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

Don't quote me on this, but I think my feed drops off around 48/49 degrees for water temp. If you're getting some activity at 45-ish, rock on.

After some good weeks of colder temps that gave the pond ice over a few times with several days of snow, we've had a run of days over 50 degrees with today being 65 degrees.

I got down to the neighborhood pond and was pleased to see the water level high, and a nice greenish tint to the water with clarity of maybe 2-3'. I didn't see any signs of fish until I was a walking around the perimeter to where I feed from, and I saw an adult LMB bolt out of the shallows to deeper water. When I set up my feed area, I quickly saw another LMB suspending and lurking and then several more with some larger bluegill. Water temp was 47 degrees.

I threw out some Grower of which maybe 20% of it sinks. Both the bluegill and bass started taking the sinking pellets. After soaking some Bluegill, Bass, and Handthrow, I tossed some of that in, and sinking parts got taken immediately with vigor. Eventually, they all started taking the floated feed too.

I was just wondering where the Golden Shiner Brigade was when I spotted and errant Golden Shiner Scout. He was followed by the charge. Some of these GSH have to be over 8/9", and really fat.


All in all, it was a pleasant surprise and a joyous time getting to see the fish and having them take feed!!!

I'll take it as portents for a great new year.

Good News Sunil

I did the same, water temp is 50, I could see some BG at first but then they quickly moved out once the CC and YBH moved in.

I'm taking it as a good sign for the new year as well!! Continued good feeding wishes for all.

Took some good video of it with the drone. I think the YBH outnumber all the others. Need to get the fishing pole out.







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Those videos are way cool!!!

Is the focus changing via your control, or is it some kind of auto-focus?

Also, in the second video, there was clearly a larger catfish, but I don't think I saw too many more of those. How big was that one, and what's the average size of the other fish, CC or bullheads? Also, I'm not sure I could tell if I saw a bullhead or not.

That is neat
Now that I look closer, there are a few larger catfish hanging out a little farther below the water surface

Average size of CC is 2.5#. Here's one from warmer weather, when the big ones move in there' not too many YBH.

Back in early October I used a tub of chicken liver and caught 9 YBH and they weighed just over 7#

You can tell the CC are Grey, in this video there's only a couple of YBH.

The only adjustments I make with the drone is magnification. As long as you keep the right light angle it does a great job with video.

Now, I understand what an Osprey or Eagle sees.

Yep, thats what you call a birds eye view, I can see where an Eagle woulda been diving in to grab one.

Dang neat video.

Happy NewYear everyone!
Went fishing yesterday and caught and removed 21 LMB to 15” trying to cut the population down in hopes of more crappie population…… so far it ain’t working

10"X16" pile of fish scales, bad.


40" otter going to Never, Neverland, good. The turtles had already started on this one.


Caught a beaver with the exact same set location a couple of weeks ago. Clean shot on the beaver, but not so much on the otter.

Brutal.

Stinkin' otters. They look cute on NatGeo.

Yeah, they do look super cute, but dang they are deadly.

Had a pair of Beibers make their way to the pond, taking out some mature White-oaks, stave log quality oaks, they should've stuck with some trash wood.

New moccasins for the wife, Jake?

Those white oaks are valuable. I just had several hauled out from the wind storm damage three years ago. They still wanted the white oaks. They’re as valuable as the walnuts. That stave company in Lebanon has Missouri white oak prices up there. So far, I haven’t seen and beavers. But way more than my share of those cute otters.. Agh!!

I'm guessing y'all have a different strain of white oaks. Most of our TX white oaks are called post oaks, and are used by almost all BBQ restaurants and serious home BBQ cookers. I'm guessing your white oaks have straighter healthier trunks, and are used for planks. On our farm, we have red oaks, white oaks, pin oaks, and water oaks. Punky older water oaks get burned, and healthy reds and whites get split and used for my big smoker.

Frozen over here again, for the fourth time this Winter. It looks to stick around while this time, with a bunch of snow to show up tonight/tomorrow.

I believe the only reason the white oaks around here are more valuable is because there is a huge barrel manufacturing plant in Lebanon MO. I have heard they supply a very high percentage of barrels world wide for wine and whiskey production. They specify Missouri white oak. (I think). Either way, I’ll take it. When the Missouri state forester walked our woods he noticed a large number of post oaks. He said they looked similar to a white oak, but can’t be used for barrel production. My timber value dropped dramatically (in my imagination).

We do have some decent white oaks here in MO, we are right on the northern end of what is considered the Ozarks, actually some claim it starts right here in Boone County.
My BIL saws barrel staves for a few whiskey barrel manufacturing companies, a yr ago he was doing some remodeling and upgrading on his mill and had a big pile of stave logs piled up waiting on them.
He estimated he had around 400,000. board ft at 2 bucks per bd ft, in the log. thats what he was paying for them, think they even more now.
I know when I was clearing for my pond in "18" i sold about 20 K worth of logs from the pond area, about 15 acres, and a percentage of those were stave logs, that was the fastest money. my share of the money came up to almost 9k I believe.

I have lived at the edge of our retention pond for 30 years & I have seen a great many fish jump out of the water but always at an angle less than 90 degrees. Every time like something was after them & they were trying to escape. While hand feeding the ponds CNBG, I saw my first one go vertical. Perhaps 8" & he went up absolutely perpendicular to the water for at least 36" before losing momentum & falling back into the water. Why ? I don't know, but I was impressed!

JE that is impressive, I'm looking at stocking some CNBG this spring.

Right now we're iced over like Theo. NW Ok and Kansas got hammered yesterday. 40-50 MPH wind and snow. Pond was all waves yesterday but solid ice this morning. Not sure how thick, I threw about a 4 pound rock up as high and far as I could and it just skated across the pond when it hit. I'm a fair weather fisherman, not as tough as some of you who brave the ice.

Yesterday





Today

^^^ You got that right! SC Kansas was/is cold! The only thing keeping water open here are the ducks and geese.

Low single digits for the next few nights. I’m sure our pond is frozen over already. I’m just curious how deep the snow is on top of the ice. It’ll be a while before it melts. The next two weeks have a few daytime temps above freezing but every night is teens and twenties. Hopefully there isn't a foot of snow on top of the ice. I scared 20+ woodies off the pond the other day. I imagine they have moved over to the big lake (Mark Twain) that’s just over the hill, if they haven’t moved south.