Nope, she's a standard. Two weeks shy of six months and pushing 40lbs. One of the reasons I picked her was because she was the runt of the litter, but she has already outgrown that. Must be all of the Optimal she laps up when I'm feeding the fish. She loves that stuff.
I have a German shepherd that gets very vicious to the fish when I hand feed. When I go to get the food from a storage can on our fixed dock, he runs to the edge of the floating dock near where I throw the food and barks, growls, and froths at the mouth until I throw the food in. Then he dives off the dock and tries to eat all the food before the fish can get it. The fish have just learned to feed around him. The other 4 German shepherds just get excited and watch, although one of the females occasionally pushes him into the water before he is ready to dive in. Its all very strange but pretty consistent. I think this male just does not like fish eating what looks like small pellets of dog food. He does not do this with our other dogs and is normally well mannered. He even turns on his heel if called while chasing a varmint.
Our lab wasnt very happy that she couldn't catch the fish. I told her I understand lol. It waa feeding time. They were biting within a 2 feet of her and it was pissing her off. Animals can be so funny at times.
Added 105 pounds of red swamp crawfish to the pond. HEB had them left over from Memorial Day so I got them for $20. Put them in the shallow weedy areas. Dumb ones backswam out to open water where a school of LMB educated them. Hoping to get the RSC established but coons will probably have different goals. All in all - a lot of fun.
4 acre pond 32 ft deep within East Texas (Livingston) timber ranch. Filled (to the top of an almost finished dam) by Hurricane Harvey 9/17. Stocked with FHM, CNBG, RES 10/17. Added 35lbs RSC 3/18. 400 N LMB fingerlings 6/18
Had 7” rain last night, went to lake this morning to look at spillway culverts and remove log from in front of them, saw two 5# LMB guarding the exit..... saw a carp that was as long as my arm! How in the world did that thing get in there? Guess the same way as the bullhead cats ..... probably on fish truck in fatheads before I knew better. Oh well it’s a mutt pond anyway only thing not in there is GSF
The day before yesterday I went by the pond to make things ready for a fish delivery. When I walked on the dock I saw another gator at the pond. I am not sure the size of this one because he moved away from me. As he swam to the other side of the pond he left a large wake behind him. Might be the largest that has shown up over the past few years. For whatever reason, I have a gator showing up every year. Breeding season I am guessing. Yesterday we had to load delivered fish into my portable fish tank and take them to the pond behind my side by side. It is just too muddy for the delivery truck and I did not want to rut up my road with the heavy truck. We added 65 lbs of adult Tp and 1500 3 to 5" CNBG and 50 lbs of Fhm's. The minnows are to take the pressure off the spawning bg fry that was already in the pond.
Do not judge me by the politicians in my City, State or Federal Government.
Muddy water this spring. Diffuser stand had tipped over. Fixed that. Did a jar test. Didn't look terrible. After a week of sitting it looks like tap water. Well, tap water with bugs. Lots of teensy weensy little swimming critters. So I've shut off the air pump. Hopefully it will clear a bit over the next couple weeks. Only way to find out is to wait and see what happens.
Don't hold it against the guy who supplied your crawdads! My pond was around 18" visibility coming out of winter. The rains came, the crawdads got real active, and it's been at 10" visibility for a couple months now. I'm afraid my pond muddied up before I even turned on the air (mostly from inflow). Let us know if the absence of aeration calms it down.
I don't think it was the crayfish that kicked the diffuser stand over, so you're in the clear for now. lol
Coming out of winter the viz in mine was 4'-5'. When the monsoon came it turned to chocolate milk. It was starting to clear up, then I turned on the air. It's been a wreck ever since.
I've got room to create a small settling basin in the draw at the top of the pond. If it ever dries up enough to get in there. I don't think we've had even one ten day stretch of dry weather since late March.
Hopefully heading to my place later today. Dr. Appointment early. Anyway, we got another 1.7 inch rain and I just might be at full pool for the first time in years.
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
I've been experimenting, trying to figure out what it takes to catch my fish on artificial lures.
Mostly I've been doing this after the evening pellet fest is over. Yesterday I decided to try it in the middle of the pellet fest.
Put a brown grub body on a Trout Magnet jig head and it was on like Donkey Kong. Tried it under a 3/4" styrofoam float. Lot of swipes, but not many hook-ups. Dropped straight in and held still, wiggled a bit, or slow horizontal motion was the ticket. Red and black also caught a few, including the biggest, fattest RES I've yet seen. I threw a single barbless hook Rooster Tail knockoff a few times. Got one BG on that, but most strikes resulted in a miss.
I caught and transferred to the bait pond 18 5"-8" BG/HBG. Half a dozen over 8" went back in to grow. Caught one SMB, one HSB, and one ~12" YP.
I'm going to do this again, and be prepared with landing net, camera, ruler, and scales.
For the guys having the bottom stirred up from the diffusers try moving them off the bottom. I raised mine 21" and that stopped all those solids from being disturbed. I just built a table from wrought iron using the wielder. Made it in just a few minutes, after all, I did not care what it looked like it's underwater. It will also help to keep the pond's bottom a little cooler in the hot summer.
Do not judge me by the politicians in my City, State or Federal Government.
The day before yesterday I went by the pond to make things ready for a fish delivery. When I walked on the dock I saw another gator at the pond. I am not sure the size of this one because he moved away from me. As he swam to the other side of the pond he left a large wake behind him. Might be the largest that has shown up over the past few years. For whatever reason, I have a gator showing up every year. Breeding season I am guessing. Yesterday we had to load delivered fish into my portable fish tank and take them to the pond behind my side by side. It is just too muddy for the delivery truck and I did not want to rut up my road with the heavy truck. We added 65 lbs of adult Tp and 1500 3 to 5" CNBG and 50 lbs of Fhm's. The minnows are to take the pressure off the spawning bg fry that was already in the pond.
Have you feed trained the gators on cormorants & otters?
Spent a couple days at the pond with a friend. We harvested 18 LMB, now up to 203 for 2021. That's not counting sub 6 inchers, which we cut the tail & throw back to feed the bigguns. CNBG, HSB, LMB all active, and my friend even caught a rainbow trout. Their time is about up, I think.
Also opened up valve from forage pond to main BOW. Full of CNBG, ranging from 2 to 5 inches, poured into danger. One LMB caught near the valve actually spat up a 3 inch CNBG, likely from the uneducated forage population.
Multiple personal bests being set in CNBG, many over 1 pound. Still looking for 2 pounder, but may be next year before that happens.
A word to the wise: When you hire a power washer, be SURE to warn him not to power wash the feeder!
Still looking for a way to keep cool water fish going all year. Summer temps are okay below thermocline, but not DO levels. Nanobubbles don't do it, but I refuse to give up.
A word to the wise: When you hire a power washer, be SURE to warn him not to power wash the feeder!
Still looking for a way to keep cool water fish going all year. Summer temps are okay below thermocline, but not DO levels. Nanobubbles don't do it, but I refuse to give up.
Bummer, wet food or just all the decals blasted off?
One thing I haven't tried, but I heard one of Nate Herman's customers tried are Point Four micropore diffusers on the bottom of the pond in the deepest water and those hooked up to a Liquid O2 tank.....
If you adjust the O2 flow correctly, the O2 bubbles are all dissolved in the water before they move 4 feet.....
Saw something unusual. I hit a test throw on my TH feeder. Some of it landed on the edge of the pond next to me. I was watching fish feed and noticed small fish feeding at my feet. They were about 2 inch bluegills that would most likely have hatched in February. That doesn’t make much sense from a time standpoint.
BTW, I have more fish surviving than I thought. At first, after my green water turned brown, I saw 4 or 5 fish feeding. No more for a while. Now quite a bit more are coming to feed. Not like having enough fish but I’m wondering what is next.
BTW, bought and stocked 250 three to four inch bluegills today. That’s all I could get. And, as said, I have no idea what the real picture is at my place re fish. I keep seeing more when I feed.
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
I took a close look along the pond edges today, I have large numbers of daphnia and mixed in with some freshly hatched fry everywhere. I'm assuming the fry are GSH or RES as my redears are no longer on bedding in the shallow end. Some of the GSH I have been catching appear to have spawned, a few have them have been leaking eggs when squeezed. I've removed 53 large 6-7" GSH in the last week. Tadpoles of all sizes have been schooled up in large tight ball for the last several weeks, not sure what is going on them, they usually are scattered around the pond.