Post by bluedot on Aug 2, 2019 20:28:26 GMT -5
Picklehead will like this one.
I got a call yesterday from a client that is 60 miles away. He's seeing 8"-10" Golden Shiners dead in his pond, but no other fish. We went thru the different scenarios and I narrowed it down to 2 things over the phone, 1) Old age of the shiners, (they live 3-4 years and they were stocked Oct 30, 2016) or 2) O2 crash, but the other fish in the pond are acting OK and eating well.
So I had to run 60 miles in the opposite direction yesterday to get my O2 meter from a friend that borrowed it to check the O2 in the ponds he's raising trout and I headed out this morning. I told my client that he'd have to put his boat in the pond (he's got a rowboat) so we could check O2 levels all over the pond (pond is about 4 acres).
So I get there and he had put his 18' Lund in the pond with the 115 hp Merc 4-stroke, trolling motor, Hummingbird fish finder, etc., etc. I guess we aren't rowing around in the pond after all!
So after about 45 minutes of taking water temps and O2 levels (temps are 78 - 79 degrees from 1' to 28' and O2 levels are 10.9 mg/l to 9.98 mg/l which are way good for the pond) he asks if I had a fishing rod in the truck.
That's a silly question!!
So I grab the rod (Ultralight with 4# test flurocarbon) and we spend the next 3-4 hours slinging 1/16 to 1/8 oz jig heads with twister tails looking to catch some of the Yellow Perch that are in the pond (they should be around 13" now). We didn't catch any Yellow Perch, but we caught about 20 Hybrid Bluegills around 9" long and 3/4# and I caught 3 of the 150 Smallmouth Bass that were stocked last year. They were around 13"-14" and 2+ pounds.
Made plans to go back in a few weeks to plant 400-500 plants around the pond (Pickerelweed, Arrowhead, Illinois Pondweed, American Pondweed, and some colorful Hardy Lilies), and do some other work there, then go back in Sept and stock 50 Hybrid Striped Bass to munch on some of the extra Golden Shiners that are in the pond. Those should do well in the pond, I expect them to be around 4# to 5# in less than 3 years.