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

H2Ofwler, pond looks great! Never a bad pic when you post updates!

Two days ago I culled 2 dozen BG, HBG, and GSF ranging from 5" to 8.5" from our 1/4 acre pond. They were taking a prince nymph with a spiral copper wire tag trailer, and a nondescript tan colored nymph.
What a blast on a 3 wt fly rod. A down side of using a light leader for small flies is that when a sizable LMB grabs a hooked sunfish and nearly immediately snaps the 2 pound tippet, I get to lose the fly, the sunfish, and the LMB.
Fortunately the couple of big trout wait for me to fillet the sunfish and toss the carcasses back to them. It is really amusing and exciting to see the 6 pound rainbow and the 5 pound tiger trout attack the sunfish remains as they slowly spiral down through the water column. The RNBT arrives at rocket speed similar to the take of a salt water wahoo. The TT swirls a time or two around the sinking sunfish then grabs it, shaking it apart as he spins round and round, reminiscent of a shark attack.
Video certainly would be entertaining.

Went for a snorkel with my fish.. Made a video of it.

Now you’ve got me wondering if I have that many fish in my pond? Ha!

My part of Misery finally got some decent rainfall earlier in the week.
4" on 7/3 and another 2.5" on 7/4.
Pond level rose right at 2'. Another 3"-4" would have put it over the spillway.
It's been a little over two years since it's been at full pool.

I've now got the newly stocked LMB (5-6") hitting feed, which was my goal with stocking them. These little guys made me so proud when one of them tried to take down a 1" Optimal Hand Throw pellet. Brought a tear to my eye....

I still haven't seen my one huge HSB (his name is Wally). However, my niece's boyfriend was fishing there and claimed a huge HSB hit a topwater plug, but got broken off. So there's hope, but Wally may be wearing a lure in his mouth.

Sunil, Where do you get your SMB? Couldn't find them last year (failed spawns) and Zetts says they MAY have some end of July. Schultz has been trying but did not get enough this year to sell. I can't find any in NY.

Retired40 --- Sunil said in his post above he had newly stocked LMB (LM bass) not smallies. Although Sunil does have some SMB in one of his ponds. Evidently they do not recruit very many young ones or he would be using some of his juvenile SMB for his stocking endeavor above... Smallies at times can be very hard to find someone who has new fingerlings or juveniles.. Better get them in the Fall because they when even they are available sell out fast due to annual shortages. . SMB some years do not produce a lot of hatchlings and they are a premium when available.

Thanks Bill. Sr. moment. Talking with Schultz, most producers in the NE have given up on raising SMB because of low production.

Ret/40, as you mentioned, Zetts in Drifting PA did say they had a SMB spawn, but you have to reserve your order.

Thanks Sunil. They had told me to call back at the end of July to see if they had SMB available. I will endeavor to place an order and reserve some this week.

As a fallback plan, you could also contact Fenders Fish Farm in Ohio. They seem to have a limited amount of Smallies available in the late October/early November time frame. Granted, it's probably another 4+ hours past Drifting, PA if you're from the Finger Lakes.

Their fish were very nice though.

We swim in our pond, quite often. Swimming Saturday, this guy popped up near my wife. She wasn’t pleased. “I’m not swimming in this pond if he’s in here!” She’s a country girl at heart, or wouldn’t get in the pond at all, but she has her limits. Snakes aren’t welcome either. We have about 10 red ear turtles, she loves those guys.


I was gone for a few weeks. Accomplished a bucket list item. Took a 9,300 mile ride on my motorcycle up to the Arctic Ocean.

Wow and WOW!!!

I just called Fender's (where I pre-ordered SMB earlier this year for pickup in the Fall), and they said their 2024 SMB spawn was "great".

You're a regular Neil Peart!

When I went to Fender's in late Fall last year or the year before, it was like a candy store. They had all these raceways filled with all kinds of fish, and you could walk around and look at them directly.

Sunil, I spoke with Zetts and will pick some up this week. Spoken with Fender's. It is a bit far and he hasn't sold to NY in some time and isn't sure what would be needed. He also isn't on NY's preferred fisheries list.

Understood. The Zett's SMB will be very small in size, but exciting none the less.

I got up to my main pond in Somerset yesterday and got a tree cleared that had fallen across the access road.

Our pond level was about 2' low, and I suspected we had the damn blow out on the creek that feeds into the pond. So I patched up some gaps in the damn with sandbags, and that seemed to start water flowing into the pond. But then I noted a small damn of mud and sticks at the pond-end of the inlet pipe. I'm not sure if it was a beaver who damned that up, but it was water tight. About 40 minutes of work in stinky muck got that cleared and water started flowing into my pond again.

I also dug up two corms of lilly pads and relocated them to my neighborhood pond.

Today is a BEAUTIFUL day! We fired the bank from partial ownership of the land and the pond. I wonder if the grass will feel different on my bare feet and if the fish will be brighter in colors as a result....Will be on site this evening to check on both.

Congrats!

Awesome! Congrats!

Last Friday, at my neighborhood pond, I'm pretty sure I saw that larger lone HSB (Wally), but I can't be sure. He flashed at me, but didn't hit any feed. I wonder if he's not feeding due to higher water temps (which I haven't taken yet).

In the last week or so, my catfish (mix of CC and Blues) have changed their 'attitude' when feeding. I used to consider some of them inept as they seemed to be not to coordinated when trying to take feed. Now, they seem very focused and mix up vacuum-style feeding and aggressive strikes on Optimal Hand Throw.

My new lily-pad corms were doing well to start, but I think a turtle is eating them down to nubs. I had two nice existing clumps of lily pads that seemed to die off during the low water event. However, each one has tried to mount a come-back, and then disappeared again. One is again making a come-back, but seems to have small pads as opposed to the larger pads it once had. Very confusing.

The newly stocked LMB are schooling and hitting feed.

The wife caught a GS this evening. I was worried after 2yrs of drought and low water levels that they might have disappeared so it was refreshing to have proof they are still there!