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

Dang catscratch, that one is almost a "keeper"!

The GS... or the wife?

I was commenting on the golden shiner.

Since your wife puts up with you building fish habitat in the side yard and rolling cement culverts into the lake ... I just assumed she was already certified as a "keeper"!

She's very patient with me and good natured. I got lucky!!!

Well, I'm overjoyed to say that the large HSB, Wally, that I thought I'd lost in a low water event is still alive and kicking!!!

My newer LMB that are 6-7" are taking feed and even trying to eat the Optimal Hand Throw. I saw one of those LMB with a Hand Throw pellet stuck in his mouth. I'm not sure if he ejected it or got it swallowed.

Good news on Wally but Great News on the LMB hitting the pellets. That should really help them push some extra weight and inches this year. Would love to see the little guys ganging up on hand throw even if proper stretching exercises are needed to get it down.

I had the vet out tuesday to select my smb and hand deliver them to the lab for testing. Hope to get results in a few weeks. This is my 1st year of testing. Time will tell if raising fish will be worth it for me. Fish food and testing is not cheap.

Big step! Good luck.

Lots of rain at our farm this winter and spring.

Almost nothing over the last six weeks. Our creek quickly went from flowing nicely to bone dry, except for the deepest hole.

The deer did not bother a single one of my planted trees during their times of plenty when we had ample rain watering all of the plants. Now they have topped off many of my trees that were growing out of the top of 5' tubes. They even managed to break off the two leaders of an 8' tall plum tree that had zero branchings. The hungry ingrates had to have stood on their hindlegs and yanked hard with their teeth.

Going to be 103-104 this week. Sure is a good time to go out and install more fence circles around my tree tops.

What are you testing for in particular? Sounds like an interesting process.

VHS, LMB, HSP
Here in michigan im told i need 3yrs of clear testing before i can sell a fish to public waters or waterways that have an inflow or outflow of water that could reach the great lakes. Can sell now to private waters with no flow. I can sell to other states as long as i meet their requirements. I hope it will be worth the money and trouble. Time will tell.

Very interesting indeed. I hear that SMB can be in short supply at times due to spawning challenges. Hope it all goes well for you!

Thank boondoggle

I'm tired of draining my hatchery pond and pulling a 60' net, so I decided to pull out a couple hundred every week with a cheap Chinese crab trap. I put the 4 HSB back in.

https://youtube.com/shorts/7Sz_3yvLtq8?si=Xsk9XvcHm2_n4tL4

Very sneaky, I like it!

P.S. I see your fish are still enjoying their hand-thrown "Folgers" brand fish food.

I couldn't fit all the food in a K cup.

It is sneaky. I got them used to it, then I'd carpet the water with 2.2mm pellets directly above the trap. All the CNBG look up while they're eating, so they're easy targets.

What is your preferred transfer method for that number of BG now?

Hand pick out the HSB, then put the BG in some water tank, and then transport to their final destination? What type/size of tank are you using for your short transfers?

150 qt Igloo with a 4" vent on the top, sea salt and clove oil, a flat bottom Cumings net(well worth a little extra), A Boca for weighing the fish in the net, a 34" ruler that fits in the cooler, a clean 5 gallon bucket, and a small O2 bottle with a priceless to me, Premier Industries pre-regulated O2 valve. Not having to tote a 2 dial regulator and flow meter is worth a couple of hundred bucks. All that junk fits in the cooler, and the cooler fits the Mule, so it's easy to tote around. For short haul time wise, I've moved right at 20# of LMB with no issues. It still makes me nervous, but moving the same volume of CNBG, not so much.

Yes, the HSB will all go back until they hit 10", and any red tailed CNBG also goes back. They're getting to not become a LMB slurpy because of that tail color.

Thanks Al.

That is a quality set up, at a less than professional price point.

I hope your transferred CNBG enjoy their new homes ... right up until the time your bass enjoy their new snacks!

The wifey and I made it out to the pond to do a little test fishing this evening. It was our first time fishing the pond since stocking this spring.

We had 1 LMB hit a small 0 sized Mepps spinner - silver blade with white trailer. Appeared nice and healthy at 155mm with a weight of 69g
8/3/24 19:30 6.10" 155.00mm 0.15lb 0.10std 158%

We also wrangled up 5 sunfish. They also hit the Mepps spinner, and the wife was using a small plastic jig under a bobber successfully. Seemed as though our sunfish closer to the feeder were a bit chunkier than the ones that were further away.
8/3/24 6.30" 160mm 0.304lb 0.19std 158%
8/3/24 6.90" 175mm 0.31 lb 0.26std 119%
8/3/24 5.90" 150mm 0.231lb 0.15std 149%
8/3/24 5.90" 150mm 0.159lb 0.15std 103%
8/3/24 5.10" 130mm 0.097lb 0.10std 102%

Haven't seen the YP but guessing they are cooling their jets deeper in the pond as it was pretty warm out.

Nice report, boondoogie!

Nice chunks, Boondoggle!

Bass 1 and BG 1 don't have very much color. What does your lake water look like now?

We are currently 19" on the Secchi Disk. Last fertilization was on July 31. Water is olive greenish. Our "best" Secchi disk reading has been 24" so far. I've looked into Alum treatment to possibly get a little more clarity but don't think I will pull the trigger on it until fall. Fish seem to be very happy at this point and still seeing loads of 1/2-3/4" fry along the edges of the pond. Between the heat and loads of new fry I'm hesitant to do anything on water treatments other than fertilizer.

Pic of water with, I think, a common heron fishing at the cedar off of spawn bed 1. Might have to "encourage" that one to find happier hunting grounds someplace else.

Seem to be track with holding off on Alum treatment until fall/cooler temps?

Digging that setup FireisHot. Looks like an effective and economical build.

I think that might be a green heron.