Pond beginning!

[Slippy]

I know nothing about pond management except growing up in S. Alabama, a friend of mine's dad would feed his pond catfish lbs and lbs of cheap dog food.

[Mad Trapper]

Honestly not many will live that long. The bass will make them breakfast, lunch and dinner! They have completely wiped out my minnow population. I stocked 18 lbs. I have to work on some better minnow habitat. A sort of nursery for them to spawn and have a better chance at making it. Pallets are a good start but I want to make my own. A lot of pallets are sprayed with insecticide and I don't want to chance putting it into my pond. I plan to build a couple smaller pallets and put an arch of some sort make of plastic hardware cloth to give them a added chance so the bass can't just pick them off at will.

Pine/spruce saplings work great for minnow habitat. Even hardwood brush. And it's free.......

Dry dog food will keep the bass going, minnows too.

A friend had a small spring fed trout pound, the surface would boil when he threw out a few handfulls.

[Broncosfan]

In doing some research and talking with the fish hatchery they advised me against using cheap big box store fish foods as they were grain based. I've heard of others using dog food. They told me to have the healthiest fish they need the oils and other nutrients that only are available in better brands. They had nothing to gain as they know I cannot purchase food from them as there to far away to pickup often and they don't ship. I done some research and found Optimal Fish food. Another hatchery in Ohio highly recommend it on their website along with videos. I contacted Optimal directly. Asked a lot of questions so that is what we went with. We started with their Junior and mixed in with the Bluegill to start. The Junior is small enough to break up for the really small fish. I have a bag of their Bass food what will be delivered today. Its larger pellets so I'm eager to see how they like it. I will try to post a video of us feeding soon.

[Broncosfan]

I don't either I'm learning as we good. I'm sure I will make mistakes here and there. Hopefully nothing serious.

[Broncosfan]

We start off with accelerated size fish. No fingerlings. Large mouth bass were 8-10". Bluegill and Hybrid Bluegill were 4-6". Shellcrackers were a bit smaller. I forget there actual length.

[MountainGirl]

I know nothing about pond management except growing up in S. Alabama, a friend of mine's dad would feed his pond catfish lbs and lbs of cheap dog food.

They did that on Diamond Lake up north too.
The holdovers tasted like Purina.

[Broncosfan]

So I thought I would give an update. The pond is doing well. Water level is down which is expected. We're positive its evaporation becasue we have checked for any sign of tinted water and found none. The fish seem to be doing really well. Seeing lot of bluegill way smaller that what we stocked. So some are surviving the food chain.

We're really enjoying the pond. The water slide has really been fun. Last weekend I actually sprayed Pam cooking spray on the sled and the slide. It really made a difference. I made it to the middle of the pond and you could tell it increased the speed.

Last Sunday we decided to just float around the pond. It was a bit breezy and the windmill was working rather well. When you floated over where one of the diffusers you could notice a water temperature drop. I didn't measure the temperature but I would say no less than 10-15 degrees maybe more. One time I went over and I actually got cold chills.

[Broncosfan]

I almost forgot. We added lights to the windmill. I'm trying to run them off a 1000 watt battery pack. I'm pulling about 33 watts and the time there on it used 24% of my battery. I'm using a timer and I'm having trouble with it. I think the battery pack is turning off after I've reset it and it never turns on the next night. Once I get the bugs worked out I will post a couple of pics.

[Broncosfan]

So I had a guy take these over the weekend! 25550
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[shootbrownelk]

What about stocking your pond with freshwater shrimp? Are they available in your area? Those panfish will grow to gargantuan size with a diet of those. We have a lake out here that is chock full of shrimp. The trout have huge bodies and small heads and are really hard to catch, Rainbows and Cutthroats and some Browns. Those shrimp are the reason why they get so big.

[Broncosfan]

What about stocking your pond with freshwater shrimp? Are they available in your area? Those panfish will grow to gargantuan size with a diet of those. We have a lake out here that is chock full of shrimp. The trout have huge bodies and small heads and are really hard to catch, Rainbows and Cutthroats and some Browns. Those shrimp are the reason why they get so big.

To answer that I have no idea. I know the fish have slowed down eating as its cooling off. Also I'm still seeing spawning activity so it might not be the weather keeping them from eating. The fish have been in for right at 7 months. We have seen growth in all. Plus we're seeing lost of smaller fish so reproducing is going well also.

[Broncosfan]

Just some update photos. We're still down some but adding weekly. As you can see from the pics the windmill is working. You can see there isn't ice above where the air diffusers are. 27361
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[Broncosfan]

So here is a updated photo since the rain. We are a little over 12" to full pond. Its added a little more since this pic. More rain in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow

[Slippy]

So here is a updated photo since the rain. We are a little over 12" to full pond. Its added a little more since this pic. More rain in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow

I think I (and others) have said it before but it deserves saying again, great job on the pond build! That is quite an achievement. Slippy Approved!

[Broncosfan]

We had some crazy warm weather here lately. We decided to see if the fish were ready to eat tonight. I was really surprised how many we seen. The bass seem to added the most size. Its a little hard to tell when you only get a split second to see them. Everything looks good. We're preparing to add some pond sealer soon just in case we actually have a leak. I'm not 100% that we do but better to be safe than sorry at this point. Too much invested. When we get the fishing poles out I will make sure I take some pictures and post them. I really want an underwater drone just to be able to see how things are but I'm not sure on what I actually want. Maybe after tax time I will pull the trigger.

[1skrewsloose]

Your own renewable food supply. never needs refridgeration, freeze drying, or dehydration. Dude, you're set for life!!!

[Broncosfan]

28929Quick update. Over the past month we've added a new minnow habitat, a few Red Ear Sunfish, 2 sterile grass carp and 10 lbs of fathead minnows. We done that during our spring tease temperature spikes.

The pond has been basically full for weeks. We've had a lot of wind so I believe that is helping the depth fluctuation a bit. We got over 2" of rain so far this week. This is the highest the pond has ever been. The overflow is running well. This is todays pic that show it over the bank a bit on the right side. I wasn't able to show the left bank enough to see where it at on that side. Its also frog mating season in Ohio now. I've seen a lot of frogs!

[shootbrownelk]

28929Quick update. Over the past month we've added a new minnow habitat, a few Red Ear Sunfish, 2 sterile grass carp and 10 lbs of fathead minnows. We done that during our spring tease temperature spikes.

The pond has been basically full for weeks. We've had a lot of wind so I believe that is helping the depth fluctuation a bit. We got over 2" of rain so far this week. This is the highest the pond has ever been. The overflow is running well. This is todays pic that show it over the bank a bit on the right side. I wasn't able to show the left bank enough to see where it at on that side. Its also frog mating season in Ohio now. I've seen a lot of frogs!

Frogs in your pond is a good sign. They require clean, pollution free water. They are also considered a tasty treat by most bass. :)

[Broncosfan]

Frogs in your pond is a good sign. They require clean, pollution free water. They are also considered a tasty treat by most bass. :)

The bass definitely consume a lot of food. The frogs are a great addition for sure. We were a bit surprised last year when we seen eggs fairly early. They looked like frog eggs but our local hatchery said it was a bit early and thought they were toad eggs. I'm still not positive but I still think they were frog eggs.

[Broncosfan]

So we're really suffering from lack of rain here. The pond is down 3' plus. We're actually now at the water level we had on Oct 2, 2023. So we're not in good shape. We need lots of rain. July is one of Ohio's wettest months but not this year. So I actually purchased a electric aerator to make sure the fish are getting enough oxygen. The windmill does a good job but when its so hot there isn't any wind blowing so its not helping when I need it the most. We've lost less than a dozen fish and I figure it just the weather. We got the aerator up and running Sunday. It was putting a lot of oxygen in the pond. I checked later and it seemed to me stirring up the bottom to much and making the pond muddy. So I plan to install a value to be able to adjust in down so its not so turbulent.