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The fish look very healthy.


It's not about the fish. It's about the pond. Take care of the pond and the fish will be fine. PB subscriber since before it was in color.

Without a sense of urgency, Nothing ever gets done.

Boy, if I say "sic em", you'd better look for something to bite. Sam Shelley Rancher and Farmer Muleshoe Texas 1892-1985 RIP
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Transporting fish in winter isn't a big deal. It's not that simple in summer when you have to change water all the time smile
They don't suffer from injuries that much too.

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I remember some talking about crucian carps in one thread. I simply wanted to add a picture of fish caught by myself.
Nothing special actually but this fishing was just for fun smile

Don't expect to see any trophy sized ones.

By the way, they were a bit larger than they looked in the picture.


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Finally it was possible to add come common carp to the pond. Actually not some but ~10 kg of them:)







These little fellows have hatched this spring. Sure, many of them can die but as there are lots of small fish in 10 kg, probably I'll get some nice ones after a few years.

Last edited by Grundulis; 11/04/13 02:02 AM.
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Why do you say finally? What was the hold up till now?

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Well... It's not easy to find a hatchery not far that could offer the right size fish for reasonable price. Then you have to drive after those fish but there's always lack of time...
This time my route included a hatchery and everything ended with a nice purchase.

Actually there are carps in this pond (take a look at the 1st page of the thread to see pictures) in much greater size than these but it's smart to stock additional fish after some while, isn't it smile

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How is your health these days?


It's not about the fish. It's about the pond. Take care of the pond and the fish will be fine. PB subscriber since before it was in color.

Without a sense of urgency, Nothing ever gets done.

Boy, if I say "sic em", you'd better look for something to bite. Sam Shelley Rancher and Farmer Muleshoe Texas 1892-1985 RIP
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Originally Posted By: Dave Davidson1
How is your health these days?


This question seems rather strange to me. Do you mind explaining what did you mean by that?

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Sorry, I thought you had contacted Lymes disease or something. Must have been someone else.


It's not about the fish. It's about the pond. Take care of the pond and the fish will be fine. PB subscriber since before it was in color.

Without a sense of urgency, Nothing ever gets done.

Boy, if I say "sic em", you'd better look for something to bite. Sam Shelley Rancher and Farmer Muleshoe Texas 1892-1985 RIP
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Definetely somebody else.

At first I thought that maybe I've written something weird last evening and you thought I was drunk or sick laugh

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Well, the end of December, isn't it? Should be winter, shouldn't it?
What happens in Latvia? There was ice a week a go but look at the picture:



Actually there is some ice only on the one part of the pond smile


This "winter" I (with a help, of course) did a lot of woodcutting work and now it's possible to enlarge the size of the pond. Now it's approx. 0,5 ha (~1,23 acre) and in the future is should be 3x as big smile


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I don't have photos right now, but we've basically been iced-over since early December. That is unusual for us. We've also had about 12 inches /30 CM of snow so far, which is also somewhat unusual.

I need some smoked trout for New Year's Eve. Our ice isn't thick enough to walk on, but it covers the pond. I'm thinking about driving the tractor to the edge of the pond in the next day or two, and dropping the front-end loader bucket on the ice to open a hole in the ice so I can try and catch some of the trout.


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Originally Posted By: catmandoo
I don't have photos right now, but we've basically been iced-over since early December. That is unusual for us. We've also had about 12 inches /30 CM of snow so far, which is also somewhat unusual.

I need some smoked trout for New Year's Eve. Our ice isn't thick enough to walk on, but it covers the pond. I'm thinking about driving the tractor to the edge of the pond in the next day or two, and dropping the front-end loader bucket on the ice to open a hole in the ice so I can try and catch some of the trout.


That idea will work out great. We do it sometimes with our loader tractor to open ice up for the cattle.

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Just made some pictures for a little update smile

Raised water level a bit to create better spawning spots for fish:







I thought that northern pike have been spwned already but I was wrong. Anyway, I caught a few of them. Gill net was one of the way to check what's happening there.



Some fish caught with different methods (the largest NP is approx. 50 cm).



Somehow there will be another pond but before that there some (OK, a lot of :D) trees have to been cut. Did a bit but there's more to go.
View from the top of the dam:



View from the side:





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Looks like you've done a lot of new dam work. Plans for more ponds?

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The existing one (the one with water) has some improvements to increase it's area 3 times but there's still a lot of work to do. If everything goes fine then this autumn I'll be able to show pictures of a greater size pond.


The dam in the last picture is quite old one. It was made several years ago mostly as a road over swampy area but even than there was an idea of a pond. Now we have started to cut down wood. Seems like this might take several years but there's no need to hurry smile
Why so long? Well, every year there is need for some firewood and this way it's possible to achive 2 goals - get firewood and clear area.
The target fish for this one is NORTHERN PIKE. Other pond is mostly for COMMOND CARP, TENCH and similar fish but there is a great disadvantage - thse fish are inactive during winter. Pike bites almost all year.
Almost forgot to say that this one could be 4-5 m deep in the deepest spot.

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Well, I had some free weeks and I spent some of time around my pond.
Some pics if somebody is interested:

A perch:



Crucian carps:



Here is one of them with weird mouth. The red circle shows it's mouth. It shouldn't be that way ( take a look at previous picture). Probably this one once was hooked and damaged badly.



Two pics with common carp visible:





Yeah, this year is weird. Perch should bite but it doesn't show any activity. I tried various lure for some while but with only little success... all those crucian carps bite well but they love warm water.
Last weeks there is quite a heat (about 27-30 degrees (C)).

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Some additional dirt work has been done. I'll try to post some pictures later.
Btw, now I got plenty of zander as well:






Approx. 300 fish (born this year). Average weight = 6 g. Some were larger = 24 g.

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Thanks for posting the pics. Always interesting to see how things are in your part of the world.

Last edited by Dave Davidson1; 10/15/14 04:22 AM.

It's not about the fish. It's about the pond. Take care of the pond and the fish will be fine. PB subscriber since before it was in color.

Without a sense of urgency, Nothing ever gets done.

Boy, if I say "sic em", you'd better look for something to bite. Sam Shelley Rancher and Farmer Muleshoe Texas 1892-1985 RIP
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Thanks for the update!


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How big do you expect the Zander to get?


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Your water level control method with the concrete structure and water level boards allows you to work on and expand the pond in steps over a period of time. Quite an interesting and different concept than is usual here, where once the pond is started it is a rush to do all the dirt work and have it completely finished in a short period of time.

As you get more area of the pond or dam completed, just add boards to raise water level up to the portion completed.

Necessity is the mother of invention.

Quite interesting.

Nice fish pictures too. Keep them coming.

Last edited by snrub; 10/15/14 09:25 AM.

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Thanks for support!
Well, I have no idea how large could they grow in a pond. I don't see any reason why they couldn't reach several kilograms in weight but... everything takes time and some of these might be eaten till that. You see, I don't keep fish for pleasure fishing only. They are eaten as well.
If you are interested in possible zander size in Latvia then I can tell you that the official record is approx. 12 kg. There are a few lakes and rivers where this fish grow that large.
Here is the picture of that record fish:



Well, there are even heavier ones. This one has been caught in my neighbouring country Estonia by fishermen. 17 kg:



Sure, it's hard to think about such fish in a pond.

I mentioned some dirt works before.
How it looked in 2012:




And now:





For better understanding I've added a scheme (sorry for the poor quality - done in a hurry):



1 - existing pond;
3 - that new pond you can see in the pictures;
2 - there used to be a swamp. Now that place has been used for storing the dirt;
4 - if everything goes right, this area could be flooded (a bit of it next year and everything after some years). After some improvements of existing dam, at least 2 additional metres of water level can be raised.

Last edited by Grundulis; 10/15/14 09:30 AM.
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Nice plan. I'm assuming the water level control structure is already of sufficient height to allow for this entire process.

I was just looking at my old pond yesterday now that recent rains have filled it after going through a dry spell for a year and a half. It appears I could raise its level another foot ( one third meter) fairly easily.

I see plans like yours and gives me the itch to do things myself. Hope your long term plan goes well.


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Thanks smile
The water level control structure has been already built for the max. level (about 5m). It has been located in the deepest spot and the level right now there is ~3m or a bit less. So there's no problems with that (I'll try to re-post a pic later. seems like all links to the pictures on the 1st page are dead).
Right now the weakest part is the dam itself. One layer managed to slip away so it's a bit thinner than it should be(maybe it would be strong enough but nobody wants to take such risk).

Last edited by Grundulis; 10/15/14 01:07 PM.
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