Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss on the loose

Maybe he was just out there messin' with Sasquatch!

It's Kalifornia what do you expect?

Any possibility these guys have a pot farm or a few plants on your property? If so they could be dangerous. The one looks like he's done some prison time to me.

Personally I'd nail them with a restraining order. I wouldn't tolerate strangers snooping around my property. You could end up with another break in.

BTW I'm disappointed one of them wasn't Cody Lundin of Dual Survivor. He goes barefoot too.

No wonder we had a huge algae bloom this year.



It's definately two different people...
...of course their sister might be their mother.


We patrolled the entire property. Nothing unusual was growing.

Would you really tell us if there was!!

I can't be sure, but the guy in the second picture looks like he might not have any teeth.

Oddly enough, both guys seem to have some upper body definition.

I'm sure I could bench more then either of them, or both of them put together, but maybe not if they were on crack.

Does anyone else find it oddly uncomfortable that Sunil made that observation?



Just playin', Sunil!

JHAP, get in touch with the sheriff ASAP. I was told by the sheriff here that once a few fines are levied, then the trespassing will be minimized.

For a restraining order to be taken out, you need the name, etc., of the person.

What you could be seeing is a scouting trip for a theft trip at a later date.

In Indiana, straight trespassing is handled by the sheriff, fishing, hunting, trapping violations are handled by the Conservation Officer.

The sheriff here said that if caught, they ask the person to leave, after checking that they have no outstanding wants or warrants. The only way that a landowner could prosecute would be if they didn't leave, or if the landowner took out a restraining order on them. Violating the fish & game laws was a different story.

Having 0 tolerance on trespassers will solve your problem, but probably not immediately.

What do you think they do in their free time in prison? Lift weights!

Hmmm good points Scott, perhaps I need to reconsider what to do with the photos.

Okay, other observations around the property during our visit:

The Pond:

Vegetation:
From a vegetation stand point the pond is in miserable shape. For those that recall I battled an won the war on Elodea in our pond. Unfortunately the decimation of Elodea freed up space and nutrients for other pond weeds to take hold. We have an explosion of American Pond Weed and what I think is Coontail. I didn't get samples of the Coontail lookalike so I am not certain at this point. Between these two plants the pond is back to a high percentage of vegetation coverage - I would estimate at 30 to 40%.

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In this shot you can see the submerged culprit. Next trip I'll pull some out and take the required photos for identification.


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This shot, taken from the east shoreline looking west, is an indication of how much the American Pond Weed has taken hold. Much like the Elodea did it is reaching almost all the way across the shallow end of the pond. And the "other weed" is also rampant in this area.

The size perspective is somewhat skewed by the camera lens as the far shore in this photo is over 500 feet away and most of the trees along that far shore are well over 50 feet tall.




Given that it is late in the year I am afraid of treating the weeds and causing on oxygen crash. My strategy at this point is to let winter kill it off (which may cause an oxygen crash on it's own) and then treat the weeds next spring.

Any treatment suggestions would be greatly appreciated.


Water level:
The water level on the pond is surprisingly high for this time of year. Although we are down about 4 to 5 feet that is much less that we have been down during the same month in other years (like last year). As most of you know, out here in the wild west it is not unusual to have a season fluctuation of 5 - 7 vertical feet in pond depth. Last year my pond was lower that I had ever seen it, at it's lowest I would estimate that it was down almost 8 feet.
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This shot is taken from the south shore looking north...


Fish and other pond life:
Although we didn't fish we did spent a few hours of one day observing pond life. We saw schools of Gams cruising the shallows so their population looked good. We observed large numbers and a variety of sizes of BG, they all looked to be healthy and of a good Wr. We saw quite a few good sized juvenile LMB ranging in size from about 6" to 12" and they certainly looked well fed. Unfortunately we did not observe any of my beloved GSF. Hopefully the are in there somewhere.

Frogs were a plenty, all along the shore line of the shallows.

Being an absentee owner that lives so far away makes hands on pond management a difficult venture, especially when you pile on top of that the limited time we spent there last year. Sadly, our pond management negligence is showing.

My plan:
Let the weeds die back on their own for the winter. Hopefully the weeds are not at the point it which they will cause a oxygen crash when they naturally die back in the winter.

I plan on identifying the secondary weed, the one that I think is Coontail, and attack them during the beginning of their growing season in the spring.

Thoughts?
Suggestions?
Random diatribes?
Juvenalian Satire?
Or the elusive triple entendre?

Your weed attack sounds similar to my primrose plan for next year I'd also like to hear what people say about this method..

Oh and as and also and PS:

Three other observations and or matters of minimal interest:

First it appears as though our wild blackberries didn't produce many berries this year. I'm not sure why.

Secondly, standing next to our "tool shed" I heard and incredible noise off to my left. At first I though it was a gun shot. I peered around the tool shed just in time to see a large tree fall on a forested area of our property. This was the first time I had actually observed this first hand. What an amazing site, it careened off another tree severing many branches of that tree and crashed to the ground. The sound was incredible and it was followed by a huge cloud of leaves and dust. I was glad I was 40 to 50 feet away. This is empirical proof that if a tree falls in the forest and someone is around to hear it it does in fact make a noise.

Next I plan on exploring whether or not a Ursus Americanus actually defecates in high tree density areas.

And finally, our neighbor mentioned that he spotted a Mountain Lion crossing the upper meadow of our property (from his deck that has a view over this meadow). Hopefully sooner or later we will capture this elusive beast on a game camera. It did make this city boy quite jumpy while on the property though.

Are you sure it wasn't a bag of wild blackberries?

Gflo, you're killin' me

JHAP:

Something will utilize the nutrients that's in the ponds. You will have to decide which is the lesser of "X" number of evils. You could kill all the weeds and have a FA nightmare on your hands. You could treat specific areas of the pond so it's useable to you, but still allowing the weeds to do their thing. I'd leave the weeds alone this year and formulate a plan of attack for next year.

Mebee your barefoot neighbors are keeping the berries in check?

Being an absentee landowner is hard, and you never seem to get caught up on the "to do" list, especially living as far away as you do.

Count your blessings on the water level.

Looks like you need a local property manager and caretaker.

Next time you're there, take a good look at the tree that fell and determine why. Then take a close look at any trees that are close enough to your buildings and make sure they won't do the same thing. It's a good thing you weren't walking in that area when the tree came down. Now break out the chainsaw and get the firewood cut up!

Gathering blackberries barefooted? Those would be some tough Hombre's!

Jhap, you'd better sharpen up your martial arts skills, or lure Sunil to NorCal with large qtys of an obscure mirobrew for a little light duty action.

No microbrews, please.

I'll vouch for the noise!!! I was sitting in a tree stand alongside a deep creek when I heard a big "crack" like a nearby deer rifle, that was fired my way, then I saw a big splash in the creek. It seemed like a minute passed while I watched a huge 120'+ tall river Sycamore with around an 8' diameter trunk start falling. It was falling at a right angle to me, and I was within range of the fall but trapped in the tree. Trapped till it landed and lifted me out of the seat with the impact!

An awesome sight to see!

Jeffie, Maybe you need better trespassing signs. Here are some ideas

Heybud, perhaps the sign with the photo of the gun will work. Given that the trespassers keep walking past the No Trespassing signs I'm beginning think that these two are a product of our wonderful California education system (in 2009 California was ranked 49th out of the 51 states). <--


DOH!!!



I don't want to kill all of the weeds, I just want to reduce their numbers down to about 20% coverage. Unlike most folks, I like the weeds along the shoreline since they make shore fishing difficult which IMHO is helping to discourage poachers. We primarily fish from our Alum boat so the shoreline weeds don't bother me.

I think that my action plan will be "do nothing during the fall/winter" (I love plans in which I have to do nothing) and then attack the weeds selectively during the spring.



Yep I'm going to have to look at the tree. It seems odd for a tree to fall during summer (well technically fall but you wouldn't know it from the weather).


Jeez you sound just like DIED. I made the mistake of telling DIED that I bought some oak firewood. He punched me in the gut and told me "DON'T BUY FIREWOOD, get out of the recliner and cut up some of the oak on your property plus I have plenty on mine for you to cut up for firewood.

DIED is such a disciplinarian.

sorry i missed you jeff, i was, ummm........detained......... this years eagle lake report
(about half way down pg)

cant wait to see the pics off yer cameras..

regarding the fire wood, there is still lots down from that low elevation snow earlier this year. i am sad on several fronts to admit i have no more excuses cutting the big stuff up, as i have my brothers stihl to use this winter.

Oh I get it, off goofing around at Eagle Lake while I'm slaving on my land.

You weren't slaving if the firewood isn't cut up yet!