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

Was a wonderful weekend with some of the best weather ever, 55 to 75 degrees, spent the weekend at the lake, kids came by for dinner off the fire pit and do some lounging and fishing.
Caught a ton of fish, these little girls musta caught 30 BG in 45 minutes, I put a worm on every hook and took almost all the fish off the hook for them, did get the older one, about 12, started removing her own fish, its not a problem as long as fish hold still, if they wiggle a little its all over.
Wife caught a decent WE and had some friends over to check the place out, including and older retired gentleman and his wife, he had worked for me running equipment for a number of years in the past till about 15 yrs ago, took him out on the boat and we caught a bunch of fish, he is pretty sure he recognized the track loader tracks that the fire pit is made out of, thinks he wore them down just right for what I repurposed them for.
Seen a wood duck hen with probably 10 youngsters floating behind her, looked like they were fresh hatched.

Was a wonderful weekend with some of the best weather ever, 55 to 75 degrees, spent the birthday weekend at the lake,

Kids came by for dinner off the fire pit and do some lounging and fishing.
Caught a ton of fish, these little girls musta caught 30 BG in 45 minutes, I put a worm on every hook and took almost all the fish off the hook for them, did get the older one, about 12, started removing her own fish, its not a problem as long as fish hold still, if they wiggle a little its all over.


Wife caught a decent WE and had some friends over to check the place out, including and older retired gentleman and his wife, he had worked for me running equipment for a number of years in the past till about 15 yrs ago, took him out on the boat and we caught a bunch of fish, he is pretty sure he recognized the track loader tracks that the fire pit is made out of, thinks he wore them down just right for what I repurposed them for.


Seen a wood duck hen with probably 10 youngsters floating behind her, looked like they were fresh hatched.

That’s what it’s all about

The SMB finally started biting, two years old now. This is the biggest so far at 10 1/2"


Stocked RES two years ago as fingerlings, just never see them they are so shy. Yesterday they were schooled up in a couple large groups along the edge above the pea gravel shelf and look to be 6"-7", I would think maybe pre-spawn getting ready.
They were only in a foot or two of water, they kept bumping into what I guess are the females. Now and then a couple 6" golden shiners would dart through and stir them up. I like just being able to finally see them and how they are doing, I was able to get a really good look at them. After spawn they will no doubt go back deep and reclusive.

Neighbor caught a nice SMB in my pond that spit out a GSH about that size. Just wait! Fun is coming your way!

Woot, woot! New pond record!

And RAH is correct, there is great fun in your future as the pond record will continue to get smashed.

My youngest son is going to try and catch the "first" RES ever caught out of pond using a fly rod tomorrow for fun.

I am so glad for the YP/SMB/RES advice early on now, it has made a very fun fishing spot.

My uncle did keep a board for "lake records" at his cabin.

Very proud kids when their name and catch got to go on the board.

I did notice that if my uncle caught a fish that I thought might be a new record, he would say, "Dang, almost as big as Amy's fish!" and that fish was soon fileted and subsequently eaten for dinner.

You could keep a separate category for "fly fishing".

Have fun!

Was out at the property today double checking the pond, and our new mini orchard along with rechecking the "I catch everything except crawfish" trap. As I walked around the pond it seems as though the water has really cleared itself up. Secchi disk has gone from 6-8" to 18"+. Has a bit of a green tint vs the coffee creamer tan we have seen since it was built last year. A pic of 5.12.24 vs today.

We re-potted 2 of the iris and 1 of the pickerel weed plants that for whatever reason decided to float out of initial planting area. Potted our new to the pond Detective Erika Lilly.

The wife and I did visit the pond this evening to watch the fish feed at 7:30 (6 seconds) and then again at 8:15 (8 seconds). It was the first time we've actually been able to see the fish in the water as they approached the food and then quickly snatched it from the surface of the water. All food was consumed within 10 min of being thrown out.

The fish feeder apparently isn't just good for feeding the fish. No sooner than it went off, our neighbor's lab (I've named Capt Crunch) popped up over the dam, made his way along the shoreline, greeted both the wife and I (checking for treats I'm sure) and then went full blown hoover vacuum cleaning up any of the tasty tidbits that didn't make it into the water. After his snack, Capt Crunch decided it was time for a swim and a drink heading into the water amongst all the BG.

I think I'll put a message out to Optimal. Their BG and JR food is apparently a nice treat for labs as well.

Just as it was getting dark we headed over to the bridge I had the trap set at for craws. Today was no exception to the rule. Today's catch included 4 small sunfish (1-2") 3 Green Sunfish (3-4"), 1 LMB (7") not sure how that fish got in the trap and to top it off 1 large tadpole (no legs) about the size of a quarter on the head. Thinking the tadpole was a bullfrog but it had no front or rear legs to help identify.

Was a pretty fun day participating in what the land, pond and creek provide.

I mentioned a few posts back that when I cleaned some fish (mostly YP and a few SMB) that they had crawfish in them. Mostly golden shiners, but some crawfish too. I also cleaned a pretty large RES. We have a lot of them, and when the grandkids use worms catch several.
The only fish I cleaned that had any food from the feeder was the RES. I am sure the last two purchases of YP that I bought were not trained to eat fish food. I watched the feeder go off last night. The water boils, and the food is gone in minutes.
My question is, am I only feeding the RES? Will the YP I stocked a few years ago learn to come to the feeder? We did catch some YP that were in the 2” range, they were going after minnows. Maybe the next generation of YP will come to the feeder?
I did not want to start a new thread on whether or not my YP can adapt and come to the feeder. I’m just wondering what fish I’m actually feeding, and why?? I’m sure the golden shiners used to hit the feed too, but I’m not even sure about them any more.
My water clarity is way down due to recent rains.
Another note,, it looks like the drought eliminated all my American Pond Weed. Either that or the large numbers of crawfish. But it hasn’t come back this year. The pond is up about 2.5 feet as a result of the rain, so there’s a lot of submerged weeds around the edges. I doubt it’ll be there very long.

Probably anybody's guess on if they will feed train or not SG. I do know in my case that not all of the fish in the pond are coming to the feeder. We've been experimenting a little while on site with walking the peninsula after the feeder goes off (far side of the pond from the feeder) and sprinkling a little food on the water. Within a few seconds the fish that are in that area begin to eat pellets too.

That area of the pond is also deeper quicker than the flat/spawning area we are feeding on. It was hoped to be our feeding area (off the peninsula) but I forgot about the wind. South wind prevents the feed from getting to the water. Should we ever get a backhoe back on site.....I'm betting that part of that work will be to deepen the area around the feeder zone. Likely have the dock installed there as well.

Fish Food via pellets is learned behavior as I understand it. You need some good teachers in your pond to help educate the masses. If your depth is right, and there is some cover closeby or mixed into the feeding zone and feeding time of day works I would bet a small stocking of Feed Trained fish might help.

One other tip I got just before we started to stock the pond (I think it was from BC) was to use the same food that the hatchery was using when the fish went in the water (10lbs or so before transitioning them to our food of choice). Not sure who you got your YP from but the hatchery in Hurdland, MO said they do not offer Feed Trained YP because they are too hard to train. Conversely, there's another hatchery in Goodland, KS - that I think sells YP or Feed Trained YP (Optimal JR if I remember correctly).

Hope that helps!

Water is really low and I need to restock after we get some very elusive rain. Going to toss a cast net today to attempt to eliminate or cut back on way too many big cats and HSB.

Don’t really like the idea but it has to be done before I someday get some wet weather. . Don’t want to rotenone but will if necessary.

Hang in there Dave. I hear every drought is broken by a flood. It's just a matter of time before mother nature blesses you with some water!

Stopped by the pond for just a few minutes today. Went to check the new lilies to make sure they hadn't blown out of there pots with the wind we are having today. While there, walked the dam without much to note but when I got to the wind blown side I started seeing a bunch of black specs in the pond. Snapped a couple of photos....Am I seeing larval fish here?

Could just me and wishful thinking but it seems like there's a head and some outline of a body.


Thoughts?

A buddy fished the pond today and caught this 8.3# HSB before the rain moved in.

TUNA!!!!

Boondog - Pics are too blurry for any decent guess.

No worries Bill. I think I was correct. The flakes have what looked like pepper have gone away. I mowed the property today and spent some time at the feeder. Just sitting there watching the BG, FHM, Golden Shiners and maybe a YP or two hit the feed I kept seeing small glitter like flashes in the shallow water. I slowly approached, bent over to get up close to the water and those little silver flashes turned out to be 1/4" fry of some sort.

I'm thinking those little black spots were likely pushed by the wind/wave action from the spawn area and ended up close to shore where I just happened to see them. Pic attached of the black dots. I had to really zoom in to post the pics I uploaded before making them pretty hazy.

I'm going to assume this is what I was seeing a few days ago out of the larval stage and into fry. These guys are tiny at 1/4" max. Not going to try to identify species. From what we have in the pond golden shiners, FHM or BG could have spawned at this point. Happy to be a proud pond daddy to any of them!

I did get some HSB from the hatchery in Hurdland (Harrison) but I got the YP from the guys in Perry MO (NEMO). He told me when I got them that they were not feed trained. I’ve just been hoping they’d come around. We are going to continue to keep some. So, I’ll see if I ever start to see feed in them. In the meantime, I’ve got a lot of golden shiners, crawfish, and glass shrimp. I guess I’ll just have very healthy RES, as I think that’s what must be hitting the feed.
Thanks

Helluva good looking fish Esshup!

Getting some nice rains but not enough to overcome a 3 year drought. Young couple went up and camped out by the pond. They caught a 11.5 pound channel cat and a 7 pound HSB along with some big bluegills. I’m still about 7 ft low over about 2.5 to 3 acres. That’s gonna take a lot of rains. They tossed feed and saw a bunch(?) of big cats and stripers.

I have mixed emotions. To get my balanced bass and bluegill pond back , I need to eliminate the big cats, bass and hybrid stripers (rotenone) . None are small. It’s gonna be a tough call but there’s no way to get a balanced pond with those big predators.

The jury is out on just how bad I want a balanced pond.

The good news Dave is you are getting some much needed water. Hopefully it keeps coming or at least enough to overcome the summer evap rates.

That would be a really tough call on some nice fish. Don't think you could have a big fish fry, or work with a local shelter on a fish donation of sorts?

DD1,

One plan is to keep inviting family friends with children out to fish your pond. A big cat, LMB, or HSB fought on the line of a kid for many minutes can be a memory that lasts a lifetime!

Another option would be to pump it down a little lower (when you have some rains in the forecast?) and have some guys seine out many/most of the big fish and leave some smaller chunky LMB and all of your BG.

I don't know how efficient a good seine crew is at clearing out undesired large fish. Might be 50%, might by 95%? I bet we have some experts on the forum that might know.

Those big fish are very valuable! Do you have any neighbors that are active pond managers that would arrange to seine for you and re-home those big fish into their ponds? Are there any Pond Boss guys near you that could do the seine job and have the capability to transport the fish even farther distances? Even if there were mortalities and some fish failed to survive in their new ponds, it still might be worth it for the big fish that do make it.

If you get really serious about this idea, maybe start a new thread and get some expert advice.

Good luck on getting your main pond back into tip top shape. I know you love it despite the headaches and heartaches!

Rod, no chance that I’ll pump it down. Rain is too hard to come by. My place is on a hill where the clouds split. Rain is way too hard to come by. I’m now only about 5 to 6 ft low after getting some decent rains.

The yearly battle with Filamentous Algae has begun in my neighborhood pond. About 25 minutes with the rake and I put a dent in it.

Now, it's off the hook at my neighbor, Lee's pond. Bluegill, Yellow Perch, and HSB are obvious takers of feed. Water clarity is not so great, but I'm pretty sure we also have SMB feeding, but they are so fast it's hard to be 100% sure. If there's some channel cats feeding, they are not doing it the typical way of vacuuming the surface.

Some of the Yellow Perch bully the Bluegill when going for a pellet.

The action was so hot for a few minutes that I felt I was in the Soak Zone at Seaworld!!!!

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!!!!