Picture updates
The stocked fish are doing great. Perch and hitting feed well, but only in the late evenings. It appears some of the hybrid crappie are raising and hitting the pellets too. I’ve got loads of FHM fry around the banks and the RES have been hunting them down sitting right on the bank swooping in and taking bites. Very fun to watch!
I’ve added a 6’ tall cedar tree to one corner, and also added a series of milk crates zip tied together with my spider army to help protect some of the forage.
I also planted lots of plants yesterday. After digging back in time on the forums I found a ton of advise. I planted several dwarf hybrid water lilies in buckets, some blue pickerel weed in pots, some blue flag iris in pots, as well as some spiral eelgrass (vallisneria) and dwarf Sagittaria as well. I did plant both in trays and some of the spiral eel grass in the pond bottom. I’m really hoping these take off as I imagine they will make great cover for the forage.
Hoping to keep working on my structure and density to help promote the sustainability of forage. Ultimately my goal is to sein some BNM in a local creek and get them established before I introduce any HSB. At this point I think I’ll be best served to have a handful of HSB in the 12-18” range and will remove them once they are too large to help balance this system. Bill Cody had made that suggestion earlier in this thread. They hopefully will keep the Hybrid Crappie spawn in check, and I’ll help manage perch by harvesting myself as well.
It’s been great watching all the life come too in this small pond!
https://ibb.co/jww0wXShttps://ibb.co/8xTPrT4https://ibb.co/HD35M3j
