Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Property Projects & Construction What did you do at your pond today?

Have this "scum" on the pond. Anyone know what it is. No bad smell.

My GUESS - dead FA. Better pic ?

No real algae in the pond. Its kind of foamy and crusty at the same time and seems to extend a small amount above the water. Maybe protozoan scum?

Spot sprayed some cattails today on the two wetland ponds. I don't mind the bullrushes yet but cattails are just rude and don't know how to behave. Twice a summer I turn them yellow with a little Cattplex and surfactant in my little two gallon sprayer to keep them from trying to take over.

If you spray them in late September, that will be the most effective because they are taking nutrients down to the roots for the winter.

I've never had any make it spot spraying twice in summer, within two days they turn yellow and die to the roots. I just get very small groups of them and pound them before they even think about making heads.
As shallow as my wetland ponds are new ones still try to pop up early every summer along the edges here and there.

My biggest iv caught in years in my own pond. Didnt weight it but measured at 15 inches. The dog got in on the culling also.

Nice fish!

P.S. I thought Labradors were supposed to be "bird" dogs.

She loves anything tht hits the water. I will throw rocks from around the yard and she will dive under 4 them. Any guesses how much tht one weighs or if it looks good on weight.

Rusto, I'm no pro but I'd be happy to have it in my pond.

I took it as a win. Kids where thrilled and put a smile on my face. Any bigger and the girls might not want 2 swim in there anymore.

SG, a bit late but I would remove a good number of these if you suspect a high recruitment rate. I'm looking at the eye and would be concerned with growth rate. Eye is indicating to me a lack of food.

After about 4 weeks of working on repairing the damage all of the May rains did to the dam, finally getting time to enjoy and get some drone footage...
...Mongo's Pond

[video:youtube][/video]

Last week, I caught a nice 2.5lb LMB on my fly rod...
Fly Rod and LMB

[video:youtube][/video]

Mongos pond, thanks for sharing! The drone footage is outstanding! Beautiful, rugged, red soils, wow how nice.

-I'm told the forum software was upgraded so you can embed youtube videos directly in your post. You would go back to your post above and edit using the 'full editor' button. Then hit the button that looks like a director's 'take 1' device called 'Insert media tag' then choose the option for embed youtube video and paste your youtube link there. It should embed right in the message and play in the message without opening a new window. Try it and see if the forum software allows it now.

-secondly, I notice a very nice very wide rolicking boil from your aerator. Is it a two head/membrane diffuser or more? Horsepower behind it? How deep is it placed? I just can't seem to get the same power and width of the boil that I see in other folks ponds. I rebuilt my compressor and my 2 diffusers at 8 feet put out a very puny boil.

Thanks!

Good evening... Thanks for the tips on the video...
I'm using an Airmax system (PS10) with one diffuser (4 membranes). Where I have it is about 22-25'. My neighbor's PS10 is about 30' deep and not near as much of a boil.

At times I wish it wasn't so much... With the pond being less than a year old, I'm still skimming all of the sediment, along with all of the runoff from 18" of rain this summer. The aerator is foaming up the sediment...along with the waterfall...
Thanks for stopping by.

Mongo,

Great looking pond!

It also looked like great fun to catch that fat bass on your fly rod!

If you re-visit this thread, can I pester you with some questions?

We are still working on our pond and cabin design. What is the log siding that you have on your cabin above the stone work? Would you do it that way again, or would you do anything differently after a year of observations (and rain!)?

Also, the stone work accents really look good. Are you still appreciating spending the money on that versus other investments on your property? (Our budget is still pretty tight until business fully recovers from COVID.)

Thanks,
Rod

The log siding we have is pine... If we had to do it over...we'd go all stone/man-made with very little log siding/logs. We've built this place and move in 2006. I've stained/sealed the west/south side of the house five times... Okieland sun is brutal on logs. Don't get me wrong... Love the logs.. Just too much maintenance.
As for the stone work, all of this stone/rock came from when we dug the pond. So it was a no brainer to use the rock for the landscaping. This is our retirement home...so we are building the dream my Mom and Dad had...

As for the pond work... We did all the work ourselves. We had a natural ravine with about 25 acres of watershed... Last year when we built the dam, we only had about 12-18" of freeboard above the spillway. We didn't use a overflow tube.

This last May we got 2.5" of rain in 15 minutes..it topped the spillway and dam blowing out the middle portion. Lessons learned.. We now have 4' of freeboard and spillway has three times the area now... We handled a 6" overnight rain followed by more than 10" over the next week... No issues. The 6" rain put about 8' off water into the pond....
Our spillway has three times the area now..

BTW, thanks for stopping by and yup, I'm a rookie fly fisherman and that was a blast!!!

Thanks for the additional info!

"This is our retirement home...so we are building the dream my Mom and Dad had..."

It shows in all of the touches large and small.


I also like the look of the real logs - and was considering them for our cabin/house plan. However, if we do manage to build our dream place, then I will have much better things to do than climb up ladders to stain every few years!

It looks like you have everything above the surface in really good shape now - especially since you have corrected your freeboard margin on the dam. So I will just wish you good luck on what is going on below the surface and hope you keep growing your fishes!

Another walk around the pond today and no BH swarms this year. Only 1 last year that quickly disappeared. There is a group of 6-8in feeding when I hand throw but that's all.
Feeling accomplished!

Saw my first cormorant on one of our ponds yesterday after 20 years of having our first pond built. Hope that it was a lost individual and not a scout!

Rah hope you sent it on its way....

It flew off when I arrived at the pond.

Mrs. Augie and Booger made me go swimming and I was nearly devoured by BG that think they're piranhas.

Booger loves the pond. Not a day goes by that she doesn't go for a swim at least once.

She's almost nine months old now. She generally gets in from the bank and swims out, but yesterday, for the first time,
she worked up the courage to jump in from the dock.

Shouldn't have kept those spare AquaMax pellets in your swimming trunks.

I'm a slow learner.