Thanks, guys, for the kind words. We’ve put in a lot of time and labor, and we’re starting to really enjoy the ponds.
Eric, there are a lot of fry in the big pond, but I can't tell what species yet. It is possible some of the LMB have spawned-out and are much skinner than before.
Here's another update on our progress. We finally got some rain! It wasn’t much, but it will help. We got ¾” on Thursday evening and another ¼” this morning.
I’ll tell the tale with pictures:
First, before the rain (thankfully!), we planted seed all around the crappie pond to prevent erosion and help filter/clear the water. We planted sahara bermuda grass, switchgrass, side-oats gamma, bee-wild bundleflower (developed by Texas A&M for deep south Texas), klein grass, “bird buffet,” and various forbs.
Of course, since my dad and I are involved in the process, we didn’t plant seed how most sane people plant. We do it the redneck way: With a Sweeney feeder controlled by a remote/clicker hitched onto the back of a 4x4 jeep Cherokee with mud tires, the back-half of the roof cut off, and a high-rack bus seat. The jeep is also great for riding around and viewing wildlife. I’ve yet to successfully get this jeep stuck in the mud. For seeding, one person drives, and one person sits up top, holds the remote, watches the seed distribution, and yells at the driver to speed up or slow down. Guess who got to drive, and guess who got to sit up top in the dust?
The jeep:
Me with the clicker:
My dad was able to come back through with the tractor and the roller harrow to get the seed and fertilizer buried. The birds were already starting to rob us.
Here is a good view of our “water highway.” Basically, we diverted the water that comes across a county road from a 200-acre watershed. Instead of funneling toward the creek on our place, it is now headed for the crappie pond.
The spillway is the faint line of rock in the back of the picture, and the water will curve around into the pond:
Second, we added structure to the crappie pond.
First order of business in this area was the cement culverts.
Theo, we wanted to build a culvert condo or a sunken ship like you recommended, but it was too muddy to get the tractor in there and stack 'em. Unfortunately, I just can’t deadlift cement culverts like I used’ta could. I must be getting old. I can shove ‘em around, however. Here are the before and after pics.
NOTE: The culverts were placed off the end of the peninsula on the first drop-off before the underwater island.
Next, we staked a few whole trees with fence posts and a driver. To bend the posts back over the trees and anchor them down, I used a sledge hammer.
Here is a before and after with the trees.
Before:
After:
Finally, we added our FH stakes.
In the interest of alliteration, we decided to name this the Future Fathead Fornication Fort.
Our silt catchers are already working as intended:
The pond is slowly starting to fill!
We also got a new dock on the CC pond. It’s nice not having to slip ‘n slide down a wet clay slope anymore.
Now for a few fish.
This week was full of surprises. First, I caught a crappie in our CC pond, and then I caught what I’m fairly certain is a GSF or a GSF x in the big pond. We stocked none of those species.
If this is a greenie, can we obtain membership into the GSF Alliance?
Our LMB in the big pond are doing well. Todd Overton & co. delivered ~50 lbs each of TSH and tilapia, along with about 30 more feed-trained bass. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any stocking pictures because 1- we were too busy chatting and 2- the stocking took place after dark. Todd’s got good folks helping him out.
After all the work, we took a little time to fish:
Finally, we’re starting to catch more young, healthy HSB.
