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

If they are up to the top of the water column, and you smell a bit from the water in the pond, I'd try to open up more with the pump. Next year try to have more area open. No issues here with 5% open water but you may need more.

What percentage of the pond surface area has open water now? (guesstimate on the size of the open hole is good enough for calculations)

The situation at the neighborhood pond has deteriorated.

Yesterday, I had Drew Hay out to look at the stand-pipe replacement. The pond was much lower, with maybe only 18" of water, maybe less. Watching the water, you could see fish moving around and every once in a while, you'd see a ball of large channel and blue cats writhing around. The water was muddy.

So, no time to mount an effort to get any fish to my main pond an hour away, plus I was leaving out of town yesterday afternoon.

I got a posse of helpers together, including Lee, who has a pond. Only Yellow Perch and Bluegill could go to Lee's pond, and any catfish he wanted to keep on track with his pond's goals. It took a while, but we finally got our gun club to take any other fish we could net out.

Sad situation, but some fish are being saved.

What did Drew say about the pond?

Drew is working up a price for me. He says this is standard work for him. He can only get to it the last week May.

2025 will be a new start for this pond.

Scott is going to help me post some pictures/videos this evening.

Not very much, it's a 6 acre lake and ive only got about 1/3 of an acre open, it's better than last year smell wise and I've plowed off about 3 acres of the lake so it's getting good sunlight...but it's still another 3 to 4 weeks before ice off. I'll be back on the pump tomorrow. The fish survived last winter and the water quality was worse so Im keeping my fingers crossed.

I shouldnt have this issue next year after my aerating tower and new inflows/weirs are constructed..but just have to get there.

Anyone going to try to night fish (or even day fish) on the soon to be occurring blood red, full worm moon (this week). If you do take notes and report back.

Should we? What would be different than other times

Opened up quite a bit of water now, 2 aerators going and no smell anymore, it's amazing how fast the small went away. Ice is taking a beating now with warm wind and rain coming.

Great! Now how high in the water column are the trout?

Stocked 250 RES and 250 BG today, they were my 39th anniversary present LOL I want as many as possible to out compete the GSF.

We will be seining soon to get rid of as many GSF and YBH as possible.

Fish are feeding good.

Cutrine Plus is doing a good job at limiting FA growth. Still 6 weeks before TP are available to help control it, hopefully we get some rain soon. The wind and warmer temperatures have dropped the water level about another 8 inches in the last month.

ok I had time to place the cams in the water and they seem to be anywhere from 1 to 5 feet down, way more energy and they don't seem to be lumbering around and gasping like they were before so things are looking pretty good! I have that big hole now and we had a big rain and now I have about 50 gallons a minute of new water flowing in all from various springs and creeks so I think I've made it through the rough patch. One thing that is funny though is that I never catch any brook trout on cam - only the rainbows...whats that all aboooot!

They might be deeper but I didnt put the cams any deeper.

Cheers.

Tiny, awesome pictures. I'm going to have to try that.

What are you using to submerse the camera?

I just put the cams on a fishing rod and lower them - they sink on their own. I like them loose as they turn slowly in the current that forms somehow under the ice.

I caught this one yesterday, it was first caught and tagged on Sept. 23 2024. No length difference but it has gained from 2.14 (117% RW) to 2.44 (122% RW). Closest one to 2.5 pounds that I've caught.

I either have very few LMB or a few aggressive ones. I started tagging 8/16/24 and have Tagged 12 LMB. I have caught 4 of those 2 times and 1, 3 times. They have always been caught on different baits and in different parts of the pond. I rarely fish with the same bait twice.

Nice fish ! Catchability is a real issue.

Learninboutfish,

Definitely on track my friend. Plugging into a Tulsa climate, a weight of 2.52 is estimated. A very small difference. Adjusting for the difference, the model suggests potential to reach 3.65 lbs by 9/23/2025 ... forage willing.

While burning dead weeds on pond dam I noticed a small amount of coontail/ foxtail near. Which is worse that or the underwater version of slender spike rush that covers the entire pond underwater? Will it takeover the spike rush that nothing kills or eats it as I have read . Sure would like help if anyone knows

On Learnin's LMB, it looks like the hook drove through the eye socket.

I have also done that on multiple occasions on bass in that 1.5-2.5# range when using Texas-rigged plastic worms.

I finally got smart enough to throw a heavy set of pliers in my tackle box to cut off the barb end and slip the hook out without latching onto the eyeball. However, I was typically fishing in a big reservoir and never caught those bass again?

Questions:

Can "eye-hooked" bass survive that ordeal, or should they just go into the frying pan?

Any better advice than the way I am just cutting the hook in half?

I watched a snapping turtle catch a small watersnake.fed the fish, i noticed i have 2 different kinds of catfish i know the smaller ones are CC but the larger ones i didnt stock are a much lighter color.

Also thinking about having a fishing tournament for the local kids. Anyone do this?

Rod

When I know I'm going to be catching and releasing them I usually eliminate the barb with a file or Dremel and the hook will pull right out. I neglected to do that on this one.

I've caught several one eyed fish so I would think that if the eye was damaged that the fish would survive. I couldn't see any damage when I removed the hook so hoping this will not negatively impact the fish's health. Good advice about carrying the pliers and cutting the hook, I'll remember that!

Regarding the fish's lack of growth, I asked Bob Lusk, who explained that the fish is female. Female fish often channel all their energy into producing eggs, which can result in limited growth in length. This phenomenon is not uncommon.

One good way to do a fishing derby is to contact any of the Boy Scout troop leaders that you may know. The advantage to that option is that the kids have one additional layer of supervision beyond what just you can do alone. (Which is very good to follow your pond "rules" and keep an eye on kids around water that may not be able to swim.)

Also, if you want the kids to target something in particular, then you need to be in charge of the tackle that is used. For example, with larger hooks you can make it so they catch many more GSF than BG.

There is an actual Fishing merit badge. The old requirements included; catch, clean, and cook a fish.

I do have a troop out to our property at least once a year (not for fishing). They also leave the property cleaner than they found it because the leader explains to them that access to private land is a privilege.

Another fun option that I have done is a wheelchair fishing derby. We did it several times on a large private reservoir with wheelchairs in bass boats. I was both a fishing helper, and the certified life guard for one of the groups of boats. Obviously, that will only work at your pond if you have lots of flat spaces with short grass. (However, those derbies are some of my best memories when we timed the bass starting to spawn and the crappie already on the brushpiles.)

I hope that gives you a few ideas that may work in your area.

That is a good suggestion. I thought the scouts we no more. The reason i thought about a derby is the boy up the street was casting in his front yard.

But yeah i dont want to babysit a bunch of kids so the scouts would be a great option. Thanks

Put the cameras in and did some fishing and confirmed that if you want to bring in BRT and BRT all you have to do is drill some holes and make a ton of noise...check the video, i cut that hole and reamed the hole out for about 30 seconds so i could bring water up to the surface. Then I literally dropped the camera down on top of an RBT.

Pretty cool video Tiny

Since we don't have ice I'm going to rig up some way to cast the camera and suspend it from a float. I'm a bit nervous about casting a $300 cameras out and losing it. lol. Also going to try suspending it from the kayak

just use a strong braided line and some empty milk jugs unless it is wavy you should get some great footage. Empty water jugs held my aerators up all winter!

Cheers and post pics/vids