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

I was very persuasive. I don’t believe I’ll be seeing him again. Hopefully he was a loner.

I just read where an otter will eat it’s weight in food every day. Unfortunately he works the bank where my SMB like hang out.

To all those who labor for their families and country, Happy Labor Day!

Unfortunately otters might eat their weight in fish in a day but they will kill a lot more then that if they are plentiful, I have seen plenty of half eaten fish or not much eaten from them at all. one has to be very persuasive to keep them from coming back,, I get the drift.

He won’t be back. I was trying to observe him as closely as possible. As he worked his way down the dam, I hid on the other side. I wanted as close of a look as possible, so I remained relatively hidden. He was easy to keep track of as every minute or so he would stop and eat. I kept hearing the gnawing and munching of my fish... I do think he was mostly eating larger GSH. Haven’t seen any others, I’m really hoping he was a solo act.

I've finally gotten caught up to the point that I have some time to spend on the pond.
I got the weed whacker out on Saturday and trimmed the undesirables from the dam.
Yesterday after work I placed two loader buckets of limestone cobble on the pond side
of the dam. Also brought up several bucket loads of topsoil and spread that on the
backside of the dam where I cleaned up a few dead trees earlier in the summer.
Putting the finish grade down on the dam and reseeding is still a goal to be completed
before winter if time allows.

Good job, Augie!

I should be working on my pond excavations right now, since it is bone dry out at our farm right now. Unfortunately, I am still swamped at work.

I did feed some of the creek fish that I have been keeping in aquariums for practice.

We had shrimp for dinner tonight, so I peeled the last little bits of meat out of the tails and threw it in the tank with some bullheads. They immediately pounced on THAT treat!

I also have some Gambusia in that tank. Generally that bullheads stay in their pipes on the bottom and the Gambusia cruise the surface. The shrimp meat sank to the bottom and the two largest Gambusia swam down to the bottom to peck at the shrimp.

I know there have been some threads about the benefits of adding Gambusia to a pond for forage and mosquito control. I would just like to add that the Gambusia seem to have an appetite for a wide variety of foods. They have so far pecked at every single thing I have thrown into their tank.

You can’t just work on the pond all the time. Took a short break from the slime war.
Scale reads 1.3 is in kg, so 2.86 pounds. 18”. Not sure if this was an original stocker. At least the otter didn’t get him.
After that, I got the rest of the back of the dam cleared off.

Smallies are looking very nice. You are doing good things for them in Missouri.

I didn’t know where else to post this. (So here it is) My wife found it cleaning out some boxes at her mother’s home. She recently moved her mom into a nursing home (93).
Was taken in 1977 (I think) or right about the time we got married. This is myself and my father in law. He took me fishing in a farm pond not too far from their home in Chillicothe Missouri. He was the assistant principal at the VoTech school. He knew every farm kid in the county, and had for several years, and had exclusive permission to fish many of the ponds. My first time pond fishing. We were on the water at first light. Using hula poppers, and jitter bugs for the most part, and boy did we catch a lot of fish. All the smaller ones, he would give the death grip to. Left them for the turtles, of which there were many.
After several tries, I’d finally get the hula popper near the bank, right where he wanted me to cast it. Then he’d tell me to just leave it there for a bit. Then it was, ok give it a twitch, then all heck would break loose. Haha! I will never forget it. When we got back to his house in town, he told my brand new wife, “I’ve ruined the boy, he will think it’s going to be this good every time we go out.”
[img]http://[/img]

Setterguy, I know an old timer that built a hundred ponds around Chillicothe Mo and the surrounding counties back in the 70s and 80s, hes not being able to do anything anymore, still kicking tho, Donnie Lamp, Still go fishing with him every once in a while, winter fishing for catfish on the Grand, above Brunswick MO, hes always ready to go when ever he can get somebody to take him. cant go by himself anymore.
Great picture btw!!

Your buddy must have been a good pond builder. I don’t remember a single pond up there that was plagued with low water. My Father in-law was a tough old guy. Both of his folks died when he was young. His relatives took him from the cemetery to the police station. Dropped him and his four siblings off, and said they just couldn’t take care of them. He never saw three of his siblings ever again. He was adopted by a couple near Lexington MO. Became their only child, and worked hard at their farm. He was given an old bird dog that had been blinded in one eye by an errant shotgun pellet coming back out of a fence row. It was his first English Setter. He had many, and they were all very good dogs. He helped me with my first Setter, and now I'm on number six. Unfortunately he died too young. I wish he could have fished our pond, or have seen our little farm.

My great regret is that my dad, a terrific fisherman, never was well enough to visit the pond. He'd have slayed them, especially on flies. Sadly, he had a stroke right after the pond filled.

Our little pond is still only about 3/4 excavated (long story that doesn't matter) & is full. Some Map turtles have moved in, along with a small snapper. Wife's become infatuated with the pond & critters & asked about goldfish. Explained why that was a bad idea & she asked about minnows. What the heck, they're cheap & I doubt the remaining excavation would kill them off. Why not get a jump start on growing forage, right?

So we ran to the bait shop a month ago & picked up 5 dozen rosy reds & FHM, all around 2" & tossed 'em in. I'd guess we lost close to half that first day, but we'd occasionally see a couple here & there around the pond. There are no other fish in the pond & a decent bit of submerged or semi submerged grass scattered around the pond.

We went to a local fish farm on Wednesday & picked up 3lbs of rosies, all 1" or less. All rosies, no plain ol' FHM. Seeing small schools of the rosies here & there & then I saw a couple of what looked to be FHM fry. Smaller than the rosies we just added. Is it possible the little jokers have pulled off something of a spawn already? I have added absolutely no cover/structure of any sort yet & no idea if any of the vegetation is "close enough" for them to utilize. Makes me wonder why I didn't just put a few pounds in earlier in the summer. Going to get some PK shrimp in shortly & hopefully have some decent forage growing by the time we're able to start stocking some fish (hopefully) next spring.

Heck, if you got your wife infatuated with the pond, then perhaps you are not Crazy after all!

You should probably post a tutorial on Pond Boss covering that particular topic.

Lol! I wish I had that kind of mystical knowledge. She's a city girl, born & bred & it took me 16 years to get her to move to the country. Once I got her out here, she just fell in love with the woods & all the critters.

She already liked to fish & after I bought a little fishing boat a couple months ago, she's all about getting out on the water & trying to catch some supper.

Yeah, I got lucky.

snrub, sorry it has taken me so so long to get back to you. I've been on the road turkey, blue grouse, and dove hunting so much I've neglected my daily visits to the forum! Even made it to the western Kansas line to Coolidge just so I could turn around and say to my dog, "Gypsy, we're not in Kansas anymore!"
Let me know when you head over here. I'm getting ready for heart surgery (mitral valve repair) so may be occupied when you pass through.
Unless you are familiar with and comfortable driving a high mountain pass, avoid Wolf Creek on highway160. This past week as I drove it in my pickup, there was a semi trailer overturned, a small car wrecked, and a pickup hauling two beautiful pontoon boats on its roof, boat parts scattered across the road. There are good runaway truck lanes on the west side, if a driver were to get into trouble.

On a more general note about muskrats not eating fish: while fish may not be a regular part of their diet, I have actually seen them munching on sluggish bullheads in a partially frozen irrigation ditch. They're known for eating freshwater mussels. I can imagine they'd grab fish on other occasions if the opportunity presented itself, but just not actively pursue healthy fish.

Got home yesterday afternoon from a long weekend of sprint car racing at Lucas Oil Speedway.
Unpacked/cleaned up the camper and got started packing the truck for the annual pilgrimage to sunny Florida.

My fish were happy to discover that they hadn't been abandoned forever. They put away two feedings worth
of Optimal in less than 10 minutes. I expect they will be ready to bite my hook by the time we get home from
the GoM. I badly need to remove half a dozen or so HSB before winter. Also need to pull at least 30lbs of BG,
so I've got something fun to look forward to after vacation is over.

Ah, the old get 'em hungry before trying to cull with hook and line strategy!

I suspect you will be quite successful on that, Augie.

The fact that you got to go racing and on vacation while cutting back your feedings is just icing on the cake!

P.S. Have fun in Florida.

I finally saw the unknown schools of 1” long fish up close…. They are shad! -1 degree temp and below freezing temps didn’t kill the parent shad I guess. Even had skim ice all over pond. Yay!

If TShad can find a thermal refuge, they can survive a cold spell. That is why they can live in big resv. when it gets cold. Provided there is O2 they can go deep and find warmer water for a spell.

That is pretty good news, Pat!

How deep is the deepest hole, and what is the average depth on your 5-acre pond?

Agree, that is good news.

Deepest is13’ when full …. Down 3’ now…. Really need rain. Not sure what average depth is

Sprayed about 1/4 acre or more of watermeal. Low water levels for the past 2 years and less wind due to the pond being 5'-7' low (vertical measurement). Dang waterfowl must have brought it from the neighbors pond.

I am mowing grass now that should have 5 to 6 feet of water over the top of that dirt.......

Very impressive that 13' water could provide a thermal refuge.

Do you have gizzard shad? (I was thinking it was very impressive that your threadfin shad had survived the cold.)

P.S. Hopefully you will get some rain soon. The cold front got some good rains going here in Kansas, but I don't think this front is going to push all of the way down to your area.