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

I think you have just described an example of the reasons for boom-and-bust cycles in nature.

As your crayfish prune back the cover used to avoid predation, the predators are then much more capable of pruning back the crayfish population. If the crayfish are not extirpated from your pond, then they should come back subsequent to the come back of your submerged plants.

Do you have any rock available? I think the more angular the better - to create jumbled stacks in the pond with lots of crevices.

You could place some on a shoreline that is causing you erosion problems and extend the stone placement out into the water for the crayfish.

If the "look" of the exposed stone doesn't match the preferred vision for your pond, you could put some stone below the normal water level in a few spots around the pond. I don't know how small of a stack could still serve as a crayfish refuge from your SMB?

If you are contemplating placing some stone, maybe you should start a new crayfish thread. Another option would be to PM Quarter Acre, he is definitely one of our crayfish experts!

Built this jetty before adding the crayfish. It is completely submerged after raising the water level by 12 inches. Placing all that rock by hand was a job! Since the SMB population is larger now, perhaps the cycles will give way to a balance, or at least be less extreme.

RAH, I like that. Stone of any kind is getting really expensive down here, so the day's of just calling my delivery guy without shopping around are over.

Everything is getting real expensive!

Diesel is ridiculous now, which means transporting stuff like rock, gravel, fish food, and even fish is gonna put a hurt on our wallets. Not good!

RAH,

I definitely like your jetty. I assume your crayfish like it even more than I do!

Even if you still go through some population cycles I think you have created a nice crayfish refuge such that the SMB cannot wipe out your entire population.

Based on your design, you must have had some additional purpose for your jetty. What other benefit is it adding to your pond?

P.S. I am sure placing all of that rock by hand was a serious chore. OTOH, just think how much money you saved compared to the current cost of a gym membership!

Just built the jetty for crayfish so they could feed the SMB. Seemed like all the nooks and crannies in the rip rap would work well. I thought having these at various depths might help.

Well Al, you do have a buddy that has more rocks than any quarry.

Dang, that was an impressive amount of work. Those crayfish should at least buy you a "Dad of the Year" coffee mug.

We used to fish a very rocky lake in the spring, and the crayfish were certainly an important part of the bass diet.

We would catch a lot of spotted bass in the 10-12" range. I would estimate that 90% of them had crayfish feelers poking up out of their gullet when you looked down to remove your hook.

We seldom observed the same thing in the fall.

Maybe you can monitor how much of a contribution the crayfish are making to the SMB forage by asking your buddies to check when they are doing spring catch and release fishing at your pond?

Dave, you and I are to old and broke up to even think about rolling rocks anymore. Now we could tell your grandson and my son that they can't do it, and sit back and watch them try to prove us wrong.

Al, I’ll bring the beer. You bring the lawn chairs.

Watched our 5 y/o Dachshund learn to swim in it. He's an obsessive hunter & went in, chasing after a frog. Not sure he's exactly comfortable with it, but it certainly didn't freak him out enough to keep him from doing it a couple more times today. Don't know if our older female Dachshund will go in or not. She'll romp & run after the frogs & put her front paws in the water while she sniffs & watches, but hasn't gone in after one yet. She's a stone killer, but isn't the spazzed out psycho that the younger one is.

Yesterday I discovered lots of fresh golden shiner fry hanging around the daphnia (water fleas) along the pond edges, 3 weeks ago daphnia numbers exploded.

I’m thinking we had a golden shiner hatch also. I was swimming in the pond yesterday and there were 3/4” fish everywhere. Hitting on anything floating. Including me, but they can’t tear into me like our HBG used to do. We have very few HBG any longer. Two years of trying to eliminate them seems to be working. Only fish hitting a worm under a bobber are RES.

Here is what you should look for.

GSH fry


Daphnia


Original picture

I think the GSH fry were what I was seeing. Not sure about the Daphnia. I need to take a closer look.
Thanks!

Nice picture of the GSH fry Shorty.

SMB in my SMB/RES pond are going crazy for the Optimal Hand Throw feed. Follow me around the pond when driving the 4-wheeler like puppy dogs.

Hi John!

Good to hear that your "puppy dogs" are that glad to have you back at your ponds!

I put the puddle jumper boat in the pond on Saturday. Chopped up and removed the scary snake tree that fell into the pond last summer.
Now Mrs. Augie can go swimming without fear of being swallowed by the giant anaconda.

With the tree out of the way I was then able to drag the diffuser stand out into the sippy hole and deep sixed that thing. Getting a late start
on that for sure. Will slow-roll the startup and just add 15 minutes/day to the run time until I hit the four hour mark, then I'll add an hour a day
until it reaches nine hours run time. Water temps were 75° at the surface and 60° 10' down.

Had some extra muscle on hand, and was able to get the last of the mud poles added to the dock so it's not swaying with the breeze anymore.

Sounds like a productive work day, Augie!

I hope you also removed the shark habitat from your pond so Mrs. Augie can swim safely. With the weather we have been having lately, I certainly hope that a Sharknado doesn't drop a few unwanted guests into your pond.


P.S. What are the "mud poles" on the dock? (That is a new term to me.)

Mud pole is just a piece of pipe that slides through a bracket attached to the dock frame, and then gets pounded into the mud on the pond bottom.
They allow the dock to move vertically with the water level, while holding it in place horizontally.

Thanks Augie.

We just call that a "floating bracket".

However, my extended family has lots of terms that we use, but they sure as heck are not the correct lingo!

It took 5 years to see the water turn green in my 3rd pond (built 2017), but it finally must have had enough nutrients wash in to fuel a bloom! Hopefully, this will help the FHM, lake chubsuckers, and spotfin shiners build up their populations. Lotus may finally stop struggling as well.

Glad you got a bloom going on, my neighbor gave me a handful of lake chubsuckers for a start. How long does it take them to establish? If they didn’t get eaten

I got a good population going from 12 fish in a couple years in my 2nd pond (0.9 acres). I base this assessment of dozens washing out the overflow pipe after heavy rains. The SMB have grown fast in this 2nd pond which may, in part, be due to the LCS. I moved 19 of the one's that came through the pipe to this pond (my 3rd pond) a couple years ago.