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.
How are you going to know unless you try!
NW TX 2ac main pond fed from 1100ac watershed going through 2 2+ac sediment ponds. 1st filled 10/2018 900BG, 200RES, 200HBG, 100CC and 23# FHM...."Free" BH, GSF GSH, LMB & ??? 75LMB 3/2020 I subscribe!
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 didn’t hear over 6 or 7 shots in the area. Got a long shot at a pig but missed. Glad the season is over.
It's not about the fish. It's about the pond. Take care of the pond and the fish will be fine. PB subscriber since before it was in color.
Without a sense of urgency, Nothing ever gets done.
Boy, if I say "sic em", you'd better look for something to bite. Sam Shelley Rancher and Farmer Muleshoe Texas 1892-1985 RIP
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.
Do not judge me by the politicians in my City, State or Federal Government.
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
Do not judge me by the politicians in my City, State or Federal Government.
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.