The water in this pond has been unbelievably clear lately. FA growing on the bottom in some spots like gangbusters so maybe that is the reason (FA taking up all the nutrients maybe?).
Earlier this summer I could catch 3.5-6" SMB YOY one after another easily. Now I put a lure in the water, can see them and move the lure so it almost hits them, and they just ignore it. I did get them to play with a curly tail jig just a little bit last night. They would ignore it as long as it was around them but if I let it drop to the bottom in a clear patch a couple would nip at the tail a couple times before loosing interest. Did not catch a thing in this pond last night and only a couple strikes. That is one nice thing about having multiple ponds with different species. The BG were still biting reasonably well in my main 3 acre pond and the HBG and GSF in my other ponds are always good for a bite (only RES and SMB in this pond).
Since the water was so clear some big beds that I assume are my SMB beds are very visible. The reason I think they may be SMB beds are because of the size. The largest one is probably about 2' in diameter (the most distant in the picture). The RES I have seen on beds earlier in the season the beds were only about half or a little more in size. In this pond I made several finger mounds jutting out from the dam toward the middle of the pond. All of these structural fingers have beds on them similar to the one pictured only this has the largest beds on it. I also have some mounds out in the middle of the pond I can barely see from the bank with the water being so low but I can not see if they have beds on them or not. I suspect they do. I need to buy a small boat so I can go out there some time. I have not seen any fish on the beds for quite a while.
The pond has never completely refilled yet since I raised the full pool level by 9" this summer (pictures and description earlier in this thread). I would like to see what it would look like full but rains all summer and so far this fall have been such that only a small amount has run off into the ponds. Not enough to fill this one completely yet. The beds pictured will have another 12-14" of water over them once the pond is full to the new water level.
Bushy pond weed pictured closest to the shore in first picture with some slightly further out covered in FA. The FA seems to kind of keep the bushy pond weed in check by competing with it.
