Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction Never been much for fishing, but maybe someday....

Put on the scuba gear and dove in the three big ponds. All murky and couldn't see crap. Extend the arm and could see the back of the hand but fingers disappear into the murk.

Grandson had not been diving for a couple years and we are going to the Bahamas with him in a couple weeks so I wanted to make sure his gear still worked properly and that he was ok in the water. He was like a fish. No problem.

The RES/SMB pond looked clearest so we started there. Did find out that the pond bottom was completely denuded of bushy pond weed. Nothing but mud down there. Thinking maybe I need to find a way to take out some grass carp. A little bit of cold water at depth so there was a loose thermocline. Did have one fish bite me on the leg to let me know I was not supposed to be there.

Then went to the old pond. Looked around the spatterdock lilies. That pond has a single deep spot and there was a definitive thermocline in it. Pitch black and cold down there. Like being in a cave, doesn't matter if you have your eyes open or closed, it is the same darkness.

Moved on to the main pond which has bottom diffused aeration. No definitive thermocline although there was a slight difference in temperature at depth. There were also pockets of cooler water in different spots around the pond, but nothing like the thermocline in the old pond. We did go around to the three double diffusers and clean them off, which they needed as I never got it done last year. They were crudded up somewhat but not as bad as I expected and they cleaned off easier than I expected. Grandson cleaned two but I had him leave the last one for me so I would know how much stuff was on it. Got "bumped" pretty hard on my right side by something, I presume by the magnitude it was a CC but I suppose it could have been a larger BG or RES. Whatever it was it did not like me there because as I was cleaning the diffuser disks it rammed me in the side of my bouyency compensator (BC jacket) where the weight pockets are. Nothing severe but I could definitely feel it.

All in all about an hour in the three ponds in the water and although we never saw any fish I did learn some things about the thermoclines or lack thereof in the different ponds. To see fish we would have to stay very still for a long time in one location and let the fish come to us and the grandson was not so much into that. Still it was instructional, got the dive gear checked out and his skills checked out as well as the diffusers cleaned so mission accomplished.