Noticed it was full. We had rain after the snow, then a big temperature drop. Result is ice on the snow. Must have had good runoff.
9 yr old pond, 1 ac, 15' deep. RES, YP, GS, FHM (no longer), HBG (going away), SMB, and HSB (only one seen in 5 yrs) Restocked HSB (2020) Have seen one of these. I think that's about all I should put in my little pond. Otter attack in 2023
Fish roaming the surface mid-winter: All except the catfish were on the surface today...bluegill and bass were making their rounds and eating feed...weird given that our weather has been similar for weeks...lows low forty's or high thirty's and highs mid fifties to mid sixties (a few 70s) and nothing but a few big bluegills normally feed. Bottom of pond is at its coldest, 47 F, having dropped from 52 F (last time I was running aerators in a 72 F high averaging 62 F that day. I have quite a few bluegill that want to eat everyday, no matter the weather, but they normally in winter hit the feed with a momentary strike. Today they were hanging and taking feed as if it was gourmet...savor it, approach, take, move a foot, hang. The bass were just cruising around...a few of the few grab a pellet now and then. The experience (less the catfish) was like mid-summer. We are due for almost a week of cooler (averaging about 45 F) weather. Do you think the fish somehow know this? I've not thrown a Farmer's Almanac into the pond.
Thanks. Been very cold this week, and even colder next week. (-6 one night). I think I’ll get the chance to ice fish this year.
9 yr old pond, 1 ac, 15' deep. RES, YP, GS, FHM (no longer), HBG (going away), SMB, and HSB (only one seen in 5 yrs) Restocked HSB (2020) Have seen one of these. I think that's about all I should put in my little pond. Otter attack in 2023
SetterGuy, that is awesome, ready for ice skating, no shovels needed. I'll bet catching your jumbo perch through the ice would be a great amount of fun.
SetterGuy, that is awesome, ready for ice skating, no shovels needed. I'll bet catching your jumbo perch through the ice would be a great amount of fun.
Has anyone caught HSB through the ice?
I think it isn't safe to walk on. Not cold enough, long enough. It's 54 degrees here right now. The thin ice on the ponds early this morning has already cleared off.
I assumed you were directing this to my future purchase of RES. That's what Todd Overton recommended. I think his reputation and knowledge speaks for itself. If nothing else, it may make catching them a bit easier!
Btw...this 1/10 acre is holding an acre foot of water.
.10 surface acre pond, 10.5 foot deep. SW LA. The epitome of a mutt pond. BG, LMB, GSF, RES, BH, Warmouth, Longear Sunfish, Gambusia,Mud Minnows, Crappie, and now shiners!!...I subscribe!!
Today I added a 20ft cedar tree off the dam and cleaned up cactus along a shoreline. Cacti is heavy! Some stalks were 6in thick. Used a machete and pitchfork to dig them up by the roots. No poison next to the tank. Lots more further down the line.
How are you going to know unless you try!
NW TX 2ac main pond fed from 1100ac watershed going through 2 2+ac sediment ponds. 1st filled 10/2018 900BG, 200RES, 200HBG, 100CC and 23# FHM...."Free" BH, GSF GSH, LMB & ??? 75LMB 3/2020 I subscribe!
SetterGuy, that is awesome, ready for ice skating, no shovels needed. I'll bet catching your jumbo perch through the ice would be a great amount of fun.
Has anyone caught HSB through the ice?
Ha! The ever elusive HSB! Maybe that will be the secret to actually catching one. Through the ice.. The ice has to be thick enough by next weekend. Monday through Friday lows. 7, -8, -6, 18, 24. I’m just not sure I’ll be able to get my hand powered auger through the ice.
9 yr old pond, 1 ac, 15' deep. RES, YP, GS, FHM (no longer), HBG (going away), SMB, and HSB (only one seen in 5 yrs) Restocked HSB (2020) Have seen one of these. I think that's about all I should put in my little pond. Otter attack in 2023
Walked on top of my frozen half filled new pond. Pond guy left his dozer ever since he dug the pond. I'm tempted to test drive it. He's coming back to put the overflow once the weather is better.
Got all of my fruit trees in the ground today. Have to go by the Co-Op tomorrow and grab a bale of wheat straw to mulch them with before this next front gets here.
.10 surface acre pond, 10.5 foot deep. SW LA. The epitome of a mutt pond. BG, LMB, GSF, RES, BH, Warmouth, Longear Sunfish, Gambusia,Mud Minnows, Crappie, and now shiners!!...I subscribe!!
We put holographic bird scare tape on several trees bordering the pond, plus on a couple of cormorant favorite stobs. Worked pretty well discouraging them last year, we'll see about this year.
Frank, can u post up a pic of what it looks like and where u added it to the pond? Do you just tape off a limb or a stump? Did you give up on the big eye balloons or whatever the other scare off device was?
Do not judge me by the politicians in my City, State or Federal Government.
I ordered this from Home Depot: Aspectek 200 ft. Double Sided Holographic Bird Scare Ribbon Tape. Took about a week to ship to my local store. They have a similar tape that is thinner which would probably work, too.
Key is to tie it so that 2 to 3 feet is exposed to the wind & freely flaps in a breeze. Makes some noise & flashes. Doesn't seem to bother geese much, but cormorants are a different matter.
Good to know, thanks. Most all I have to tie off to is just above the surface and I would think the tape would just lay there in the water. I do have a couple of trees in the water but they are dead now and high winds are laying them over into the water. They are breaking off about a foot above of the water. Might be, I could add a 10' T Post to 5 foot water depths giving me 5' above the water to tie off to. It would be nice to keep all the birds away.
Do not judge me by the politicians in my City, State or Federal Government.
Sounds like a good idea, Tracy. I'd think the best spot or spots would be where you see the greatest concentrations of cormorants resting or fishing. At least at my place, they really don't like the sight & sound on a breezy day.
Unprecedented cold and snow here in SW MI. Kids have had 3 consecutive snow days and tomorrow off too, might be a whole week off school.
Despite our efforts, and the bitter cold, the one edge of the pond still appeared newly wet yesterday during the day. I can't imagine how that is possible in the below zero windchills! Must be the weight of the snow on the edge pushed water up from underneath and into the shallows.
We were clearing ice frequently the last few days but the lake effect snow kept coming. The kids want to skate once air temps are safe for skin exposure.
but in the coldest hour we get water on the pond. Now the 2 stage walk behind snowblower is useless as the wet snow freezes in the housing and chute as soon as the air hits it. I dare use the quad with plow but it can't move the wet banks.
My JD mounted snowblower might do an OK job but I don't trust to put it on the ice near the wet spot.
2 days of cold and then air temps in the 40s and rain Sunday. Strange.
Oh well, no snow till January, now 3 feet in the yard, 5 foot banks around the pond, we got a few days of skating in I guess.
What did I do at my pond today? Today I learned that muskrat runs are deeper than my muck boots. And that pond water is cold around here this time of year. (Ya'll wear your waders, hear?)
After a couple of warm days, the BG were following me around the ponds, so I fed them this afternoon, and got a good feeding response from the BG. That's great for the 3rd of February. The lowest official temperature so far this winter is 11 F.
I have been keeping two Conibar traps out at the far end of the pond. This area is nearest to the bayou. And I caught another beaver yesterday. Both traps had gone off but only one had a beaver in it. First time for me where a trap went off and nothing was in it. These traps are about 10 yds apart from each other. The beaver was headed into the pond. I think it was looking for a new place to set up a home.
I have been concerned lately that the pond is running short of 3 to 4" cnbg because I just don't see many at the feeders. I do see maybe 50 to a hundred cnbg in the 7 to 10" size that hang out at each feeder. So I sat out looking for some of the smaller sized and discovered that if I hand threw some feed around the brush piles along the shoreline and a good distance away from the feeder I would see around a dozen or so come to the feed. They were in that 3 to 4" range. I felt better after seeing the smaller sized cnbg.
The cnbg and the feed trained lmb along with the HSB were all pretty active on the Aquamax. So I increased the amount of the LMB feed.
Last edited by TGW1; 02/04/1909:05 AM.
Do not judge me by the politicians in my City, State or Federal Government.
Tracy, I've had similar results from my feeding this fall & winter. Real big CNBG only, little guys are scarce. Probably YOY are in dense cover, like yours.
I ordered this from Home Depot: Aspectek 200 ft. Double Sided Holographic Bird Scare Ribbon Tape.
anthropic.....following your lead I just purchased some of this scare ribbon tape on Amazon. It will be in Wed so I can install this weekend.
Where do place it and how do you place it?
Do you walk out into the shallow water with poles and tie it to the poles? Or place it on dock? Or just along various spots on shoreline?
I've been invaded this winter with "Water Turkey" (anhinga) the ones that dive under the water. In the past the gator heads were pretty effective in scaring them off....not this year.
When I am there I scare them off, but I am usually only there on weekends so I assume they are eating a lot of fish.