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

Ambient temp was around 70 F today, and bluegill were waiting to feed. While the water clarity was a little better than yesterday, it was still murky. Pretty sure I had several HSB hitting feed along with a few CC and BC.

Best news is that I saw some LMB hitting the Optimal Hand Throw 1" feed. I say that because I used to have a pack of LMB who would charge at 1" pellets thrown in individually, and I think all from that vintage pack have died, and no LMB really ever took that over. Or I had some kind of LMB kill off.

Yesterday I and my Grandson ,Hardy , Hit the road for a Gfather/Gson road trip . He graduates this spring with a Parks mngmt and Forestry degree. A little over 6 hours later we found ourselves in Goodland Ks. As chance would have it , we had the Fish hauling trailer with us.
I imagine those that know Goodland, know the rest of the story, already. It was a couple of excellent days. Thank you, Kenny !

Oldest son stopped over today with our oldest grandson so I got the poles out and a few minnows.
Grandson just turned two a week ago and caught his first WE today. Fishing was crazy fast he caught four or five YP and four WE in about fifteen minutes then we went mushroom hunting....no luck with that yet, they should start popping this weekend.






Grandma with her baby boy.

Awesome!!!!

That’s what its all about.

Installed a new type of aeration system in my pond today (well, yesterday) as a test. Testing will continue all summer long.

About to make the 70 mile drive to mine. Neighbors weather systems said 2.5 inches rain in the last couple of days. I’m still about 7 ft low over a couple of acres.

Clearly the awesome concrete dock is still paying dividends!

Also, very nice to see the high "catchability" of your WE. I don't recall any threads over the last few years where people were catching as many WE as they were catching their YP.

April showers, bring May flowers ... DD1 road trips to his ponds!

Hope some prolonged gentle rains are heading your way this spring.

Thank you, we have been very happy with the dock.
It's kind of unfair but great for the kids..We hand feed right off the dock so there are plenty of fish around when they hear us, perfect spot for young fisherman. .




Walked around the pond between the rain showers today and noticed toad egg strings everywhere, have been seeing lots of piggy backing going on and they have been noisy all week 24 hours a day.
The woods is twenty five yards from the pond so the new little toads will have a place to eat al the bugs they want. Ponds are s good for wildlife, it is something to think of all the critters that benifit from it besides our family.

Good toad pics. When the toads began trilling it is a sure sign the YP are done spawning.

I'm adding that to my list of folk-ish nature facts, right after "When the oak leaves are as big as mouse ears, it's time to plant corn."

Recent heavy rains have made the neighborhood pond very high and muddy, so little excitement on feed.

Water temp was 59F so perhaps the LMB will start spawning soon.

Over at my neighbor, Lee's pond, water temp was 58F and the water visibility was about 10". Almost no feed activity over there which is disturbing, yet I did catch many Yellow Perch over there a week or so back, and their son's fish trap was bringing in bluegills.

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Starting to worry that we won't have a toad gathering (a toad-stock concert) at our pond this year. It seems as Mr. Cody says that right after YP eggs are laid, the American Toads start their chorus and then from far and wide they all find their way to our pond. I'm sure this has to happen every year regardless of COVID lockdowns and the rising inflations rates. This year has been odd. I saw zero YP eggs for the first time in 10 years (I suspect our Pekin duck which survived the critter that wrung the neck of his lifelong partner) is to blame for vacuuming up the eggs? No other reason why we would have zero visible ribbons when we caught some egg-laden females a few weeks prior.

Then as of yet we have zero toads in the pond. Anyone else who usually has toads in their pond have a late season or maybe it is too cold here at night for our toads? I saw the Ohio pond member posting that the event went on as scheduled in his pond so that is heartening.

Got up to my main 4.5 acre pond in Somerset, PA, last Sunday after not having been there since about October '23. All was well, with no signs of abuse by locals.

Fished for only about 30 minutes and caught one small Black Crappie on a fathead minnow. Had several bits, but didn't land anything else.

Feed is going strong in the main neighborhood pond, and I expect to see YOY LMB soon.

CC-
Here in central Iowa, I am only hearing our brown choral frogs (aka "spring peepers") so far. No toad trilling yet. I have documented many things about our pond, but will have to add 'first heard frogs singing/toad trilling' to the list. As it was everywhere this spring, really odd and early spring. Pond was ice free by Feb 8th, which is a solid 30 days early. It was highly variable for weather and temps since then, with several days of skim ice on and off, some flurries and cold temps and a few unusually hot days peppered in. My WAG is the temperatures are playing a role, but the photoperiod will remain key. When the days get long enough, and the water temps consistently warm enough, the American toads will begin the spring symphony.

Dr. Luke,

Any wood ducks in their boxes yet, or is it still a bit too early?

They nesting already here in Central MO, Canadian geese have already hatched.
My pond being in the middle of the woods, I had a ton of toad tadpoles the first year before there were any fish present, and dont guess Ive seen hardly any since, dont know if the fish are consuming them immediately or not.

No toad trilling here in Northern Indiana. Temps too cold I think. Every day this week at sunrise it's been 37°F with the exception of Thursday morning, when it was 25°F.

Who knew all I needed to do was strip down to my BVD's light a bonfire and dance a little jig. Pond filled last night with our recent rain event.

The fish feeder was successfully rescued and moved back a little on the bank as it wasn't part of my habitat plan for the pond.

I thought your combination feeder/vertical bass cover had potential to be an excellent invention!



P.S. Glad you got your pond filled up.

On the next project of getting grass to grow and clearing the water up a tad. One project down....4.3million to go.

I got to two of three ponds that I manage today.

At my main 4.5 acre pond, my buddy and I fished for a few hours off my boat and his kayak. I got a bunch of Yellow Perch on a jointed minnow lure and fatheads, as well as several bluegill, a hybrid/GSF cross, a Black Crappie, and a small LMB on fatheads as well. My buddy caught several smaller LMB on lures with the largest being only 2.1 lbs.

When arriving back at my neighborhood, I saw an unfamiliar truck at the neighborhood pond. I went home, got the Mule out and headed to the neighborhood pond to see what was up. It was a neighbor and his son, whom I didn't know fished or had any interest in fishing. His son is 17 and was diagnosed with cancer about a year ago. His son is in a wheelchair as the chemo has given him some nerve damage to which makes him unable to walk.

This pond was never meant to be a water-holding entity, but I modified the standpipe to make it hold water about 10+ years ago. From there, I stocked, restocked, fed, and managed the pond with great success in quality fish and fishing. About 8-9 years ago, I had all the brick from a failing retaining wall at my house repurposed to make two patios at the neighborhood pond.

My neighbor had his son, in his wheelchair, at the lower patio. The lower patio is not really easily accessible for a wheelchair, and I asked my neighbor how he was able to get the wheelchair down to that patio, and he said he carried his son down to the patio.

His son was catching bluegill constantly. I saw that their fishing rig was rudimentary, but I didn't comment on it, and just told them I was glad to see them there and to let me know if they needed anything, and then I left and went back home.

All the time put into this neighborhood pond over the past many years culminated into something different today, and all the enjoyment that myself and others have gotten out of this pond was eclipsed by whatever benefit or joy this young man may have experienced today.

Good going Sunil! That's what this pond stuff is about.