Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Any egg YP egg strands sighted in Northern Ponds?

Long time lurker,( just trying to learn), but yesterday in central South Dakota, on a small 3/4 to 1 acre pond, I found 3 perch ribbons. So it is finally warming up!

Drifter send some of that heat up here would you. 1/2" of ice on the pond yesterday morning. Paintball practice in the snow yesterday. Freezing rain last night.... ugggg spring already!

First ESPL division three tournament next Sunday. Please be warm.

Ooo Paintball in freezing temps. Ouch! Been there, done that!

Note that Crossmans is about 5 miles from me, were all of the Crossman air rifles and paintball guns are made. One of the last holdouts in manufacturing left here. I haven't played in some time, and wasn't serious enough about it to get good at it so a few old crummy cheap guns around the house for when my son gets old enough and gets the itch.

There are ribbons everywhere in the pond, so a mass laying. The ones closest to shore and in the shallows are the ones in the worst shape. The ones I can see down deep look much better. The assumption is when the yolks of the eggs go from a dark color to white and puffy and migrate to the top of the egg mass, that something isn't right.

Not all of the eggs in a strand get fertilized. Some do succumb to fungus.

But as fecund as yellow perch are, and as impossible as they are to get rid of -- when they are introduced to new waters, I wouldn't worry too much. I would bet there are plenty of viable eggs in your pond.

Nice to see a company that is still making parts and not china out sourcing. Even the teams jerseys this year is all out sourced.

I just manage the team and the boys are Rookie this year five man. Should be a good year.

More ice on the pond again today. Expect to see something in the next few weeks as it warms up at night above freezing.

Cheers Don.

You have to love Crosman for their perseverance in fierce competition. They make some very nice products, and employ a lot of local people to make them.

We had a warm blast last night, but are back in the chill box. Lots of gradual warming and sunshine over the next several days should turn things around dramatically.

I just found my first bunch this afternoon here in Central Pennsylvania. Yeah! It is only a tiny little bit, so fingers are crossed for more soon. They were in about six inches of water around some old submerged grass. Nothing around any of the branches I put in the water. Maybe the branches aren't dense enough. I may put an old Christmas tree in today just in case.

Pulled up the spawning cage to take a peek and saw no eggs. Either the eggs have already hatched and the egg ribbons have disentigrated, the females haven't drop their eggs yet, or are reabsorbing them.

I'll give them a couple more weeks through the warming trend, and then I put up a light and see if there are any fry.

I still have some bulging females coming up pellets in the pond. If they just haven't dropped their eggs yet or are reabsorbing them is not known. I believe it does occur as I never see the number of egg strand equivalent to the number of fish.

Just found our first four ribbons in the apple tree branches we placed in the pond. This morning there was none while I was down and tonight there is four ribbons. No toads thrilling yet so they are right on time for here. They are placed between 6 and 12"s from the surface. I can shoot the water temp tomorrow.

What I find crazy was this morning there was 1/4" of ice on the pond. Aerators turn on at 8am by 10 the pond was clear of ice and no ribbons. After supper tonight we find four ribbons.

Cheers Don.

Dono - Interesting and educational observation. Water temp info will be a good data point.

Here in southwest Colorado we've still seen no ribbons. I caught several 7" gravid perch yesterday.

The grass carp (5) showed up this past weekend, cruising just under the surface, eating the pellets I've thrown for the trout. No trout have come up; I think they did not survive the winter. At ice out I found 2 floaters, a BRNT 18" and a RNBT 24". A waste for sure.

Even though we are relatively far south, our 6500' elevation tends to keep the warm weather at bay. We're still getting frosts most nights.

No YP ribbons here yet in my SE Michigan pond. Surface water temperature today near where the water is 1 foot deep was 45 degrees. The top of my thermometer floats, not sure how I should be taking the temperature. Water is clear, aerator is off and christmas tree without needles has been in the water.

I have been monitoring water temp, and it seems that it was steadily at 50 degrees at about 2 foot down when I saw the first ribbon. Since then , it still seems to be a steady 50. Supposed to be 70-and more for the next few days. I'll keep an eye on water temps. ( I am new at this so I am monitoring and writing everything down as I go.)

Bill and others the water temp is bouncing between 38 and 42. The air stations shut down at about 3:30 in the afternoon. Water fall is locked on 24/7 right now with 5500gph going over it.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxzoWm1-8aOuMGxqTXNXanZZQjg/view?usp=sharing

Cheers Don.

Three more new ribbons today. All are placed on the west side of the pond where the water level is very very deep quick. The first five feet of depth is 4-1 then it becomes 2-4. Yes that is correct 2 feet out 4 feet down.

Will check temp later today in the afternoon again. No toads thrilling yet here.

Cheers Don.

It is interesting, we had a cold snap with 20 degree nights and chilly days, rain, snow, only saw 1 egg ribbon and it was draped in around a thin group of tall grass/thin rush that was sticking out of the SE side of the pond. There are lots of sticks and only one little clump of this thin rush/tall grass. I have had all the sticks ignored and the ribbons either on the oak leaves in 6" of water or they have put them in my minnow nets and one draped in/around these slender rush spikes.

I get the sense that water temp is important, shallow water seems to be popular at least in my pond (never more than a foot), The South side was first and the rest went on the SE side (with that side not heavily wooded so not as shaded through the day) and they need protection more than they need branches to drape their egg strands over. I think the 'cavity' in the closely spaced branches are popular, but for some reason the cover offered by the hole leading into my minnow net was very popular too.

Loretta, you may want to experiment with with other types of cavities, try very thin spikes/branches sticking straight up like a natural clump of tall grass rather than trees laying horizontally into the deeper water. Didn't you say once your slope going into your pond is 3:1 or steeper? Perhaps they are looking for an area of more gradual slope?

I have a ribbon! It's in my naked Christmas tree in 1-1.5' of water. My water temperature is measuring 55 degrees at the same approximate depth but 10 inches down from the surface. I have a floating pool thermometer that floats vertically, the bottom is roughly 10 inches from the surface. I'm excited, I hope I get more.

For Bill Cody: Daffodils greens are up but not budding or blooming yet.

Hollywood, any strands yet? Your weather conditions seemed closest to mine.

First sighted ribbons (3) last evening. Caught several perch; sacrificed two 9" fish, both males, for tacos. Mixed the perch meat with that from LMB donor fish, and a BG that swallowed the hook.

My pond's spring awakening certainly comes on later than that of most of you forum posters' ponds.

But then again, PB magazine doesn't show up in the mail for about 5 weeks after first reported here on the forum either!

I'm appalled to report that the 7" BG fought harder than the 8" GSF that I also caught.

Rationalizations and excuses (for DD1, JHAP, and all the rest of us GSF lovers): BG was fighting for its life-gut hooked; GSF had a mouth wound from being caught last week, knew I'd let it go again, and was prolly still tired. HA HA!

I'm still seeing new egg ribbons in my pond. Even some females at feeding time that are still rotund.

My pond is heavily dyed as in a couple of weeks ago.

Loretta,
So glad that you had ribbons this year! How exciting. All my ribbons have deteriorated. Maybe something to do with the cold weather we had. It is warm this week and especially this weekend but I didn't see any more new ribbons last week or this week. I don't know if any of those eggs hatched but we'll know at the end of the season if we see broad-banded babies swimming around.

Sorry for the delay Loretta, just saw this. Nothing doing. A friends daughter caught a couple males last weekend that were running milt but I took a good look again today and nothing in sight. There is a cat tail weedy section on the east shore that is difficult to see into. It's possible they are there or just deep enough I can't see them. Time will tell...

A week ago males were dripping milt when pulled from the water, this week none caught had eggs/milt. Saw only one skein a few weeks ago, but now the water is really stained from tannins.

I had some show up last weekend, first ever in my pond. I stocked 125 adults with just that thought in mind, to establish them by spawning right away. I had put brush in some shallow areas but they choose to spawn in cattails. I saw 8 or 9 ribbons in a 40 foot stretch of cattail edge. I did see them going in and out of the brush but no ribbons showed up there.

All my egg masses have completely disintegrated now. I can only assume some have hatched, and the water temperature has risen to where the point where the BCP are starting to lay claim to nests. A simply massive one right next to the dock where I set up some large stones as a shelter.