Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat 4th pond filling

Just thought that I would share pics of my 4th pond filling along with the attached wetland, Have not even stocked predators in my 3rd pond yet. If I cannot locate pumpkinseed and blue cats by spring, I'll probably stock black crappie and CC in the 3rd pond. Will add FHM to the 4th pond in spring as well. May try a yellow lotus in the wetland area. The lavender lotus in my 3rd pond continues to struggle likely due to the clay bottom. May try grass pickerel in the 4th pond since chain pickerel is another species that is difficult to locate in Indiana. I only want species that will spawn in the ponds. I planted buttonbush seeds on the shoreline but will need to transplant emergent plants in spring if the pond fills completely.

pond 4


wetland

Looks great RAH!

I also like your "multiple pond" strategy. Move plants, forage species, and predators from overpopulated areas to underpopulated areas as needed.

I hope you get it filled this winter. That way you can start working on the ecology of a fully operational Deathstar <pond> this spring!

Hope you have better luck with button bush than I did! Planted small bushes five years ago, none have survived.

Like FishingRod, I like your multi pond, multi species strategy. Diversification makes sense, and not just in the stock market!

We have button bush established on our place so I am hopeful it will spread. Thank you for your well wishes!

RAH, do you have any pictures of the lavender lotus?

Instead of black crappie, what about hybrid crappie if you cannot find Blue Cats? I can ask my CC suppliers if they have any sources that could be called.

Do hybrid crappie spawn? If so, wouldn't the offspring be a hodge-podge?

Thanks! Those are beautiful. Yes they do, but at a much lesser rate than either black or white crappie. I was thinking they may be better in there because you don't have forage fish for the crappie to eat. BUT if you are going to try to see if the crappie would be forage fish for the BC, then you might need the excess reproduction.

I have lake chubsuckers in the pond along with FHM. What are good forage fish for black crappie?

Rah
I have BCP in with LMB,BC,CC and BG. They have not done well in my 6 acre puddle, they definitely have not over populated. I also have golden shiners and had Shad til this last ice age in Texas. So it’s a crap shoot as to how they will do in your pond.

One advantage that I have in my small pond is a neighbor who likes to fish for eating. He pulled 60 BG out of my 1.3 acre pond again this year. I still see nice BG when I throw in a handful of feed. Hoping that there are more big LMB after having a friend remove a 6.4 lb. fish last year and a 4.5 lb. one this year. He and his family ate both fish. Started cutting dead spruce trees to add to the 3rd pond and to the pond with YP in it. I have not seen ribbons for the last 2 years so I want to add more brush piles;

For crappie, both FHM and Golden Shiners are good forage fish, the shiners might get too large for the crappie to eat, but a few single sex LMB would take care of that problem.

I assume large CC might eat very large golden shiners as well?

Correct.

4th pond (and attached wetland that is frozen over) near full pool. Frost seeded switchgrass on pond-side of dam. Will grow some plugs in case seed does not take. Hoping that it won't leak during summer droughts!

That is a beautiful shape and contour to Pond #4!

Here's hoping - that your grasses fill in well and your pond DOES NOT leak at all at full pool!

4th pond reached full pool after last night's rain! Still drizzling so no pics yet. Now its time for plants.

Congrats on reaching full pool!

Hopefully, you will get a brief dry spell so you can determine if the pond has any leaks at full pool. If not, then you can go full bore on your plants!

Rah I go by a slogan. Pics or it didnt happen lol.

RAH, I know how you are with plants... feel free to come on down and teach me a thing or 2...

Still learning myself Snipe, but thanks for the invite. Seeded the pond-side of the dam with more switchgrass seed this morning because I thought that the ground would be frozen, but it was not... Waiting for some sunshine to take some pics, but right now its a hole full of water. Trying to get hooked up with the DNR to help fund some emergent plants, but that would not likely happen till spring of 2023. I'll transplant some from other ponds and wetlands on our place in the mean time. Water still trickling over the earthen spillway this morning (level with virgin soil). If it eventually washes out too much, I'll install a pipe but wanted to give this a try since my other ponds all have pipes. Not much watershed for this one, but pretty good inflow through the soil on the uphill side.

Update pics:

Attached wetland with spillway at back on the right:



Connection between pond and wetland:



Main pond:

Thanks for the pics. It helps the rookies on the forum (like me), AND keeps Rusto happy!

Since you are doing your plant work over several years, would it be possible for you to document the progress of your plants?

You will be transplanting successful species from your other ponds onto virgin ground. Further, you will be leaving some open spaces for your 2023 plants. I think it would be a good experiment to see how well your "spreading plants" do in year 2 and 3.

I'll try to document, but I am bad at this type of thing. I also need to take care transplanting from some areas because I have scouring rush which I do not want around this pond. It is very aggressive.

Thanks!

All "busy" people are bad at "documenting" things - because they have so many more projects planned than they have time to complete them.

Personally, I learn the most from the busiest people.

You are too kind.

Got confirmation from Jones that I can pick up a pound of FHM on the west side of Indy on their 1st "fish days" in a couple weeks to add to my 4th pond. Was 12 F this morning and will be up to 50 F tomorrow, Dang cold out their right now!

Hopefully you won't have to hand sort the FHMs to only pick the ones wearing mittens!

(Actually, it looks like a big warm up is headed your way.)

Pretty chilly releasing the FHM yesterday. Brrr

Just an update on my 4th pond. It appears that my "leaky" pond is becoming less "leaky". Due to low rainfall amounts, the pond never reached full pool this year and was always at least 1' down from that. We are currently in a "severe drought" according to the state and this pond is only 2' down from full pool. Either the springs are running better or the pond is holding water better. I do know that the shallow aquifer is down quite a bit since my artesian well stopped flowing. Never was able to locate warmouth nearby for this pond, so only FHM in the pond so far. Was out pulling cattails and phragmites seedlings today. Not sure where either came from in a former crop field, but I know that cattail seeds can lay dormant for many decades.

BTW - something is very wrong with the Pond Boss forum. I now have excellent internet and sometimes loading the forum is very very slow. You all need a real expert to find out why. If you have more traffic than you want, then disregard my post.

RAH - Yes you are correct. The PB Forum is currently operating very slowly. Hopefully someone smart is working on this problem.