Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Alright, alright!!! talk fathead to me.

After reading some of the posts on this thread I could but won't comment.

To this very day some of the old OMJE and JM&S gang members slip in and put bullhead fry in their rivals fathead spawning ponds making it impossible to get a delivery of pure fatheads. I suggest Brettski you will need to examine each one individually to be sure. One fathead, two fathead ........

Once upon a time, back when it used to rain, Aah never mind; I can't top Sunils Baloney.

Brettski, I'm really starting to worry about Fatheads. Especially the predatory Dr. Jaegerwald strain. I understand that their mouth points up instead of down. Yessir, a classic case of upside down, double whammy, reverse engineering. If you proceed, Don't go near the water and strain the milk.

The Northern sport of Milktruck Racing sprung from out of this Minnow-legging subculture. Unlike it's Southern equivalent, it never caught on, only because "MLMR" (Minnow-Legging Milktruck Racing) doesn't roll of the tongue like "NASCAR". This was a darn shame; IMHO there's no finer a sport for spectators than Milktruck Racing, except perhaps Balkan Dirt Diving.

I have decided to hold off on stocking any forage base at this time. I want to wait it out thru the winter and focus on nailing perfect timing in the Spring with the correct forage base. I can manage the temptation and excitement (for now), so it seems the sensible approach gets me no closer by throwing anything in now.
We visited Liberty yesterday to show the changes to one of my pals. Strangely, it is the first visit there this year where we did no work...kinda nice .
We got about 1.75" - 2" of rain 5 days earlier; a nice dowser. The pool level came up about 8". This is an encouraging verification of our watershed = impounded water equation. We're gettin' there:

Brettski,

That's interesting about the equation...don't know if you were serious or not ...but I track that relationship in all my ponds and it varies widely. In a large pond with a slightly less than 1 to 1 ratio (watershed to impounded water), I reliably get 2 inches of rise for every 1 inch of rain. Contrast that with another pond with a 20 to 1 ratio which raises about 8 inches for every inch of rain.

Those relationships hold very well as long as the ground contains moisture...if its dry, of course, you get absorption.

Be careful...you're the only other person I've known that talked about this ratio...you may be a pond nerd if...

...you don't heed the collective advice of your PB comrades when formulating.
-
Yeah, I was serious, but surely don't hold this to be analytical nor conclusive by any stretch; more of an observation. I gotta laugh to think that this observation comes about based on precip calc's based on accu-weather figures from a recording station miles away, my neighbor's input, and the size of the puddles on the drive coming in....I haven't even put up a rain gauge yet :rolleyes: . I doubt that it even qualifies for averages. Hey, remember ML...you and I are a few of the folks that actually read and applied some of those geeky equations in Pub 590. I still remember the 4 soil types....

Hey Ski you have at least two places in the pond where it is deep enough to ice fish this winter plus enough water for good skating . You should try some snow pics and a few more non-working events.

I'm linking this Food Chain Thread with the parallel Help me adopt my fish family thread .
Unless someone jerks the steering wheel sharply, it appears that the basic stocking plan is going to SMB, YP, and RES. It's mid January; I think I better get a little more serious. Can I re-ignite this thread a little now that the stocking plan is somewhat settled?

Brettski, Forget it. We know you well enough by now to know that the stocking plan is anything but settled. I figure you're about 3 days away from pumping this sucker dry and adding more structure.

BTW, have you considered some unsightly brush piles? Your present structure seems, well, kinda sterile to me.

ROFLOL!

...I'm lookin' for the black penneyloafer shoe polish right now.