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

I think Jake means Black Crappie.

I do have Blue Cats and I see them feeding along side Channel Cats.

Thanks Sunil!

I have only seen fish at the feeder in that type of situation where it is CC and forage fish. In that case, very obvious as to which fish are which.

How has the growth of the blue cats compared to the growth of the CC in your pond where they both take feed?

How has the "catchability" been between the two types of cats?

I eventually want to add a catfish pond, and I can get blues in my area. Most people do CC. I don't know if "most" people are right?

Rod, I don't have any hard data for you. Both the Channel Cats and the Blues get caught occasionally, but I'm not usually at the neighborhood pond when it happens.

CC, in general, were way, way more available to people than Blue Cats which is why we don't hear about them as much.

Yep, I knew that one.

Didn't know if CC are easier to add pounds and more catchable, or just easier for the fish suppliers to produce.

I think a 3# blue cat will yield larger filets than a 3# CC. However, most of the commercial catfish farms for table fare raise CC. There must be a good reason for that!

Water testing to include the new homemade secchi disk for me today. Nothing out of the ordinary that I saw at the pond. The water is still pretty cool at 44 degrees. I was a little interested to hear the depthfinder on the boat signaling a small fish here and there in a barren pond.

Hardest part of this journey is the wait. It is however getting closer one day at a time....

Sunny day yesterday, some small fish were in the shallower warmer water and looking under the floating pier there were either bluegills or hybrid crappie under it. Today is solid cloud cover and we just had an hour of rain.

In my experience, those fish are VERY difficult to catch!

I think the depthfinder wants to see fish in there as much as I do :P

Please, please, consider water safety.

Hey Al, that sure is a nice float you have installed to mark the edge of your brushpile!

Think you will need to mark any other brushpiles this spring?

Stinkin' beavers. This one floated up about 2 weeks after he got hit, and he still had the trap and the H frame on him. Actually, having multiple brush piles has saved my trees because the lazy turds just get what's in the water and leave growing trees alone. 6 traps out now. 3 on the hut, and 3 on the overflow pipe they're trying to plug up.

Sorry to hear about your infestation.

Hopefully you can get them all before they have their spring kits.

Just had another one of my crazy/stupid ideas. Could a person use a cheap little solar fountain pump affixed to a large pipe in the pond to create a loud trickle of water to attract beavers? (Run the discharge hose back into the pond so there are no water losses.)

A pond owner could put that in a place covered by a game camera as an early warning system for beavers, or put it in an easy trapping place if traps were deployed most of the year.

Trying to help solve a beaver problem when it is only one or two, rather than a second and third generation problem.

Good thing he floated. Did the H Frame and trap come dislodged from the bottom?

I always staked my traps so they'd not disappear. Other than getting stolen that is.

Scott, it was a clean shot, so I'm guessing he made a big twist. It was at the deepest part of the pond, so once he bloated...

I'm finally getting 8' wire rope anchors on all my conibears, and I was negligent for not doing it earlier. I'm cutting off all the short factory anchors.

Rod, it's pretty much an annual deal when they migrant up the creek behind the big pond, so I'm kinda sorta ready for it. I have one den that's used in both high and low water, so I never destroy it. It's kinda like a VRBO for varmints. I've caught beavers, otters, and nutria in that one hut, so it makes catching them easier. Last year I did catch momma, poppa, and 2 babies. It's not something I enjoy doing, but the consequences from not doing anything about it are worse.


Here's the hacienda

Yeah, I think they are shortening up the chains on them to make them cheaper. Keep an eye on that wire rope in a year. I have had land traps that I tried to pull up the stake using the wire rope after a year and the wire broke before I was able to pull the stake out. Granted, these stakes are considered to be "disposable" stakes but still......... I used 3/32" 7x7 Galvanized aircraft cable.

I use galvanized wire rope, and so far so good. No issues with the older ones I already had out. For stakes, I use 2' long rebar, and weld 3" metal tabs to it. I welded up a dozen more yesterday.

Saving a VRBO den to catch three different kinds of toothy varmints is amazing!

Good luck this spring. I hope you are capable of continuing to enforce your policy that varmints check in but they don't check out.

I was referring to Black Crappie, did catch a Blue Cat last week but that was on the river.
started to put him in the pond to clean out the otters.

Wow Jake

I think you're gonna need to tell us more about that fish, Jake.

From “Jaws”. you’re gonna need a bigger boat”.

We do a good bit of winter fishing for Channel Cats but sometimes before the water gets too cold or in the spring after it warms up a bit we catch a few Blues, 15 to 25 lbs, this one grabbed our cut stink bait, was 79lbs, couple days later caught a 20 a 30 a 40 and a 57 along with several under 20. this one gave the old zebco 202 a workout. we turned them back except for a couple of the smaller ones.

Damn!!!

How old do you think that 79 lb fish was??

Love the sticker!!

I was curious about that myself, no idea.
I do believe these damn flying carp help to feed these lunkers, seems like they are all fat as a tick and full when you catch them.
We use the nasty suckers for bait btw, cruise around in slow water till we get a bunch that jumped into the boat, filet them out and can them in chunks, with the skin on, not sealed in jars, just put the lid put them and set them in and old fridge and let them rot. cat fish love it.