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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.

Last edited by SetterGuy; 06/30/21 06:22 AM.

9 yr old pond, 1 ac, 15' deep.
RES, YP, GS, FHM (no longer), HBG (going away), SMB, and HSB (only one seen in 5 yrs) Restocked HSB (2020) Have seen one of these.
I think that's about all I should put in my little pond.
Otter attack in 2023
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I've pulled 27 more large golden shiners out of the pond in the last two days.



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Shorty what you using for bait for them bad boys?

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Small peice of nightcrawler, 1/80th oz micro-jig, and a casting bubble rigged as a slip bobber.



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Thanks Shorty
Not sure any 1/80 oz jigs to be had around here.... probably have to order online

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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.


"In the age of information, ignorance is a choice." - Donny Miller
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Originally Posted by Pat Williamson
Thanks Shorty
Not sure any 1/80 oz jigs to be had around here.... probably have to order online

Look in the fly tying section.

https://www.fishusa.com/Wapsi-Super-Jig-Heads?quantity=1&L-Pack=201&L-Weight=305



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Originally Posted by Steve_
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.



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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.


9 yr old pond, 1 ac, 15' deep.
RES, YP, GS, FHM (no longer), HBG (going away), SMB, and HSB (only one seen in 5 yrs) Restocked HSB (2020) Have seen one of these.
I think that's about all I should put in my little pond.
Otter attack in 2023
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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!!

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Originally Posted by canyoncreek
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.


9 yr old pond, 1 ac, 15' deep.
RES, YP, GS, FHM (no longer), HBG (going away), SMB, and HSB (only one seen in 5 yrs) Restocked HSB (2020) Have seen one of these.
I think that's about all I should put in my little pond.
Otter attack in 2023
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Originally Posted by SetterGuy
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.


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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

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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.


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Originally Posted by Steve_
Originally Posted by SetterGuy
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.


7ac 2015 CNBG RES FHM 2016 TP FLMB 2017 NLMB GSH L 2018 TP & 70 HSB PK 2019 TP RBT 2020 TFS TP 25 HSB 250 F1,L,RBT -206 2021 TFS TP GSH L,-312 2022 GSH TP CR TFS RBT -234, 2023 BG TP TFS NLMB, -160




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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.


It isn't what we don't know that gives us trouble, it's what we know that ain't so - Will Rogers


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Originally Posted by jpsdad
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.

Last edited by anthropic; 07/05/21 04:08 PM.

7ac 2015 CNBG RES FHM 2016 TP FLMB 2017 NLMB GSH L 2018 TP & 70 HSB PK 2019 TP RBT 2020 TFS TP 25 HSB 250 F1,L,RBT -206 2021 TFS TP GSH L,-312 2022 GSH TP CR TFS RBT -234, 2023 BG TP TFS NLMB, -160




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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.

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All the kids and grandkids spent the weekend with us. We were in the pond every day.

Throwing a quart of Optimal before swimming helps to reduce the savagery of little nipping bluegill varmints.

[Linked Image from hosting.photobucket.com]

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Originally Posted by Augie
All the kids and grandkids spent the weekend with us. We were in the pond every day.

Throwing a quart of Optimal before swimming helps to reduce the savagery of little nipping bluegill varmints.

[Linked Image from hosting.photobucket.com]

Augie, I’m going to try this! We are still getting nipped by our HBG. Vicious little buggers.
Thanks!


9 yr old pond, 1 ac, 15' deep.
RES, YP, GS, FHM (no longer), HBG (going away), SMB, and HSB (only one seen in 5 yrs) Restocked HSB (2020) Have seen one of these.
I think that's about all I should put in my little pond.
Otter attack in 2023
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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.

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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.


9 yr old pond, 1 ac, 15' deep.
RES, YP, GS, FHM (no longer), HBG (going away), SMB, and HSB (only one seen in 5 yrs) Restocked HSB (2020) Have seen one of these.
I think that's about all I should put in my little pond.
Otter attack in 2023
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Originally Posted by SetterGuy
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.


All the really good ideas I've ever had came to me while I was milking a cow.
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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.

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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.

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