Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Muddy water New guy here with some Questions( Pics, long)

Don't make make the mistake I did once and let the door hit you in the backside on the way out.

Got the job. Gonna be working in Home Theater @ Best Buy while Im in school.

I have to go dig out the drain again today, I didnt make it deep enough, and the first pond is very near overflowing so gotta go make it 6 inches deeper.

Congrats on the job. School? High, College, Grad.???

Congrats on getting the job.And your ponds are looking great too.I just love when a plan comes together.Wont be long and the only thing you'll be hauling to the pond will be rods&cold beverages.

Thanks you guys. Ill be starting college in the fall semester in Sept Rmedgar. A little late in life, but Im much more mature now, and I have a 15week old motivating me to finish. Major in biology, minor in chemistry.

I agree Tom, as a matter of fact, Im going to be sitting out there tonight with a cold beverage. Ill tell why shortly.

So I had to redig the drain, as the first time left it too high, and would have flooded the berm in a couple places. So today I went out and dug up what I did last week, and made it another foot deep.

First things first, I go out to my deck, and see a line tied to the railing. WTF? Start to pull up on the line, and this is what I find attached to a hook on the other end.
Tabby cat is what we call them...I think its the same as a flathead catfish.

I turned him loose, and this is why Ill be stakeing out my ponds tonight, waiting on the perps to return for thier fish.


This is where the water level was before I started diging out again.



you can see its getting close in the back by the tree


So, I dug it out, and let the water drain a bit, to dig it deeper.


this guy decided to help, crawled right up behind me, scared the crap outta me. I didnt know what it was so i killed it, now that i know what it is, I wish I hadn't. Non poisonous.


This little largemouth was about 2 inches long, and I took like 20 pics to get this one, best I could do.


So now, we wait for the water to rise again, and start to flow down the drain line. Hopefully thatll help clear up the water some.

I also have to catch these kids, Im going to have the police take them home this time, maybe that will put some respect in thier heads. If not Ill have thier father arrested, as I have allready told him once they are not allowed to be on my property.

More pics pending. What cha think?

I just read this thread for the first time. It is awesome, Beautiful ponds. I am all about watching your progress. I might have missed it. What are the aproxomite sizes of all your ponds.

You know Im not really sure, I dont have a way to measure them. If I had to guess I think I have just over an acre of total water area, max depth is 6 feet.

BTW, someone has been setting lines out at night from the deck house, I stayed out till 9:30 last night, adn went back out at 6:30 am, but I missed them. Were filing a police report today, and were going to figure something out to catch them.

Also rising the water level to the height that we wanted to will be a problem. Pond 1 is starting to overflow its North bank and run into the ditch. Exactly the same place the perps are sneaking onto my property too.

So, I have to try and dig out that area where the bridge is at, to let the water flow freely from pond 1 to ponds 2 and 3.

Is there any place to put an infrared trail cam to watch the area, and at the same time make it secure?

Here's a website that does head to head comparisons on trail cams and they also have security suggestions. I found the site very valuable when I was researching what cam to buy.

Trail cam reviews

Well I stayed up most all night last night, adn they were a no show. Im gonna have to take it to the next level and get a wireless camera that will display on my laptop.

Phatboy, If you do catch them, Have them do the rest of the cutting and digging around your ponds. If they do a good job then let them run a couple trot lines. If they don't, treat them like a snake (jk).

Nice work on the place looks good. I have been following this thread and when it turned to surveillance I checked on a couple links and found something interesting and thought I would pass it along. It uses your existing A/C house wiring and can transmit up to 2000 feet away if it is tied into your wiring. Uses a fake flood like to capture the video and sends it back through your wiring, I wonder if anyone has any experiences with this, interesting to me since I have run power all the way down to my pond and could set up a separate station to serve as my camera.

Last time you guys got pics you can see where the water level was staying. Soooo, I redug the ditch and lowered the pipe, but that still wasnt enough. So I found another length of pipe, and made a strainer for the end, and staked that down good.

With the drain in this location it wasnt working


The water level could only get this high before running out of the overflow in pond 1


overflow



This was causign some flow issues in ponds 2 and 3


you can see the gunk on the surface due to lack of flow caused by pond 1 overflowing and pond 3 not draining


this doesnt help either


So I extended the drain and staked it down to where I wanted it


And added a strainer with overflow


So once I got the flow going again, I took a few more wildlife pics.




And one to show you all another problem I have to deal with, this used to be a pond, and is now a mudhole...turtlepit...snake oasis...


Going back out to do more work today...Ill take more pics

Just a livestock thread this time. The wife getting some evening "bassin" in.


Imma try and get this out of the ditch today. Its been there since we got the property, might as well see if its any good.


Its attack of the bunnahs


My little covey of quail


Smallish snake, duno the type



Another little bass


I dont knwo what this fish is with the red tail, can you guys help?

Phatboy, you appear extremely talented with a camera.

I highly recommend that you are very careful getting that close to any wildlife Phatboy. What may seem to be a friendly and gentle creature can turn on you in an instant.










Oh, I'm talking about the rabbit by the way....

The fish with the reddish tail is a male golden topminnow and a gorgeous specimen at that... They make superb aquarium fish! They are fairly easy to breed in an aquarium as well.

I'll not risk another frontal assault. Fetch the Holy Hand Grenade!

You guys crack me up. A friend of mine is coming over with his 4x4 so we can get that paddle boat out of the ditch...I wanna use that thing.

Thanks CBJ, after some researching via google images I concur. golden topminnow. Im sure they make great bass food too.

Just thought Id drop in and give you guys an update. I have finished my frist semester of school and start the second one in 9 more days. I finished up with a 3.5 a,a,a,c, and a b that dont count. So yay for me. My family is doing great, and my daughter is 9 months, and has 8 teeth so far...shes awesome.

As far as the ponds go, Im sorry to say I have let them go down hill just a bit. My drain was working perfectly, and maintaining a clearer water in pond 3, untill my plug on the original drain came undone, and the ponds all dropped back about 6 inches. Nothing I couldnt fix with a bag of concrete, just havnt had the time. All the lilly pads have died, and if they return in the spring, I may try to get one carp per pond to keep that in check. I dont wanna get rid of all of them, but a cutback in pond 1 would be ok.

I got the paddle boat out of the ditch with my exmark lawn mower. That thing is a beast. Especially with 2lbs of air in the tires. lol! Boat was junk, trashed it.

The Bluecats that I put in the pond are teaching the channel cats what the floating food is, so I have between 10-12 catfish that will come eat on demand. They can hear me walk on the deck and start to circle like shark.

Now for the surprizing part. Remember a while back I said I had a grass carp. Well turns out I had four. They all turned up dead today on the bank getting eaten by turkey vultures. I think they ran out of food, but it has been rediculously cold here too so that may have played a part as well. Since they are gone, I noticed a marked increase in clarity of the water. I can easily see down two feet or so, and I expect that to improve.

As always pix included.

Glad to hear your semester at school has gone so well. Congrats on the great grades... The dead fish look like very large gizzard shad to me, but I could be wrong. With the face chewed off and decomposing, it's hard to tell but that is my best guess. I can say, it definitely isn't a grass carp though... Grass carp are more elongated and have different fin shapes. Very pretty heron pic! Your place has quite the biodiversity...

Your right CJB...they were acctually common carp, which are totally different from grass carp...here is a reference. Pay specific attention to the dorsal, anal, pectoral, and pelvic fins, as well as the rounded tips of the tail.

http://pond.dnr.cornell.edu/nyfish/Cyprinidae/common_carp.jpg

Deffinitly not gizzard shad. The smallest one was over 10 lbs. That would have to be some kind of record.

As for the biodiversity. They dont call it "Sportsmas Paradise" for nothing. Southern Lousiana is alive and well. Heron are protected down here, and Im happy this one hangs round my place. It means my slice of paradice is balanced, and productive.

Yep, Common Carp is what it was. If you had 4 dead ones, I'll bet you have more. The Blue Heron is nice to watch, but they do eat a number of fish, and they will stab and sometimes kill fish larger than they can eat.

Is there anyway besides seining the pond to figure out if there are more carp in it? Id like to seine it anyway to find out exactly whats in there, but I dont have a seine, nor do I know anyone who does.

BTW carp love elephant ear plants, they ate all the ones I planted around the pond that were in the water.

If you can, buy a half dozen cans of cheap whole kernel corn. Take 1/2 can per day, and throw it out in the pond, in 3'-4' deep water if possible, same place every day, at the same time.
After 3-4 (or longer) days of this, take a fishing rod (preferrably a spinning rod), down to the pond at the same time you're chumming for the carp, I prefer 10# test and a #2 aberdeen hook. Thread whole kernels of corn on the hook until it's completely covered. Throw out 1/2 of the normal daily feeding, and throw the corn covered hook in the same spot. (no weight on the line, just he hook with corn on it - no bobber either. Leave a good amount of slack in the line, when you see the line twitch, grab the rod so it doesn't go into the pond. When the line just about gets tight, set the hook and hold on.

I'd fish that way with 2 to 3 rods, keeping one baited, but not out in the water. If I saw a group of bubbles coming up, I'd cast the corn about 1'-2' past the bubbles and let it sink, and really watch that rod.

That sounds like a great plan Esshup except for the aberdeen hook, which with ten-pound test would be almost assured to straighten when a good-sized carp took off on a run. A heavier hook in the same size would fix that problem.