Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Am I wasting my time?

We did some major dirt work in the lake... had the guy spend about an hour digging our "community" pond a little deeper...it was dry but after the first foot it got to be like soup.

We spent some time "cleaning" up and moving a little dirt here and there...now with the recent rain in North Texas it is too muddy to drive on.

Neighbor tore out a huge mailbox, decided to make some "structure". Neighbor told me it is a pond, not a dumping ground...haha.

This is a pond for KIDS.



Guessing I'll make this a bluegill pond, with 2 or 3 giant females bass.

Thinking about making a sign, DO NOT CONSUME FISH FROM POND, HIGH LEVELS OF MYRIOPHYLLUM SPICATUM L (milfoil scientific name lol) Locals have had a habit of fishing out the cats at night...hm....

Don't put any cats in there..........

Yeah why do people put catfish in their ponds? I have no use for them. They just compete with the other fish and get hard to catch when they are large

My neighbor would put them in again even tho he's having a hard time catching them like me. He likes having a family fish fry once a month during the summer and if he can't catch enough from the pond he buys catfish already cleaned.

I like to watch big catfish feed.

Where I come from, everything without whiskers is BAIT.....LOL
I love the channels and smaller blues I have in my pond, lots of great feeding going on and everyone loves to see them feeding and we catch many in the 4-7 lb range, a blast for sure! I purposely left the LM out of my pond and included cats as one of the manageable alpha species. So far after 4 years and all is good.
Salmonid

Remind me to never drive through Ohio if I shave my beard!


Even with whiskers, one of the very best smallmouth baits we have for the local rivers in VA and WV are little whiskered fish that look like catfish, and are known as madtoms.

As I've said elsewhere, I have a love-hate relationship with catfish. I love to feed them, catch them, and eat them. Guests and grandkids love them. They grow fast. I just hate it when they act almost like furry cats -- and refuse to do things my way.

I added another 50 channel cats to my pond early this fall. I put in that many every couple of years. If you keep after them, only a few becomes pests, and they eventually get tricked into getting caught. I've also got a reproducing population of white catfish. I do like having them in the pond.

POND IS NOW FULL!!!!!!!!!!!

I think I went a little over the top...I get golden shiners for $6.25 per pound so I put in 25lbs. Welp...at least I got a good forage base started. lol

Fantastic. Twenty-five pounds of forage will not go to waste as you get the rest of the pond stocked. Glad to know you finally got a few rain drops. I hope this turns into a great recreation area for the kids.

Great news!