to the north hired a trapper to thin their population. In one weekend the trapper claims to have removed 75 and sent pictures as proof. FWIW, he is paid by the day not the head. They have asked if we want to use his services.
In 2021 & 2022 we heli-hunted our property taking ~ 100 yotes. Fun but not nearly as efficient or economical as the trapper. As a result our deer population has significantly increased even with the drought...we are covered up in young bucks.
The other side of the coin.
The biologist who advises us with our Managed Land Deer Program says TPW is changing its view on coyote removal. They believe the positive results we are seeing are short lived as new animals move into the vacated land faster than previously thought.
A 12k acre ranch adjoing ours to the north hired a trapper to thin their population. In one weekend the trapper claims to have removed 75 and sent pictures as proof. FWIW, he is paid by the day not the head. They have asked if we want to use his services.
In 2021 & 2022 we heli-hunted our property taking ~ 100 yotes. Fun but not nearly as efficient or economical as the trapper. As a result our deer population has significantly increased even with the drought...we are covered up in young bucks.
The other side of the coin.
The biologist who advises us with our Managed Land Deer Program says TPW is changing its view coyote removal. They believe the positive results we are seeing are short lived as new animals move into the vacated land faster than previously thought.
There's a lot to coyote social interactions. They are pack animals but often there are loners and pairs too. They have established pecking orders where certain behaviors are kept in check by dominant individuals. When an area has a major decline it's often repopulated with young and aggressive individuals who are looking for new ground outside of where they were born. It's believed the young and aggressive yote are more willing to kill large prey instead of living mainly on mice and bugs. Plus... it's believed that yote adjust their litter sized based on their population density. Less yote = larger litters. Density is sampled through their nightly howling sessions. If true I've long thought a person could loud speaker howling and to help keep numbers lower. Plus, I think their hunting behaviors can change and be taught. I have 5 trail camera that I run year round, plus I hunt and fish a lot. Until last yr.i saw zero evidence that yotes harassed deer any other than finding the occasional fawn. A yr ago I started getting pics of yotes chasing deer. It became somewhat regular so I set some well placed traps this winter and took out a few. Haven't seen evidence of yotes chasing deer since. Hope to have solved a problem but I don't think it's likely.
Some of the above is just stuff I've read about, but some of it is what I believe through experience so take it with a grain of salt if you must.
I don't doubt that one you thin them out others will move in, how quickly I would think depends on how over crowded they are in the surrounding area. The one thing for sure is the ones that were taken out wont be moving anywhere, I think its a problem that we will have to realize that is continuous,. While I dont have a huge problem I am starting to see a couple really regularly on my game cameras, and coincidentally, at the same time, my turkey pictures have diminished tremendously as did deer pictures, not thinking that they killed them or anything but more just moved on from being harassed. not unlike a neighbors pair of dogs starting to ramble thru the woods a few yrs back, wildlife just doesn't take to it.
That is a nice set of 8 pointers that drowned it looks like, look very similar it seems, I bet they were from the same bloodlines.
Gehajake - if I were concerned about turkey (and ground nesting birds in general) I would take up trapping coons, skunks, feral cats, and yotes. A LOT of experienced habitat managers will tell you of the benefits to turkeys by removing a portion of these animals. It can happen quickly too. Increase of poult numbers the falling summer with larger flocks of birds the following yr. With that said there is a decline of turkey numbers that seems be nation wide. Even to the point that many states are considering lower tag numbers for hunters. Nobody seems to know exactly what's causing it.
How much do you think yotes affect turkeys? We have a lot of yotes but our turkey population seems to be growing. Not concerned with deer reduction since we have plenty and I want to avoid too many to discourage diseases.
I know feral cats really reduce the number of rabbits. I am seeing more rabbits this year than in years past. I had a feral cat problem in 2022 that I thought was 2, maybe 3 cats. I removed 28 for the year and that was with just one live trap. I just reset the trap after seeing cat tracks in the snow near one of the outbuildings. RAH, I did find one jake turkey that was killed by a cat. It ate a part of it and covered it up with debris. I had the same problem when I lived in Ca and raised Pheasants. Same kill MO.
Hunted quail today. Not near our pond, but not too far away. A coyote ran out in front of me. 8 shot doesn’t even roll them at 40 yards.. Still had a great day. Almost like the old days. Nothing like a Setter with a snoot full of bird scent.. I do not look forward to the day I can’t follow my bird dogs..
Hunted quail today. Not near our pond, but not too far away. A coyote ran out in front of me. 8 shot doesn’t even roll them at 40 yards.. Still had a great day. Almost like the old days. Nothing like a Setter with a snoot full of bird scent.. I do not look forward to the day I can’t follow my bird dogs..
Beautiful!!! I absolutely love watching dogs do what they are meant to do! Very nice!
How much do you think yotes affect turkeys? We have a lot of yotes but our turkey population seems to be growing. Not concerned with deer reduction since we have plenty and I want to avoid too many to discourage diseases.
I think yotes are opportunistic egg eaters and active poult predators. But, of the animals I listed in the previous post I would rank them last in affecting turkey populations. Coons would be #1. The good news in that is that coons are extremely easy to trap.
Gehajake, you are right both are 8 pointers. One was a little bigger than the other but not by much, a very close match. I feel they were really nice size 8 pointers. I know I have smaller 8 pointers visiting my property. I'm no deer pro but my friend is a deer fanatic. He lives for deer hunting and shed hunting. He was thinking probably 3 years old and maybe the same blood line as well.
Hate seeing good prospects bite the dust, but bucks get pretty serious during the rut. It is possible that these were a couple brothers just sparing a little and that they just had bad luck. I have never come across bucks locked together and hope that I never do.
To me, coyotes are a trade off. I know they take some deer but they are our only predator of pigs. And, we have a helluva lot more pigs than we do deer. Pigs seem to be more drought resistant than deer so they keep multiplying.
To me, coyotes are a trade off. I know they take some deer but they are our only predator of pigs. And, we have a helluva lot more pigs than we do deer. Pigs seem to be more drought resistant than deer so they keep multiplying.
About time that I reset the pig traps.
Dave, if the coyotes kill and eat the pigs, reset the traps and kill the trapped pigs, leaving them there for the coyotes to eat. If they don't eat the pigs, then that answers whether they eat a lot of pigs or not.
Hate seeing good prospects bite the dust, but bucks get pretty serious during the rut. It is possible that these were a couple brothers just sparing a little and that they just had bad luck. I have never come across bucks locked together and hope that I never do.
The 1 buck had pretty good hook to his antlers, my friend said that this probably wouldn't of happened if it wasn't for that.
Gehajake - if I were concerned about turkey (and ground nesting birds in general) I would take up trapping coons, skunks, feral cats, and yotes. A LOT of experienced habitat managers will tell you of the benefits to turkeys by removing a portion of these animals. It can happen quickly too. Increase of poult numbers the falling summer with larger flocks of birds the following yr. With that said there is a decline of turkey numbers that seems be nation wide. Even to the point that many states are considering lower tag numbers for hunters. Nobody seems to know exactly what's causing it.
Catscratch, Yer preachin to the choir, I have removed more raccoons from my place then I should probably say on this forum, Including getting in trouble for it from the wardin, not for trapping them but for not having my name on my trap, but he told me to keep trapping but not to relocate them, said they will be somebody else's problem, have since heard that in some states its against the law to relocate them. Along with those vast numbers of coons there were countless other varmints that were caught, Coons are extremely rough on Turkey populations and I have seen much better recruitment of young turkeys since I thinned the coon out. and nothing thins out rabbits like feral cats, they can get right into any hidey hole that the rabbits can, if nothing else they run them out for other varmints, hawks and such to eliminate them, I am not a fan of feral cats if you cant tell. nothing against them as pets, keep 20 if you like, just keep them at your house.
Gehajake - if I were concerned about turkey (and ground nesting birds in general) I would take up trapping coons, skunks, feral cats, and yotes. A LOT of experienced habitat managers will tell you of the benefits to turkeys by removing a portion of these animals. It can happen quickly too. Increase of poult numbers the falling summer with larger flocks of birds the following yr. With that said there is a decline of turkey numbers that seems be nation wide. Even to the point that many states are considering lower tag numbers for hunters. Nobody seems to know exactly what's causing it.
Catscratch, Yer preachin to the choir, I have removed more raccoons from my place then I should probably say on this forum, Including getting in trouble for it from the wardin, not for trapping them but for not having my name on my trap, but he told me to keep trapping but not to relocate them, said they will be somebody else's problem, have since heard that in some states its against the law to relocate them. Along with those vast numbers of coons there were countless other varmints that were caught, Coons are extremely rough on Turkey populations and I have seen much better recruitment of young turkeys since I thinned the coon out. and nothing thins out rabbits like feral cats, they can get right into any hidey hole that the rabbits can, if nothing else they run them out for other varmints, hawks and such to eliminate them, I am not a fan of feral cats if you cant tell. nothing against them as pets, keep 20 if you like, just keep them at your house.
It's good to be around like minded people! It isn't always like that.
Scott, I’ve done that. When I shoot one I drag it out to an open area. Coyotes, buzzards, hawks and foxes all hit the table. Nobody gets to shoot a coyote on my land.
Pigs are, in Texas, vermin and are taking over the rural areas.
My grown Grandson, Trevor, and his buddy, Josh, trapped about 20 pigs in one trap set. They butchered them and hauled the meat home. A couple of days later Trevor got seriously Ill and we almost lost him. Although they couldn’t find a tick bite, the pigs and his sickness were the only thing the Doc’s could come up with.
I have one bunch (sounder) that is pretty tame. We were at my small pond at the back of the place tossing feed to the green sunfish. About 25 pigs of all sizes came up close to us and (about 10 feet) got in the water. I took a cell phone pic. Wife freaked out. When we left I looked back after going a couple of hundred yards and they were following us. We goosed it and went out a different direction. Due to ticks, I don’t like being around them. I have, on occasion, drug them to an open area and burnt them to kill the ticks.
Odd that I rarely see a tick on a deer.
BTW, the pigs migrated here and are spreading in all directions. Some day, sooner or later, you guys will also be able to ‘enjoy’ hunting them 12 months of the year.
My wife has had Lyme disease 4 times now. The first time was in 1989, and due to a slow diagnosis, she still has residual effects. If you get bit by a deer tick and the site becomes red, get your 10 days of antibiotics started ASAP.
Just to be clear, the site of the bite does not have to turn red at all to get infected. Many of those afflicted with Lyme never even knew they were bit by a tick. I've never had the red mark or 'bullseye' call Erythema Migrans/EM.
While it's not uncommon for me to get bit by a tick (have two dogs, outdoorsman, etc.), I never knew of the actual tick bite that gave me the Lyme.
But you are right, RAH, in that you can kill if off if you get to it quickly. I was probably afflicted for 6-12 months before I was positively diagnosed.
I agree that many do not even know they are bitten, and some show no rash at the bite site, but still get Lyme. I found 2 deer ticks crawling on me in the last 2 weeks in central Indiana. If it warms up into the mid 40s, they can become active. We treat our 5 German shepherds for ticks, but still find the occasional live tick feeding on them. They also bring ticks into the house... Just one of the hazards of being in the wild. While the spirochete that causes Lyme is killed by antibiotics, symptoms can be chronic if left untreated for an extended time. There is a lot of misinformation and alternative medicine that has developed as a result of these chronic symptoms, but none have gained any credibility yet among scientists.
My best advice when it comes to illnesses that are difficult to diagnose, lymes disease for instance, is to find yourself a medical doctor that also practices Traditional Chinese Medicine. This physician should possess, and be fluent in the operation of, a Zoll or similar other brand of electro acupuncture device. This isn't the proper forum to discuss particulars, so feel free to send a PM. I'll get you pointed in the right direction.
AFA the pond goes, I've spent a bit of time over the past few days trying to catch YP from my pond with no results. Been using nightcrawler bits, but I'm thinking it might be time to try something else. Waxies or crappie nibbles or maybe even some FHM.
My best advice when it comes to illnesses that are difficult to diagnose, lymes disease for instance, is to find yourself a medical doctor that also practices Traditional Chinese Medicine. This physician should possess, and be fluent in the operation of, a Zoll or similar other brand of electro acupuncture device. This isn't the proper forum to discuss particulars, so feel free to send a PM. I'll get you pointed in the right direction.
AFA the pond goes, I've spent a bit of time over the past few days trying to catch YP from my pond with no results. Been using nightcrawler bits, but I'm thinking it might be time to try something else. Waxies or crappie nibbles or maybe even some FHM.
Augie, if you feed the fish, try Stubby Steve's. Put one piece on a #8 or #10 Owner Mosquito hook, 2# or 4# test line and toss it out when you toss out a handful of pellets. No weight, no bobber. If the line twitches where it enters the water, set the hook. Stubby Steve's pellets don't swim on their own.........
During the warm months when I'm feeding Optimal I make my own pellet flies. All it takes is a pellet, a small piece of pantyhose material, and a few seconds to wrap the pellet and stick a hook through the pantyhose.
This time of year my pond is usually under ice. It's been on and off this year.
I'll toss a handful of pellets next time I'm out there. That gets their attention when the water's warm. It might work when the water's cold. Only one way to find out.
During the warm months when I'm feeding Optimal I make my own pellet flies. All it takes is a pellet, a small piece of pantyhose material, and a few seconds to wrap the pellet and stick a hook through the pantyhose.
This time of year my pond is usually under ice. It's been on and off this year.
I'll toss a handful of pellets next time I'm out there. That gets their attention when the water's warm. It might work when the water's cold. Only one way to find out.
I'm in Cole County and did a little fishing in my pond off my dock yesterday. I caught a bucket of bluegill and tried to catch catfish using bluegill scraps to no avail. My catfish aren't even a year old in my pond yet but they got upwards of 17 in. last fall and the only way I caught them then was to mash up some of the feed into cloth and put a hook through it.
I like the pantyhose idea and will be trying that sometime as it warms. I am guessing it stays on the hook better? I had a hard time keeping the food in the cloth as the bluegill would pound it out in less than a minute.
I know you've heard it before, but in my experience nothing catches fed BG like a Stubby Steve. Also LMB and HSB!
Trout love them too, if you have any during the winter. But trout are much more careful to look things over before biting, takes a tiny covered hook on ultra light fluorocarbon line to fool them. They would charge madly for my Stubby Steve on 4lb mono, then halt abruptly a few inches from the bait. Other fish had no such hesitation!
I know you've heard it before, but in my experience nothing catches fed BG like a Stubby Steve. Also LMB and HSB!
Trout love them too, if you have any during the winter. But trout are much more careful to look things over before biting, takes a tiny covered hook on ultra light fluorocarbon line to fool them. They would charge madly for my Stubby Steve on 4lb mono, then halt abruptly a few inches from the bait. Other fish had no such hesitation!
I am interested but unfamiliar with the lure you are talking about. I did a search for Stubby Steve's and there's a number of baits on the site. There is a variety of colors of a pellet type bait/lure that requires your own hook. Is that what you are talking about?
I looked at the pond and lamented on how low the water level was. Not looking good for the rest of the winter, not much precip predicted.
I'm getting tired of looking at my pond with disappointment with the water level as well. When I do get rain it stops about time things get wet enough to start getting run off. The rains are to small and to far in between and I never see anything very promising in the forecast.
I know you've heard it before, but in my experience nothing catches fed BG like a Stubby Steve. Also LMB and HSB!
Trout love them too, if you have any during the winter. But trout are much more careful to look things over before biting, takes a tiny covered hook on ultra light fluorocarbon line to fool them. They would charge madly for my Stubby Steve on 4lb mono, then halt abruptly a few inches from the bait. Other fish had no such hesitation!
I am interested but unfamiliar with the lure you are talking about. I did a search for Stubby Steve's and there's a number of baits on the site. There is a variety of colors of a pellet type bait/lure that requires your own hook. Is that what you are talking about?
Sounds right. It is designed to look, smell, sink, and taste like a food pellet. You tear off a pellet sized piece, squeeze it on the hook.
I know you've heard it before, but in my experience nothing catches fed BG like a Stubby Steve. Also LMB and HSB!
Trout love them too, if you have any during the winter. But trout are much more careful to look things over before biting, takes a tiny covered hook on ultra light fluorocarbon line to fool them. They would charge madly for my Stubby Steve on 4lb mono, then halt abruptly a few inches from the bait. Other fish had no such hesitation!
I am interested but unfamiliar with the lure you are talking about. I did a search for Stubby Steve's and there's a number of baits on the site. There is a variety of colors of a pellet type bait/lure that requires your own hook. Is that what you are talking about?
Thanks, the 2021 was good but the 2022 could be better.
So relieved to be at this point after 9 long months.
I should add that I owe a dept of gratitude to Pond Boss, the learnings of Bob Lusk, and forum members who made suggestions when we hit gravel veins during excavation. It looks like it is holding (when water is coming in at least)
9 months after the bulldozers arrived on site: FULL POND with water exiting the spillway.
Time to celebrate, so we drank a bottle of the wine we make every year.
Next up: April stocking. This took a lot longer than I thought it would/should. Glad to be here.
What took longer then you thought, the bottle of wine or the pond filling up? 9 months is not bad at all. you're gonna need to sell a bottle or two of that wine to pay for the amount of money it will take to stock it. Looking great! a lot of nice shore line.
Thanks gehajake. Answer is Both. I was focused on the pond and didn't bottle the 2021 until fall of 2022. We don't sell the wine we just drink lots of it.
The shoreline of this 1-1/4 acre pond is almost that of a 3 acre circle.
Water temps were about 41 degrees. Saw hundreds of fatheads active around shallow rock piles and many of them were nibbling on the floating feed I threw out.
Water temps were about 41 degrees. Saw hundreds of fatheads active around shallow rock piles and many of them were nibbling on the floating feed I threw out.
No sightings of bluegill, SMB, HSB, YP, or CC.
There has only been a couple of times this whole winter that I didn't get at least a few BG to come up and some feed. I've seen them knock small pieces of ice out of the way to get to the feed. They have never feed like this during winter before.
They have never fed like this during winter before.
Do you think you have created a self-reinforcing cycle?
The more you see them eat, then the more likely you are to feed them, then the more likely they are to be lingering around the feeding spot around chow time?
Just wondering if getting a little extra feed in them during winter helps them survive subsequent stress events later in the year?
They have never fed like this during winter before.
Do you think you have created a self-reinforcing cycle?
The more you see them eat, then the more likely you are to feed them, then the more likely they are to be lingering around the feeding spot around chow time?
Just wondering if getting a little extra feed in them during winter helps them survive subsequent stress events later in the year?
All I can say for sure is that I enjoy feeding them.lol! I hope feeding them over the winter will help them. What is funny is yesterday it was 55 degrees and fairly sunny, I only had a few fish come up. Today it was 24 degrees and no sun, I had a bunch of them hitting it hard. lol!
Been below freezing for over two days… two cormorants showed up to ravage pond and strange again that only one was seen leaving the area! Hmm
And then there was one! at least we appear to be making progress! makes you wonder if that one will see a pattern and warn his friends that this may not be the perfect feeding grounds?
Finally getting enough rain to start the pond rising some…. Still 2’ low So much sand that a slow rain won’t do it until water table comes up to allow spring to run . And I have over a hundred acres of land around that drains into pond……
No cormorants, though I did see a pair of geese and a great blue heron. Refilled feeders & cleaned one out after water seeped in during intense rainstorms. Replaced battery.
Delighted to observe pond now at full pool! Far cry from 2 to 3 feet low just a few weeks ago, thought I might go into summer still short of water. Water still not running out of standpipe, but must be very close.
No apparent activity, other than the geese, when feeders went off. Hopefully that will change as it warms up. Next visit I'll look at forage pond to see if there's enough water to raise some BG.
I went bluegill fishing using worms and caught what I believe is a golden shiner. I didn't purposefully put any of them in there. It may have been about 5 inches long and after now seeing it, I think I was seeing a small school of them late last summer while I was feeding. They never would come close to the dock so I never get a good look at them.
I hope they are beneficial and don't become invasive. I have grass carp, bluegill, largemouth bass, channel cats, black crappie, fathead minnows and red ear. (at least that's what I stocked last year.) I don't think any of my fish, except for the channel cats, are large enough yet to eat the size of the minnow I caught.
Went to pond today and bg were active eating surface bugs…. We just had 4 days of below freezing temperatures all day and nite thought that was odd that water has to be cold and yet they were active
Went down and fired up the generator for 5 hours to run the aeration. Have about 20" of ice on er. Forecast is looking gnarly next week, -30 again for a bit. Been in the mid to low 30's for a while but with a stiff 30 mph wind. No melting going on around here. Snow on the ground with more to come it looks like....
We are south for the winter till mid April so only report I can give on the ponds is what my daughter tells us when she checks on the house. She said we finally got big enough rains for some runoff and the main pond has risen. Not to the overflow yet but at least gained significant water.
Last year was a drought year for us like many others. It was not a total burn up year, although crop yields were significantly lower, but the rains we got were small enough to not really have any runoff to add any to the ponds. So they just kept going down, down, down with evaporation. They reached nearly two feet low. I had not seen them that low since they were originally built and were initially filling.
I was glad to hear the water levels were up. Our house live cameras show the pond but not in enough detail to tell for sure just how full. But I can see the floating dock is floating a little higher. A wet spring is tough on the farmers, but it sure could help my ponds.
I noticed my fish feeding at the surface yesterday afternoon. I went out there with a pint of Optimal pellets and the fish were all over that stuff.
I've placed another seven loader buckets full of limestone cobble into the pond over the past couple weeks. I've got about that much left on pile that still needs to go in. I'm going to be really happy when I'm finished with that.
I saw a pair of muskrats casing the joint Saturday evening. I got out there early Sunday morning and waited on them with Mr. Ruger, but they didn't come out to play. Haven't seen them since so maybe they decided all of that riprap on the dam is too much for them to tame.
Augie , we are seeing the same thing on feeding fish here in MILLER COUNTY Missouri , of course we have been feeding the trout since NOV 2022 and have been catching the BG ,LMB and CC off and on this winter so I knew they were feeding with the trout but now for the most part you can tell the little nibblers are up in the water column and getting more active with these 60 degree days , I have had an OH CRAP moment though with the rising temps, I am now see FA starting to appear. So in the words of BOB LUSK , I am paying the dumb tax now , the trout were sure cool but they eat and the by product is now showing up all over the place, this will be the 2nd year pond and no pond weeds to speak of so a clean slate for Algae to spread like wild fire
Went to pond today and with 80 degree two days in a row the fish starting to bite…. Caught a8+# LMB and a 2# . Big lady only jumped once but put up a lot of drag pulling…. She was an absolute toad…. Didn’t have phone with me….. that’s 4 this winter that size! Hoping to pop a 10+ before spawn
Lol Rod I use a 3-1/2” big bite cane thumper on a 1/4oz owner flashy swimmer in pearl color …. These things are killer year round. I have caught 3 over 10# from 3 ponds around me and untold 5-8 lb LMB
Bouncing plastics off the bottom is usually our best bet in Kansas this time of year (but still poor fishing).
I have seen like 5 ways to rig and retrieve those cane thumpers!
Are you catching most of your big fish on "swim" retrieve, erratic "jigging" retrieve, bouncing off the bottom, or working through the cover in those ponds?
Bouncing plastics off the bottom is usually our best bet in Kansas this time of year (but still poor fishing).
I have seen like 5 ways to rig and retrieve those cane thumpers!
Are you catching most of your big fish on "swim" retrieve, erratic "jigging" retrieve, bouncing off the bottom, or working through the cover in those ponds?
Usually cast out parallel to the bank and strait retrieve. When it gets warmer sometimes chatter it across shallow on the surface. I have cast out and let it sink close to bottom and retrieve slowly with Rod tip up. I have too much weed on bottom to bounce it off . The spinner part snags the weeds
FishinRod, I have had good luck with a Berkley Swim Shads. They are similar to the Big Bite Cane Thumpers but for some reason we've done better with them. This is on South Central KS ponds. I caught a 6.5lb bass Sunday slow working a crappie jig. Didn't catch anything on spinners or faster moving baits.
I have my best luck for LMB with the Strike King Rage Craws, they are very realistic looking in the water, but those Cane Thumpers, there is something about that tail design that makes them get the attention of the fish, I use the Charlie Brewers Sliders for panfish, they have that same tail action design, they really seem to like them, I have way my best luck with them. I have had to try a little already this spring but no action yet. the BG and LMB are just starting to feed a little on feed at the surface.
Yesterday was another warm day in Western PA. It was almost 70 degrees.
So of course, I soaked some feed and threw it in the pond, and adult Golden Shiners fed.
I'm starting to believe that Golden Shiners could survive a nuclear war.....
Oh no. Golden Shiners are pretty fragile, especially when compared to Fathead Minnows. I have Trout, Yellow Perch and maybe some HSB feeding in the pond now. We only hit 53 yesterday, 25 this morning and snow flurries, only supposed to make it to 33 today.
[/quote] ... I have Trout, Yellow Perch and maybe some HSB feeding in the pond now. We only hit 53 yesterday, 25 this morning and snow flurries, only supposed to make it to 33 today.[/quote]
Those are all cool water fish, and their metabolism (thus feeding) ramps up sooner (at cooler temps) than BG, LMB, SMB, CC etc.
My BG have been feeding all winter for the most. Even when there was some ice. I haven't been able to go over and feed every day, mostly on weekends and a day or two during the week. No soaking, just throwing out Optimal BG.I think there is only been a couple of times I didn't see anything come up. This is the first year I've seen them feed this well in the winter.
[/quote] ... I have Trout, Yellow Perch and maybe some HSB feeding in the pond now. We only hit 53 yesterday, 25 this morning and snow flurries, only supposed to make it to 33 today.
Those are all cool water fish, and their metabolism (thus feeding) ramps up sooner (at cooler temps) than BG, LMB, SMB, CC etc.[/quote]
I agree that golden shiners are indestructible. The day after my initial stocking, most of mine were caught up in grass matts I had put in place to stop erosion in the inlets. There they were just piled up in the nets. I had to cut out each one to release it. Figured they were all going to die. Pic is from May 2015. The millions of FHM I had in the pond are long gone, but we have schools and schools of golden shiners. Some giant ones are still out there. Sometimes I wonder if the golden shiners are tougher than the YP.
I am steadily progressing on a thought pattern that says we don't understand the Golden Shiner as much as we think we do, at least in small bodies of water.
Encouraged to see active feeding today, though I could not identify the species. Likely RBT and HSB, with perhaps some LMB as well. My panfish tend to arrive last in spring.
Two Canada geese, probably same pair we had last year. No cormorants! I did hear a couple of gunshots from neighbors, likely practicing (they enjoy shooting). This used to annoy me, but not if it keeps the dirty birds away.
Threadfin shad appeared for the first time in months, schooling in a back bay. Warm winter greatly enhances their chances of survival.
We had a good burn, really opened up a lot of jungly places. I took a few pics, including back of the dam. Hope to post in a few days. Water trickling out standpipe for the first time in a year, welcome sight. Maybe I can pump some water into my forage pond the next time we get a good rain!
Totally off subject. I’m not at my pond. In fact, I’m down in Texas. We are camped at Goose Island State Park, near Rockport TX, which isn’t too far from Corpus Christi. We went over to the Aransas Wildlife Area a few days ago. On the way over we detoured over to check out the Guadalupe River for a future kayak trip. A small Buffalo ran across the road in front of us. Ha! It was one of those pigs you Texas guys are always talking about. My wife and I were both amazed at the size of it! We then drove the 20+ mile loop at the wildlife area. I think all 20 miles, on both shoulders of the road, were torn up by hogs. I first thought, wow they got their mower stuck i there, but it just kept going. They must have a huge hog problem there. The damage was incredible. I really hope they don’t move up across the MO River in Missouri.
FYI, the Guadalupe River is a no go for us as far as kayaks are concerned. The mosquitoes there are unbelievable. Reminded me of Canadian Boundary Waters after dark.. That, and two very big gators were laying on the bank, where we were supposed to launch a kayak. My wife vetoed the kayaking on the spot.. Ok, back to what’s going on at our ponds.
16.5", 2.25# Tonight's dinner. About 20-30 minutes from pond to pan.
Fillet leaving skin on, then fry/poach in the following:
1 tbsp butter 1 tbsp lemon juice ½ cup white wine vinegar 2 tbsp local honey
Mix lemon juice, vinegar and honey in a container so that it is homogenized. Melt butter in pan, get it sizzling, place trout fillets skin side down. Cook on relatively high heat (just under what it takes to brown the butter) for a minute, flip. Cook for another minute. Flip back over so the skin side is down. Brush vinegar mixture over the fillets or pour the whole mixture over the fish, cook on high heat (covered) for 4 minutes. Flip over, cook (covered) for another 4 minutes. Remove and serve. Salt and pepper to taste.
I poured the mixture over the fish, it was easier than trying to brush it over the fish. That way there's less spatter on the stove top.
It looks like they gained about 1/2 pound so far since stocked the middle of November. They should really start growing once the water temp hits the middle 40's. I stocked about 40 fish in the pond and I'm feeding Optimal Bass food at the rate of 40#/month. (Two throws, 5 seconds each per day from the Texas Hunter feeder.) Today I caught Hybrid Bluegill and Yellow Perch that were eating the pellets too. I cheated and used Stubby Steve's Original Pellet Lure to catch the two that I caught today. The first one was released.
Thanks Doc…it’s been a while…PB admin got my login fixed. The pond has really cleared up nicely. More LMB than before. Good times! It’s good to hear from you!
Pat, have you seen any male LMB working beds? I saw around 10 cleared out beds on the dam, and one had a small LMB on it. Air temps up here are creeping into the 80's.
Just around 50 degrees and sunny in Western PA today.
I went to my neighborhood pond and soaked and threw some feed. Took about 10 minutes before the army of adult Golden Shiners showed up, but then about 10 minutes later, I started to see a lot of bluegill of all sizes feeding. Even saw a bigger boil that I think was a small LMB.
I went to my neighbor Lee's pond. Just tons of fatheads with more tons that look to be less than 1/2" long. So I'm wondering when those smaller fatheads were really born
Was at my pond yesterday. Pretty quiet up there. No fish moving, didn’t see anything working the banks. I’ll restart the feeder in a week or two, but I’m a bit concerned the otters did more damage than I thought. Also, the water had a greenish grey color. Looks like glacier runoff. Must be more algae coming on. Still lots of tadpoles, but they’ve been there thick for 7 years. Looks like it’s time to start recording temps and clarity.
My fish are aggressively taking pellets now. Been catching a few BG and RES hook and line. Still haven't figured out how to consistently catch the YP. I put a B trap in a week ago and have been pulling a handful of BG every day with that.
Fish are feeding great already so I started up my feeder again yesterday,
Had a beautiful day yest for central MO, sunny, windy and almost 70, played hookey from work and took my step son and son in law fishing, didnt have much luck with the LMB BG or CC but started catching WE, landed about a dozen in no time, looking really good and healthy. Great time!
Fish are feeding great already so I started up my feeder again yesterday,
Had a beautiful day yest for central MO, sunny, windy and almost 70, played hookey from work and took my step son and son in law fishing, didnt have much luck with the LMB BG or CC but started catching WE, landed about a dozen in no time, looking really good and healthy. Great time!
Pond at full pool with some runoff over top of standpipe. Warm weather has jolted pond into activity, CNBG eating heartily at feeders weeks before they usually do. LMB look chunkier than last year. My buddy had a six lb bass on that broke his line. We ended up fishing just a couple of hours, harvesting three and releasing several others.
Still have our two Canada geese, she hasn't yet gone on the nest. Controlled burn really opened up underbrush, much easier to get around. Refilled feeders and, in view of response, increased feeding times. Still no sign of trout, if it stays this warm they may not make it much longer. Threadfin shad seem to be flourishing, however.
Fish are feeding great already so I started up my feeder again yesterday,
Had a beautiful day yest for central MO, sunny, windy and almost 70, played hookey from work and took my step son and son in law fishing, didnt have much luck with the LMB BG or CC but started catching WE, landed about a dozen in no time, looking really good and healthy. Great time!
Fish dinner?
Actually turned these back, they just a yr and a half old, about 16 18 inches, caught one last fall tho that was 19" he must have been the first one to the feed every time.
Yeah, I'd expect you want some bigger ones to make the fillet sizes worth while.
Any certain depth they were holding at?
Since they got hooked, I am pretty sure they were holding at the "depths of despair".
Try the veal! Rod's here all week!!
Most of these were in sort of cove, used to be a huge hill but we used the dirt to build the dam so its kind of a cove, flat bottom about 8 to 10' deep flat bottom, probably close to an acre. pretty much close to the bottom. and some more in another cove, probably not that deep. on light to white colored sliders. I hadnt caught many WE before, just a few in the pond this past yr, and neither one of them had ever caught any, I tried to get them to lip them like a bass but they knew better then to do that.
Do you worry about erosion when you burn this early in the season?
When I have burned early in the season, it is amazing how much it affects the soil temperature.
My dormant tallgrass prairie keeps the sun from directly warming the ground and is quite efficient at holding a blanket of cold air at the surface when the ground temperature is cooler than the spring air temperature. Whereas the mostly bare, blackened ground heats up rapidly in directly sunlight or even under warm breezes. One year my brother went out to work at the farm, and he said there were 20 turkeys and 14 deer in the black areas as the bugs and new growth were busting out. No game was visible elsewhere. (Although visibility is obviously worse outside the burn areas.)
I believe that in my burn patches, some forbs and cool-season grasses have come up 3-4 weeks earlier compared to the areas still covered with the previous year's grass.
Do you worry about erosion when you burn this early in the season?
When I have burned early in the season, it is amazing how much it affects the soil temperature.
My dormant tallgrass prairie keeps the sun from directly warming the ground and is quite efficient at holding a blanket of cold air at the surface when the ground temperature is cooler than the spring air temperature. Whereas the mostly bare, blackened ground heats up rapidly in directly sunlight or even under warm breezes. One year my brother went out to work at the farm, and he said there were 20 turkeys and 14 deer in the black areas as the bugs and new growth were busting out. No game was visible elsewhere. (Although visibility is obviously worse outside the burn areas.)
I believe that in my burn patches, some forbs and cool-season grasses have come up 3-4 weeks earlier compared to the areas still covered with the previous year's grass.
I can believe that, The r value of a grass cover is huge, it wont freeze as deep either but will stay froze longer.
Checked feeders & reset their clocks, hopefully for the last time! Feeding was brisk, all food gone in about 5 minutes.
Despite getting a very late after school start, we had pretty good action for 90 minutes. Two 5 lb LMB on, one which jumped & broke the line & the other caught after exciting fight. Just as it was turning dark, a 6 lb HSB absolutely destroyed a reel's drag but the angler thumbed it & eventually won the battle! Harvested four smaller LMB, and a few BG & CNBG caught & released.
Still at full pool, with moderate amount of water running over standpipe. If we get another good rain, will try pumping main lake water to fill up forage pond & stocking it with CNBG.
Goose couple still there, though no sign eggs have been laid yet.
Was at the pond a few days ago. It was in the low 30s. I tossed out some food in front of the feeder. Zero bites. Not even any small golden shiners. The food just floated back to the shore. More cold weather coming. Back into the teens at night. I’m not sure if I’ve had otters kill everything or it’s just the cold temps. No fish seem to be moving anywhere on the pond.. Another negative sign is the GBH that usually is hanging around, hasn’t visited in a while. Just really hoping it’s slow, and I’ve still got some fish. I’m not finding any evidence of otter presence. No trails, scat, or dead fish.
This guy weighed 40 lbs. on the scale and showed signs of fighting. He was clogging the pond drain and cutting trees. Not sure if he was alone...
SSS.
Shoot, share on the forum, shovel.
Good job, RAH!
I have a new beaver down on our creek. Recently he has started gnawing on multiple trees and then quitting. It looks like he is "tasting" them to see which ones he wants to fell. Surely beavers can just smell a tree to know which one they would like?
Currently, he is just working on undesirable volunteers so we will peacefully coexist - for now.
This guy weighed 40 lbs. on the scale and showed signs of fighting. He was clogging the pond drain and cutting trees. Not sure if he was alone...
SSS.
Shoot, share on the forum, shovel.
Good job, RAH!
I have a new beaver down on our creek. Recently he has started gnawing on multiple trees and then quitting. It looks like he is "tasting" them to see which ones he wants to fell. Surely beavers can just smell a tree to know which one they would like?
Currently, he is just working on undesirable volunteers so we will peacefully coexist - for now.
That's like my buddy was saying when I told him that he needed to control the cattails that were growing on one side of his pond. "You need to start whacking them because they will start growing on the other 3 sides of the pond and you will be fighting a prolonged battle if you don't start getting after them now." "Oh, they are fine, they don't bother me at all over there."
3 years later he's hiring an excavator to dig them out and he's having to be VERY careful where he sprays now to kill them because now they are growing among the marginal plants that he wants to have there. I just smile and tell him that I won't tell him that I told him so. LOL
Rod, one day you will be there looking at what's missing and realize that you just lost 10-20 years growth (or more) on a few trees........
Note that this beaver was trapped out legally as a nuisance pest by my neighbor and friend. Good job by him! Exit pipe was not clogged this morning so hopefully he was alone.
Good point on the potential for "beaver damage" to quickly spiral out of control.
The soils on our property grade from "good farmland" to "marginal farmland" to very sandy soil as you move toward the creek. The sandy soil does not even support the adjacent, well-established tallgrass prairie. Instead, it has some scattered bunch grasses, some prickly pear cactus, and some forbs that are adapted to the very sandy soil.
The creek itself is then lined with trees. Most of those are Siberian Elms - which are usually considered an undesirable invasive in this area. One of their nicknames is "piss elm". If you have ever cut one while the sap is running, you will understand the derivation of the name!
The beaver is mostly sampling those elms, and has cut one big one. I would think they would taste awful, but what do I know?
Question for the forum: What would be my best riparian buffer management for that type of situation?
I have looked at aerial views for several miles upstream and downstream. Some landowners have completely cleared their stretch of creek banks. Others have their property grown up more densely than our property.
Eventually, I would like to establish some good native understory trees (like pawpaws) beneath some of the areas of large elms. I would also like to plant a few trophy trees (swamp white oaks, black walnuts, etc.) that can handle episodic flooding.
All of my planted trees would certainly be preferred beaver snacks, and I will have to ruthlessly suppress them at that point. However, prior to that phase, anybody have any good advice on just good stream health practices as it relates to the adjacent land?
Swamp White Oak, and Pin Oaks will do well there. PawPaw need high humus soils.River Birch will do well in the same area as those Siberian Elms.
The riparian buffer plants will all depend on the amount and level of the water. Arrowhead and Pickerelweed do not like highly varying water levels - they do better with 0 to 24" bouncing levels. Horsetail Rush or Scouring Rush grows where the water levels bounce and they don't need good soil. They are hard to get rid of though.
Most types of rush will do OK, but that all depends on the amount of water and level of the water.
Black Walnuts don't do well with flooding.......
Check the pH of the sandy soil, you might have to add lime on an annual basis.
Daughter caught a 7# LMB from pond yesterday on the deadly cane thumper, her best so far. I snared one about 6# and we caught probably caught 20 smaller ones. Good day fishing
I checked my neighborhood pond for any visual issues. All seemed well and it was around 30 degrees here.
At my neighbor Lee's pond, he's supposed to have been putting out some Christmas trees for the potential YP spawn, but has not. I put out a clump of (3) trees there and hope for a YP spawn. Around late summer '22, after a few stockings of smaller YP in the 2-3" range, we put in some 4-5" YP. The pond is polluted with fatheads of all sizes, so I'm hopeful that we may see some egg strands. I know Ohio has seen some already
Daughter caught a 7# LMB from pond yesterday on the deadly cane thumper, her best so far. I snared one about 6# and we caught probably caught 20 smaller ones. Good day fishing
There's nothing better than sharing fishing success with friends & family. Congratulations!
If I just could get the BCP to do what they are supposed to do then I would be real happy…. But it is a lot of fun to batch big bass Don’t think they spawned at all cause the bass are already at it and didn’t catch any BCP in shallow…..
Yesterday, it was about 45 degrees in the early evening. I got a clump of 3 Christmas trees in the pond. I also soaked and threw some feed. It took about 10-15 minutes before various fish started hitting the feed. Due to the angle of the sun, I couldn't really tell what all was hitting it, but I could smell the musky 'funk' of catfish for a bit.
I'm pumped! At least, my little forage pond is full after hours of pumping from the main pond. After the drought last year, was determined to fill fp while I still could in spring. Next step is to stock some healthy CNBG and feed them into good spawning success.
Went to pond yesterday evening after dark and went out on dock. I have solar spotlights over water that are really bright. Crappie were coming up for small bugs on surface . Was nice to see some, haven caught any this spring at all. Guess they didn’t spawn again. Used to catch them in shallow water this time of year. Maybe they wised up to the jigs I’m using…. The fish under the lights were probably 8-9” long
Played at the pond the last three days. Fished it pretty hard. Not many fish. (I started a separate thread on it). Grandkids still had a blast. They can still drag the net along the bank and catch a handful of glass shrimp plus a few tadpoles, and a few crawdads. Picture is of the glass shrimp. Best net yield from granddaughter was 9 in the net. Beautiful weather this weekend, but it’s kind of eerie that the water is so quiet. Tossing in feed I get schools of golden shiners pushing the pellets around. They are unscathed by larger fish. Sad..
Yesterday I and a young couple that hunt my land cut about 15 ten to twelve ft. cedars and added them to the shorelines. Hoping to deter the cormorants by giving fish a place to hide. Need to add some more.
Tractor died and wouldn’t start after finishing with the cedars. Today, son in law and I changed out battery cables and terminals on tractor. That did it.
Went to dock and actually saw 4-5 BCP in shallow water. Not sure if trying to spawn… today temp is 50 so probably will send them packing to deeper water. Weather is unstable so who knows
Actually yesterday, but I had my biennial electroshocking. Overton's guys only pulled out 95# of 14" or less LMB, which was a good thing. 4 years ago, it was 150#. 2 years ago it was 130#. Hopefully, all that means the number of the cullable sized LMB are steadily dropping. As usual, I had neighbors set up to take those LMB, so everybody was happy. I loaded my haul tank and hit their ponds with smiles waiting.
Typical TX part of the day was the weather. Ethan and I had been texting for a week, trying to decide if it was safe for putting the aluminum shock boat in the water with thunderstorms and 20+ mph winds forecasted. Thursday forecast looked better, so we went ahead and shocked the pond. When they were here, it was cloudy with no rain and manageable winds. 1 hour after they left, we had a torrential downpour with extremely high winds, and hail. An hour after that, it was blue skies and dead still. Unfortunately, that front rolled through Arkansas and caused a lot of damage.
Looked at the ice and mud trying to figure out how much frost is still in the ground. Still going to be a week or so until I can go keep massaging the shape and finish off the emergency spillway I never got done before freeze up. Hopefully I can get it done before the runoff starts........
Friday's storms did a good bit of wind and hail damage in the Middle of Misery, but my place didn't get a lot of rainfall out of it all. Pond came up 4" or 5" but is still about 18" low.
The ground was settled well enough by yesterday afternoon that I was able to bring up topsoil from my stash to begin the finish grade on my pond dam. Figured I'd mount the tiller on the Ford 860 tractor to help out with that job, but the PTO shaft is too long, so I'll either have to cut the shaft down or buy a new one that's the correct length. I'm leaning towards buying a new shaft, which would save me having to buy a new longer shaft if I want to use the tiller on a tractor with CAT II PTO geometry again.
Went fishing yesterday and saw schools of fry skittering…. Probably LMB. Also caught a bunch of 1#+ bg ona beetle spin…. First time I’ve tried that. Also caught several 13-14” BCP
Well I wound up cutting the shaft. Was easier to do that than break down the U-joint at the slip clutch and then go shopping for something that would probably have to be cut down too. Only busted one sawzall blade doing it.
After running the tiller through the new dirt on the pond dam it's not likely I'll ever want to put it back on the big Massey. The Ford 860 handled it no problem, and is much more maneuverable than the loader machine.
Yesterday evening, it was in the low 70's in western PA.
I soaked feed and fed the fish. Just one or two bluegills for about 5 minutes, then the Golden Shiner Brigade showed up.
Finally, I went to the northern most end of the pond, and there were a ton of bluegill feeding there, several smaller LMB, and some catfish (either channel or blue).
I usually don't feed at the northern end of the pond, but over the last several weeks, that seems to be where the most fish are hanging out.
With any luck at all I'll have my pond dam looking like a putting green by the end of the summer.
This old Ford was purchased new by my GrandPap in 1957. Our dear friend and neighbor, BJ Blackwell, bought it at the farm auction after GrandPap passed in 1982. BJ passed a few years ago and his son asked me if I'd like to have the tractor back once all the estate ruckus cooled off. There could be only one answer to a question like that. Three weeks ago we made it happen, and after 41 years the tractor is back in the family. I wore blisters on my butt running it in the fields when I was a kid. It feels good to get some seat time on the old thing again.
With any luck at all I'll have my pond dam looking like a putting green by the end of the summer.
This old Ford was purchased new by my GrandPap in 1957. Our dear friend and neighbor, BJ Blackwell, bought it at the farm auction after GrandPap passed in 1982. BJ passed a few years ago and his son asked me if I'd like to have the tractor back once all the estate ruckus cooled off. There could be only one answer to a question like that. Three weeks ago we made it happen, and after 41 years the tractor is back in the family. I wore blisters on my butt running it in the fields when I was a kid. It feels good to get some seat time on the old thing again.
That’s pretty cool Augie. Neat that he gave you the chance to buy it back into the family. Looks like it’s got a lot of life left in it.
Was 86 here yesterday. 44 today.. We had two big storm systems come through. Tornado warnings etc.. We ended up with about .4” rain.
Good news was I ran a test run with the feeder late yesterday. I’m seeing more larger fish hitting the feed. Last week it was all 2” fish, this week, I’m seeing a few in the 6-8” size. Hopefully they all aren’t golden shiners. No YP ribbons, still got my fingers crossed that I’ll see a few. Did see a pretty good sized flock of turkeys. I think trying to reduce possums and coons is helping them come back.
It is pretty cool, and it's in great shape. I'm tickled to death to have it back. Since it was new it hasn't spent very many nights out in the weather. I'll need to replace the muffler and tailpipe one of these days, but other than that there's nothing on it that needs attention.
We got pretty lucky with these last couple rounds of storms that came through. My new truck got a few dings last Friday. Probably not worth turning in to insurance. I think a couple or three benjamins worth of PDR will take care of it. Lots of other folks here were not so lucky. I know two guys whose trucks will probably be declared a total loss due to the severity of hail damage they took in Friday's storm. The worst of it stayed north of us yesterday. We got some rain last night, but no big winds or hail.
Hopefully your big fish escaped the otter vermin and just haven't come out of their winter funk yet. I wouldn't worry about not seeing YP ribbons. I think I've seen one ribbon in the water since I stocked mine, but I know they've had successful spawns every spring because I catch the small ones in my traps. Pulled one about the size of my pinky finger out yesterday evening.
Low 80's today, but windy. Went right to the northern end of the pond, soaked feed and fed. Instant Golden Shiner Brigade. Slow uptake by bluegill until about 10 minutes in. Saw a decent catfish and few small LMB.
I'm thinking the Golden Shiners are eating about 50-65% of the two smallest feeds sizes I throw. I'm not sure how much of this feed value is transferring to my desired fish species as these Golden Shiners don't seem to be being eaten by my 'predator' fish. Sure there may end up being more GSH to end up spawning, but I'm dubious if that's beneficial in this case.
I am seeing fish (HBG, BG, YP, RES and Specklebellies) that have been feed trained eating floating Optimal Starter #4 and Optimal Bluegill JR daily in 44°F in the holding tanks. I'm feeding about 1/2 coffee can/day.
Augie, I was raised on a Ford 8N, old Farmall and Gleaner Baldwin combine.
I have an old 8N that I bought about 40 years ago. Step one was hauling it to a tractor mechanic and have the engine overhauled. Next, 4 new tires. It put in a lot of wheat patches and repaired some roads.
Then about 20 years ago, I bought a new 40 hp 4WD JD. And parked the Ford. It hasn’t moved since. I need my butt kicked for that.
The 8N is a trusty old tractor, was popular back in the day, the biggest thing they need is a transmission, if a person had a way to put a 8 or 12 speed transmission or something along those lines, they would be indestructible and twice as handy, and of course a live pto would also be nice, but a person can get by with it, my buddy has one that he uses a tiller with it, but it almost runs too fast to do a good job, he kicks it out of gear and lets the tiller push him across the garden.
At the pond again today. My frogs have come back. Lots of them jumping in as I walk the bank. Also, the turtles are back. Had three last year, looks like five this year, at least for now. They are all the red ear or painted turtles. I thought I saw a big swirl in the water (hopefully from a larger fish) just the one, but it gives me some hope for survivors.
GrandPap also had an 8N, Dave. I hated that thing. It was so stinking primitive compared to the 860. Sometime in the mid '70s the 8N was sent to the dealership for an engine overhaul. The dealership caught fire while the tractor was in the shop and it got fairly well barbecued. After the shop was rebuilt the dealer rebuilt and repainted the 8N, but I still didn't want anything to do with it. lol
Went to pond and saw maybe 4-5 pods of LMB fry skittering on surface in flooded timber area….. guess they at least got off a spawn…..no clue about BCP though
Finally started to move dirt. Well, kinda. The top 6" is mud and then the frost is still very much frozen. Pushed some goo around for a little while just to feel like I was doing something. Hopefully this week the frost starts coming out. I'd really like to finish shaping the 2 bays and get the emergency spillway built. I still have about 4-5' before I am full and would really like to get the bays finished before runoff happens...
Caught a few Hybrid Crappie that were about 8"-9" long, a few 14" LMB (removed) one RBT and about 1/2 dzn HSB. I kept one HSB, it's swimming in the live well now, I'll take a weight/length measurement tomorrow, it's about 20" long. Caught all the fish on an OLD silver/black floating Rapala -- one of the originals. I don't know if it's 2 3/4" or 3 1/4" in length. I gave the RBT to a friend, he will get me a weight/length (his boy caught one too).
Refilled two feeders, but couldn't reach one on the far side of the dam due to a fallen tree across the road. Hopefully will get this cut & moved later this week. Some large trees were killed during the controlled burn, figure they will come down eventually. Oh, well.
On the positive side, the main pond is full & standpipe overflowing nicely. Emergency spillway was not needed during prolonged rains, nor did forage pond overflow. It's the fullest I've ever seen due to pumping excess water from main pond a few weeks back.
Transferred several BG to forage pond, but was dismayed to discover my feeder didn't work despite fully charged battery. Only a couple years old, not sure what issue is. The forage pond is off the beaten path & I didn't use it at all last year due to drought, who knows what happened.
Speaking of BG, they are BIG. Fished around dock and had my 4 lb test line broken twice (drag not working well, but still) and lost another when the jig hook snapped (!). Had on a couple that I thought must be nice LMB, but turned out to be monster BG or CNBG. Stubby Steves on a flyrod were the ticket. Giant BG don't just fight in circles, they also make strong runs. Not used to that from panfish! Something long & large swirled next to one of the BG I was fighting, either LMB or HSB.
Saw plenty of tiny fish around dock, probably BG YOY. Not many intermediate sizes, though. Giant or tiny, that's all.
Mama goose must be on the nest, I only saw one moving around. No cormorants. First hummingbirds of the season appeared at our nectar feeders, good to see.
Impressive news on the BG! Also glad to hear that your water levels are about perfect.
Did want to pass along a note about your dead trees. It is much safer to cut fresh trees compared to old, rotted trees in unknown condition.
Cutting rotten trees gives you surprises - which are NOT enjoyable when running the chainsaw besides 10 tons of elevated mass.
I have rotted trees being knocked down by wind storms and some get hung up on other old trees. Those are a hazard to have on your property and I know you have kids and grandkids on the loose.
I can't remember if you clear your own trees? If so, maybe fell a few of the fire-kill trees when you clear your dam. If you hire out your cutting, maybe get a bid for the fire-kill trees when the person clears your dam. He might take some firewood as partial payment?
IMO, it is much better to cut those trees now and wedge them to fall in your preferred location compared to letting them decay and have the wind pick when and where they fall!
Thanks for the warning, Rod. Yes, the tree that fell across the road was indeed dead -- and huge. Could easily have killed someone.
I know that some birds like dead trees, so wildlife biologists say to leave them uncut when safe to do so. Still your warning is apt & I will try to get the dangerous ones down. Preferably in the water for habitat!
I do cut small trees, but leave the big ones to the experts. Fortunately, none of the dead trees are a threat to the house or the dock.
Got to spend some time at the pond over the weekend, was keeping an eye out for otters but saw no signs of activity, the fish are swarming feed.
Was super elated to see a lot of wood duck activity and seen two different hens enter two different nest boxes that I put out 2 yrs ago with no success up to this point, The one nest had a hen in it and a stupid starling trying to enter it to build a nest, they waited till the hen left then went back to going in and out with nesting materials, so not sure how that's going to turn out, there is a duck egg in the nest because I stuck my phone up to the hole and snapped a picture, don't know if the starlings will run the duck off or not. I did take a crack at the starling with the 17 when the ducks weren't around and think might have clipped it, the burned out and I didn't see them again for the time I was able to hang around.
Also Had a huge bald Eagle hanging out yesterday morning.
Got to spend some time at the pond over the weekend, was keeping an eye out for otters but saw no signs of activity, the fish are swarming feed.
Was super elated to see a lot of wood duck activity and seen two different hens enter two different nest boxes that I put out 2 yrs ago with no success up to this point, The one nest had a hen in it and a stupid starling trying to enter it to build a nest, they waited till the hen left then went back to going in and out with nesting materials, so not sure how that's going to turn out, there is a duck egg in the nest because I stuck my phone up to the hole and snapped a picture, don't know if the starlings will run the duck off or not. I did take a crack at the starling with the 17 when the ducks weren't around and think might have clipped it, the burned out and I didn't see them again for the time I was able to hang around.
Also Had a huge bald Eagle hanging out yesterday morning.
The hen wood duck should return every morning for the next 10-12 days and add one egg per day. You'll know she's in there because the drake will 'hang around' in the vicinity of the box. (? holding her purse). They usually only take 5-10 minutes and then leave again, usually not to be seen again till the next day. Sometimes starlings try to take over a box, and I discourage them with my pellet rifle or .22 magnum. Once she's started laying, she'd be hard to keep from coming back. So once she's added an egg and left, the starlings are fair game the rest of the day. I have found starlings sometimes peck duck eggs to crack them, so if you can, check the box when she's gone and remove any cracked eggs. The get pretty ripe after a few weeks of incubation.
Here's hoping for a hatch this year! *fingers crossed*
Thanks for the tips Dr Luke, I did take a swipe at the starling with a 17, thats all I had with me, Not sure if I got one of them but it was crippled and left out in a big hurry. When she went into the nest, the male was sitting on a branch 30ft away, and the starlings came by there while she was in there, but didn't go in, I kept an eye on them for at least 45 min and I never seen where she came out, at least he was still setting on the limb that long but had to leave so dont know what went on after that, I figured he would go over and run them off but he never did. Later in the afternoon when I came back they (starlings) were carrying nest materials into the box, thats when I stuck my phone in and got a picture. and there was only one egg so it must have been the first one she laid. Then Sunday morning before I left I seen a hen duck fly into one of the duck hut boxes I have out, got two back to back on a pole and am pretty sure there is a starling in the other one already.
Seeded the pond dam with a five fescue blend, some feed wheat, and a bit of dutch clover. Lightly mulched it with some old hay. Had to buy another 100' garden hose to reach the far side with the lawn sprinkler. Should start to turn green in a day or three.
Need some rain. Pond is still down ~18". Weather guessers say maybe Saturday.
I hope we get rain on Saturday Augie. We missed the last two big storms that came through. I think we received 2/10th”. I planted 9 ac of CRP yesterday. It won’t do much if we don’t get some rain. Couldn’t believe how much dust was getting kicked up by the tractor and drill.. On the positive side, I’m seeing more fish hitting the feed. Some appear larger still. I’m just still hoping they aren’t all golden shiners! Ha!
I have hopes of going to the sprint car races at I-55 Raceway in Pevely Saturday night. Won't hurt my feelings one bit if it rains out, just as long as it rains at my house too. lol
Mrs. Augie mowed the yard on Saturday. By the time she came in it looked like she'd spent her day shoveling coal. It is dry and dusty. Morel season is going to be a bust if we don't get some moisture real soon now.
We are under a burn ban we are so dry. Stocked a brand new 2 acre pond today. 6"+ HBG, 5"+ RES, some 3"-4" BG and some 3"-4" and some 7"-8" one year old YP that were hand picked as shooters.
I went out to my farm on Saturday to set up for my brother and some of his buddies to go turkey hunting.
It was so dry out there in my native grass that I was terrified that my catalytic converter was going to start a fire.
If they do manage to bag a bird, I am afraid it will be turkey jerky before they can clean it!
We’ve got a chance for rain this weekend. I’m hoping. I put out a couple of blinds the other day for my son-in-law and grandson. We’ve got more turkeys than any time in the last 10 years, but nothing like they were 20 years ago. It’s still nice to hear some gobbling in the mornings!
With being out of town I think I missed the opportunity for the mallard pair to use my straw 'mallard tube' nest. They were on the pond before I left but now the neighbor sees them in the adjacent woods so may be tending a nest there. I rehabbed the mallard tube, added a layer of thin plastic in between the straw layers to keep the inside dry and mounted it in the pond. Maybe it will still get spotted and used by another nesting pair.
I will try again to attract a wood duck. My son thought maybe my 2" PVC tube is 'too bright white' and the ducks don't like it. We moved the location to west side of pond facing east and I did my best to disguise the pole. I didn't have the correct plastic primer and probably nothing sticks to PVC anyway. So used up a half a can of metal self etching gray primer and then top coated that with a random can of rubberized spray undercoating which is more brown than black. We'll see how that holds up. Added fresh pine shavings and fingers crossed. Again probably too late in the season but who knows.
Pond is nice and full but it has been very dry and hot this week so you can see the level drop as the unpainted part of the pole shows up bright white as the water drops. Minnows are active and the first few American Toad pairs are swimming around in the pond already.
I'm down to about a dozen large unwanted koi/goldfish hybrids and they are getting very good at not biting hooks. At one time the pond had about 300 in it. Will continue to reward the kids for any goldfish caught!
We’ve got more turkeys than any time in the last 10 years, but nothing like they were 20 years ago. It’s still nice to hear some gobbling in the mornings!
The Kansas turkey count is supposedly down this year, but I am also seeing more turkeys at my place. We are right in the middle of the worst section of remaining drought in Kansas. I don't know, but perhaps my small habitat improvements are helping.
My brother gobbled up two small flock when we working in the bright sun at mid-afternoon. One of my old neighbors used to turkey hunt on my property 20 years ago. He said one time he saw approximately 200 turkeys along the edges of the creek eating bugs. I wish we still had those population numbers!
Electro-harvest today, one of my favorite days of the year! Conditions very different than last fall, when the pond was three feet low. Now both the main pond and the little forage pond are full, ready for a hot summer.
LMB size & numbers improved, meaning fewer small bass but more bigguns. Largest netted was a spawned out 6.5 lb, 23.5 inch female. However, they saw several others which were even larger, including one hiding in a log jam that was double digit. Hard to shock them up when they settle on the bottom, but Ethan was really pleased with the overall progress. Sixty five harvested, something like twenty five or thirty were returned. A neighbor desperately wanted every fish for food, so they didn't go to waste. Just how many she will filet before giving up, though, is a question.
Florida genes have become increasingly dominant, good news for the size but bad news for fishing success. I talked with Ethan about maybe stocking some feed trained Northern LMB this fall to keep things balanced.
Stocked some CNBG and TP to help build forage base, and Ethan was kind enough to add about a dozen CNBG to the little forage pond. Only real bad news was a beaver slide, but at least it isn't otters.
Good job Anthropic Just don’t drop any of the clove oil in the fish that you are going to consume….. nasty flavor! Don’t think your neighbor will care for anymore fish lol
anthropic congrats on a successful survey. sounds like your pond is full and doing well. Exactly..at least beavers don't eat fish. My trapper has a new otter contraption that is like a large minnow trap.....blue gill and crappie swim in and supposedly otter goes in to get them and gets stuck....he says trappers in area having some luck with it. I will let ya know how it works. Small world I was texting with Ethan today about the Black Salty.
Good job Anthropic Just don’t drop any of the clove oil in the fish that you are going to consume….. nasty flavor! Don’t think your neighbor will care for anymore fish lol
After going to all that work fileting, she may swear off fish forever!
anthropic congrats on a successful survey. sounds like your pond is full and doing well. Exactly..at least beavers don't eat fish. My trapper has a new otter contraption that is like a large minnow trap.....blue gill and crappie swim in and supposedly otter goes in to get them and gets stuck....he says trappers in area having some luck with it. I will let ya know how it works. Small world I was texting with Ethan today about the Black Salty.
Electro-harvest today, ....Florida genes have become increasingly dominant, good news for the size but bad news for fishing success. ......
Can you tell us how this was determined? I agree that it is most likely correct based on my experience and on your previous reports.
In addition to Rod's Gator Chomp action, a dead giveaway if there ever was one, I rely upon Ethan's report from electro shocking. He observed behaviors of larger bass that were more characteristic of Floridas, such as holding deep rather than cruising around for food. Better yet, he examined the fish that were netted. I can't just look at a LMB and tell whether it is northern or florida, but apparently he can, at least most of the time. A few F1s, too, and I'm sure some Fx.
anthropic congrats on a successful survey. sounds like your pond is full and doing well. Exactly..at least beavers don't eat fish. My trapper has a new otter contraption that is like a large minnow trap.....blue gill and crappie swim in and supposedly otter goes in to get them and gets stuck....he says trappers in area having some luck with it. I will let ya know how it works. Small world I was texting with Ethan today about the Black Salty.
Mark, if you can, get a pic of the otter trap.
Al, don't do it. I am 99.9% sure that they are just goldfish without the gold color.
anthropic congrats on a successful survey. sounds like your pond is full and doing well. Exactly..at least beavers don't eat fish. My trapper has a new otter contraption that is like a large minnow trap.....blue gill and crappie swim in and supposedly otter goes in to get them and gets stuck....he says trappers in area having some luck with it. I will let ya know how it works. Small world I was texting with Ethan today about the Black Salty.
Mark, if you can, get a pic of the otter trap.
Al, don't do it. I am 99.9% sure that they are just goldfish without the gold color.
Mark, I talked to Ethan yesterday. I was gonna poke him in the eye with a stick like Homer Simpson did Ned Flanders, but we were both busy. He was coming back from delivering fish, and I was picking up tilapia and grass carp. I got to Overton's about 5 minutes after they opened, and I was already 6th in line. Springtime is here, so Todd and his staff were hustling.
Mark, I talked to Ethan yesterday. I was gonna poke him in the eye with a stick like Homer Simpson did Ned Flanders, but we were both busy. He was coming back from delivering fish, and I was picking up tilapia and grass carp. I got to Overton's about 5 minutes after they opened, and I was already 6th in line. Springtime is here, so Todd and his staff were hustling.
Good folks, I'm glad to see them doing strong business!
Picked up forage fish @ Tyler Fish Farm - easy to do business with, but a 5 hour trip. Hard to find forage and game fish in North Texas since Arms went out of business. Overton is a 6 1/2 hour trip and only open some afternoons with an appointment. The fish trucks at the feed stores are hit and miss with questionable product. Pond King does not have any stock. Maybe a new fish supplier will start up.
anthropic congrats on a successful survey. sounds like your pond is full and doing well. Exactly..at least beavers don't eat fish. My trapper has a new otter contraption that is like a large minnow trap.....blue gill and crappie swim in and supposedly otter goes in to get them and gets stuck....he says trappers in area having some luck with it. I will let ya know how it works. Small world I was texting with Ethan today about the Black Salty.
Mark, if you can, get a pic of the otter trap.
Al, don't do it. I am 99.9% sure that they are just goldfish without the gold color.
What Black Salty's? I was talking about the trap.
Sorry Al, I thought you were talking about the Black Salty's not Zep,
Refilled feeders. HSB, LMB and CNBG attacked pellets, especially the large handthrown ones. This is my favorite time of the year, as just about everything in the lake is active.
Geese have brought off a half dozen cute little goslings. My wife is delighted. I am not.
Geese had 4 goslings swimming with them last weekend & only one this weekend. Don't love the geese, but 2nd year in row Geese present & almost zero water-turkey.
Geese had 4 goslings swimming with them last weekend & only one this weekend. Don't love the geese, but 2nd year in row Geese present & almost zero water-turkey.
It’s tough trying to garden with the weather being up and down. Zep is the pix of the bg a common bg female? I have some that look identical. But I have a lot of mutts also
When ordering some Optimal BG this week I ordered some Optimal Bass for the first time to try. I was figuring the LMB would like it more and it would be to big for the BG. I threw some out today and the LMB did like but I was surprised to see the BG eating so much of it. Next time I'll order the Handthrow.
When ordering some Optimal BG this week I ordered some Optimal Bass for the first time to try. I was figuring the LMB would like it more and it would be to big for the BG. I threw some out today and the LMB did like but I was surprised to see the BG eating so much of it. Next time I'll order the Handthrow.
You'll love the Handthrow, Bob. The larger LMB tend to target it, and it doesn't get eaten first by the BG (though a few giants try). Don't know if you have them, but HSB are particularly enthused & make quite splash crushing the offerings!
If you are a shameless angler like myself, a rubber band with hook attached to a Handthrown pellet can result in loads of excitement, but don't tell anybody I said this.
When ordering some Optimal BG this week I ordered some Optimal Bass for the first time to try. I was figuring the LMB would like it more and it would be to big for the BG. I threw some out today and the LMB did like but I was surprised to see the BG eating so much of it. Next time I'll order the Handthrow.
You'll love the Handthrow, Bob. The larger LMB tend to target it, and it doesn't get eaten first by the BG (though a few giants try). Don't know if you have them, but HSB are particularly enthused & make quite splash crushing the offerings!
If you are a shameless angler like myself, a rubber band with hook attached to a Handthrown pellet can result in loads of excitement, but don't tell anybody I said this.
Thanks for the tip. I don't mind helping the BG out but figured I was already doing that and was wanting to help the LMB out a little more. I also figured it would be fun to watch. I don't have any HSB right now but would like to get some one of these days.
Great pics, Pat. I hope my LMB do a similar number on the goslings at my place!
Does that otter trap really trap otter? Looks like they'd easily be able to tear free with their teeth & claws, but maybe I'm missing something.
I was kinda thinking that but on the other hand I can see them getting tangled up in that thing pretty quickly too, and as long as it id under water they wouldn't be able to come up for air, that might just do the trick.
I have been brainstorming an apparatus that would let them in like a funnel but might not let them out, similar to that concept but maybe more like an over sized square fish trap. stay tuned.
Thanks for the pics Mark. Did he bait it, or just set it as it was?
Al in theory the trapped fish in it are the bait for the otter, but he said throw in a can of dog food with a few holes in it. He just had surgery and it's kind of a work in progress. I checked it before we left and it had a crappie and a blue gill in it. We'll see how the experiment works out.
Got a very pleasant surprise today from Ethan: Alkalinity at my BOW measured 74! Natural level in 20s, after liming 40s best previous levels. No liming needed this year, and my fish are less stressed now.
Put in a double truckload ag lime, 20 tons, back in fall 2021. Guess that did the trick, at least for several years!
Mark, I talked to Ethan yesterday. I got to Overton's about 5 minutes after they opened, and I was already 6th in line. Springtime is here, so Todd and his staff were hustling.
Al I texted with Ethan today. He said they are so busy they have added a couple new delivery staff. One of them "Tye" is delivering my order Wed.
...Zep is the pix of the bg a common bg female? I have some that look identical. But I have a lot of mutts also
Pat, I have the same markings on some of my female CNBG. The breast color seems to brighten and spread approximately 7 days before they spawn. Of course that's up here, so I don't know what they do in central TX.
Noticed a couple days ago that some sort of varmint was chewing on the cattail sprouts around my pond.
Yesterday afternoon I noticed an odd wake on the water... sure enough it was a young muskrat.
Went inside and grabbed Mr. Ruger. Muskrat invader is now enjoying muskrat valhalla.
The baby grass is taking off on the pond dam where I did some landscaping the other week. It's been so dry here I've been using the lawn sprinkler on it. Most years we're drowning in April. Not this time.
I'm not a big fan of cattails, but they serve as an excellent MEWS (Muskrat Early Warning System).
Been trying for a few days to catch a HSB to throw on the smoker but haven't had any luck until yesterday.
I don't know if they've wised up to my hand throw pellet wrapped in stocking scrap trick, or if I'm so rusty I've just been failing to execute (the more likely explanation).
After missing three hook-up attempts yesterday I changed tactics. Grabbed a 3"-ish BG from the cage, shoved a hook up his nose, clipped tail and dorsal fins, then tossed him out for a swim. Missed the first two times they got after him, but the third time was the charm. I let him (actually her) run off with it and just reeled down tight rather than going for a big hook set.
19.75" 4.5lb. Just a touch under 110% on the relative weight chart. Fish was loaded with roe and had a semi-fresh crayfish in its stomach. We all know these HSB are pelagic by nature, but don't think for a minute that they won't eat anything they can catch. This was the 4th HSB that I've harvested from my pond. The first three also had crayfish in their guts.
Noticed a couple days ago that some sort of varmint was chewing on the cattail sprouts around my pond.
Yesterday afternoon I noticed an odd wake on the water... sure enough it was a young muskrat.
Went inside and grabbed Mr. Ruger. Muskrat invader is now enjoying muskrat valhalla.
The baby grass is taking off on the pond dam where I did some landscaping the other week. It's been so dry here I've been using the lawn sprinkler on it. Most years we're drowning in April. Not this time.
I'm not a big fan of cattails, but they serve as an excellent MEWS (Muskrat Early Warning System).
If there is any good side to muskrats, it is the fact that they love cat tail roots, they wont just eat the greens,, they dig up the roots and eat them.
HSB absolutely blasted Handthrown Optimal fish food chunks, a true delight to watch. LMB like Handthrown, too, but had a hard time getting there before the HSB. They were so eager that they often would knock the chunk airborne a foot or two away, then turn & engulf it. So glad that George Glazener pushed for HSB in ponds, despite opposition from the "experts" of the time. I never met George, but am thankful for him.
I stocked the HSB September of 2020. They were advertised as 6"-8". They've eaten a lot of Optimal since then.
And I forgot to mention the YP I caught during that session. I was so tickled to catch a big one that I forgot to measure and photo. The BG that caught the HSB I butchered also caught the biggest YP that I've ever touched. She was in the 16" range and spawned out. Likely would have been a new Misery state record if I'd caught her pre-spawn. I don't know how she got that BG in her mouth. If I hadn't clipped the dorsal fin on the BG before I tossed it in the water I probably would have had to butcher the YP too. It was all I could do to get the BG turned around in her mouth so I could pull it out without injuring her. Fortunately the BG was so big that the hook never found its way into the YP's flesh. The BG was so big she couldn't spit it out while I was reeling her in.
So maybe now I've learned the secret to catching YP in the midst of all the aggressive BG.
Fortunately the BG was so big that the hook never found its way into the YP's flesh. The BG was so big she couldn't spit it out while I was reeling her in.
So maybe now I've learned the secret to catching YP in the midst of all the aggressive BG.
Good job Augie on that great pond report.
I have heard of guys using barbless hooks, but catching fish using "hookless" hooks is far beyond my range of fishing skills!
Went to work at the farm yesterday. The multiple forecast rains last week were mostly a bust - the creek is still barely trickling.
However, the beaver used that opportunity to get a small dam started. He has backed up some water and I could see gams of all sizes, so I know they have spawned.
A little water has covered some of the sandbars and I see the GSF are making beds in the sand.
Finally, as I was loading up my truck, I saw movement down in the creek, and froze to see if I could catch the beaver in action. I was quite surprised to see that it was a wood duck pair working their way up the creek bottom!
I have so many predators at the farm, that I cannot imagine they can nest in a tree cavity and have the babies survive. However, I am rooting for them to win their family battle against "nature"!
Bald eagle 🦅 sightings. BIG HSB dominate feeders, aggressive fish and ferocious fighters. Will have to stop angling for them soon due to heat. Caught several around 8, lost a giant that couldn't be stopped.
Continue woes with feeders breaking down. I now have 6 feeders on site, but only 2 work. Given how expensive they are, this doesn't make me happy.
Sunil - Those 2"-2.5" LMB in early May in PA were 2022 year class. Your LMB 2023 year class of LMB even in the BEST food availability will not be 2" until Jul- Aug.
Continue woes with feeders breaking down. I now have 6 feeders on site, but only 2 work. Given how expensive they are, this doesn't make me happy.
I frequently click the "Like" button on Pond Boss, because there are so many enjoyable and/or informative posts that I read.
l looked to click the "Bummer" button for your post, but I couldn't find that button!
I assume your expensive feeders are reasonably easy to repair. However, as with most Pond Boss posts, the hard part is correctly identifying the problem.
If you can identify the problems, I have seen some of the Pond Boss experts give very specific repair advice on the forum.
Good luck getting your feeders back to 100%.
P.S. Did you move some BG brood stock up to your forage pond? That should provide some good feed later this year!
Bald eagle 🦅 sightings. BIG HSB dominate feeders, aggressive fish and ferocious fighters. Will have to stop angling for them soon due to heat. Caught several around 8, lost a giant that couldn't be stopped.
Continue woes with feeders breaking down. I now have 6 feeders on site, but only 2 work. Given how expensive they are, this doesn't make me happy.
That sucks on the feeders. I wonder why they are giving you problems? If it helps any, here's what I do. I give them a good cleaning every Spring, I take them apart and scrape out any powdered food that is stuck to them, double check the connections, remove any spider webs, wash off the solar charger from any accumulated tree sap/dust/pollen and double check the spin plate to bottom of the hopper gap to make sure it's correct for the size feed that I'm throwing.
I am noticing that if I have the gap too big, the feed will pile up in the transfer port before it hits the air blower. I will cut back on the feed time but bump up the frequency if that happens, or adjust the spin plate up a hair.
If the feeder has a sight window or edges, they sometimes Leak during a rain. That can cause feed to clump up. Then when that clump works it’s way down to the spinner, it can hang up and burnout the motor.
I carefully clean any possible leak areas and caulk them
If the feeder has a sight window or edges, they sometimes Leak during a rain. That can cause feed to clump up. Then when that clump works it’s way down to the spinner, it can hang up and burnout the motor.
I carefully clean any possible leak areas and caulk them
I have a 25 yr old sweeney feeder that a friend gave me, I had to do some updates to it but it performs pretty well still, I did have to redo the sight glass, and a couple other orifices that had the seals dry out over the years. those moisture clumps created my biggest problems when they turn loose and either block off the feed dispenser or burn up a drive motor. I know this site mostly leans toward TH feeders for sponsor reasons, and that's great, am planning on getting one, but I have had good luck with this one so far, exceptional cust service for this 25 yr old feeder.
Better news from the feeder front: We were able to unstop one of them & restore function (at least for now). Also assembled & deployed another new feeder, so have 4 working. I've always used TH, but may want to check out Sweeney as well.
HSB reign supreme at my place, dominate feeding & fishing. We caught several in the 8 lb range, lost a real biggun that basically just took off & spooled the reel. But last evening my buddy hooked a monster that did NOT escape, set a new pond record. We didn't weigh it due to anxiety about taking it out of the water, but I think a 12! True highlight of his visit, perhaps the largest freshwater fish he's ever caught. Topwater trout imitator did the trick.
One tidbit: Unlike LMB, HSB don't head for cover when hooked. Almost every time, they take off for open water. Based on my admittedly limited experience, HSB are much less cover/structure oriented than LMB. I notice the same thing when tossing out big chunks of fish food.
Speaking of caulking, what kind is best for keeping out driving rain?
Bald eagle 🦅 sightings. BIG HSB dominate feeders, aggressive fish and ferocious fighters. Will have to stop angling for them soon due to heat. Caught several around 8, lost a giant that couldn't be stopped.
Continue woes with feeders breaking down. I now have 6 feeders on site, but only 2 work. Given how expensive they are, this doesn't make me happy.
That sucks on the feeders. I wonder why they are giving you problems? If it helps any, here's what I do. I give them a good cleaning every Spring, I take them apart and scrape out any powdered food that is stuck to them, double check the connections, remove any spider webs, wash off the solar charger from any accumulated tree sap/dust/pollen and double check the spin plate to bottom of the hopper gap to make sure it's correct for the size feed that I'm throwing.
I am noticing that if I have the gap too big, the feed will pile up in the transfer port before it hits the air blower. I will cut back on the feed time but bump up the frequency if that happens, or adjust the spin plate up a hair.
I had a AquaPro feeder prior to getting the TH. I fought it for at least five years before giving up. I’m not at our pond all the time. So, when it quit it often sat for a week or more. It was very frustrating to find it still full of feed when I’d come to the pond. Just various issues. I replaced the timer, a motor, sealed a few leaks. I was happy to see the TH threw the feed about 50% further also. I don’t know if there is any connections with Sweeney and AquaPro.
At the pond yesterday. We had a 1.5” rain, the first one in months. It must have come down fast because I got 4” raise in the pond level. My APW is starting to come back. Still hearing a lot of gobbling in the surrounding woods. And, the CRP I planted a few weeks ago is finally breaking the surface.
I had a AquaPro feeder prior to getting the TH. I fought it for at least five years before giving up. I’m not at our pond all the time. So, when it quit it often sat for a week or more. It was very frustrating to find it still full of feed when I’d come to the pond. Just various issues. I replaced the timer, a motor, sealed a few leaks. I was happy to see the TH threw the feed about 50% further also. I don’t know if there is any connections with Sweeney and AquaPro.
At the pond yesterday. We had a 1.5” rain, the first one in months. It must have come down fast because I got 4” raise in the pond level. My APW is starting to come back. Still hearing a lot of gobbling in the surrounding woods. And, the CRP I planted a few weeks ago is finally breaking the surface.
Good to hear you got some rain, it split right around us, again, they got a good bit south of us and the storm that must have come thru your area North of us, like FishinRod, we got about a tenth. but it was all absorbed pretty quickly. We are in what they call Drought conditions, grass is at a pretty much standstill as far as growing goes, its almost like August in May, maybe not quite as hot tho.
Anthropic, as for caulk, I have the best luck with polyurethane, I use a commercial grade, as I get it to use on septic risers, repairs and such. it seems to last a long time and is very rubbery. but the regular Urethane caulk from a box store works well, not a fan of silicone. I tried some of the magnificent "flex seal" spray on something before and it actually leaked faster afterwards then it did before, similar results on several different leaks so needless to say I dont use a lot of it anymore.
8k Threadfin Shad added today. Bass apparently went on a feeding frenzy, hope some of the little guys survived!
Still have significant issues with one of my feeders after rainstorms. I can see where it's leaking but haven't found a permanent fix yet. Rain does nasty things to both feed & feeder. Placed order for sealant that supposed to work well on metals. We'll see!
Can you go at the feeder leak NOT head on? If the feeder is on the dock, you could build a little rain shelter with some 2x4s and a single piece of metal roofing in a "wife approved" color.
Can you go at the feeder leak NOT head on? If the feeder is on the dock, you could build a little rain shelter with some 2x4s and a single piece of metal roofing in a "wife approved" color.
Just thinking outside the box.
Interesting suggestion, might come down to that. One problem would be that thunderstorms are usually accompanied by high winds that would not be blocked with roof, would need complete coverage with a hole for feed to be expelled.
Even thought about putting an extra thick plastic garbage bag over the entire thing, with a hole for the feed to throw. Ugly & would be a hassle every time I need to check on feed level & mechanical operation. But I'm really getting tired of digging through the pellets after a hard rain. Will try sealant & hope that ends the drama.
Can you go at the feeder leak NOT head on? If the feeder is on the dock, you could build a little rain shelter with some 2x4s and a single piece of metal roofing in a "wife approved" color.
Just thinking outside the box.
Interesting suggestion, might come down to that. One problem would be that thunderstorms are usually accompanied by high winds that would not be blocked with roof, would need complete coverage with a hole for feed to be expelled.
Even thought about putting an extra thick plastic garbage bag over the entire thing, with a hole for the feed to throw. Ugly & would be a hassle every time I need to check on feed level & mechanical operation. But I'm really getting tired of digging through the pellets after a hard rain. Will try sealant & hope that ends the drama.
And it probably doesn't help that wet fish food is about as nasty and sour smelling as anything you can get ahold of. There's gotta be some way to seal the damn thing off to prevent the rain from getting into it. Good Luck!
Thanks, gehajake! Will keep PB Forum posted on how sealant performs, I'm not the only one to have issues like this. And as you say, when the pellets get soaked, doesn't take more than a day or two before really bad things happen!
I’ve caulked around the insides and the sight windows of my THF. New motors are expensive and a PITA to install. Due to leaks, I wouldn’t buy another one.
Texas Hunters consistently Leak. Sweeney’s don’t do with that information what you will.
Thanks! By the way, do Sweeney's reliably throw 9.5 mm fish food? That's proven too large for my TH, inevitably causes a jam within a few days.
I wouldnt know affirmatively that they will throw that size feed but I have used genuine old cheap catfish food, that has some big pellets, zero problems, there is nothing I see about them that would keep them from it, there is no spacing or clearance issue that would restrict them, as I have heard people say about the TH feeders, some opening or space thing to adjust for feed size, nothing like that on the Sweeney, no adjustments, just a time thing for amount of feed thrown. After 25 yrs, several minor replacement parts and resealing a couple dried out seals around the thing it performs like a brand new one still. I used a polyurethane caulk around the sight glass and a couple other spots a couple years ago when it started seeping a little and clumping feed and now its dry as a bone again, havent had a clump in a yr. I do know the only thing that stopped it from feeding is a couple yrs ago I had a big clump of feed, a couple inches in dia, worked its way down and blocked the auger off.
I’ve caulked around the insides and the sight windows of my THF. New motors are expensive and a PITA to install. Due to leaks, I wouldn’t buy another one.
My experience has been that some leak immediately after purchase, others don't after years of use. You just never know.
The clumping of wet feed is a big issue when it leaks, though. Had several feeders that went defunct due to motor burnout from clumps. Darn things are expensive hassle to repair or replace! As I don't live on the pond, checking daily is not practical.
Both of our largest ponds are still dry, despite the rain (0.90") a week ago. At least I now have "mud" at the bottom of the ponds!
I recently created a small temporary dam in the creek with sandbags to impound some water for fire season.
I went to check on it yesterday, and to fix any erosion problems.
I immediately noticed lots of raccoon tracks in the mud as those fat b*astards are apparently enjoying the pool I created for them.
However, when I stepped down to make repairs, I notice some hind footprints. Obviously, I didn't examine the tracks closely enough, because these tracks were from a medium-sized beaver.
It looks like he examined my temporary dam, paying particular attention to the two places that had flowing water. He has not yet made any "improvements" to my little dam. I am really hoping that he does create a nice beaver dam upstream, because if he impounds 2-3 feet of water in the creek, then I should have plenty of water to draw for fire suppression and tree watering throughout the summer.
I cleared another 5 feet (maybe 6?) along the side of our pond. Lots and lots of vines... green briar, PI, trumpet creeper, honey suckle. Plus lots of little bitty hackberries and ligustrums. More to compost, more to burn. Fun times!
Went fishing with a Pop-R top water and plucked out a 6-7# LMB and a handful of 1-2# other ones, missed some. First time to try top water this season
Awesome Pat!
I think that if you want to get a kid hooked on bass fishing, take them out when the bass are hitting top water lures. Even when the bass "misses", the kid still gets some excitement. (Of course, adults should ALSO find that exciting.)
I remember my father taking me out under those conditions when I was pretty young. Sometimes I missed fish because the bass hit the lure so hard that it was knocked into the air, and when I set the hook the lure came straight back at me.
Learning patience as an excited youth is definitely a valuable life skill, and it was darn tough for me to wait long enough to feel some solid weight on the line before setting the hook after I had just witnessed an explosive splash surrounding my lure!
This is so true, hard to wait but sometimes it’s instant
Whenever I missed one where the bass created a very large swirl, I was sure I had missed a 6-7# bass (which is a monster in Kansas).
Now that I am older, and perhaps slightly wiser, I am pretty sure a 1.5# bass could also make a pretty big swirl as it turns to rush a lure! But as a kid, I was kicking myself for missing a lunker.
The other day was fishing with small bg for bait and hooked a 12” bass and had a hoss eat it, fought it for a while till it got tired of me and spit the lil bass out missing about half the scales where it chomped it. I let it go so it could live to tell the story to its grand kids.
I did the top water Heddon Spook over the weekend and they were hitting it good, aolmost every cast, My wife wanted to know why I wasnt doing this all along, that was awesome, I tried to tell her it doesnt work most of the time, just a few weeks out of the year. Its as much fun as bass fishing can get.
My wife wanted to know why I wasnt doing this all along, that was awesome, I tried to tell her it doesnt work most of the time, just a few weeks out of the year. Its as much fun as bass fishing can get.
I hope you let her take a few casts to get in on the fun!
My wife wanted to know why I wasnt doing this all along, that was awesome, I tried to tell her it doesnt work most of the time, just a few weeks out of the year. Its as much fun as bass fishing can get.
I hope you let her take a few casts to get in on the fun!
I did let her do it but she still has to work a little on the finesse of the whole thing, instead of a little jig or twitch she would jerk the damn thing several ft at a time, they still came after and hit it, she was able to catch several. granted mine are just 2 1/2 yrs old, no really big ones in there but they are still fun. My next challenge is going to be the CC, them damn things look like they upwards of 5 6 lbs and I cannot get them to bite on anything. Im wanting to eat them and get them out of the pond pretty bad. but no luck yet, I have caught them in the past, seldom releasing any for several yrs now but they seem smart as heck, that and A lot of the standing timber around the back half of the pond is starting to drop big limbs and whole treetops and some whole trees, and it seems the wind blows them up to the front half shorelines of the pond before they sink, so now I have tons of brush on the bottom around the shorelines, harder then ever to get one out if you do hook one, they will take you straight into the brush. Oh well, I guess if it was easy women and kids would be doing it.
Today I filled the feeder with Optimal. Thanks to Chris for ordering and delivering it to me. Then 4 wheeler ride to the back of the place. Wife tossed feed to the green sunfish in our 1/4 acre pond.
Then 4 wheeler Ride to a place where I dismounted and looked for pigs. Appears that they have left my place. I won’t miss them.
Next to the power line area and picked/ate some wild black berries. Back to the house for a nap. Then back to home in the Fort Worth area.
Today I filled the feeder with Optimal. Thanks to Chris for ordering and delivering it to me. Then 4 wheeler ride to the back of the place. Wife tossed feed to the green sunfish in our 1/4 acre pond.
Then 4 wheeler Ride to a place where I dismounted and looked for pigs. Appears that they have left my place. I won’t miss them.
Next to the power line area and picked/ate some wild black berries. Back to the house for a nap. Then back to home in the Fort Worth area.
That sounds like one where you can definitely check the "good day" box!
Rod, I expect that they will be back. But, neighbors are saying the same thing.
Mine are back….. killed a234# sow that had never had babies and was absolutely beautiful when we butchered her …. Fat and no smell at all. We ate one side of ribs and like emerill says pork fat rules!
Rod, I expect that they will be back. But, neighbors are saying the same thing.
Mine are back….. killed a234# sow that had never had babies and was absolutely beautiful when we butchered her …. Fat and no smell at all. We ate one side of ribs and like emerill says pork fat rules!
If there was ever a place for the quote, "If you been handed a lemon, make lemonade" come into play that has to be it.
The M.E.W.S. was activated on my pond a few days ago. So far the guilty criminal remains at large. Mr. Conibear and Mr. Ruger are being brought in to deal with the vermin before too much damage is done.
The M.E.W.S. was activated on my pond a few days ago. So far the guilty criminal remains at large. Mr. Conibear and Mr. Ruger are being brought in to deal with the vermin before too much damage is done.
Not at the pond, but the past few days have been interesting....
I'm watching the neighbors chickens (21 birds) until their house is closed (they already moved to Florida) and the new owners take possession which is supposed to happen the end of the month. Well, Tuesday night the coons chewed a hole in the chicken wire about 3' off the ground and got inside the pen/coop. 9 birds were either killed and dragged out of the pen or dead & partially eaten inside the pen/coop. The hole was about 18" dia. I patched the hole and reinforced some other areas that looked iffy. Wednesday night they pulled hard enough on the chicken wire at the same height that they opened up a hole large enough to squeeze in, but not large enough to get a bird out. 5 more dead, partially eaten birds. I said enough is enough, blocked off the door to the coop just enough to put a live trap in the doorway, and set five Z-Traps (Dog Proof coon traps) outside the pen and baited them with Optimal Starter #4.
Friday morning I had 4 'coons (one boar, 3 females that all showed that they had a litter) waiting for me and none had entered the pen, so there was nothing in the live trap that was blocking the coop door. I felt better, but reset the traps, found two more areas that they had torn the chicken wire AND one wire from the 2"x4" galvanized inner wire that was around the perimeter of the pen at ground level. I reinforced those areas, closed up the hole that they had made Wednesday night, and moved the live trap outside of the pen. So now there were 6 traps outside of the pen.
This morning there were 4 more coon waiting for me. Again, one boar and 3 females. All the coon were adults, and THESE 3 females showed signs of recently having a litter too. So, that's 8 'coon in two days.... These also went to feed the buzzards and I will re-set/re-bait the traps tonight. I ordered 1/2 dzn more traps yesterday from Z Traps and they should be showing up soon. I'm seeing coon keeping the deer away from the deer feeder on the trail cam, so I will be putting some traps around that as well.
There is a "neighbor" (about 1/2 mile away) that "loves" coons. He will sit on his porch and feed them dog food, even having a few crawl up into his lap to eat. He even contacted the local animal control company and told them that they could release their caught 'coons on his place. A few years ago when the neighbors had a problem in their coop I fed 31 coons to the buzzards in the span of a few weeks. I am peeved to say the least and I will keep the traps set until I don't catch any more for a month. I'll rotate different baits just to be sure I'm not educating any. The buzzards should thank me, as should the turkeys and other nesting birds.
They won the first two skirmishes, but I WILL win the war - at least this year.
Now for pond related stuff, I rebuilt a TH feeder that I bought from FireIsHot a few years ago. The spin plate motor shorted out, and it fried the timer control. it seems he had some issues with moisture getting in around the sight glass too, plus the blower motor was making a funny noise. The feeder is old, I don't know how many years old it is, but it's old enough that the decals on the outside were all sun rotted and gone. I took the feeder completely apart, fixed the blower motor noise (blower was barely rubbing on a rivet head, I moved the squirrel cage about 1/16" on the motor shaft and that fixed that problem). I replaced the spin plate motor, replaced both sight glass windows gave the inside a good cleaning and installed a new timer and battery. I also put new TH decals on the outside and replaced both latches. It's gong to be a test bed for some modifications I'm doing to see if I can get it to throw the 3/8" Triton feed reliably. (3D printers are wonderful things).
I also had some Watermeal show up at my pond, so I'm hitting it with Propeller when the wind blows it to one side.
This morning I returned a Vertex single piston compressor that I rebuilt for a customer; reinstalled it at the pond, and drove over to their chicken coop to look at it. I was half way there to the coop when this guy jumped from the back seat to the dash. Needless to say it scared the you know what out of me, as I *thought* I was the only one in the truck and all the windows were up.
That's what I get for leaving the truck door open while I was re-installing the compressor.
O.K., we are here by the birds, now you can get out, no charge for the taxi service.
esshup, them DP traps are amazing, I have finally, after several yrs of persistent trapping, had a very good hatch of young turkeys, several hens with a whole flock of young ones. something that I hadnt seen in yrs. I was getting over run with coons. 3 yrs and over 80 coons later, I am able to put some food out in the winter for turkeys and not have a whole flock of coons clean it up immediately. I use the fishfood and then when I am trapping randomly out in the woods I will scatter probably a spoon full of anise seeds, or a drop or two of the anise oil around the trap, the stuff smells really good and draws them in from a distance.
A few years ago when the neighbors had a problem in their coop I fed 31 coons to the buzzards in the span of a few weeks.
That would have had me buying another freezer. Two years ago I put ten racoons in the freezer. Not a one last year. Now they're back and I've got something for them.
I saw another muskrat on the pond yesterday. Went and fetched Mr. Ruger who sent a high-speed 40 grain love note to the filthy varmint.
1.6" of rain this morning. Came fairly quickly but not so fast to have any runoff for the pond.
I'm going to drag the pond hopper boat out and deploy my aeration diffuser this afternoon. Should have done it six weeks ago, but I needed to replace the mainline and I didn't have any on hand. I bought a 100' roll of black farmer pipe yesterday so now I just gotta get out there and do it.
Two years ago I put ten racoons in the freezer. Not a one last year. Now they're back and I've got something for them.
Why did you put racoons in the freezer? (Probably a stupid question, but that never stopped me before!)
I'm thinking either eating, skinning, or something I don't want to hear about.
I'm glad somebody else asked, the fur isn't worth skinning even in the prime months, and I damn sure ain't eating one of them thru the summer months, several that I catch in the summer months are eat up with ticks and look semi rough.
Roasted/BBQ racoon is one of my favorites, but I won't butcher a sick one.
Thanks for the reply Augie.
The only time I ever ate BBQ raccoon was at a Soul Food festival. It was excellent, but it was also served in a home made sweet KC-style BBQ sauce that was so good that it would probably have been tasty on sawdust. My grandfather took me to meet some of his old fishing buddies who were presenting some of their favorite foods. We were the only two white people at the event.
I got to try multiple dishes of food that I had never had before - or since! I wish I had been a little older so I could have appreciated all of the foods and all of the different cultures they derived from.
Had a chance to get by the farm today, started clearing a couple acres for more foodplots for turkey and deer. was tickled to see we had 3 1/2" of rain there Sunday, 3" at home, but filled my pond up to overflowing from about 6 to 8" down. all came in a really short time, not much over an hr. some of the neighbors on both sides of there had 4".
Working really good for clearing trees, with a track-hoe you can pluck the little ones out in the bottom ground like a weed, roots come out clean as a whistle. helps that it is a real sandy topsoil loam about two' deep.
Had a chance to get by the farm today, started clearing a couple acres for more foodplots for turkey and deer. was tickled to see we had 3 1/2" of rain there Sunday, 3" at home, but filled my pond up to overflowing from about 6 to 8" down. all came in a really short time, not much over an hr. some of the neighbors on both sides of there had 4".
Working really good for clearing trees, with a track-hoe you can pluck the little ones out in the bottom ground like a weed, roots come out clean as a whistle. helps that it is a real sandy topsoil loam about two' deep.
Had a chance to get by the farm today, started clearing a couple acres for more foodplots for turkey and deer. was tickled to see we had 3 1/2" of rain there Sunday, 3" at home, but filled my pond up to overflowing from about 6 to 8" down. all came in a really short time, not much over an hr. some of the neighbors on both sides of there had 4".
Working really good for clearing trees, with a track-hoe you can pluck the little ones out in the bottom ground like a weed, roots come out clean as a whistle. helps that it is a real sandy topsoil loam about two' deep.
Wow! I sure wish we’d get some rain in northeast Missouri! One of these days.. Hopefully. I’m heading up tomorrow to check things out. I was going to post a joke about catching these or stocking these in my pond, but gave up trying to make it humorous. I’ve been up in the Northwest Territories of Canada. Up above Yellowknife.
Impressive fish that produce great memories. Thanks for sharing. Catch and releasing those far northern fish helps keep the system in balance to maintain impressive catches in that clear low productive water.
Beautiful pics, thanks for sharing. Makes me wish even more for O2 saturation tech that could enable my pond to keep tiger muskie healthy below the thermocline all summer!
Impressive fish that produce great memories. Thanks for sharing. Catch and releasing those far northern fish helps keep the system in balance to maintain impressive catches in that clear low productive water.
The water was incredibly clear. You can see the bottom in 12’ very clearly. The fish were pretty aggressive also, we caught 80+ on a couple of the days. Barbless hooks were required, and the guides handled the fish very carefully. I was told the 40+ inch pike were over 30 yrs old.. There’s a fair amount of concern about a road that was recently put through, possibly bringing in more fishermen. While we were there, we were the only boats out.
Those are some awesome, beautiful fish, had to been a ton of fun to catch, I have several friends around here that go to a lake up in Minn, right on the Canada line every yr, another friend of mine has a cabin up there on that lake, Ive never been able to go, its on my bucket list. If you woulda told us you caught them outta your pond Ida been up there before daylight! with my heaviest fishing gear.
Pond is about a year old (full pond in January) and finally got 2 kids and 4 grandsons at the pond for swimming, paddle boarding, canoeing, kayaking. A good return on investment! No pictures, too busy enjoying the day.
One asked if he could fish; I said next year. Trying to do perch, SMB, pumpkinseed but having a rough time finding any at NYS qualified hatcheries. Zetts in PA would only sell 100 perch fingerlings (shipping next week), no SMB. I will see if I can get more locally in the fall. I think the grandkids had enough fun they will ask to come back (live 3-1/2 hours away), with or without the fishing.
Retired on 40. My grandkids absolutely love our pond. Fishing, swimming, kayaking, rowing, catching frogs, tadpoles, crawdads, jumping off the dock, and trying to dunk grandpa. They can’t get enough. The single best investment I’ve ever made, was putting the pond on our farm. It’s also VERY nice when they leave, and grandma and grandpa can float peacefully with a cold beverage. Ha!
Beautiful pics, thanks for sharing. Makes me wish even more for O2 saturation tech that could enable my pond to keep tiger muskie healthy below the thermocline all summer!
It's out there. Break out the pocketbook though!! Send me the pond coordinates and I can give you a quote, but it will be in the middle or a bit higher 5 figure range.....
Thanks for the tip, Eric. The price makes me gulp -- I'm doing okay, but no billionaire. Still, would love to pull it off! May PM you if I can ever convince my better half...
Today my wife & visiting mother went to pond. Only had two sacks of fish food at Purina store, so deployed them in my feeders. More frustration with the feeders, as one year old one on the dock ceased working.
The first few years, every new feeder worked fine, the only exception being when the lower housing got flooded. The last few years, new feeders have a 50 percent chance of lasting two years, even though not flooded & much more expensive. Not sure why.
No cormorants, geese, nor otters. I plan to move a working feeder from a corner of the dam to the dock, want fish to keep coming there. Not seeing the HSB nor LMB smash feed much anymore, just CNBG.
The customer said that those weren't the biggest in the pond either, and he's got Redear that are over 12" long. Stocked in 2017.
Interesting. I stocked Redear over 8 years ago. We catch a lot of them, but have never caught any that were very big. We caught (and released) one last weekend that was maybe 8 or 9”. That’s one of the biggest ones we’ve ever caught. I’m guessing the fish are there, it’s the fishermen that need to improve. We did catch one of the original HBG. It was a big one.
Pat, it was brutal. This weather cap is supposed to be heading east, and unfortunately it's gonna hit other states. Keeping the goats and chickens out of the heat, and providing cool water for them is tough. Humidity is worse than the temp.
Started planting the new switchgrass plugs on the dam of the 4th pond after running out last year. The switchgrass plugs from last year had what appears to be 100% survival on a pure clay dam and are really doing well this year. In my area in central Indiana, this seems like a good way to stem erosion on a steep dam. Wife is growing the plugs for me. We finally have a little rain which is why I started planting them. Using a bulb auger in a cordless drill which works quite well.
The switchgrass is planted between where I mow and the pond(s). I actually have finished off the planting on the 4th pond and started on the 3rd pond dam. I am planting Blackwell which is supposed to tolerate submersion for up to a couple months and be especially good at erosion control. Time will tell. We seeded a 10' wide strip last year in another area with Cave-N-Rock.
Had beavers show up recently and clog the overflow pipe. Set up a trap and caught one, unclogged the pipe, which was a chore because it was packed quite deep, and has remained open for a few days so hopefully it was alone. I did a short video of the trapping settup and process.
The Middle of Misery has been in a drought since last fall. My pond is so low that it was becoming quite a chore to get from the ramp to the dock and then back, so I whipped up a set of stairs and attached them to the floating gangway.
When the pond is at full pool the fixed ramp and the floating ramp are at the same elevation. The stairs are 7" rise per tread and there's ~13" between the top tread and the ramp. It's much easier and safer to get on and off now. When the water eventually rises to the point the top tread is even with the ramp I'll remove the screws and yank it out of there with a gin pole on the front loader.
No excavator needed in the pond, but I did put two loader buckets full of 6"x12" crushed limestone on the water side of the dam yesterday.
I'd been needing to get back on that project for awhile, but the brakes were out on my loader tractor so not safe to attempt. lol I got that problem corrected a couple weeks ago and I'm back in business. Probably have another half dozen scoops of cobble on the pile that still need to go into the pond. It will be nice to have that job finished.
The Middle of Misery has been in a drought since last fall. My pond is so low that it was becoming quite a chore to get from the ramp to the dock and then back, so I whipped up a set of stairs and attached them to the floating gangway.
When the pond is at full pool the fixed ramp and the floating ramp are at the same elevation. The stairs are 7" rise per tread and there's ~13" between the top tread and the ramp. It's much easier and safer to get on and off now. When the water eventually rises to the point the top tread is even with the ramp I'll remove the screws and yank it out of there with a gin pole on the front loader. ]
We are so far behind on rain, it’s ridiculous. What’s driving me crazy is the continuous forecasting of rain, but we only get a few drops. Severe weather alerts, but nothing ever happens. My CRP is all up, but weeds will overtake it, if we don’t get some rain. Pond is down close to 2 feet. Bullfrogs are finding no place to hide. Pond weed is on the bank. The water is still cool, and nice for swimming. The new YP are hammering everything that comes out of the feeder. Hopefully I’ll have some keepers next year. No otters have come back, but the fish are gone, so why would they?
No excavator needed in the pond, but I did put two loader buckets full of 6"x12" crushed limestone on the water side of the dam yesterday.
I'd been needing to get back on that project for awhile, but the brakes were out on my loader tractor so not safe to attempt. lol I got that problem corrected a couple weeks ago and I'm back in business. Probably have another half dozen scoops of cobble on the pile that still need to go into the pond. It will be nice to have that job finished.
That size of cobble on the dam should look very nice AND stop some wave erosion.
Any plans to add some crayfish? I think they might enjoy all of the empty "crayfish condos" that you just built for them!
The Middle of Misery has been in a drought since last fall. My pond is so low that it was becoming quite a chore to get from the ramp to the dock and then back, so I whipped up a set of stairs and attached them to the floating gangway.
When the pond is at full pool the fixed ramp and the floating ramp are at the same elevation. The stairs are 7" rise per tread and there's ~13" between the top tread and the ramp. It's much easier and safer to get on and off now. When the water eventually rises to the point the top tread is even with the ramp I'll remove the screws and yank it out of there with a gin pole on the front loader. ]
We are so far behind on rain, it’s ridiculous. What’s driving me crazy is the continuous forecasting of rain, but we only get a few drops. Severe weather alerts, but nothing ever happens. My CRP is all up, but weeds will overtake it, if we don’t get some rain. Pond is down close to 2 feet. Bullfrogs are finding no place to hide. Pond weed is on the bank. The water is still cool, and nice for swimming. The new YP are hammering everything that comes out of the feeder. Hopefully I’ll have some keepers next year. No otters have come back, but the fish are gone, so why would they?
I got so tired of never getting enough rain to help the pond and just watching it go down, that most of the time I don't even bother keeping track of rain fall or losses. I was keeping real good records until this year.
Bobbss, I was keeping temp and clarity records. Trying to decide on aeration. Last time I was at the pond, I thought, why am I doing this? 88% chance on Wed 56% on Friday. Maybe it’ll rain this week.. Hahaha! I’m going to go ahead and put in foodplots for the deer. Of course, if I don’t plant them, we will get perfect rain.. Agh!
Two of our three ponds went totally dry due to our two-year drought.
We have now had 9" of rain in the last four days, including 4.5" of rain two nights ago!
I feel like the statistician that has one foot in a bucket of ice water and one foot in a bucket of boiling water and says, "On average, I feel just fine."
There is a USGS streamflow station on the river just downstream of where our tributary creek joins the river. It hit flood stage yesterday afternoon. Fortunately, it has already dropped below flood stage as the depleted surface aquifers are taking a big drink!
The Middle of Misery has been in a drought since last fall. My pond is so low that it was becoming quite a chore to get from the ramp to the dock and then back, so I whipped up a set of stairs and attached them to the floating gangway.
When the pond is at full pool the fixed ramp and the floating ramp are at the same elevation. The stairs are 7" rise per tread and there's ~13" between the top tread and the ramp. It's much easier and safer to get on and off now. When the water eventually rises to the point the top tread is even with the ramp I'll remove the screws and yank it out of there with a gin pole on the front loader. ]
We are so far behind on rain, it’s ridiculous. What’s driving me crazy is the continuous forecasting of rain, but we only get a few drops. Severe weather alerts, but nothing ever happens. My CRP is all up, but weeds will overtake it, if we don’t get some rain. Pond is down close to 2 feet. Bullfrogs are finding no place to hide. Pond weed is on the bank. The water is still cool, and nice for swimming. The new YP are hammering everything that comes out of the feeder. Hopefully I’ll have some keepers next year. No otters have come back, but the fish are gone, so why would they?
I got so tired of never getting enough rain to help the pond and just watching it go down, that most of the time I don't even bother keeping track of rain fall or losses. I was keeping real good records until this year.
Bob, I agree, its like watching gas prices, you're going to buy it anyhow, so if you dont look at them it cant depress you as much.
It is so wet at the farm under these conditions that I can't drive around without tearing up my roads.
I suspect my silt pond that keeps the run-off out of the wheat field from reaching the creek is probably full. My deepest groundwater pond should be going up.
My "best pond" was built with a drag line almost 100 years ago (I think). It WAS a really nice groundwater pond, but the water table has dropped so far that it only gets about half full during very wet extended periods. It actually has very little watershed to feed it with surface water, but I think I can seal it and divert water to it when I finally get heavy iron back on the farm!
That size of cobble on the dam should look very nice AND stop some wave erosion.
Any plans to add some crayfish? I think they might enjoy all of the empty "crayfish condos" that you just built for them!
It does look nice and makes lots of hidey spots for crayfish, minnows and fry.
I got crayfish from QA the summer of '19. For a while I was almost wishing I hadn't because they ate every speck of greenery in the pond. Then the HSB and SMB were stocked fall of '20. Once they sized up a bit they started working on the crayfish and have reduced their numbers substantially.
I'm hoping to get a resurgence of APW and arrowhead after the water level gets back to where it belongs. We will see...
We got 4.8" of rain and a bit of wind at the house yesterday evening. Most of it came in a pair of 15 minutes downpours. The plastic film on my hoop house is shredded. Sweet corn flattened. Tree limbs busted all over the place. It's a mess.
On the bright side, I installed the replacement power unit on Judy's Garmin Force trolling motor before we lost electricity. It will be nice to have that functional again... if I ever have time to use it.
On the brighter side, there's a foot of new water in my pond. I flipped the timer switch to constant run while the power was out. Checked it this morning and saw that we were without power for right at eight hours. I reset the timer but I'm going to leave it running until the clouds break and it starts to heat up outside then I'll flip it back to timer mode.
They were predicting over an inch of rain here but we got only 1/10th inch. One of our wetlands built by the state (but owned by us) has been mostly dry for 3 years now. I finally went out with a backhoe and dug a trench about 30 feet long inside the dam near the deepest point and found an open clay field tile. Did my best to remove and seal up the tile without breeching the dam because they installed chain link fence in it to prevent muskrats from boring holes, so going further into the dam would have created quite a mess. Hoping that my packing with clay will stop that leak and that there are not more open tiles. Contract, that the state wrote up, called for removing old tile, but their approach seemed to be haphazard... Hard to find folks that understand the concepts and follow through on the processes. Without this forum, I would be one of those ignorant to those same concepts. Another big thank you to those here that share their expertise so freely!
We got a whopping 3/4”. But that’s a lot better than anything in the last couple of months. It’ll keep my CRP alive, but I don’t think it’s going to help the corn or beans. They both still look pretty bad. I found a used 54” mowing deck for my JD X540. It was about the price of 2 new mower belts from JD. My old deck was bent, and eating belts. I quit using JD belts after 2. Not much is growing with the drought, but crabgrass and other weeds are very drought resistant. So I mowed them down with the new to me deck. It’s from a lot older JD than mine, but fit perfectly, and it’s better, smoother, and quieter.. $2,000 for a new deck from JD.. Not happening.. I’ll get down to the pond in about 2hrs. I’ll see how warm the water is getting when I dive in. Ha
They were predicting over an inch of rain here but we got only 1/10th inch. One of our wetlands built by the state (but owned by us) has been mostly dry for 3 years now. I finally went out with a backhoe and dug a trench about 30 feet long inside the dam near the deepest point and found an open clay field tile. Did my best to remove and seal up the tile without breeching the dam because they installed chain link fence in it to prevent muskrats from boring holes, so going further into the dam would have created quite a mess. Hoping that my packing with clay will stop that leak and that there are not more open tiles. Contract, that the state wrote up, called for removing old tile, but their approach seemed to be haphazard... Hard to find folks that understand the concepts and follow through on the processes. Without this forum, I would be one of those ignorant to those same concepts. Another big thank you to those here that share their expertise so freely!
Not going to lie, we built a sewage lagoon in a farm field, didnt realize we came within a couple inches of a field drain tile when we built it, never could figure out why it wouldn't hold a drop of water till we seen a sink hole in one corner where the water was running out, when we tried to repair it is when we found the drain tile. see it happens to even the best of us!
Won't happen if you trench the length of the lower end of the area as I now do. With the cost the state paid for this project, I think they could have done this easily.
Won't happen if you trench the length of the lower end of the area as I now do. With the cost the state paid for this project, I think they could have done this easily.
I am no rocket surgeon, but it seems to me that sealing a pond or wetland would be exceedingly difficult with a previously installed outlet pipe!
Since the state people probably helped advise the farmers on installing the drain tiles a generation ago, you would think they would at least have "Check for drain tiles." on their pond job planning sheets.
I am glad to hear you found the tile in the basin of your wetland. I suspect packing it with clay should be effective in sealing it completely. Especially if there is less than 10 feet of water on the tile when your wetland is at full pool.
Hopefully you will have a multitude of happy wetland creatures by the end of next spring!
The plan did call for exploring for field tiles and removing them, but I don't think it gave specific instructions on how to do this. This wetland was constructed for me in lieu of paying me for land where they constructed a mitigation wetland. The mitigation wetland also leaks badly but has a fair amount of seasonal inflow. We actually saw where one tile was draining the mitigation wetland while they were constructing it and they broke the tile inside the wetland and brought in a truck and poured concrete on it. I honestly don't think anyone knew what they were doing, but it still provides wildlife habitat even though multiple tiles drain it during dry spells. It has no emergency spillway either, but rather runs over the dam/berm right where the exit pipe is during flooding events. Lots of erosion and eventually it will likely breach the dam in this spot. At that point, maybe I'll see if I can get permission to fix it right myself...
It has no emergency spillway either, but rather runs over the dam/berm right where the exit pipe is during flooding events. Lots of erosion and eventually it will likely breach the dam in this spot. At that point, maybe I'll see if I can get permission to fix it right myself...
I actually sighed out loud when I read this part!
I know you would rather do a long-term plan for the wildlife in and around that wetland. Hopefully you can get many years before the eventual breach.
It has already supplied many years of good wildlife habitat. It just amazes me that some folks can spend so many years in a specific field and not learn more about it. What a boring way to go through life.
After 10 years, I finally tried today to straighten out the path around my 2nd pond. I have a path all the way around it and when originally built, erosion caused a lot of gauges in the path that require me to mow it quite slowly and also made it "fun" to walk. Today, I rototilled it and planted a clover mix with chicory in it. I chose this seed mix because it was the closet to what I want even though it is a deer food plot mix. I have used it successfully in the past to vegetate pond spoils which gave me the confidence to use it here. Did not want to seed a mix with invasive perennial fescue. Will report back if I am successful. Weather prediction looks good for moderate rain, but we all know how that goes...
I had recent surgery which has dampened my ability to work at the pond, particularly handling food sacks. Our area has had several heavy rains the last six weeks, but along with rain the wind caused power outages four days and two days, so lost almost all refrigerated and frozen food twice. Had to scramble to protect insulin, too. Getting a whole house nat gas generator!
My little part of the middle of Misery has gone from tree-killing drought to monsoon in a period of two weeks. We got 1.6", then 2.6", then 4.8", then another 1.6" last night. Had some bad winds along with the 4.8" rain. That one destroyed the plastic film on my hoop house, flattened my sweet corn patch, broke one of my apple trees off at the ground, and scattered tree limbs all over the place. On the bright side, the pond has over a foot of new water in it. Still need another 2' or so to be full again.
Man Augie, I’m jealous. We are getting rain here in St Louis, but up at the farm we’ve received less than an inch from all these storms coming through. The radar shows nice big rain storms coming across Mark Twain Lake, then they all either evaporate or get diverted north or south as they get to the lake. We are behind the dam, and get zero…
My little part of the middle of Misery has gone from tree-killing drought to monsoon in a period of two weeks. We got 1.6", then 2.6", then 4.8", then another 1.6" last night. Had some bad winds along with the 4.8" rain. That one destroyed the plastic film on my hoop house, flattened my sweet corn patch, broke one of my apple trees off at the ground, and scattered tree limbs all over the place. On the bright side, the pond has over a foot of new water in it. Still need another 2' or so to be full again.
Wow, I haven't got that much rain in that amount of time since my pond was built. I did get around 3" total over the last week, with one rain being about 1.5" and the rest at .5" or less at a time. I think it added about 6" inches to the pond.
Bobbss that storm we got here last Friday was El Loco!
Picture a triangle with 1/4 mile long sides... my house the southernmost point, Pops' place to the northeast, good neighbor Tom to the northwest. 4.8" in my gauge that night. 3.8" in the other two. Two miles due south at one of the university farms they got half an inch.
I got back on the HSB after work yesterday. Optimal Hand Throw wrapped in pantyhose did the trick again. Relative weights are down a bit, and not for lack of groceries. Small pond, low water, maybe they've reached their limit for the size of aquarium they're living in?
Front fish was 19.5" 3.7lb 92.6% wR Back fish was 20.5 4.46lb 95.4% wR
I should have checked inside to see what they've been eating but it was so stinking hot and humid out I didn't bother. Both fish were males, and are #6 and #7 harvested of the 20 that were stocked in September of 2020.
I believe relative weight does vary over the course of the year. Those two fish might have been at 104% in May.
I suspect they may have restricted their consumption lately since your pond certainly has warm, low dissolved oxygen water right now. NOT the preferred conditions for your HSB.
Does one of the experts have a simple chart showing how relative weight varies over the course of the calendar year?
[If you post it here, I will make it into a new post so it will come up in people's searches.]
Surface temps are still in the mid 70°s here. Nice and cool down deeper. Aeration running midnight to 7:00am.
I think my HSB are lazy bums so I cut back their Optimal Hand Throw ration to a pint per day in hopes they change their slothful ways and try to earn an honest living.
Finally getting rain at the farm! Wow, this has been a long drought. Pond was down close to 2’. As were all ponds around me. I looked at the forecast and decided to put in the food plots. So I spent all day Monday putting them (4) in. Missed the Monday evening rains, and yesterdays rains, despite both being over 90% chance of rain.. But it finally hit this morning. Weather app says 2-3” with more tonight and tomorrow. Should get close to a foot back in the pond. I’ll know for sure in a few days. Last year when I planted the food plots, was the start of the drought. Very little rain since then.
I’ve kept the feeder going this summer hoping to get the YP I stocked, some growth. Despite what seems like weeks at extreme temps, and low water levels, no surface algae like I was seeing last year. Maybe since I switched to CRP in the fields (away from soybeans) with no fertilizer getting sprayed, is helping. No way to tell. We’ll see if this rain changes things. The CRP is a blend of grasses, lespedsia, and alfalfa. It’s about 4-6” tall from an April planting. I’ll see how it’s doing as far as holding soil in the fields, and still allowing runoff. Obviously we’ve had a little rain, enough to keep the CRP alive.
Last night while feeding the fish, I watched a Snapping Turtle slowly raise his head up and take one pellet at a time. I couldn't see how big his shell was but his neck was a good 2" across.
I got back on the HSB after work yesterday. Optimal Hand Throw wrapped in pantyhose did the trick again. Relative weights are down a bit, and not for lack of groceries. Small pond, low water, maybe they've reached their limit for the size of aquarium they're living in?
Front fish was 19.5" 3.7lb 92.6% wR Back fish was 20.5 4.46lb 95.4% wR
I should have checked inside to see what they've been eating but it was so stinking hot and humid out I didn't bother. Both fish were males, and are #6 and #7 harvested of the 20 that were stocked in September of 2020.
Males throw caution to the winds around alluring stuff wrapped in pantyhose....Uh, I've heard.
We got almost 3” of rain. It brought up the pond almost 3”. Haha! Yep, every drop was soaked into our dry ground immediately. We sure needed it, but I was hoping for a little run off. My CRP is about 90% Korean Lespedesia, at least that’s all that’s come up at this point. The deer don’t seem nearly as attracted to it as they were to previous years soybeans.. No signs of any otters at the pond. Feeder goes off for a 10 second run (Texas feeder with I think a DuPont fish food). The fish clean it up in less that a minute. So my new YP appear to like it. It’s the same food they use at the hatchery. (NEMO)
Done nothing, and probably won't for a few months. Afternoon temp is sitting at 111, with a heat index of 130. Big pond surface temp is 96.8, and will rise around 5. Shoreline temp is 100.1. Luckily there are no fish there. I really need to treat coontail, but the small coves are starting to get covered with green algae, and killing off coontail could throw me back into a blue/green algae scenario again.
Despite our best efforts, our goats and chickens are really struggling right now.
My pond has risen ~16" since the monsoon arrived in July, which is a really good thing, but the two very heavy downpours that we've gotten over the past ten days have really messed with the water temps. The last deluge we got blasted my thermocline to smithereens. Went from a 6°F delta from surface to 10' down to a 1.5° delta. Yesterday evening the surface temp was 80.6° and we've gotten another 8/10th inch of rain since then.
I have a feeling that the situation may have gotten ugly without the aeration running. The fish continue to smash pellets with gusto so I guess the water must be ok.
So that begs the question: Where did that goldfish/Koi come from in the first place?
The dog probably had to first rescue the fish from a hungry feline!
P.S. Humans have bred dogs to hunt a wide variety of specific game animals. The first person to breed an "otter and cormorant dog" will make a fortune from just the Pond Boss crowd alone!
First toad strangler in a very long time. Four inches in the last 3 hours and still raining west of Indianapolis. Update: Another 7 tenths and still raining... Sure glad our house is in a hill!
First toad strangler in a very long time. Four inches in the last 3 hours and still raining west of Indianapolis. Update: Another 7 tenths and still raining... Sure glad our house is in a hill!
We had those last week, a total of over 6.5" in under a week, didnt realize how quickly it can go from a drought to a nuisance. It wasnt too bad, helped the farmers some, too late for the corn but did wonders for the beans and late pastures, including topping off some watering holes for cattle farmers. I just sorta got hammered really bad, we were finishing up a RV park addition and the powder dust we had pushed around for a week and the rock we had put down for roads and parking spots all eroded something fierce because the dust under it all turned into straight water slush.
Pond is three feet low and dropping…. Been over three months since last drizzle 1/8”. Not expecting to get any till winter. Well over 2months with 0 clouds. Lows at night in the mid 80s highs 105-107…. Not a pretty sight….. trees giving up all over the area
I need to get to my place and look at ponds. Our temps have been up to 110 there and 106 to 108 for another week. I’m sure one small pond is dry and my original 1/3 acre one might be. My 2.5 acre one is probably now no mare than an acre.
And yet, do I really want to go there in those temps? Well, it beats hanging around the house in Fort Worth.
Dave, when your big pond refills, check on prey fish. Last year my pond got 3 feet low, and most of my 3 to 5 inch BG disappeared, presumably into a LMB gullet. No hiding places. I ended up stocking some more BG of that size.
We’ve been getting some rain at our place. I was there a few days ago. I think it’ll save some trees. It’s certainly bringing back the grass and weeds. I’ll bet we’ve had 3” this month. However, we were so dry, and the rain came slow enough, we’ve had zero runoff. My pond is now down over 2’. Fish are still very active when the feeder goes off. Hopefully this fall we’ll get a storm with some runoff. I planted four food plots for when I saw the rain forecasted. All four are up and growing. Last august when I planted, it was the start of the drought. This year I plant, hopefully it’s the end of the drought. Local corn crops are horrible. Talking to a neighbor, he says they still have to harvest in order to collect payments. Seems like a waste of diesel. CRP is now about a foot tall. So far, it’s mostly the Korean lespedeza that has come up. Some of the warm season grasses are starting. Plus a lot of weeds. So far the deer don’t seem all that interested in the lespedeza. That’s got me a bit concerned. I’m definitely seeing more turkeys though.
Anth, I expect to have to buy feeder size fish next year. Of course, in this drought with weeks of air temps pushing 107 and 108, I’m not sure what I’ll find this Fall.
Finally convinced a neighbor to come remove all the channel and blue cats that they can catch…. We will see if they show this evening. Can’t believe it’s so hard to get anybody to come catch all they want for free.
Finally convinced a neighbor to come remove all the channel and blue cats that they can catch…. We will see if they show this evening. Can’t believe it’s so hard to get anybody to come catch all they want for free.
If my Star Trek teleporter system was working, I would definitely come down to Texas this evening and help with your catfish removal project.
Unfortunately, my system is down and I am waiting on parts.
Hopefully, your neighbor crew will show up for you. Can you post some pics if they get a few whiskered hawgs?
Finally convinced a neighbor to come remove all the channel and blue cats that they can catch…. We will see if they show this evening. Can’t believe it’s so hard to get anybody to come catch all they want for free.
If my Star Trek teleporter system was working, I would definitely come down to Texas this evening and help with your catfish removal project.
Unfortunately, my system is down and I am waiting on parts.
Hopefully, your neighbor crew will show up for you. Can you post some pics if they get a few whiskered hawgs?
Hate that your transporter is down! I can’t post pix with iPhone or couldn’t figure it out if can be done…..
Finally convinced a neighbor to come remove all the channel and blue cats that they can catch…. We will see if they show this evening. Can’t believe it’s so hard to get anybody to come catch all they want for free.
Sadly, at my place the people who come catch all they want for free aren't always those who I invite.
They came prepared to fish in shark infested waters , heavy wire leaders popping corks for trout and redfish and big 7/0 circle hooks…… needles to say didn’t catch much at all. As much noise they made on floating pier the fish vacated the area . Not sure how to instruct folks to be quiet and use as light of tackle as you can…..as an ex guide you know how to but hard to tell someone not to use a 4 oz weight and double drop steel leader made for saltwater use
They came prepared to fish in shark infested waters , heavy wire leaders popping corks for trout and redfish and big 7/0 circle hooks…… needles to say didn’t catch much at all. As much noise they made on floating pier the fish vacated the area . Not sure how to instruct folks to be quiet and use as light of tackle as you can…..as an ex guide you know how to but hard to tell someone not to use a 4 oz weight and double drop steel leader made for saltwater use
We've had right at 4" so far this month. The pond is still filling nicely and we've gained about 2-3' of water depth. Hopefully this will keep all my new grass around the pond alive so it'll stop the influx of mud every time it rains.
What I did yesterday when the high temp was down to a pleasant 98 for a high.
Wife and I drove there and got on 4 wheelers. Rode by big pond and it is down a lot due to our heat wave, probably gone down 3 ft in the last 10 days. That makes it about 6+ ft low. Cedars that I cut and put, with weights, into the water on the banks were high and dry.
Went to the back of the property to our green sunfish pond. On the way I noticed that the spring fed creek was out of business. That’s the second time it’s happened in approx 40 years. The 1/4 acre pond was down about 4 ft. We tossed out some fish food to the green sunfish. I expect a fish kill here.
Went by another couple of small shallow ponds that were dry. I don’t stock them.
The drought hasn’t ended and 100+ temps are coming back with a vengeance. Supposed to be 108+ this coming week.
I have heard that every drought is broken by a flood. It needs to get here in a hurry.
What I did yesterday when the high temp was down to a pleasant 98 for a high.
Wife and I drove there and got on 4 wheelers. Rode by big pond and it is down a lot due to our heat wave, probably gone down 3 ft in the last 10 days. That makes it about 6+ ft low. Cedars that I cut and put, with weights, into the water on the banks were high and dry.
Went to the back of the property to our green sunfish pond. On the way I noticed that the spring fed creek was out of business. That’s the second time it’s happened in approx 40 years. The 1/4 acre pond was down about 4 ft. We tossed out some fish food to the green sunfish. I expect a fish kill here.
Went by another couple of small shallow ponds that were dry. I don’t stock them.
The drought hasn’t ended and 100+ temps are coming back with a vengeance. Supposed to be 108+ this coming week.
I have heard that every drought is broken by a flood. It needs to get here in a hurry.
That's kinda what happened here, went from drought to flood, after a yr of way below average rainfall we have come up with the second wettest Aug on record, within an inch or two of back to normal rainfall for the yr this far, all of it in August.
Dont get me wrong, I'm not complanin, but it would have been way better served if it was spread out over the last 8 months. but beggars cant be choosers. we havent had a lot of extremely hot weather, a couple weeks that were pretty muggy.
Its too late for most of the corn, its going to be pretty mediocre, the rains came too late for it but most of the beans are looking amazing! I think I have counted upwards of 11 inches in the last three weeks. the ponds for the most part are full and mine has been running over since the first rain.
Wish I could spread it around for everybody, we musta been living right! the grass is greener and growing faster then it did last spring.
I cleared some trees for a couple more food plots a month ago and been wanting to get some fall food plots planted but its been too wet, may be able to get them in this weekend.
For once, I made a non-dumb move at my place. Pumped extra water into the forage pond when water was abundant in the spring & overflowing the standpipe. If need be, I can replenish the main pond a little, maybe 500 - 600k gallons. Or raise fish in the forage pond with less danger of it getting too shallow & hot.
If what I'm hearing about the Hunga Tomba volcano is right, we might be seeing unusually warm winters & hot summers for a few years.
Stocked a few CNBG, no FHM as I planned to feed. Then the feeder quit working.
Assuming I end up not selling the place, I want to stock some channel cats for my watchful good neighbors to catch. Will have to get another feeder, but at least the feed for cats is cheaper. But that means I can't just drain forage pond into main BOW, as I don't want CC there.
Man, I'm sorry to hear that, Theo. My mom lives in southwest Ohio and complains about lack of rain, though it hasn't been especially hot like it has down here.
I posted on another thread a few days ago that I was hoping to see the APW make a comeback in my pond now that the crayfish numbers have been substantially reduced.
Was on the dam with the weed whacker Saturday and noticed several new patches of it growing. Looks like a few sprigs of mud plantain in the pic too.
After a 2-1/2 year drought, we got over 10" of rain at the farm during July. We even got one nice rain in early August. However, it is now two weeks since the last rain so I had to go out and water trees.
Observations: One groundwater pond is now dry, and the other one has 1' of water - which matches the water level in the adjacent creek. Our main creek just quit flowing, but the pools are full. (It is a combination surface water/ground water creek.)
Despite the awesome rains we had in July, it clearly did not make up the long-term deficit in the groundwater aquifer. Our areas of tallgrass prairie are very tall and lush. My 2-4 year old tree plantings that are in good soil are also thriving. (I watered them during the early portion of the drought, but did not water them this summer.) Clearly our terrestrial plants are quite efficient at "intercepting" surface water that is percolating down through the soils above our sandy aquifer layer. Of course, the tallgrass prairie is adapted for drought. I have planted some drought-resistant trees appropriate for our area, and some fruit trees that I am trying to nurse along to maturity.
I am sending out good thoughts to everyone still in drought conditions! Hopefully everyone's ponds, fish, and land-based life forms can make it through this period of drought.
Rod, take a look at these. I've been setting mine out during our drought, and they last for years.
They're kinda sorta Ron Popeilish. Set it and forget it. Treegators
I haven't complained about our drought, but the continuous triple digit days, and temps still in the 90's after dark, are beating me down. I know I'll be whining in January/February when we get prolonged freezing temps, but I am looking forward to my wood store fired up in the shop, and listening to podcasts as I'm welding some project just because I can.
Thanks, Al. I may have to try those on my "isolated" trees.
I have set totes and drip irrigation in the locations where I have multiple trees. (Poly tubing and emitters are dirt cheap.) I run by with a tote on my trailer and can transfer 265 gallons in a few minutes with a bilge pump.
That worked great until the creek quit running! Now when I pull from the still pools, the algae in the water is so thick that it clogs my drip emitters.
Do the Treegators require "clean" water, or will they still do a slow release with water that is about 12" on the secchi disk? If so, can I open them up and scrub the fabric clean when I finally get too much build-up?
I'm not sure if they do, because I always use the water hose after I get half a dozen dirt dobbers nests out of it. The holes are really small, and that's what makes it drip so slow.
If I can make a suggestion, try one of these to filter the algae. I would probably pick a 200-300 micron sack, and maybe even an 800 sack. I always use them on the outlet when I'm moving coontail infested water to my hatchery pond. I've had zero algae or coontail remnants chopped up by the pump get through it.
Pentair is like Grainger. They're expensive, but they have everything you might need.
I just had an afterthought, but if you ty the sacks, I would run some of that water into a white bucket, and make sure it doesn't let the algae through. That would be better than cleaning dozens of emitters.
I actually built a high water station (like the old elevated tanks to refill the steam trains) last year near my deepest pool. I can fill the water station and then gravity feed through a 2" hose to my trailer tank. The high station can then refill while I deliver that load of water.
I just suspend a 12v sump pump in the pool, so the water rate and velocity would be easily handled by a large filter bag! Easy peasy to just take the bag home and rinse it to get ready for the next irrigation day!
I usually only figure out that I have clogged emitters when I see one tree dropping its leaves. An ounce of prevention will definitely be worth a pound of cure!
Tree watering bags are the best thing since sliced bread.
I bought a bunch of 20 gallon bags to put on my baby chestnut trees. Makes watering much less of a chore.
Couple things to note... the bags require support... a 5' sapling isn't stout enough to keep a full bag from toppling over and damaging the tree. A 5' sapling, grow tube, and 1/2" fiberglass tree stake won't hold a full bag if it isn't setting just right. I wound up adding a second stake to solve that problem.
The filter bags are a good idea if you're not using hose water. The drip holes are quite small and easy to clog even then.
...Couple things to note... the bags require support... a 5' sapling isn't stout enough to keep a full bag from toppling over and damaging the tree. A 5' sapling, grow tube, and 1/2" fiberglass tree stake won't hold a full bag if it isn't setting just right. I wound up adding a second stake to solve that problem...
I agree 100%. I just recently took the supports off a 8' Shumard Oak because those bags are heavy. 20 gallon bags X 8.33 are a little over 160 pounds.
I have been using 3/4" Sch 40 PVC pipe to stake my tree tubes. They have just enough flex that the trunks of the saplings move sufficiently in our relentless Kansas winds to build up some strength.
I used to get 10' sticks for $2.19 in bulk and cut them to 5'. The current price is now exactly double!
I just pull them up and re-use them when it is time to pull the tree tube (or the d*mn gophers kill the tree).
Have you guys had better success with another option?
(I also think they would hold a Treegator well, but I have not yet used any of those saturation bags.)
Rod, since I only need a few, I probably spend more per tree than you do, or want to. I cage all my new shoreline Bald Cyprus because of beavers, and since their roots are touching the water table, I don't need to water them.
The trunk guard is only there to keep the goats from stripping the bark. Again. The t posts are 3' tall, and are cheap pressed steel. They're around $4 a piece. I use electric fence wire, and old water hose or chem hose if I have remnants. Electric fence wire is very easy to work with, and I have tons of it. I'll do another watering next week, then unzip the bag, and throw it in the back of the UTV. Since this tree is a little older, I want it to stress just a smidge. It should help the root spreads.
I've had fire ant problems during the drought, and they'll target the bags if they stay on. It provides shade and water for them. Maybe it's just a TX thing, so if you don't have problems with that, then leave them on. I've had the bags for years, and they have lasted very well.
Thanks for the close-up picture! I do have to go a little sturdier on my stakes. I bet we get at least 25 days/year with winds of 30 MPH with higher gusts.
We don't have fire ants in Kansas (that I know of), but I do have the same problem. During the drought, the pocket gophers would go through my little irrigation circles because those plants were the only ones available with succulent roots. Sometimes the killed my tree, sometimes they didn't.
Likewise, the armadillos would dig around the edges of my water circles because that is where the insect larva were thriving.
I guess no matter what humans are trying to grow, nature always throws a few "green sunfish" into the mixture to keep us on our toes!
Spoke too soon …. A badly needed rain popped up and maybe will save some trees and help the wildlife….. God is good!
Rain prayer >>> rain dance?
I had to go to the farm and water trees again today. I am amazed at how many survived our 2-1/2 years of drought. I think the stupid pocket gophers got more than the drought did.
My surface water pond is now totally dry again. One groundwater pond is dry and the other groundwater pond is holding at about 2 feet. However, that one is well-connected to the regional groundwater aquifer, so it should be fairly stable at this point.
I kinda dread going to my place during this drought. Spring fed creek is dry for the second time in 40 years. Ponds were looking bad a week ago when I was there. One small pond is dry. 1/4 acre one was hurting when I was there a week ago. Big pond had dropped about 3 feet in 10 days. Now about 7 ft low.
We're just now starting to get a noticeable water level drop. What we are having is leafs already falling falling out of trees. Way to early for that to be happening.
My back lawn, St Augustine grass, is history. So are the neighbors. I’m thinking heat but not sure. Our temps have been brutal. But, my front lawn looks good. Neighbors in same shape. BTW, been running my sprinkler system during this stuff.
My back lawn, St Augustine grass, is history. So are the neighbors. I’m thinking heat but not sure. Our temps have been brutal. But, my front lawn looks good. Neighbors in same shape. BTW, been running my sprinkler system during this stuff.
No idea on anything but $$$.
My yard is Bermuda and I just let it go during this heat.
Spent a good part of the weekend cleaning up brush and rebuilding the line fence on the west side of my pond dam. With this task out of the way I'll be able to complete the finish grade on the dam and move the pump house to its permanent location come spring.
Spent the weekend at the farm with the kids and grand kids, did some fishing, swimming, and cleanup, and a big dinner cooked over the campfire, along with smores and more later by the bonfire. Hope this picture comes thru ok, it is a panoramic view which will probably not do justice to it on this host website.
Spent the weekend at the farm with the kids and grand kids, did some fishing, swimming, and cleanup, and a big dinner cooked over the campfire, along with smores and more later by the bonfire. Hope this picture comes thru ok, it is a panoramic view which will probably not do justice to it on this host website.
I think the panoramic view gets your 15-acre lake up to at least 20-25 acres!
I improved my setup in the pump house on Saturday. Used some scrap lumber to build a plenum chamber for the pump intake. 12"x12"x1" pleated filter should be a bit better than the dinky foam filter that came with the pump. Also added light fixtures on the inside and outside of the building, and installed a pressure gauge on the output side of the pump.
The building started its life as a coondominium for my little buddy Rocket. After she decided to go live somewhere else I boxed it in and turned it into a pump house/storage shed.
Yes esshup, it is time to re-evaluate my populations. Clearly I have very few YP left from activity at feeding time and from what we catch when we go fishing.
Last weekend the kids caught a very large and very old female YP and there are not many like that left. It was actually encouraging to see the smaller YP in the above picture as I don't have a way to sample that size class. I don't see them as much at feeding time and we don't catch YP in that size class.
Fellow member Ron C will help me restock YP and maybe add some SMB but have to also re-evaluate the forage.
While kids were fishing they caught 3 huge GSH (fat and 6-7" long) They also are my original stockers but we have no small GSH anymore.
My SFS spawning this year was not as effective. Usually we have 3 times over the summer where there are clouds of minnows. I only spotted two possible crops of progeny and the last one was not that successful. I may have too many large GSH for even the SFS. I also still struggle to place structure that they use. They tend to find their own structure rather than use my stacks of CDs on a pole.
I'm concerned that there may not be enough minnow for both the stocker YP and SMB so I may have to add YP only of the larger size class and then work harder to remove the remaining large GSH and add more spawning structure next spring for SFS.
I'm not so sure what option is best. When I stocked the pond I went the way of going heavy on GSH. I had millions and they ate all my young YP fry. I was kind of glad when they thinned out and when the adults seemed to stop making more GSH babies. I figured if the GSH adults eventually died off then I could have a GSH-free pond which was kind the way I wanted to go after learning how a pond full of GSH can upset the balance of other fish reproduction.
Then I thought I either get a forage pond, raise FHM and resupply the pond from time to time, or what my current effort is, continue to support my alternate shiners (SFS) with better spawning conditions and hope they can keep up with the predation of the YP. As my YP population also declined I felt like I was getting close to the point where the SFS might catch up nicely and then really get some solid numbers going. It feels like GSH are able to disrupt the balance more so than other forage. Certainly the FHM would not disrupt the growth of larger fish species by consuming fry. They might be the only safe minnow/forage option.
I think the other factor that tipped me back towards being forage-poor was the bonus few walleye I put in 2 years ago. I never see them but I think they are putting a hurt on the minnows and the smaller YP too. Still trying to trick them into biting on a hook and line although I can't be sure of their numbers. I'm guessing the size class of the small YP in the picture above is the only size class I have (and larger than that size) due to gape size limits on the bonus WE.
To really make a wise choice you need to have good info on what is there and how many and their respective condition. I am confused on just what the status is based on the above posts, so making suggestions is tough.
Its OK, I enjoy the uncertainty and watching the puzzle unfold. Not really asking for others to solve but love the feedback.
I just thought it interesting the error in judgment the big perch made in choosing her choice for lunch
I would totally agree that drawing down my little puddle, seining, removing all predators and any leftover GSH, plus the 10 or so left over 10" goldfish, then putting only the SFS back sounds really good. (bonus YP fish fry would also come out of that plan)
Then I could start with a fresh slate again.
I would let the minnows grow and multiply, add the FHM, then next year consider adding a few adult YP and SMB.
Yesterday I took the boats out for the last time, doing minor on-water maintenance and shoreline inspection, and then put them in the barn for the Winter.
Yesterday I took the boats out for the last time, doing minor on-water maintenance and shoreline inspection, and then put them in the barn for the Winter.
You never took me for a boat ride when I was there...
Yesterday I took the boats out for the last time, doing minor on-water maintenance and shoreline inspection, and then put them in the barn for the Winter.
You never took me for a boat ride when I was there...
You never took me on a boat ride either. The emotional scar is unrepairable.
CC, do some serious thought to the cover and placement of that cover for both summer and winter that is in the pond to protect the young baitfish of whatever species you are stocking. It doesn't matter how many you put in if there is no cover for them to hide in.
I've stocked 4K BG 2"-4" in a bathub pond in October and none were left by the spring - the LMB ate them all. OR at least enough that none were seen.
Yesterday I took the boats out for the last time, doing minor on-water maintenance and shoreline inspection, and then put them in the barn for the Winter.
You never took me for a boat ride when I was there...
You never took me on a boat ride either. The emotional scar is unrepairable.
You two ought to exchange phone numbers and co-commiserate.
Yesterday I took the boats out for the last time, doing minor on-water maintenance and shoreline inspection, and then put them in the barn for the Winter.
You never took me for a boat ride when I was there...
You never took me on a boat ride either. The emotional scar is unrepairable.
After I left his place and got home, he let me know that he'd sighted me the entire ride down his driveway to the house.
Had a pretty good fisherman fish my pond last week. He caught 9 SMB in about five hours. Three were original stockers. Obviously bringing in some new lures helped. But how they were fished made a difference also. I’m still no where near pre otter days with SMB numbers, but there may be more left than I thought. On a sadder note, our drought continues. Way behind on rain, pond is down 3’. Food plots for the deer and Turkey are doing poorly. Oh well, it has to rain again sometime, right?
On a sadder note, our drought continues. Way behind on rain, pond is down 3’. Food plots for the deer and Turkey are doing poorly. Oh well, it has to rain again sometime, right?
It was so dry at my main pond that the bass were using the last bit of wet clay to make adobe bricks.
I believe they are creating new structure for the lake on the hopes that some fall/winter rains will bring the water level back up.
On a sadder note, our drought continues. Way behind on rain, pond is down 3’. Food plots for the deer and Turkey are doing poorly. Oh well, it has to rain again sometime, right?
It was so dry at my main pond that the bass were using the last bit of wet clay to make adobe bricks.
I believe they are creating new structure for the lake on the hopes that some fall/winter rains will bring the water level back up.
We in the same dry boat. Hope it rains soon or we won’t have a pond or trees
I fished in the pond for about 10 minutes. Caught 2 YP about 10: and one CC about 12". Either a CC swam out the overflow of the fish holding tanks or I had reproduction in the pond from the OLD CC that are in there. I have only seen 1 big CC in the pond in the last few years so I'm guessing that it was a 4"-6" CC that grew from this Spring. The CC was removed, the YP returned to the pond.
Fish still feeding a little although not as voracious as they had been here in Central MO. After stocking BC twice, as the first time didnt seem to have any in the pond so stocked again and still hadnt been able to catch one for nearly a yr, all of a sudden I am catching them regularly and looking really healthy and fat, then I caught one that was 14.5 inches long and right at a lb and a half and another that was just slightly smaller a few minutes later in the opposite end of the pond that must have been from the first stocking. was tickled to death!
Very nice! I still can’t get them started in my 6 acres…. Yesterday hung a 12” bass and a jumbo bass took it off hook but small guy looked like a mullet jumping out of water and escaped. Jumbo was the reason I can’t seem to get the crappie going
Just hanging out at the pond. I’ve got a cold, so sitting around is the order of the day. Lots of weeds grew up as the water level dropped. Pond is down 3’ now. We do have rain in the forecast for the next five days. Fingers crossed. All those weeds had nice pretty white flowers. Note to self, those pretty white flowers all turn into stick tights. Agh!
Thanks! Ive caught quite a few 15s 16s and even a 17 one time, but this was a nice healthy looking fish, thick, my cousin that was with me had a fit, he hadn't ever seen a BC that big.
PW, you are probably right about them big bass hurting your BC populations but in the past I haven't noticed that problem too much, the BC hang out further out in deeper water so they dont seem to be decimated too bad by the LMB, I have seen some trophys of each species coming out of the same not real big BOW. Them big, high single weight class of LMB are a lot of fun to catch, but the older I get the better I love my 12 13" mess of BC to catch and eat, damn they are good eating! I can only imagine how much fun a double digit LMB would be, Ive never hooked anything over 8 lbs.
Thanks! Ive caught quite a few 15s 16s and even a 17 one time, but this was a nice healthy looking fish, thick, my cousin that was with me had a fit, he hadn't ever seen a BC that big.
PW, you are probably right about them big bass hurting your BC populations but in the past I haven't noticed that problem too much, the BC hang out further out in deeper water so they dont seem to be decimated too bad by the LMB, I have seen some trophys of each species coming out of the same not real big BOW. Them big, high single weight class of LMB are a lot of fun to catch, but the older I get the better I love my 12 13" mess of BC to catch and eat, damn they are good eating! I can only imagine how much fun a double digit LMB would be, Ive never hooked anything over 8 lbs.
G big bass are a blast to catch but I still would rather be able to catch more than maybe one crappie in a few hours of fishing. There for a while you could catch dozens on less than an hour but no more. Will remove every LMB over three # when water cools down so I can release in my. Neighbors lake
G big bass are a blast to catch but I still would rather be able to catch more than maybe one crappie in a few hours of fishing. There for a while you could catch dozens on less than an hour but no more. Will remove every LMB over three # when water cools down so I can release in my. Neighbors lake[/quote]
I know that feeling, I have 15 acres with tons, almost too much, cover and brush piles, and love my BC fishing but haven't been able to catch any for two yrs, not even one to let me know they were there, till all of a sudden, in the last months, I been catching them regularly all the time, and haven't changed any fishing strategy or baits.
I consider myself to pretty decent at catching them, and have had several buddies that are real good at catching them, help me, fished them hard many times and never caught one, to the point I was pretty sure they weren't in there, then low and behold, one day they just started biting and now I can cast to a brush pile or two from the dock and catch a dozen in an hr, just small yet, around 9", most of them, without even getting in the boat. That was my goal, or dream.
I fished my pond for the first time 2 nights ago (constructed fall of 2022) for about 15 minutes with my girls. We caught 5 YP (11", 11", 10.75", 10.75", and 10") and 4 SBS (9", 9", 9", and 8"). The 11" YP and the 9" SBS were both a pound on the Boga (I need to get a nice digital scale for better accuracy). I started out with a vibric rooster tail and caught the first 11" YP, then switch to worms under a float and it was fast and furious! Culled all fish except the fattest 9" SBS, they made wonderful fish tacos last night!
My pond is between and 1/8th and 1/4 acre, currently trying to see how big I can get the YP and SBS. YP should hopefully be all female and I should be down to 32 of them, and down to 17 SBS. The YP started at 6-8" in March with 7 bonus bigger ones from Bill. I believe these that I caught to be from the 30 6-8"ers. The SBS were about 6-7" and went in in May, and are considerably fatter than they started.
This has been such a great experience learning from this community, and the family got to find out last night why I chose those tasty (not so anymore) little buggers.
My side by side Mule has been down for about 2 weeks, so I have neglected to feed.
Neighborhood water temp was 51 degrees, and the fish were ready to hit feed, but in lower numbers, and on the less aggressive side. Saw bluegill, some HSB, and possibly some catfish all hitting feed. Saw a LMB also.
At my neighbor, Lee's pond, water temp was 48/49 degrees, and there was little to no feed activity. I fished with meal worms and small night crawlers, but never caught anything. Had three bites, but couldn't seal the deal. May try again tomorrow over there.
Fish are still feeding in Western PA as of yesterday, Nov. 5, '23.
Feeding was light but steady. I saw Bluegill and HSB hitting the feed. LMB were present but not feeding. Can't say I saw any Channel Cats or Blue Cats feeding.
I put the boat in yesterday and pulled the deep diffuser. I shut the air down a couple weeks ago. Later today I'll re-rig the diffuser in shallow water. When the surface temps to hit the low 40°s I'll start it back up.
Yesterday we cleaned out the pump house. Deflated all of Mrs. Augie's float tubes/rafts/etc. and packed them away for the winter. She had three old bicycles and some kid toys in there too. We pulled that stuff out and some other misc. junk that she had shoved in there over the summer and moved all of it to more appropriate storage. For the first time in awhile I can see the floor in there. A colony of japanese lady beetles moved in for the winter but I've got a surprise planned for them later today... a good coating of seven dust and a thrill ride into the shop vac will send them out in style.
Surface temp is 54°, 49° at 10'. Fish are still feeding with slightly less gusto than they were a month ago, but they are still cleaning up a gallon of Optimal pellets in <10 minutes.
There are a few sprouts starting on the dam that need to be lopped and given a Tordon bath.
anyone in northern Indiana or Ohio or southern MI still have living tilapia in their ponds? We had a little warm spell this weekend and I saw one lonely turtle basking on my turtle floats. I've been a bit late in bringing them in hoping that the turtles might still use them.
The other strange observation is that our peking duck pair enjoyed the whole pond this spring and early summer but then mid summer only would swim around the edges. My observant daughter insisted that this behavior change happened at the same time that we spotted a new snapper in the pond. We were not successful in spotting the snapper often and could not catch it while fishing. However once water got cold enough that we didn't see turtles anymore the ducks are back to swimming around in the middle of the pond. They also enjoy climbing up on the turtle floats sometimes too.
I wonder if they sense the snapper or get harassed by it sometime. I wish I had been able to remove the snapper now, maybe next spring.
My side by side Mule has been down for about 2 weeks, so I have neglected to feed.
If you can't ride around on your Mule, maybe Al will lend you a goat to ride around on between your ponds?
That would work!!! Need to rig up some saddle bags....
As much as I'd like to see it, I like Sunil too much to put him on a saddle. Merle's already got his winter cashmere in full bloom, and we bought him a really nice Australian horse blanket for our Jan/Feb subzero temps. He wasn't happy when we put it on to say the least.
anyone in northern Indiana or Ohio or southern MI still have living tilapia in their ponds? We had a little warm spell this weekend and I saw one lonely turtle basking on my turtle floats. I've been a bit late in bringing them in hoping that the turtles might still use them.
The other strange observation is that our peking duck pair enjoyed the whole pond this spring and early summer but then mid summer only would swim around the edges. My observant daughter insisted that this behavior change happened at the same time that we spotted a new snapper in the pond. We were not successful in spotting the snapper often and could not catch it while fishing. However once water got cold enough that we didn't see turtles anymore the ducks are back to swimming around in the middle of the pond. They also enjoy climbing up on the turtle floats sometimes too.
I wonder if they sense the snapper or get harassed by it sometime. I wish I had been able to remove the snapper now, maybe next spring.
I do and my customers do (they think). The Tilapia that I am getting stay alive to the mid 40's. They aren't very active at that temp, but I've verified that by pulling them out of the other fish holding tanks. I have put 1 pair in each just to keep the algae clean so I don't have to scrub them.
anyone in northern Indiana or Ohio or southern MI still have living tilapia in their ponds? We had a little warm spell this weekend and I saw one lonely turtle basking on my turtle floats. I've been a bit late in bringing them in hoping that the turtles might still use them.
The other strange observation is that our peking duck pair enjoyed the whole pond this spring and early summer but then mid summer only would swim around the edges. My observant daughter insisted that this behavior change happened at the same time that we spotted a new snapper in the pond. We were not successful in spotting the snapper often and could not catch it while fishing. However once water got cold enough that we didn't see turtles anymore the ducks are back to swimming around in the middle of the pond. They also enjoy climbing up on the turtle floats sometimes too.
I wonder if they sense the snapper or get harassed by it sometime. I wish I had been able to remove the snapper now, maybe next spring.
Your daughter made good conclusions from her observations. Had a pair of Canada geese hatch a brood on my favorite pond. It contains a very large common snapping turtle. Its big. The head is more than 6" broad and its shell is at least 24" long ... maybe longer. The goslings kept dwindling in number and when they got about 1/3 grown I noticed a carcass that was floating partially eaten. Then a few days later another. Afterwards, when only 4 of the gosling remained I observed the snapping turtle trying to prey on one. The parents were aggressively trying to deter him and it was effective enough to prevent a loss while I watched. I think he took his fair share of the goslings ... perhaps all that were lost.
My son fishes a lot with cut bait. He never has hooked the snapper as far as I know. If he has, it must have broke off quickly. He is plagued by sliders however which he has grown to hate for this behavior. A snapper may be difficult to catch but the sliders are brought in regularly. Here in TX and OK the alligator snapper is protected and I don't think they can be possessed or transported.
anyone in northern Indiana or Ohio or southern MI still have living tilapia in their ponds? We had a little warm spell this weekend and I saw one lonely turtle basking on my turtle floats. I've been a bit late in bringing them in hoping that the turtles might still use them.
Mine are still swimming and not congregating in the shallows in Southern Ohio. I've turned off my aeration already when we hit high 20s over night for a few days, but we're back up to 50s-60s over night and 60s-70s during the day. I have 2 Pearls that area easy to spot when they surface, so those are the 2 I monitor. Tried to get them with some worms, but I couldn't keep the perch and specklebellies off the hook.
I have 2 Pearls that area easy to spot when they surface, so those are the 2 I monitor. Tried to get them with some worms, but I couldn't keep the perch and specklebellies off the hook.
"It's hard to catch fish in my pond, because I catch too many fish in my pond!" That is certainly a better problem to have, than the opposite problem.
I don't have any tilapia, but the difficulty in catching them in the fall as the water temps cool seems to be a Pond Boss topic every year.
Do you feed your tilapia? If so, some people report catching them on Stubby Steve's lures where you use one of your pellets as bait.
Another option might be a lift net underneath your feeding ring if they are still coming to feed.
Another option might be a throw net if you ever see them in "range" in the warmer shallow water, AND they don't dart away when they see you make a big movement. It takes some skill to use those nets, but the people that are good with them can readily net fish.
That's been my plan, I have a 1.5'-2' cove for fish to seal the deal in that I figured the tilapia would migrate too when it gets cold enough, just hasn't happened yet. I didn't specifically feed the TP, but they did like being clean up crew. I only had 6 and have not seen any recruitment this year from them when I feed, so I'm not terribly worried about not getting to them before they die, I certainly got my $38 worth from their algae gorging alone. I still could stand to cull another 5-10 YP anyway, when I do that I might try to soften some feed and ball it up on a hook and see if I can add a few TP to fish taco night!
Water temp was 46 degrees about 18" down in my neighborhood pond today. Ambient temp was 59 degrees, sunny but windy.
Water was high from recent rain, but clear to maybe 2-3'.
After about 2 minutes, large adult GSH starting hitting feed. Many of them actually suspended for a few seconds before hitting the feed. Normally, they hit feed at high speed and eventually some were doing that.
Then I saw some bluegill getting in on it, and then some larger boils which may have been larger bluegill or HSB. Unfortunately, I couldn't see well enough with the heavy ripple on the surface.
On very rare occasion during the summer, there will be a school of large GSH just suspended at the surface. Maybe 150 fish or so, and perhaps more if the school had depth. But when they sense my presence, they disperse. Aside from that, I never see the GSH suspended, or suspended while looking at a feed pellet.
So yesterday was pretty wild to see that.
There are between 10-15 CC and Blue Cats in the 5 lb + size, at least one HSB 6 lb + with ten HSB in 14" range, as well as LMB to maybe 2-3 lbs. So I can't understand the GSH acting all high and mighty like they own the joint.
Ambient temperature in Western PA was close to 60 degrees after being in the mid to high 50's for a few days.
My neighborhood pond's water temp was about 47 degrees a foot deep. Saw LMB and bluegill here and there slow cruising. I fed and bluegill and GSH came to the feed without much delay at all. I then saw some larger boils but am not sure what they were.
At my neighbor, Lee's pond, water temps were 43 degrees or so a foot deep. Saw no fish taking any feed but was catching Yellow Perch on nightcrawlers fairly easily.
I'm not sure what my water temperature is, but I still have plenty of takers when I feed.
Mine finally pretty much quit taking feed, they did hang in there till the middle of December. which is a month and a half later then usual. don't know what water temps are either. I am wanting to go out there and see if I can catch a YP, I stocked some two yrs ago but haven't seen or caught one since, but also don't know how, have never fished for one, people say to use worms and a bobber but that doesn't work in my pond during warmer months, cant keep the damn BG off the hook, maybe now they wont bother me as much.
gehajake - For your YP try some minnows either fresh or dead frozen on a tiny jig fished vertical or under a small bobber just big enough to float the bait. Don't over size the bobber for cold water catching. 1"-1.25" BG will also work to catch the YP; set a minnow trap to catch those. Try a slip bobber with bait near the bottom - 2 - 3 ft off bottom. No bites try making a little splashing noise near where you are fishing. YP and most fish are inquisitive and should soon show up after the mild splashing.
Looked over the calm waters and the sunlight limning the tree tops, then slowly hauled personal stuff out of the Redneck Palace to the car. So many good memories, so sad to think of it gone. I've even dreamed about it several times.
Looked over the calm waters and the sunlight shining in the tree tops, then slowly began taking personal stuff out of the Redneck Palace for transfer to home. So many good memories of what we are giving up, I've even dreamed about it several times.
Memories worth making, Frank. Changes like this are difficult but your experience is for always and that can't be taken away. Just hope your presence here is something that doesn't change. I always look forward reading your posts.
Looked over the calm waters and the sunlight limning the tree tops, then slowly hauled personal stuff out of the Redneck Palace to the car. So many good memories, so sad to think of it gone. I've even dreamed about it several times.
anth, from what you've shared about your property and the current aspects of your life, you probably made the 100% right decision to sell at this time.
Both of my parents passed away about a year ago. Their estate is multi-faceted, but we've spent some of the most time working with residential and commercial real estate. Don't get me wrong, we are absolutely appreciative of all of it, but we decided to convert the properties to liquidity for trust purposes. If you knew, as you said, that your kids were not really interested in taking the property on, you made the right call, IMO.
Probably no one will ever really know the intricacies of the pond as intimately as you do, but the property will be immensely valued by those who bought the place. I'm certain you got a good price.
I know that my time is coming. Due to arthritis, laziness, sloth and low character, taking care of my place is getting tougher. Im 80 now and can’t do it right anymore. Our perennial drought hasn’t helped my outlook. Lots of money involved for 133 acres of junk land. All trees and rocks that takes a a 4 wheeler to get around on. Been paid off for a long time. The realtors call it recreational property but I call it my get away from town sanity place. None of the kids or grandkids appear interested in it.
Son in law says that when the realtors show up, they may as well call the undertaker. He may be right.
Look on the positive side, Dave; Your sanity place has failed you miserably and having no lofty traits of character has allowed you to have a fun-filled life. Your worthless property has kept you occupied and out of prison. Might as well keep it until it becomes someone else's problem.
Sounds like a really good time to make some memories out there with the kids and grandkids. My dad passed in the fall of 2023 after we had purchased our forever land outside of town. Part of our goals involved getting a chance to work with him on the pond construction, habitat, structure...
He was called home before we were able to get much done but many of the things, we are planning are a tribute to him and his love of farm ponds. Even without lots of input from dad, he will be everpresent in the pond with our memories of fishing as kids and him introducing us to the great outdoors.
Make those memories. 2024 is going to be a great year.
One grandson was raised hunting, fishing and 4wheelering there. I’m hanging on and don’t financially need to sell it. Wife will inherit and that grandsons mom, my daughter, has been successful enough to buy the place out of pocket change. About a million bucks. Texas rural, recreational property, close to Dallas/Fort Worth, has gone crazy expensive. I certainly could not afford to buy it today. She can so wife will give her a break and still be able to live well after I’m gone. I paid $56,000 for the place about 40 years ago. It’s 133 acres of trees and rocks.
Taxes are comparatively low due to exemptions. We can either raise live stock or support wildlife. When the wildlife exemption was enacted, I sold cows and horses. Now, I feed and promote the well being of wildlife year around. Of course, wildlife need water to drink so I have ponds. Yeah, we hunt.
I furnish food blocks and native grasses year around. I have three big blackberry patches that were started years ago by a bird excreting a seed. They keep expanding by dropping the fruit. And water for wildlife in 3 ponds. I have to do an annual report to the County or couldn’t afford the taxes with no income from the place. Blackberry patches, ponds and winter wheat patches to feed wildlife are also exemption items for wildlife. This year, the drought kept me from planting wheat.
I am wanting to go out there and see if I can catch a YP, I stocked some two yrs ago but haven't seen or caught one since, but also don't know how, have never fished for one, people say to use worms and a bobber but that doesn't work in my pond during warmer months, cant keep the damn BG off the hook, maybe now they wont bother me as much.
I have the same issue when the water is warm. It's a little easier to target the YP once the bluegill get cold.
I had a few minutes to fiddle yesterday so I went to the pond with a spin rod rigged with a small piece of nightcrawler on a floating jig head and 1/4oz weight pegged about 18" up the line. Caught one YP ~10" long before my hands got too cold to continue. Had to clear ice from the tip-top guide about every other cast. Got up this morning to find the pond surface completely iced over on the opposite side of the dock from where the aeration diffuser is now located.
Cody's suggestion to use minnows/small BG this time of year is a good one. I generally catch more fish on live minnows than nightcrawlers during winter. Not always, but probably 8 of 10 times that's how it will go for me.
Tombstone doesn't have FHM in stock right now. NEMO has them for $11/lb. with a three pound minimum order. So far I haven't put a lot of effort into catching my YP during the winter, but it's time to change that. I'm going to slap a bait tank together this week then run up there and buy a sackful so I have them on hand when I'm ready to wet a line.
I've caught YP on a 4" soft plastic jerk bait& a 2/0 hook........ Any small artificial crank bait will work, or use a 1/8" or smaller jig head and 1.5"-2" white curly tail grub with the tail up. No bobber, light line, cast out until it hits bottom, slowly retrieve it back.
I literally watched as the line to my aeration diffuser froze up Sunday morning.
Part of my morning routine is to open the chicken house, feed the birds and check their water, then check the horse water. The pump house sets very close to the chicken house so I'm able to clearly hear the pump running, and I know what it sounds like when it's running right, but it didn't sound like that. Opened the pump house to check the line pressure - 30psi gauge - normally runs 11psi - needle was pegged. Walked out to the pond and could tell the output wasn't anywhere close to what it should be. Walked to the shop, grabbed a quart of 91% isopropyl and a wrench, went back to the pump house, shut off the pump, opened the line, added the alcohol, closed the line, restarted pump. Less than 5 minutes later there was zero output from the diffuser and the pump sounded like it was about to explode so I shut it down.
These past few days have been the coldest weather we've had since February of '21 so it's not a big surprise that the line froze. I'm just glad I caught it before the pump expired.
It will thaw eventually, probably later this week when we're supposed to see temps get into the 40s. With any good luck this will be the last winter I have an overland airline so hopefully will also be the last freeze-up.
I literally watched as the line to my aeration diffuser froze up Sunday morning.
Part of my morning routine is to open the chicken house, feed the birds and check their water, then check the horse water. The pump house sets very close to the chicken house so I'm able to clearly hear the pump running, and I know what it sounds like when it's running right, but it didn't sound like that. Opened the pump house to check the line pressure - 30psi gauge - normally runs 11psi - needle was pegged. Walked out to the pond and could tell the output wasn't anywhere close to what it should be. Walked to the shop, grabbed a quart of 91% isopropyl and a wrench, went back to the pump house, shut off the pump, opened the line, added the alcohol, closed the line, restarted pump. Less than 5 minutes later there was zero output from the diffuser and the pump sounded like it was about to explode so I shut it down.
These past few days have been the coldest weather we've had since February of '21 so it's not a big surprise that the line froze. I'm just glad I caught it before the pump expired.
It will thaw eventually, probably later this week when we're supposed to see temps get into the 40s. With any good luck this will be the last winter I have an overland airline so hopefully will also be the last freeze-up.
Augie:
What diameter is the line, and do you have a over-pressure pop off valve on the aeration system?
There's 100' of 3/4" black poly reduced down to 5/8" weighted line at water's edge. I don't have an OPV plumbed in, but I like the idea and will see what I can find for parts to make it happen.
Augie, that's the first time that I have heard of a 3/4" or 5/8" line freezing up. Send me a PM with your mailing addy and I'll send you price on a pop off valve. When I DIY a system I put it on the PVC manifold that has the ball valves/gauge on it. I just glue a threaded adapter in the "T" that is at one side of the manifold to put the valve in.
The lowest place in the line is underneath the pump house where the sun never shines.
I could probably thaw it out with a salamander heater but it's a lot easier to just wait on the weather.
We're supposed to have another cold snap over the next couple days then start warming up. We're looking at upper 40s next week with nighttime lows well above freezing. I've got a feeling the problem is going to fix itself.
If the line is freezing off there, you probably have a dip in the line that collects fluid.
Does the line ever come back up the surface before entering the pond? If so, you might be able to install a "blow off" valve.
You turn your air pump to max rate and then open the blow off valve. The theory is that the air velocity is much higher through the full-opening valve than through the membrane bubblers. If the sizing is right, the extra flow velocity will entrain the fluid in the low spot in the line and you should either see a mist or slug flow through the valve.
The other option is to fill up an air tank with your shop compressor. Connect it to your line and give it a few shots of high pressure gas. Obviously, you must do this with the blow off valve fully open so you do NOT blow a hole in your line in an inconvenient spot underground. (Pipelines are devious that way!)
If the line is freezing off there, you probably have a dip in the line that collects fluid.
Does the line ever come back up the surface before entering the pond? If so, you might be able to install a "blow off" valve.
You turn your air pump to max rate and then open the blow off valve. The theory is that the air velocity is much higher through the full-opening valve than through the membrane bubblers. If the sizing is right, the extra flow velocity will entrain the fluid in the low spot in the line and you should either see a mist or slug flow through the valve.
The other option is to fill up an air tank with your shop compressor. Connect it to your line and give it a few shots of high pressure gas. Obviously, you must do this with the blow off valve fully open so you do NOT blow a hole in your line in an inconvenient spot underground. (Pipelines are devious that way!)
With the supply line size and pump, he won't generate enough air volume/velocity to do what you are thinking it will do on the compressor alone.
If using a portable tank, he'd have to shut off the diffuser before he tried it and it'd only work if the water was liquid, not solid.
Does the line ever come back up the surface before entering the pond?
The line is 100% exposed to the atmosphere until it enters the water. It just needs a few days of above-freezing temps to open up.
It's my intention to complete the finish grade on the west end of the pond dam this summer. Part of that project involves moving the pump house. Once those two things have been completed I'll bury the air line and that will be the end of the freeze-ups.
Still might want to place a tee in the line near the pond. Can add a blow off and/or access valve and a gauge.
If air volume at the bubblers decreases but your gauge pressure is the same, trouble is downstream of the gauge.
If air volume at the bubblers decreases and your gauge pressure is lower, perhaps time to rebuild your compressor.
Troubleshooting pipelines is much easier with more info! esshup, may chime in if adding a tee is a bad idea. (I work on much different pipeline systems.)
Still might want to place a tee in the line near the pond. Can add a blow off and/or access valve and a gauge.
If air volume at the bubblers decreases but your gauge pressure is the same, trouble is downstream of the gauge.
If air volume at the bubblers decreases and your gauge pressure is lower, perhaps time to rebuild your compressor.
Troubleshooting pipelines is much easier with more info! esshup, may chime in if adding a tee is a bad idea. (I work on much different pipeline systems.)
"T"'s are fine. If I do a DIY system that has a remote valve box, I will typically have a 4-way at the pump with a gauge and pop-off valve there, and at the pond at the manifold I'll have a "T" on one side of the manifold.
So we are supposed to have a major thaw this week so I took the opportunity to clean out my wood duck boxes slash starling nest sites. five out of the six showed signs of duck activity, two still had an egg in them. I lowered the stand on them so that they are closer to the water and I will be able to check them better. The one box, which consists of a hollow piece of log, set upright on a stump with the bottom and top capped of with treated plywood, had claw marks up the stump where a coon or something recently tried to get up the tree to it but I have a metal skirt around the bottom so there is no way he could have made it to the opening.
Finally made it to the pond today with a hatchet in hand. I was rejected last week when I tried to go out there and only had a 4lb sledge in the truck. Turned out we had nearly 8" of ice on the pond. Water sample finally taken today which will be shipped off tomorrow to see what we see.
Never would have guessed that there was that much ice on the pond but that cold air that rolled through the midwest was amazing. Don't normally get those kind of flash freezes around here.
Went by the pond this morning and tossed some feed in and had a bunch of takers, mostly BG but also CC, and caught a couple BC in a half dozen casts. I think this is about as early as Ive had them take feed here in Central MO, they also fed way late into the fall, almost till Thanksgiving, usually they don't feed much after 1st of Oct. The pond is looking as clean and clear as Ive seen it, but of course we havent had a lot of runoff rain this spring, just 1 or 2, and those were on top of ice and snow, I had 4" of water on top of ice that was still thick enough to walk on. pond is full and had a little overflow already this spring. Spring is just around the corner!
Rod, I don't have any hard data for you. Both the Channel Cats and the Blues get caught occasionally, but I'm not usually at the neighborhood pond when it happens.
CC, in general, were way, way more available to people than Blue Cats which is why we don't hear about them as much.
CC, in general, were way, way more available to people than Blue Cats which is why we don't hear about them as much.
Yep, I knew that one.
Didn't know if CC are easier to add pounds and more catchable, or just easier for the fish suppliers to produce.
I think a 3# blue cat will yield larger filets than a 3# CC. However, most of the commercial catfish farms for table fare raise CC. There must be a good reason for that!
Water testing to include the new homemade secchi disk for me today. Nothing out of the ordinary that I saw at the pond. The water is still pretty cool at 44 degrees. I was a little interested to hear the depthfinder on the boat signaling a small fish here and there in a barren pond.
Hardest part of this journey is the wait. It is however getting closer one day at a time....
Sunny day yesterday, some small fish were in the shallower warmer water and looking under the floating pier there were either bluegills or hybrid crappie under it. Today is solid cloud cover and we just had an hour of rain.
Stinkin' beavers. This one floated up about 2 weeks after he got hit, and he still had the trap and the H frame on him. Actually, having multiple brush piles has saved my trees because the lazy turds just get what's in the water and leave growing trees alone. 6 traps out now. 3 on the hut, and 3 on the overflow pipe they're trying to plug up.
Hopefully you can get them all before they have their spring kits.
Just had another one of my crazy/stupid ideas. Could a person use a cheap little solar fountain pump affixed to a large pipe in the pond to create a loud trickle of water to attract beavers? (Run the discharge hose back into the pond so there are no water losses.)
A pond owner could put that in a place covered by a game camera as an early warning system for beavers, or put it in an easy trapping place if traps were deployed most of the year.
Trying to help solve a beaver problem when it is only one or two, rather than a second and third generation problem.
Stinkin' beavers. This one floated up about 2 weeks after he got hit, and he still had the trap and the H frame on him. Actually, having multiple brush piles has saved my trees because the lazy turds just get what's in the water and leave growing trees alone. 6 traps out now. 3 on the hut, and 3 on the overflow pipe they're trying to plug up.
Good thing he floated. Did the H Frame and trap come dislodged from the bottom?
I always staked my traps so they'd not disappear. Other than getting stolen that is.
Scott, it was a clean shot, so I'm guessing he made a big twist. It was at the deepest part of the pond, so once he bloated...
I'm finally getting 8' wire rope anchors on all my conibears, and I was negligent for not doing it earlier. I'm cutting off all the short factory anchors.
Rod, it's pretty much an annual deal when they migrant up the creek behind the big pond, so I'm kinda sorta ready for it. I have one den that's used in both high and low water, so I never destroy it. It's kinda like a VRBO for varmints. I've caught beavers, otters, and nutria in that one hut, so it makes catching them easier. Last year I did catch momma, poppa, and 2 babies. It's not something I enjoy doing, but the consequences from not doing anything about it are worse.
Yeah, I think they are shortening up the chains on them to make them cheaper. Keep an eye on that wire rope in a year. I have had land traps that I tried to pull up the stake using the wire rope after a year and the wire broke before I was able to pull the stake out. Granted, these stakes are considered to be "disposable" stakes but still......... I used 3/32" 7x7 Galvanized aircraft cable.
I use galvanized wire rope, and so far so good. No issues with the older ones I already had out. For stakes, I use 2' long rebar, and weld 3" metal tabs to it. I welded up a dozen more yesterday.
I think you're gonna need to tell us more about that fish, Jake.
We do a good bit of winter fishing for Channel Cats but sometimes before the water gets too cold or in the spring after it warms up a bit we catch a few Blues, 15 to 25 lbs, this one grabbed our cut stink bait, was 79lbs, couple days later caught a 20 a 30 a 40 and a 57 along with several under 20. this one gave the old zebco 202 a workout. we turned them back except for a couple of the smaller ones.
I was curious about that myself, no idea. I do believe these damn flying carp help to feed these lunkers, seems like they are all fat as a tick and full when you catch them. We use the nasty suckers for bait btw, cruise around in slow water till we get a bunch that jumped into the boat, filet them out and can them in chunks, with the skin on, not sealed in jars, just put the lid put them and set them in and old fridge and let them rot. cat fish love it.
With pond water temperature up to 52 degrees this afternoon, my BG and GSF showed up for their first feeding of the year. I've been throwing out small quantities of Optimal BG and dried mealworms for a couple of weeks. Yesterday a couple of trout came up; today it's trout and sunfish. I also could see one of the monster grass carp fining just below the surface, catching some rays. It's always a joyful time each Spring to see fish life once again. It can certainly be quite meditative to quietly sit on the dock and watch those hungry mouths eat up the offerings. Yesterday there was ice on one side of the pond; today there are feeding fish.
I was curious about that myself, no idea. I do believe these damn flying carp help to feed these lunkers, seems like they are all fat as a tick and full when you catch them. We use the nasty suckers for bait btw, cruise around in slow water till we get a bunch that jumped into the boat, filet them out and can them in chunks, with the skin on, not sealed in jars, just put the lid put them and set them in and old fridge and let them rot. cat fish love it.
I've been told that once a blue (& flatheads too) reach 5 lbs in weight that they can grow up to 5 lbs per annum. Assuming a 5 lbs fish is 3 years of age at top growth rates, a blue growing this fast could be as young as 18 years. I imagine that some grow faster while others slower than that 5 lb figure. But this estimate may be within 3 or 4 years of the actual age.
Really great fish, gehajake. Thank you for posting the photo.
The wife and I have been about half gimped with the flu for the past week but I did manage to sneak out to the pond last Monday before I started feeling seriously ill.
I tied on three different colors of marabou jigs and made a few tosses. Caught one female YP ~8" and full as a tick, and one male HSB. That fish looked perfectly healthy but was definitely an underperformer compared to some that I've previously harvested - 20" and 3.8lbs., which is under 90% wR. Probably not bad for coming out of winter, but a good pound shy of what I would expect for a 20" HSB. Fish was a male and had nothing in it's gut. That makes 8 harvested of the 20 that I stocked.
The weather has been unseasonably warm and I noticed when I was walking around the pond dam on Saturday that the BG were up cruising the shoreline. I tossed a few pellets and they made short work of them. Fed again yesterday afternoon and you'd have thought it was May rather than February. The BG and RES were on top slurping while the YP were slicing and dicing under/in/through them. No signs of fin fungus on anyone so I think things are all good.
I wish we had a source for dace like that. Tremendous!!
It's pretty cool right! We go onto the beaver dams where there is a small hole open about 10x6 where the minnows are gobbling up the air because of the low oxygen in the swamps, then we just scoop them up - a few pounds at a time. One load was about 80 pounds of 2 inchers...I'll grab some pics when I can.
At the neighborhood pond, ambient temps were 64/65F, and the water a foot down was 56 degrees.
It took about 10-15 minutes before the Golden Shiner Brigade forged a light attack on feed, and then, bluegill and what I'm pretty sure were some nice Redear Sunfish started appearing and feeding.
After about 25-30 minutes of observation, I told myself it was time to go. As I did this, more and more fish showed up.
After the 4th time of telling myself to leave, I saw an approx. 3 lb LMB hitting feed. Then I saw a few more LMB.
After the 6th time of telling myself to leave, I saw what I'm pretty sure was a blue catfish looking at some feed.
Visibility was maybe 10" so it was nice to actually be able to see some fish.
At my neighbor, Lee's pond, water temps were 48 degrees a foot down, and now real activity except seeing a lot of fatheads around some rocks.
My fish already come running when I walk up. I think it was about 2 weeks ago I only had a strip about 6' wide on one side that wasn't iced over, and I had fish trying to get the pellets that landed on the ice.
I have a customer that can feed his fish today and they'll hit the pellets. His pond can ice over, and the day the ice leaves his pond he can throw out feed and they will be hitting it.
I've got BG coming to feed at 48-49 degs with consistency. quite surprised but shouldn't be I guess beings my feed training starts to get real active at 55.
Today at the pond: hauled 9 ton of rock and built new pier structures after pumping pond down 5ft. Built 12 new SMB spawning beds, then fished for an hour.. Caught some YP that look like they could blow tomorrow.. seriously, low water has made it warmer and I hope I get the water back up before they blow.. I don't have any of my perch spawning tumbleweeds in place yet. Where does the time go when you miss a few days?????????
I don't have any good pond news, but I did go out to the farm and start fertilizing trees today.
The fun part was that five separate flocks of Sandhill Cranes went over while I was working. They have such a strange call when they are flying, and I can always hear them before I can see them.
I have no idea why they call so much while flying at altitude, but they sure do make a joyous racket!
Yellow Perch, Bluegill, Hybrid Bluegill, for sure. Maybe HSB and SMB too along with a few golden shiners. He has a self sustaining population of GSH in his pond. His Hybrid Crappie are growing great, I think some are close to 16"-17". This should be year 3 or 4 for them in the pond, I have to check my stocking records to be sure.
He feeds about 1/2 pallet of Optimal a year in a 4 ac pond. He's got RES over 12" and over 2#, BG and HBG at 10 3/4" and 1.75# (we electroshocked that pond 6-27 last year).
I don't have any good pond news, but I did go out to the farm and start fertilizing trees today.
The fun part was that five separate flocks of Sandhill Cranes went over while I was working. They have such a strange call when they are flying, and I can always hear them before I can see them.
I have no idea why they call so much while flying at altitude, but they sure do make a joyous racket!
They make a ton of noise on the ground too, and you have absolutely no idea just how loud they are until you are sleeping with the bedroom windows open and they start in only about 50 feet from the house. I have a pair that nests within 300 yds or so from the house. I think a coyote got the colt last year. It was with Mom & Dad and was probably close to 24" tall then it wasn't with them any more.
I had several YP show up to feed for the first time this year yesterday. I think I'd be surprised if they hadn't already spawned here, as the big ones didn't look egg laden.
(I've never been able to see YP egg streams in my pond, despite placing tree branches around the shore for several years. There is shallow-to-deep water structure out too far from shore to see that they must lay their eggs on.)
Theo, do you have tumble weeds up your way? If so, place a few large ones in water a ft deeper than tumbleweed diameter. I tie a brick to stump of weed and use para chord so I can pull it out when done. They look like teenagers toilet papered a tree when the perch do blow. Earliest ribbon I had was 3/7/22 at 11:47 hrs of daylight. most show up at my place around 12:15-12:30hrs of daylight.
The only Tumbleweeds we have are the kind that claim to serve Tex-Mex food. My YP manage to spawn on Osage Orange logs, black plastic water pipe, old tires, and/or a broken round bale feeder.
Theo, do you have any cedar trees to be cleared? I think those are the arboreal version of tumbleweeds.
I don't know what out-competes tumbleweeds, but driving from the arid regions of western Kansas, Oklahoma, or Texas, the number of tumbleweeds drops off quite suddenly as you move to the east into the areas with significantly more annual moisture.
Do you only have pleasant things growing on your property?
Pretty much, I have to look long and hard to find a cedar on my place to make a mock scrape out of for the deer in the fall, and Ive never seen a tumble weed on my place, I don't think, I don't know what they look like. would a multiflora rose bush serve the same purpose?
Does your state dept of conservation have a forestry division? I’ve been working with my county agent. We’ve had a guy in to remove all the multifloral rose and autumn olive. Over in the timber he’s cut all the maple and ironwood. Timber Stand Improvement is paid for by the state. My share will be less than $500. It should really help with deer and turkey populations. I have to admit, it doesn’t look too good right now. I didn’t realize how many maples I had. They are laying everywhere.
FYI, Asian Bittersweet (wikipedia article) is a vine that grows fairly fast, produces a shipload of berries that birds (and maybe arboreal mammals - ???) love to eat to spread it's seeds, and does a pretty good job of strangling trees. We have one fence row of trees in between two of our leased row crop fields where the Bittersweet pretty much completely covers the trees that grew there. I'll never be able to eliminate it, as it would be constantly reseeded from the vines growing in the 7 figure subdivision to the North of our farm (built amid what I swear is the ugliest woods in Ohio). So I do my best to keep it from ruining any good trees that it hasn't already engulfed, as well as keeping it off woven wire fences.
Ohio has no equivalent program that we know of.
Oh, BTW, glyphosate just pisses it off. We do have one herbicide that is effective on it (I can't remember the name of the top of my head), which helps with the fence rows, but is rather hard to spray way up in trees.
Oh, BTW, glyphosate just pisses it off. We do have one herbicide that is effective on it (I can't remember the name of the top of my head), which helps with the fence rows, but is rather hard to spray way up in trees.
I have some old poison ivy vines as thick as my wrist going up some of my trees. I can't spray the leaves so I have to cut the stems. However, my optimal herbicide for foliar spraying also works well on the cut stems.
I did read up on Asian Bittersweet. Triclopyr is one of the preferred herbicides, and the product labels says it can be applied directly to cut stems/trunks. (If you are having good success with a different herbicide, you might check the label and see if it also works on cut stems.)
If you have some nice trees you need to save, perhaps you could try cutting and treating some stems at ground level? If you don't get a 100% kill rate, you might try experimenting with determining the optimum time of year for treatments. For my trees that sucker from the roots (like your Bittersweet), my best kill rate is to treat in the fall when the sap is moving back down to the roots.
Theo, I was gonna throw out Remedy and an oil based surfactant, which works fine for us, but the Bittersweet sounds much worse. A triclopyr/glyphosate cocktail is all I've seen recommended.
Rod, unfortunately my wife's mean little goat June, my avatar, isn't with us anymore. Short story was she was having some serious issues so we had a mobile horse Dr do an ultrasound, and it turned out she had a large tumor. I did what was right, put her down, and buried her under a huge oak tree on our property. So, Luke moved in.
Since goats are herd animals, we had to get another one PDQ because our other goat didn't need to be alone. We got with the lady we had originally bought ours from, and she had 3 Wethers at her place. 2 were 2yo, and raised there, and the 3rd was 5yo and was abandoned by owners who had lost most of their pasture goats do to coyote kills. IIRC, all the abandoned goats were taken, all but Luke. We saw him, got the story, and immediately took him home with us. His head is banana shaped, his eyes aren't level so his vision is poor, and he has a NASCAR horn. The horn turns left. He was scared, solitary, and didn't seem to have close human interaction before. It took us 3-4 weeks with tons of effort, but we fixed that. He now goes on daily walks with my wife and our other goat. Yes, now he's spoiled rotten and prefers vanilla wafers for treats.
OTOH, with Luke's looks, it's a good thing he has such a great personality! He probably had a rough time when he went out on blind dates with the girl goats.
You might have misnamed that goat, shoulda called him earnhardt, hes definately a nascar goat, if he follows his nose and or his horn, he will always be going in left circles.
Took a drone pic yesterday. Was surprised at the color of the water. But I’m thinking that may be the low quality camera on a cheap drone. Haha! Another benefit of a drone pic, is that the pond doesn’t look as low as it is.. Ha!
Jealous of the LMB catching. Did manage to set the fish feeder and plant (3) Kanza Pecans though. Was a beautiful day outside and I was happy to get to enjoy some of it.
Pulled two more welfare eaters from my pond yesterday evening. In a pond that's lousy with <3" BG these slackers had nothing but Optimal in their bellies. These two make ten harvested of the twenty that were stocked. They are a hoot to catch, but I'm not going to restock them when these are gone. It's not much fun catching BG and YP on a medium heavy rod that's rigged with 30lb braided line, and it's less fun trying to keep these crazy things from running into the brush when I hook one on a lightweight rig while fishing for BG/YP.
I have my pond down about 6' trying to get some cattails out and re-seal and it looks like my perch are going to do their thing before I get water back up.. Time to transfer some feed-trained YP I guess. I have managed to build 6 new piers now out of chuck concrete and limestone, added some extra smb nesting areas. Some days I feel like I'm going backwards.
Snipe I understand. I keep adding cedar/pine brush piles, lots of work, no sign last 3 years of a spawn. Sunday made up for it, 3 families out to fish at our RV Park / Pay to fish ponds. One family, Uncle nephew team , nephew 10 yoa , a joy to watch. 2nd family, Mm / Dad , and 18 yoa "mentally challenged " son spending afternoon together , the excitement , whoops and hollers of the son pulling out his 3rd Rainbow trout on power bait was just beautiful . Seeing kids catching fish , some catching their 1st fish is fantastic. I pray that my ponds are helping keep kids out of Handcuffs. Makes the hours of upkeep well worth it.
FA, I remember an old saying “ Take your son hunting and, later in life, you won’t have to be hunting for him.”. Same with fishing, cutting firewood, etc.”.
Water clear to 40", rolled up on upper pond bout 40 minutes before sunset, fish feeding everywhere. Started scattering 6-7 lbs of Optimal mix of Trout & BG, Trout went into overdrive, a beautiful sight. As I left, turned on high beams and swept across a part of pond, fish locating feed in very last bit of sunset , rings covering pond. Worth every minute.
I helped a customer harvest fish yesterday. He's been lax about doing it and there is a tremendous biomass in the pond.We will have to do it again in a week or two.
Here's what we removed yesterday, all caught on a #8 hook and redworm under a bobber or on a 1/64th oz pink jig head and wax worm fished under a bobber
2 HSB 21"-22" right around 4# each 8 or so LMB all between 18"-19" and between 3.9 - 4.4 pounds 35 HBG 9"-10" between 15 oz and 1.25 pounds 12 YP between 1# and 1.25 pounds. All right around 13" give or take 1/2"
I had a fish hit a small white twister tail jig, or rather suck it up while it was swimming and it never changed it's swimming pace until the 2# line popped. It was like hooking to a boulder that was moving. Either a big channel cat, a big TGC or ???
Why has customer been lax about harvesting fish? It sounds like a great fishing pond!
Is the problem that the customer has been busy with "life" and has not been able to commit any time to harvesting at the pond, or is it that the customer thinks that more fish in the pond is always a better thing?
Why has customer been lax about harvesting fish? It sounds like a great fishing pond!
Is the problem that the customer has been busy with "life" and has not been able to commit any time to harvesting at the pond, or is it that the customer thinks that more fish in the pond is always a better thing?
A little bit of both but more the former than the latter. He runs his own business and he really needs a secretary and bookkeeper.
There are SMB and WAE in there, along with IIRC 40 Koi that are 20"+ long now. All in a roughly 1/2 acre pond. He really has to work to keep the water quality up. I don't want Mother Nature to harvest any fish. Luckily the banks are really steep once below the waterline so there isn't much (if any) reproduction in the pond. No reproduction habitat.
Thanks for the update. Thought it was probably a blend of both, but also wanted to see if you had a problem of clients just not listening to your advice.
I also fail to get important work done at my property because I also need a good secretary and a good bookkeeper. Perhaps one of the new hybrids of chestnut trees will produce $20 bills as leaves and I will be able to be a "property manager" full time.
Finally got down to the water’s edge. Been a while since I took the time. I found one YP ribbon. Don’t know if that’s the first or last. Also, water is still pretty far down. Lowest I think I’ve seen it with YP ribbons in place.
I’m sure I still have a very small leak, but the water is down from pure lack of rain. When we do get some rain, it’s 1/4 to 1/2” and takes its time coming down.
Yes. Lots of branches. But I would guess they lay them in the leaves 75% of the time. Possibly the deeper ribbons are on the cedar branches. I can’t see?
If they aren't laying them on the branches, maybe there is too much space between them, or the branches are too deep. How long have the cedars been in there?
Several years. They’ve always just ignored them. I do have a few pics of the ribbons in the branches. But most are just in the leaves.
Put dense cover in water deep enough so it's covered by 18"-24" water for them to drape their skeins on/over. Without that you will need to periodically re-stock YP.
I have read discussions of people on the forum pellet training their YP.
This is the first discussion I have seen of "branch training" the YP for the spawn!
SetterGuy, have you documented YP reproduction in your pond?
Yes. But numbers have continued to decline over the years. I’ve always thought it was possibly the large number of Golden Shiners we have in the pond. Before last seasons battle with the five friendly otters we were still catching little YP. But each years we’ve seen fewer and fewer ribbons. I think one year we had 20+. As esshup suggested above, I restocked last year. Still not catching YP like we used to. Maybe they’ll pick up again.
Hopefully, your new stocking will help. I still would like to hear about you having lots of ribbons next spring. YP are good forage for your bigger predators, and good eating when they themselves are large enough to be culled!
I forgot about your otter invasion. But I have read threads on Pond Boss detailing how brutally efficient the otters are at clearing out a pond. I suspect I am not the only creature that likes to eat YP!
SetterGuy must have the same kind of YP I have. They ignore the branches. I have put all types of branches in all sides of the pond and in different depths. I may get a random egg strand on a branch but most are laid in the oak leaves in the shallows, very shallow looking just like SG's picture above. It always is on the South or SE side first. The date changes by a few days depending on factors I can't figure out. It may be photoperiod but it seems it is more like a combination of temperature, weather and other things tood.
I went around the pond yesterday and no ribbons yet. Like SG, I have less and less YP total (they are getting old), less ribbons, less successful fertilization. But the few large adult GSH I have left may be part of the issue. We'll see if our Pekin ducks will ignore the YP eggs or vacuum them up as fast as they can. They vacuum everything else out of the shallows leaving beautiful beach sand behind. Their favorite 'adaptation' is to become diving ducks now (google says they can't dive but ours have become experts at underwater foraging). They are seeking out my bumper crop of trapdoor snails and pop up with them. They must be a delicacy with the effort they put in to find and eat them (and squabble with each other over who gets to eat them).
I agree with Setterguy that it might just be time to restock and keep feeding them.
They are seeking out my bumper crop of trapdoor snails and pop up with them. They must be a delicacy with the effort they put in to find and eat them (and squabble with each other over who gets to eat them).
Glad to see your ducks enjoy escargot. I wonder if they would be decent alternative to RES for snail/parasite management in low fertility ponds?
Very interesting to hear your YP also place ribbons in leaves on the bottom. You also have poor recruitment like SetterGuy.
I was joking upthread about "branch training" YP for effective spawning. I wonder if you guys do have YP from a facility that harvested the eggs. Therefore, a poor spawner (in nature) could be passing on their genetic traits? Or could it even be a learned behavior? Young YP observe the larger YP leave ribbons on leaves on the bottom, so they do the same nearby?
Fascinating problem.
Agree that some new YP stock in the future would probably be a big benefit to your pond.
FishinRod, I don't think the poor recruitment is due to the eggs laying on the leaves. I see no problems with silting on the leaves although in theory the underside of the strand may not get as much water movement as when they were on the branches. In the past years we had great recruitment when laid everywhere but on the branches.
I think the poor recruitment is due to many of the eggs having white spots about a week after being laid. Bill C says these are unfertilized eggs. So it is the unmanly male YP that are not chasing down the females and using their shooter to shoot milt in all directions like they did before. Either I have less males or my males ran out of male traits. I see about 50% of eggs showing white spots as a rough estimate.
It is interesting in my pond the YP can even appear to be 'cavity spawners' They have left egg strands in the cavity of the larger soft mesh minnow traps and some skeins where draped partially in and partially outside of the entrance hole. Some were in buckets that had blow in the pond, were on their side and half full of water. One was in a plastic folgers coffee can. Some are draped around the roots of my reeds and sedges. Some are in deeper water laying on the leaves. None were draped over my pallets.
Some years I do get algae issues on the eggs and no idea why.
The last few years I have removed the eggs as soon as I saw them to see if different water conditions or water chemistry would help them hatch better. I assume they are fertilized the same night they are laid so hopefully removing them promptly in the am is OK. I have never seen YP have sex during the day. IS that possible? Is it possible that no eggs get laid or fertilized in daytime hours?
Our YP and probably their ancestors for the past 10 or more generations came from a fish farm so they probably have no idea what a branch even looks like anymore.
I'd be very interested in including new genetics. I'll ask fellow YP pond meister and MI member Ron Crismon about the YP he uses, their genetic pedigree and where he tends to find his eggs.
Sounds like you have put in a lot of time and effort to resolve the YP recruitment issue - to no avail.
Good luck with some new YP in your pond! One of the many things I have learned on Pond Boss is that managing a pond is always aiming for a moving target.
Today was a GREAT day for the pond with the exception of a little cooler weather that rolled through. It started off with a delivery notice that the apple, peach, cherry, nectarine, and plum trees where going to be delivered and ended with planting them and adding in some yellow perch to the pond (Thanks snipe for the fish). We've been so looking forward to those coming in and hope to be good stewards of them as the years progress.
Boondoggle those are nice looking YP. Through the years I’ve seen the same things CC described. Ribbons laid in the oak leaves right next to branches. I’ve always thought that the low recruitment was due partially to my large golden shiner population. The golden shiners can sure out populate YP. I wonder if my SMB reduce my YP numbers? I would have thought they’d hit the golden shiners more than the YP though. Seven grandkids will be up there this coming weekend. We will get a fish population survey done over three days of fishing. This pic is from several years ago. I didn’t realize we were taking female YP at the time. I thought I had an infinite number of YP, as my original stocking was 1,150 in our 1 ac pond. Then 200 more were added in case of poor survival.
Nice look YP's you have there for sure SG! Really looking forward to seeing them hit the fish food. Perhaps they will start hitting it in the next few days.....for now, I'm just ear to ear smiles about the addition of them to the pond.
At the pond the last few days. Six grandkids had spring break vacations and decided to spend some time with grandma and myself. We caught several YP, released them all. A few SMB, also released. Had a blast. The kiddos caught a bunch of crawdads, glass shrimp, and about 10,000 BF tadpoles.
So glad your grandchildren got to enjoy the pond! Mine rarely did, one of the reasons I eventually sold.
I especially like how your granddaughters aren't scared to handle fish or even crawdads!
The one holding the YP was born about the time we were finishing the pond. She will be 10 in August. They visit the farm and pond about 5 or 6 times a year. Although I see that decreasing as they get more into kids sports. They like the farm, but love the pond.
Wife an I were out at the farm yesterday. Planted the last of our fruit trees (Rainier Cherry) and seeded the entire area. It was a ton of work, got home at around 10P after returning the County's see drill, and enjoyed every single second of our adventure. Sorry, no pics it was pitch black out there when we got done and the rain is supposed to roll in today.
Awesome to see those kiddos down at the pond SG. Those memories will be around for a long time to come.
I think I can also rent a seed drill from my county. However, I am not enough of a farmer to know what range of seed types I can plant.
A few questions, if you come back to this thread (or others can answer).
I think you have a no-till seed drill in Franklin County.
What prep did you do to the soil?
That tractor HP requirement for that seed drill is 40 HP. I only have a 32 HP tractor. Can I do the work very slowly with an undersized tractor (and excellent prep) or will that chain-driven seed drill just fail to perform if underpowered?
What crops, food plots, and cover vegetation would you use that type of drill to plant on your property?
About to have some fencing done/replaced on my place. It’s needed to be done for a long time. Having it done is because, at 81 yoa, I’ve outlived my usefulness. I have arthritis that limits the physical labor I can do. Bending from the waist gets really painful.
Dammit, this stuff was supposed to happen to others. Not me.
About to have some fencing done/replaced on my place. It’s needed to be done for a long time. Having it done is because, at 81 yoa, I’ve outlived my usefulness. I have arthritis that limits the physical labor I can do. Bending from the waist gets really painful.
Dammit, this stuff was supposed to happen to others. Not me.
The only thing worse than getting old ... is NOT getting old.
Got home from the farm yesterday after about a 1/2 day's work, after only a 45 minute drive I had to limp into the house. At least my wife slapped a plate of hot dinner into my hands to make me feel better!
We used a L3902 (37ish HP) for the work and used a box blade to smooth out the surface before planting. There were some spots that were a little on the "concrete" side of clay loam due to a lack of rain and recent travel from the heavier machinery building the pond. The Kubota pulled it just fine. Where the soil was hard, the front blades scratched the surface vs actually cutting a small V in the soil but that has nothing to due with the tractor itself.....all about the weight of the drill.
Franklin County has the 606NT (hydraulic) from Great Plains.
Our seeding adventure didn't go off super smoothly but for a rookie doing it the first time it was a great experience overall.
Our first challenge was the tractor didn't have rear hydraulic ports. We had to get the tractor back to the dealer for installation. We then moved on to picking up the drill itself which uses a 1" hitch pin instead of a standard ball type mount. This wasn't bad as the drill came is a 1" pin that mounts into a standard receiver for a hitch. However, the tractor had a 7/8" max pin size. Off to tractor supply I go. Found a 7/8" x 6-1/4" on the second store and it worked just fine as well. I had never done this type of work before so I did a little reading on the 606NT as it has three boxes for seed and all can be used at the same time with varying rates for each box. Talked to a local farmer and asked for some mentoring on site just to make sure I was covered. There is only so much one man can learn from youtube :P Saturday at 1PM we started loading the seeder. The county provided a couple of pages on how to set it up for various seeds and we matched the setting on lbs per acre to the seed. As is turned out the seed we were using in the second box was a little small and it was bypassing the cups in the seeder. We managed to do with it what we could and made a run back to town to get some additional seed. Our only other hiccup was making sure to watch the tubes on the back box as they tended to plug up and stop putting seeds out through the tubes. It was easy to clear, just had to be mindful of it.
We used erosion control grasses with a hint of Alfalfa and Clover on and around the pond dam. 75' on the slope in the pic to the water will be grass this same grass mix. Moving up the hill there's a center section that we changed to pollinator mix which was heavy on clover, and then blended in some wildflower and alfalfa. Our mini orchard reverted back to the grass, clover and alfalfa mix. Ultimately we should have a bit of flowering throughout the pond area with a central section dedicated to those wonderful pollinators.
We wrapped up seeding pretty close to dark. Got the seeder back to the county and as forecasted it rained a little today. Looking forward to the coming weeks to see how we did on the combination of a grass border with a pollinator/wildflower mix next to the small orchard.
Fingers crossed we have decent coverage and germination. It's 100% in mother natures hands now. May be a little over seeding in the fall if we need it but I hear it takes a 2-3 years to really get a good stand of grass going.
Personally, I think a 33hp would likely be more than enough with 4WD. I think the seeder weighs approx 2,700 lbs. Gradual slopes were pretty easy. The pond dam gave me a little of the pucker factor but I just went slow and worked through what I felt like I could and hand threw anything I was uncomfortable with.
One other item to note that I didn't know until I picked up the seeder was that the county sells seed as well. May be worth checking with them to see what straight seed or blend they can offer. We will likely look into this with fall seeding if needed.
Boondoggle, thanks for taking the time to make your comprehensive report!
A laundry list of small problems was exactly what I was expecting if I tried to operate the seeder. Glad to hear that you had enough available support to get the job done.
It really wasn't bad at all. First time doing it and using somebody else's equipment always requires more time to make sure things line up and can get it done. We picked up the Seeder on Friday to make sure we could work through some of the challenges ahead of our scheduled seeding on Saturday. Saturday still had a few challenges to work through but I would do it again for sure and it would probably be smoother now that I have a little experience with both the equipment and what to keep an eye on.
I'm sure I could have hired this out. Would not have been nearly as enjoyable to watch somebody else do it though.
If you decide to take it on. Find out about the connections and give yourself an extra day. It would also likely help to have a little more seed that you plan to use. Load some of the seed and run a small test path or row.....adjust and when you get it where you want.....load her up and get'r done.
The only purpose of the tractor is to pull the seeder and raise/lower the seeder with hydraulics on turns. No idea why it has a 40HP requirement.
Absolutely worth the effort and time spent though!
Feed was back on in Western PA with ambient temps at 62/63 F.
The Bluegill were waiting, but fed with some reservation. The Golden Shiner Brigade was right along side feeding too, and sometimes not moving too fast which always surprises me considering what all can eat them in the pond.
I saw a lazy CC taking some feed here and there, and a larger HSB cruising and taking the occasional pellet.
Stinkin' beavers. Power washing 4 new and 4 veteran 330 Conibears. They will be dipped, and then go back into service PDQ. All my H supports are power washed then sprayed with grey self etching primer, and then spot sprayed with flat olive spray paint.
The racoon traps are soaked in Ospho. It eats rust like candy, and keeps them from re-rusting.
I took the loader tractor to the back to see about bringing up some dirt for the finish grade on my pond dam.
I barely made it out. I'll try again in a week or so unless it rains first.
Diffusers are getting cleaned today. It's not quite time to turn the air back on but I want everything to be ready when it is time. I purged the water from the air line yesterday. Need to plumb in the new OPV (thanks esshup). I'm gonna need to buy a new pressure gauge. When the air line froze up back in the winter it tweaked the old one. Now it won't drop to zero when the compressor is shut off.
Ponds are much like boats. Holes where we throw our money. lol
Many years ago, Kingman County used to be notorious for the their speed traps. I always drive the limit there and literally have tried to stay off of his radar!
Retired 20 years ago. A small world , constantly seeing contributors to the threads , from places I have friends and/or family. God bless, on this Holy Day.
Got to feed the last three days at the neighborhood pond. Ambient temps were low to mid 50's, so not as warm as I'd like, but the fish are all expecting feed now.
Today, I'm stunned again by the size of some of my GSH population. I swear I'm seeing like 8-9" length on some of them. These larger GSH eat Optimal Bass sized pellets.
Yesterday I had a nice big SMB, mebbe 16" long, come up and take pellets along with the YP and BGxRES. A rare treat. (For me, not the Smallie - he/she's been eating sinking pellets for a month and a half.)
Today, I'm stunned again by the size of some of my GSH population. I swear I'm seeing like 8-9" length on some of them. These larger GSH eat Optimal Bass sized pellets.
With that much meaty forage, hopefully some kid will catch a pond record this year of one of your sport fish!
My creek went dry last year during the drought, but started running again this winter after the hard frost shut down all of the plants taking water from the aquifer.
A few small rains this spring, and it is really flowing well now.
Peeked into the deepest pool and it is already full of fish. The biggest are 4-5# and look to be some type of sucker fish (not common carp). I definitely need to get some on the bank and identify the species.
Questions: Any tips on catching them on rod and reel? (The pool is a little too deep to easily seine.)
Are they decent fish to eat? Some people on the internet say "yes", but some people on the internet are also nuts.
Try a piece of worm on a #10 or #12 hood, no swivel, split shot on the line to keep it near the bottom and to slow it's movement in the current. Take pictures to post for an ID if you can't figure them out.
I have a customer catching 9"-10" , measured GSH this spring, I caught 9" last fall. They love my Optimal BG . Hoping for a huge spawn this year. Lots of Skunk weed on bottom, a carpet, hoping it's good for GSH eggs. Transferred 45#'s in 2 groups in 2020 , been catching on hooks since 2022 , 5"-6" the first ones, was a shock when I caught my 1st one while RBT fishing. Originally stocked 2"ers. Oklahoma state record shows to be 5.28 Oz. Length not shown. May have to start weighing my 10"ers.
Try a piece of worm on a #10 or #12 hood, no swivel, split shot on the line to keep it near the bottom and to slow it's movement in the current. Take pictures to post for an ID if you can't figure them out.
Thanks esshup.
They have a funny behavior that indicates they are some type of schooling fish.
When I quietly walk up to the creek edge, the LMB and GSF barely react if I move slowly enough.
These sucker fish (and the bullheads when they are in the deep pools) all swirl around rapidly in a single mass at the deepest part of the pool. Looks to me just like the ocean schooling fish that exhibit that protective behavior.
I definitely want to identify them correctly. It is impressive how quickly they start working upstream when the water starts moving again in the tiny, shallow creeks!
Rod, two common sucker species are prevalent in Ozarks streams - the River Redhorse and the Northern Hogsucker. Snagging season for suckers is a big deal in the Misery Ozarks.
As previously mentioned all you need is a lightweight rod rigged with nothing but a hook/worm and a split shot if you want to catch them the sporting way. You've already noticed that they are quite skittish. Approach quietly from downstream, pitch your worm a couple or three feet upstream from the school (they will orient facing the current unless they're spooked or swimming back to the lower end of the hole to start another feeding run). This will sound funny, but watch what happens when one of them spots your worm sinking to the bottom - the fish will swim to the bait, sniff it, then start to eat it - lips extend once, lips extend twice, lips extend three times - lift the rod tip and virtually every time you will have them hooked in the corner of the mouth. Lift on one or two you'll miss. Lift on four the fish swallowed your hook.
They're super easy to butcher - scrape the scales off, remove the filet, score down to the skin every 1/4" or so. Dip in your favorite fish fry mix and toss em into hot grease. It will be some of the best fish you've ever eaten.
Oh... I have no idea if the OPV will whistle at me when/if it pops. It looks like your garden variety OPV that would be found on an air compressor, but I can't imagine that the volume/pressure our diffusion pumps run at would cause it to make much noise.
Thanks for the sucker advice! Definitely need to catch, identify, and perhaps eat.
Originally Posted by Augie
Oh... I have no idea if the OPV will whistle at me when/if it pops. It looks like your garden variety OPV that would be found on an air compressor, but I can't imagine that the volume/pressure our diffusion pumps run at would cause it to make much noise.
I have seen high-pressure OPVs that are spring loaded on gas pipelines. They typically have a little disk that blows out of the vent port when they open due to overpressure, or have a thin wire attached that breaks when the stem moves on the relief port.
I was just wondering if you could make some "poor boy" version of that? Maybe just lightly obstruct your pressure relief port with a dowel or similar item that would easily blow out if you hit overpressure. That way you would at least know that something was plugging in your system.
Thanks for the sucker advice! Definitely need to catch, identify, and perhaps eat.
Originally Posted by Augie
Oh... I have no idea if the OPV will whistle at me when/if it pops. It looks like your garden variety OPV that would be found on an air compressor, but I can't imagine that the volume/pressure our diffusion pumps run at would cause it to make much noise.
I have seen high-pressure OPVs that are spring loaded on gas pipelines. They typically have a little disk that blows out of the vent port when they open due to overpressure, or have a thin wire attached that breaks when the stem moves on the relief port.
I was just wondering if you could make some "poor boy" version of that? Maybe just lightly obstruct your pressure relief port with a dowel or similar item that would easily blow out if you hit overpressure. That way you would at least know that something was plugging in your system.
There's a reason why a pressure gauge is highly recommended to be incorporated in an aeration system............................
On my own pond, I have two pressure gauges and one OVP valve. One gauge by the compressor, one in the Remote Manifold Box at the edge of the pond.
My pond is like the cobblers kids. The answer is yes, but by then the pressure gauge usually reads 0.
OTOH, in the years that I've had the pond I've only had 2 compressors that needed rebuilding, both rocking piston types. I change compressors like underwear, testing different things. Currently there is a 1/4 hp Gast rotary vane running to the pond.
I have run a 3/4 hp rotary vane testing different single membrane diffusers. No failures noted.
Spring's here, and this is my "still working on it" shoreline combo that is just now popping up. Water Iris and reeds help stabilize the shoreline, and water primrose and hardy lilies provide shallow water shade.
That would certainly also earn the Mrs. FishinRod stamp of approval. Which, as everyone knows, is one of the MOST important items when managing a pond.
I bought some Hardy Lilies last Fall, overwintered them inside and they will be going into the pond (inside wire cages to protect them from geese, TGC and turtles) in 3-4 weeks.
With my continually fluctuating water levels, I think I'll leave them in containers.
I'm thinking of putting them in mortar mixing tubs, attaching the cage to those and making sure that there is a long rope on them before they get put in the pond. I can push them deeper with a long stick and pull them shallower with the rope.
Today, the guys from dumpsterrentalslafayette.com came and took the waste left from my pond renovation. Yeah, I'm rebuilding my pond now. The current setup isn't meeting my expectations anymore. There's a persistent issue with algae growth, and the water quality just isn't where I want it to be. Firstly, I want to improve the overall aesthetic and functionality of the pond. I imagine a more naturalistic design with better filtration systems to maintain water clarity. Additionally, I'd like to introduce more diverse aquatic plants and fish species to create a balanced ecosystem. Also, has anyone experimented with including a small waterfall or stream?
I spent some time at my pond contemplating a rebuild. It's been on my mind for a while now. The current setup isn't meeting my expectations anymore. I've never done a pond rebuild before, so I'm a bit uncertain about the process. I'd love to hear about your experiences with your rebuilds.
I spent some time at my pond contemplating a rebuild. It's been on my mind for a while now. The current setup isn't meeting my expectations anymore. I've never done a pond rebuild before, so I'm a bit uncertain about the process. I'd love to hear about your experiences with your rebuilds.
Nina, you probably need to start a new thread for that type of question.
Can you list some of the characteristics of your pond, and then what is wrong, and then what you would like to change?
Dug holes at the house for my wife to plant her new plants in the morning. It was so dry that I did not find a single worm. I wanted to try and catch some of those large sucker fish in our creek!
Went out to the farm to water trees in the afternoon. Took a fishing rod to clean out some of the GSF from the creek such that the suckers might actually have a chance the next time I had a bit of worm. Threw a small jig with a tiny grub about 12" farther up the line. Caught a 10" LMB on the first cast. Caught a 14" LMB on the second cast. Both bass were caught on the tiny grub lure. I am pretty sure there were only two bass in that hole when I looked last week. Both were well above 100 RW.
Never caught a GSF the whole time.
The water was clear last week, but some bloom was going this week, so I couldn't see very well into that pool in the creek.
The advice last week was to try a bit of worm on a small hook. Anyone know if they would also bite on corn or a doughball?
Sorry, I don't yet have a positive ID until I put some on the bank. I am pretty sure it is a long-bodied type of sucker. NOT a common carp or as deep-bodied as a quillback carpsucker. Although I am looking down from a high bank, so my fish ID skills in that circumstance are even worse than usual!
FiresHot, I made a mistake showing my wife the plants you’ve got growing in your pond. Now she’s on a mission. I suspect I’ll be planting soon. We just have this ongoing drought so our pond is up and down, mostly down. We have had a couple of nice rains lately. Water level is up a little, but still 2’ below full. I’m not sure how to plant in a pond with such varying water levels. I turned on the feeder yesterday. We caught several keeper YP a few weeks ago, and I’d like to see more. Unfortunately, the test feed throw from the feeder revealed less than stellar interest from the fish. I’ll be back up in a week, I’ll see if the fish have responded, I sure hope so. For now I turned the amount of feed way down. (4 seconds a day). When I was at the fish sellers place getting the food for the feeder, I asked if he had any WE in stock. He does! I said I may put in some. We discussed numbers etc. His recommendation for my 1 ac. Pond was 40 walleye. He said if I put in a dozen, I’d probably never see them. Of course he wants to sell more fish.. Food for thought. He did say, I needed to keep the ones I caught, and start eating them! I think I can be talked into that. Ha!
FiresHot, I made a mistake showing my wife the plants you’ve got growing in your pond. Now she’s on a mission. I suspect I’ll be planting soon. We just have this ongoing drought so our pond is up and down, mostly down. We have had a couple of nice rains lately. Water level is up a little, but still 2’ below full. I’m not sure how to plant in a pond with such varying water levels....
I love messing with them, and the blooms are just now opening up and showing off. If it's something y'all would like try, here's a link below to a brand new hardy plant I potted last year. I've had good luck purchasing from Pond Megastore, and stay with hardy lilies, not tropical. Plants with bigger leaves mean faster spread, so I might start with a smaller leafed plant.
Dug holes at the house for my wife to plant her new plants in the morning. It was so dry that I did not find a single worm. I wanted to try and catch some of those large sucker fish in our creek!
Went out to the farm to water trees in the afternoon. Took a fishing rod to clean out some of the GSF from the creek such that the suckers might actually have a chance the next time I had a bit of worm. Threw a small jig with a tiny grub about 12" farther up the line. Caught a 10" LMB on the first cast. Caught a 14" LMB on the second cast. Both bass were caught on the tiny grub lure. I am pretty sure there were only two bass in that hole when I looked last week. Both were well above 100 RW.
Never caught a GSF the whole time.
The water was clear last week, but some bloom was going this week, so I couldn't see very well into that pool in the creek.
The advice last week was to try a bit of worm on a small hook. Anyone know if they would also bite on corn or a doughball?
Sorry, I don't yet have a positive ID until I put some on the bank. I am pretty sure it is a long-bodied type of sucker. NOT a common carp or as deep-bodied as a quillback carpsucker. Although I am looking down from a high bank, so my fish ID skills in that circumstance are even worse than usual!
Yesterday we worked on touching up some seed for the bare areas, cleaned up and organized some of the old projects, smoothed a bit of dirt with the box blade on the tractor. It didn't even feel like work. Was a pretty nice day out, a touch windy.
Today, shorter visit to the farm as we made lots of progress yesterday. Had some rain overnight, and we decided to stay off the dirt where we could for the day. That left getting in the water and cleaning up a couple of the trees I had set to protect the little ones we hope to see spawn this year. Water temps in the 50's and had a blast!
I bet that water was still a mite chilly. However, it did give me a good idea.
My old knees sometimes get pretty achy working at the farm. I think I should follow your example and just sit on a sandbar in our creek and soak my knees for about ten minutes. Towel off and go back to work.
Heck, the minnows in the creek might even give me a pedicure at the same time.
Ambient temps were right around 60 degrees today in western PA. We've had colder weather the few days past along with good rains, so the neighborhood pond was high and muddy/murky. Fish took to feed very lightly.
At my neighbor Lee's pond, I caught 6 yellow perch with the largest being 8-9", and healthy. Lee's water was not muddy but was not clear either. YP hit on worms.
My buddy Nick and I spent Saturday morning in the woods searching for morels. The season is just starting to get good here.
After we got back we pulled out the fishing rods and spent an hour collecting some fish to cook with the morels. We pulled two more HSB, which makes 12 harvested of the 20 that were stocked. Both were <85% wR. Until the middle of last summer I'd been seeing >100% wR from every HSB that was caught. My theory is that they were thriving up to the point most of the crayfish in the pond were gone. We've been in an extended drought here. Most of the riprap on my pond dam has been high and dry for over a year. By the middle of last summer it was becoming unusual to pull more than one or two crayfish in an overnight trap soak. So it may be a lack of preferred forage that's holding them back.
The BG seem to be doing quite a bit better than the HSB. I haven't been taking weights and measures on the over-slot BG that were released immediately after being caught, but they are clearly in good condition with nice fat bellies. We're waiting on water temp to align with free time to deploy the fyke net. I'll make sure to get a good sampling of all sizes when that happens.
Ambient temp was around 70 F today, and bluegill were waiting to feed. While the water clarity was a little better than yesterday, it was still murky. Pretty sure I had several HSB hitting feed along with a few CC and BC.
Best news is that I saw some LMB hitting the Optimal Hand Throw 1" feed. I say that because I used to have a pack of LMB who would charge at 1" pellets thrown in individually, and I think all from that vintage pack have died, and no LMB really ever took that over. Or I had some kind of LMB kill off.
Yesterday I and my Grandson ,Hardy , Hit the road for a Gfather/Gson road trip . He graduates this spring with a Parks mngmt and Forestry degree. A little over 6 hours later we found ourselves in Goodland Ks. As chance would have it , we had the Fish hauling trailer with us. I imagine those that know Goodland, know the rest of the story, already. It was a couple of excellent days. Thank you, Kenny !
Oldest son stopped over today with our oldest grandson so I got the poles out and a few minnows. Grandson just turned two a week ago and caught his first WE today. Fishing was crazy fast he caught four or five YP and four WE in about fifteen minutes then we went mushroom hunting....no luck with that yet, they should start popping this weekend.
About to make the 70 mile drive to mine. Neighbors weather systems said 2.5 inches rain in the last couple of days. I’m still about 7 ft low over a couple of acres.
Grandson just turned two a week ago and caught his first WE today. Fishing was crazy fast he caught four or five YP and four WE in about fifteen minutes
Clearly the awesome concrete dock is still paying dividends!
Also, very nice to see the high "catchability" of your WE. I don't recall any threads over the last few years where people were catching as many WE as they were catching their YP.
About to make the 70 mile drive to mine. Neighbors weather systems said 2.5 inches rain in the last couple of days. I’m still about 7 ft low over a couple of acres.
April showers, bring May flowers ... DD1 road trips to his ponds!
Hope some prolonged gentle rains are heading your way this spring.
Grandson just turned two a week ago and caught his first WE today. Fishing was crazy fast he caught four or five YP and four WE in about fifteen minutes
Clearly the awesome concrete dock is still paying dividends!
Also, very nice to see the high "catchability" of your WE. I don't recall any threads over the last few years where people were catching as many WE as they were catching their YP.
Thank you, we have been very happy with the dock. It's kind of unfair but great for the kids..We hand feed right off the dock so there are plenty of fish around when they hear us, perfect spot for young fisherman. .
Walked around the pond between the rain showers today and noticed toad egg strings everywhere, have been seeing lots of piggy backing going on and they have been noisy all week 24 hours a day. The woods is twenty five yards from the pond so the new little toads will have a place to eat al the bugs they want. Ponds are s good for wildlife, it is something to think of all the critters that benifit from it besides our family.
Recent heavy rains have made the neighborhood pond very high and muddy, so little excitement on feed.
Water temp was 59F so perhaps the LMB will start spawning soon.
Over at my neighbor, Lee's pond, water temp was 58F and the water visibility was about 10". Almost no feed activity over there which is disturbing, yet I did catch many Yellow Perch over there a week or so back, and their son's fish trap was bringing in bluegills.
Starting to worry that we won't have a toad gathering (a toad-stock concert) at our pond this year. It seems as Mr. Cody says that right after YP eggs are laid, the American Toads start their chorus and then from far and wide they all find their way to our pond. I'm sure this has to happen every year regardless of COVID lockdowns and the rising inflations rates. This year has been odd. I saw zero YP eggs for the first time in 10 years (I suspect our Pekin duck which survived the critter that wrung the neck of his lifelong partner) is to blame for vacuuming up the eggs? No other reason why we would have zero visible ribbons when we caught some egg-laden females a few weeks prior.
Then as of yet we have zero toads in the pond. Anyone else who usually has toads in their pond have a late season or maybe it is too cold here at night for our toads? I saw the Ohio pond member posting that the event went on as scheduled in his pond so that is heartening.
Got up to my main 4.5 acre pond in Somerset, PA, last Sunday after not having been there since about October '23. All was well, with no signs of abuse by locals.
Fished for only about 30 minutes and caught one small Black Crappie on a fathead minnow. Had several bits, but didn't land anything else.
Feed is going strong in the main neighborhood pond, and I expect to see YOY LMB soon.
Starting to worry that we won't have a toad gathering (a toad-stock concert) at our pond this year. It seems as Mr. Cody says that right after YP eggs are laid, the American Toads start their chorus and then from far and wide they all find their way to our pond. I'm sure this has to happen every year regardless of COVID lockdowns and the rising inflations rates. This year has been odd. I saw zero YP eggs for the first time in 10 years (I suspect our Pekin duck which survived the critter that wrung the neck of his lifelong partner) is to blame for vacuuming up the eggs? No other reason why we would have zero visible ribbons when we caught some egg-laden females a few weeks prior.
Then as of yet we have zero toads in the pond. Anyone else who usually has toads in their pond have a late season or maybe it is too cold here at night for our toads? I saw the Ohio pond member posting that the event went on as scheduled in his pond so that is heartening.
CC- Here in central Iowa, I am only hearing our brown choral frogs (aka "spring peepers") so far. No toad trilling yet. I have documented many things about our pond, but will have to add 'first heard frogs singing/toad trilling' to the list. As it was everywhere this spring, really odd and early spring. Pond was ice free by Feb 8th, which is a solid 30 days early. It was highly variable for weather and temps since then, with several days of skim ice on and off, some flurries and cold temps and a few unusually hot days peppered in. My WAG is the temperatures are playing a role, but the photoperiod will remain key. When the days get long enough, and the water temps consistently warm enough, the American toads will begin the spring symphony.
Any wood ducks in their boxes yet, or is it still a bit too early?
They nesting already here in Central MO, Canadian geese have already hatched. My pond being in the middle of the woods, I had a ton of toad tadpoles the first year before there were any fish present, and dont guess Ive seen hardly any since, dont know if the fish are consuming them immediately or not.
.
No pond therapy today because I am on duty.Mowed around the pond and ran trimmed the island with a weedeater.Trapped a few minnows trying to catch some BG or RES minnows.
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