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

Setter, that looks like a huge area to contend with!!

Feeding continues here in SW PA, with ambient temps dropping below 40 degrees at night this week.

Caught the second biggest BGxRES ever on the farm last night. Lots of RES genes in this one.
See Image Gallery

Excellent fish Theo! Congrats!

Mr Theo has the naturally produced specklebelly sunfish type thing going on really well at his farm. Did you happen to get a length measurement for that dandy hybrid sunfish so we could get a relative RW value for it?

One main thing Mr. Theo doesn't know is which specie was the male parent and which one was the female parent. This feature has been shown to be important for the best hybrids of BG X GSF and it is probably a factor in BG X RES hybrids to produce the more beneficial hybrid sunfish.

Here’s an “after the cleanup” picture. Probably can’t tell from the pic, but would any of you back your tractor down the dam?

Very impressive, Theo!

That picture looks like two awesome BG fillets plus a mouth and a tail.

SetterGuy,

Evaluating slopes from a picture is NOT the same as being there in person. Does the slope in the picture match the slope in your brain when you are standing there?

If so, then yes, I would back a tractor down the backside of your dam slope.

Do you have ROP? Are you going in with a bush hog?

When the ground is DRY, I have mowed steeper slopes than that. I have only gotten a booty pucker factor (BPF) on the tractor when going sideways along slopes. I think my BPF is decently calibrated since I have had it go beyond the redline when going down much steeper slopes on a min-excavator. I have tipped the excavator over (forward) several times, and caught myself on the front bucket because I knew I was right at the tip point.

It also appears to my eye that your dam slope gets LESS steep as you encounter the thick cover. I think(?) your worst case scenario would be sliding backwards and slowly bumping your bush hog against a tree. Not dangerous, but not great for the mower deck or your 3-point arms.

I would try it with my wife watching. If it triggers your BPF, or your wife's, then I would cancel the job and go back to clearing by hand.

I hope that makes sense, it is kind of hard to explain just typing on the internet.


P.S. I do like the grass cover on the part you have cleared in the foreground of your picture. It looks like some of your undesirable plants are starting to sneak back into the cleared ground. THAT is the exact stage to spray them. Some of the herbicides (for woody plants) will not harm your grass at all. Some of the broad spectrum herbicides will do minimal damage to the grass if you apply exactly according to the label instructions.

Monday Morning


Saturday Morning



Merle can smell a Vanilla Wafer at 100 yds

Your cleanup looks nice.
Yes. In 4 wheel drive low with the bucket staying close to the ground.

AL,

What was the "secret sauce" that explains the difference between the floating algae(?) pic on Monday and the clear water on Saturday?

12 1/2 Inches. Splitting the difference between BG and RES of that length, I got 140% RW.

Au contraire, at least originally. Back in 2008-2010, I put 47 male BG in with a breeding population of RES. Of course, with all the Fx offspring and potential back crosses, anything goes.

Mr Theo - That stocking of male BG in with mixed RES was a really GOOD idea. Your pond's two biggest Specklebelly hybrids could be from a pure F1 cross of the late in life original male BG X female RES 'pure' offspring and now those F1s are near the end of their life span. In northern states RES are known to reach 9 years and a BG old timer is said to be 8 to 9 years old. Oldest BG aged from reading scales was 11 yrs Carlander 1977, Spotte 2007. Thus your 12.5" hybrid I think was likely 8-9 to maybe 10 yrs old.

Childers 1967 says that female BG and Male RES cross produced 97% males and Whitt et. al. said it was 99.4% males and whereas Childers&Bennett said the cross produced 100% males.

.

Not my pond but worth sharing. Caught these while fishing a neighbors pond for BG. Lots of fun on an ultralight and 4# test line. Had my line broke once and lost 1 more CC. Was using a Nightcrawler with a #4 hook with the barb filed off for easy release. CC barley fit in the basket

FH, yes. Definitely in 4 low. I have beat juice in the rears, but not the smaller front tires. I do keep the bucket low. I don’t think there’s any chance of actually tipping backwards, but there is a chance to get stuck. Then it would be very difficult to get pulled out. Plus, I’d be the talk of the county. (As I was the last time a neighbor had to pull my tractor out of a mud hole). Ha



FR, the pic isn’t as accurate as I’d like. In the middle of the dam, about half way down, it gets very steep. We actually ran into the property line, and the dozer guy made that section very steep. The rest is fairly easy. Minimal BPF. Ha! I have the ROP up, and a seatbelt fastened. The brush hog should help. I may run out of HP coming back up. Hopefully not. 90% of the time I’m up there, I’m alone. But I like the idea of having my wife observe. Thx!

D'oh! I was commenting about safety when your question was about traction.

I have stuck a 4WD tractor at my farm twice in completely water-saturated ground. Once I was close enough to the county road to pull it out with the winch on my pickup. The other time I had to have my wheat farming tenant pull me out with a REAL tractor.

I have also had to have my tenant pull out a fire truck that was stuck in the sand near the creek. (They were putting out the grass fire that was spreading after my old hay barn suffered an arson incident.)

I have tried to pay that farmer for pulling out stuck things on my property. He says nope! Anybody that does serious work on a farm is going to get stuck sometimes. Helping people get free is just what neighbors do. He has stuck his 240 HP tractor.

I am now finally beyond the "embarrassment stage". Just work hard and work smart.



Now that another boring episode of FishinRod story time is over, on to practical solutions.

If you do get stuck at the bottom of your dam slope, I think you are going to just be "barely" stuck (if it is dry). One option would be to set a land anchor at the top of the dam. Get a tow rope and a snatch block. (Or use a truck winch if you have one.) Set wife with truck driving along the top of the dam 90 degrees to direction of pull on the tractor using the snatch block. That should be enough pull to get a "barely stuck" tractor up the slope. (I only have to pull out a 32HP tractor.)

Good luck on your clearing project. Even if you do have some anxiety about using the tractor, remember the formula: diesel engine HP >>>SetterGuy physical labor!

The secret sauce was phosphate binding and a limited amount of Aquashade.

Short story long is that I've got thousands of CNBG in my hatchery pond that need to be pulled out, and around 50 HSB that I need to grow to 10" before I transfer them into the big pond. The drought has hit most of us really hard this summer, and the hatchery water was getting a "thick" look. Splashes changed, and a few weeks later the yellow algae showed up. Since it's livestock and people friendly, I tried Captain first. It didn't work. I tried Cutrine Plus next, and it didn't work either.

I knew I needed to bind the phosphate, but I didn't want to mess with the powdered aluminum sulfate and hydrated lime I have. I also knew the algae was rising from the bottom to the top, so I added small amounts of Aquashade to limit the amount of algae coming up. I stopped when I had around 1' of visibility. After that I added a phosphate binder from ProLake named ClearLake Pond & Lake Clarifier. It's the same thing I used on the blue green algae issues I had on the big pond. It's boxed with the powder in bags, and I added 10 bags to my hatchery pond. It recommends 6 bags per acre, but I added double the amount my pond needed. 2 days later, the water was clear, and the "thick" water was gone.

I'm not recommending anybody use what I used, but it did work for me on both ponds, and yes it is a tad expensive in volume, but I'll treat the pond once a month to keep the pond clear until I can be sure fresh water, or water temp, eliminates the problem. Either way, I'm setting up my 3" trash pump surface aerator, and will run it for 1 hour every morning until I feel like I get most of the fish out.

Yes. I'd go get a bucket full of dirt and make sure I had it in 4x4 low. Like was said, keep the bucket low, maybe 6"-8" off the ground. Use the diff lock coming up. Mow going down, turn mower off coming up to use all the HP if needed.

I realize you are concerned about traction but that angle does look pretty steep.

Good advice Rod. Not sure if you have soft spots but I got a little sideways on my dam which is a similar slope and even with a bucket of dirt my smaller 30 HP tractor with wheel weights on the back, tilted and one of the front wheels came about a foot off the ground when I hit a soft spot at the wrong angle. I didn't take a chance of an accident. Got off and went to get the big tractor and pull it back on stable ground. Soft spots can be a big hazard. I was on the pond side so had nowhere to go but in the water. LOL Hopefully you've cleared enough area to have less of an angle to turn when going back up. If you think it's too much of an angle trust your instincts.,

Great job clearing out the brush/trees. Stay safe.

Caught my first CC from the pond tonight. 2.42 #, stocked at 1- inch, right at 2 years ago. Very little feed until joining PB in July. Also removed 7 more YBH, weighing 4.04# total

Oh, it's steep. I was there "boots on the ground" when it was being built.

Water temp in the neighborhood pond was 65 yesterday. Feeding took a slow start, and the fish seemed to lack urgency.

Colder temps this week, so we'll see how things go.

Doesn’t seem like ten years ago. Time is sure flying by.

I’m going to shut down the brush hog coming back up the slope. There is absolutely no way to turn around at the bottom of the dam. I have to back down and just drive straight up. No soft spots.
I don’t think I’ll ever be able to mow the center section of the dam, near the bottom. It’s just too steep. It’s difficult to walk up it. In a few years I’ll have to find someone else to get down there with a chainsaw. I’m having enough trouble now.

Not my pond, but I stocked SMB and YP in a few customers ponds over the weekend. The SMB should grow up to look like these:

Go down there now with a sprayer and spray the trees to kill them now. That way you won't have to chainsaw them in a few years and worry about the dead roots compromising the dam. Be proactive rather than reactive.

Wow, those SMB are beauties, esshup!