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

Thanks, Sunil…it’s been a while!

Just around 50 degrees and sunny in Western PA today.

I went to my neighborhood pond and soaked and threw some feed. Took about 10 minutes before the army of adult Golden Shiners showed up, but then about 10 minutes later, I started to see a lot of bluegill of all sizes feeding. Even saw a bigger boil that I think was a small LMB.

I went to my neighbor Lee's pond. Just tons of fatheads with more tons that look to be less than 1/2" long. So I'm wondering when those smaller fatheads were really born

I had at least one nice size LMB feeding hard today.

I’ve done nothing but need to get the grandsons involved on cutting a heckuva lot of cedars and getting then
to the ponds edge and into the water.

Cormorants have gotten me again. I’ll stock fatheads soon and bluegills a little later.

Gotta buy more feed.

I cleaned the gunk out of my Texas Hunter Dock Feeder and filled it with Triton Cargill 4512. Good Lord, $61/50lb sack.

Was at my pond yesterday. Pretty quiet up there. No fish moving, didn’t see anything working the banks. I’ll restart the feeder in a week or two, but I’m a bit concerned the otters did more damage than I thought. Also, the water had a greenish grey color. Looks like glacier runoff. Must be more algae coming on.
Still lots of tadpoles, but they’ve been there thick for 7 years. Looks like it’s time to start recording temps and clarity.

My fish are aggressively taking pellets now. Been catching a few BG and RES hook and line.
Still haven't figured out how to consistently catch the YP.
I put a B trap in a week ago and have been pulling a handful of BG every day with that.

Fish are feeding great already so I started up my feeder again yesterday,

Had a beautiful day yest for central MO, sunny, windy and almost 70, played hookey from work and took my step son and son in law fishing, didnt have much luck with the LMB BG or CC but started catching WE, landed about a dozen in no time, looking really good and healthy. Great time!

Fish dinner?

Pond at full pool with some runoff over top of standpipe. Warm weather has jolted pond into activity, CNBG eating heartily at feeders weeks before they usually do. LMB look chunkier than last year. My buddy had a six lb bass on that broke his line. We ended up fishing just a couple of hours, harvesting three and releasing several others.

Still have our two Canada geese, she hasn't yet gone on the nest. Controlled burn really opened up underbrush, much easier to get around. Refilled feeders and, in view of response, increased feeding times. Still no sign of trout, if it stays this warm they may not make it much longer. Threadfin shad seem to be flourishing, however.

Actually turned these back, they just a yr and a half old, about 16 18 inches, caught one last fall tho that was 19" he must have been the first one to the feed every time.

Yeah, I'd expect you want some bigger ones to make the fillet sizes worth while.

Any certain depth they were holding at?

Since they got hooked, I am pretty sure they were holding at the "depths of despair".

Try the veal! Rod's here all week!!

Most of these were in sort of cove, used to be a huge hill but we used the dirt to build the dam so its kind of a cove, flat bottom about 8 to 10' deep flat bottom, probably close to an acre. pretty much close to the bottom. and some more in another cove, probably not that deep. on light to white colored sliders. I hadnt caught many WE before, just a few in the pond this past yr, and neither one of them had ever caught any, I tried to get them to lip them like a bass but they knew better then to do that.

"....I tried to get them to lip them like a bass but they knew better then to do that."


What a guy!!!

Neighbors puter says he, about a mile away, got 3 inches of rain. Gotta go see how much my ponds got.

Dave no puter mean no rain? Maybe that’s why I don’t get much rain:(

I burned around a few ponds today.

Do you worry about erosion when you burn this early in the season?

No, the roots are still there and the base of the plants are sticking up about 1". With our dry weather, what erosion? LOL

When I have burned early in the season, it is amazing how much it affects the soil temperature.

My dormant tallgrass prairie keeps the sun from directly warming the ground and is quite efficient at holding a blanket of cold air at the surface when the ground temperature is cooler than the spring air temperature. Whereas the mostly bare, blackened ground heats up rapidly in directly sunlight or even under warm breezes. One year my brother went out to work at the farm, and he said there were 20 turkeys and 14 deer in the black areas as the bugs and new growth were busting out. No game was visible elsewhere. (Although visibility is obviously worse outside the burn areas.)

I believe that in my burn patches, some forbs and cool-season grasses have come up 3-4 weeks earlier compared to the areas still covered with the previous year's grass.

I can believe that, The r value of a grass cover is huge, it wont freeze as deep either but will stay froze longer.

Checked feeders & reset their clocks, hopefully for the last time! Feeding was brisk, all food gone in about 5 minutes.

Despite getting a very late after school start, we had pretty good action for 90 minutes. Two 5 lb LMB on, one which jumped & broke the line & the other caught after exciting fight. Just as it was turning dark, a 6 lb HSB absolutely destroyed a reel's drag but the angler thumbed it & eventually won the battle! Harvested four smaller LMB, and a few BG & CNBG caught & released.

Still at full pool, with moderate amount of water running over standpipe. If we get another good rain, will try pumping main lake water to fill up forage pond & stocking it with CNBG.

Goose couple still there, though no sign eggs have been laid yet.

Was at the pond a few days ago. It was in the low 30s. I tossed out some food in front of the feeder. Zero bites. Not even any small golden shiners. The food just floated back to the shore.
More cold weather coming. Back into the teens at night. I’m not sure if I’ve had otters kill everything or it’s just the cold temps. No fish seem to be moving anywhere on the pond.. Another negative sign is the GBH that usually is hanging around, hasn’t visited in a while. Just really hoping it’s slow, and I’ve still got some fish. I’m not finding any evidence of otter presence. No trails, scat, or dead fish.