Pond Observations

[woodduck]

I like to stand by my pond with my polarized glasses and watch what goes on. Its a small pond, between an 1/8 and a 1/4 acre in size, so its relatively easy to watch the whole thing from one spot. I usually start at the small dock then work slowly around the rest of the pond. Theres Bluegill and Catfish in the pond and I put 2 Largemouth in 2 years ago to help control the Bluegills, but found one dead this spring.

This morning I noticed a Snapping Turtle floating through the lily pads eating the flowers as he went. I don't know much about Snapping Turtles but always thought they were opportunist feeders and ate plants, bugs, fish and animals. I have never seen this before and didn't realize they would eat the flowers themselves.

I also noticed several schools of, what I believe to be Bluegill, about a 1/4'' in length hanging out near any type of cover along the shore. I feed the Bluegill in my pond and when they see me they will come straight to my location and wait. Its funny to see them come from all directions, sometimes creating a ''V'' wake. They will literally follow me around the pond like dogs. What I thought was odd was that the adult Bluegills that were following me around the pond waiting for me to feed them would swim up to the schools and the schools would part or swim away but the adults paid no attention to the fry. They would feed on other things but not the fry.

What are some of your pond observations?

 

[Natureboy]

We also enjoy our pond. It is close to one acre in size and about 15' deep. It was installed in 1998 and other than having a few problems holding water the first couple of years, it has been a lot of fun. We originally stocked it with fat head minnows and rainbow trout. It is fun to watch the trout feed when we throw floating fish food in for them. They come up from the deep water like torpedoes, breaking the water surface, grabbing the food and then racing back to the safety of deeper water. In past years some of the trout grew to be nice size and we have caught several that were pushing five pounds. Lately however the hot summers have made it difficult and a couple of times we had to start over and replace the stock that died because the pond water was too warm.

Other than fish, the pond has loads of visitors and inhabitants including ducks, geese, Herons, turtles, crayfish, frogs, poly wags and newts (must be a million of these). When our daughters were younger they loved to see what they could find hiding in the grass along the ponds edge.

 

[H20fwler]

I am newer to the pond scene; we put ours in a year ago. Both are shallow wetland ponds one is around two acres with the deep end being around 4'-5' depending on the rains and the smaller pond is close to an acre in size with the deepest part being 3'.
The biggest surprise I have had has been the ducks and geese that use them, late last fall and this spring there were literally hundreds of waterfowl using them on any given day. I stocked the bigger pond with some channel catfish, crappies and minnows early this spring...I stocked the smaller pond with minnows only. Both have had every kind of frog and toad Ohio has lay eggs and hatch tadpoles in them this year, along with those I have seen one snapper and a couple painted turtles and water snakes that just showed up.
In the past few weeks I have noticed small almost clear little fish swimming in schools in the shallows, hundreds of them in both ponds, I think they are baby minnows?
Coolest thing I've seen is a bald eagle take a channel cat out of the big pond and fly off with it about a month ago.

 

[woodduck]

We also enjoy our pond. It is close to one acre in size and about 15' deep. It was installed in 1998 and other than having a few problems holding water the first couple of years, it has been a lot of fun. We originally stocked it with fat head minnows and rainbow trout. It is fun to watch the trout feed when we throw floating fish food in for them. They come up from the deep water like torpedoes, breaking the water surface, grabbing the food and then racing back to the safety of deeper water. In past years some of the trout grew to be nice size and we have caught several that were pushing five pounds. Lately however the hot summers have made it difficult and a couple of times we had to start over and replace the stock that died because the pond water was too warm.

Other than fish, the pond has loads of visitors and inhabitants including ducks, geese, Herons, turtles, crayfish, frogs, poly wags and newts (must be a million of these). When our daughters were younger they loved to see what they could find hiding in the grass along the ponds edge.

I tried feeding the fish in pond floating fish food. The bluegills would eat it but spit it right back out. The Channel Cats would come up and eat the food, it was funny to watch them try to surface feed. I tried this for about a year and the gills still wouldn't take to the food. I just feed the fish pieces of bread now. I know its not the best thing for them but they seem to like it. I also like gathering up Jap Beatles to feed them. How long did it take your Rainbows to get used to eating the fish food or were they already accustomed to eating pellets since they were hatchery raised?

 

[woodduck]

I am newer to the pond scene; we put ours in a year ago. Both are shallow wetland ponds one is around two acres with the deep end being around 4'-5' depending on the rains and the smaller pond is close to an acre in size with the deepest part being 3'.
The biggest surprise I have had has been the ducks and geese that use them, late last fall and this spring there were literally hundreds of waterfowl using them on any given day. I stocked the bigger pond with some channel catfish, crappies and minnows early this spring...I stocked the smaller pond with minnows only. Both have had every kind of frog and toad Ohio has lay eggs and hatch tadpoles in them this year, along with those I have seen one snapper and a couple painted turtles and water snakes that just showed up.
In the past few weeks I have noticed small almost clear little fish swimming in schools in the shallows, hundreds of them in both ponds, I think they are baby minnows?
Coolest thing I've seen is a bald eagle take a channel cat out of the big pond and fly off with it about a month ago.

I have another pond I built a few summers ago specifically for ducks. It ranges from 3ft to a few inches in depth, with most of the pond being around 18in deep. I drain most of the water off (leaving some in for the tadpoles, frogs, newts, turtles and other pond dwellers) then plant Japanese Millett for the ducks. I actually pulled water off and planted it 2 weeks ago. The millet is up a few inches and maybe I will start allowing some water back on it next weekend. Last year was my 1st year planting it and I didn't really expect much in the way of feeding ducks but had between 10 and 20 most days . My highest count was 48 Wood Ducks at one time. I was surprised how many Woodies I attracted with my little pond food plot especially since I am now in a major flyway and don't have any wetlands near me. I honestly only expected about a half dozen or so.

 

[Natureboy]

I tried feeding the fish in pond floating fish food. The bluegills would eat it but spit it right back out. The Channel Cats would come up and eat the food, it was funny to watch them try to surface feed. I tried this for about a year and the gills still wouldn't take to the food. I just feed the fish pieces of bread now. I know its not the best thing for them but they seem to like it. I also like gathering up Jap Beatles to feed them. How long did it take your Rainbows to get used to eating the fish food or were they already accustomed to eating pellets since they were hatchery raised?

I guess the rainbows were accustomed to eating floating pellets in the hatchery as they took right to it in the pond. The bigger ones make quite a splash when they take the food. I also enjoy flicking grasshoppers onto the pond surface and watching the trout take them.

 

[JFK52]

My pond is situated so that I can sit in the living room of my mobile home at deer camp and watch out the windows. One year a Doe and her yearling came out of the pines. Mom hung back and the yearling proceeded to do what kids do in water. It splashed around and ran through the shallow water. This scene went on for about 15 minutes. Suddenly, Mom gave a low grunt type of call and the yearling's ears perked up. It immediately stopped what it was doing and headed back to Mom. Together, they vanished back into the red pines.

 

[woodduck]

The fall after the shallower duck pond was built I had a loc-on in a tree about 50 yards or so behind the pond. One evening while bowhunting 2 young bucks spared and playfully chased each other all through the knee high water. At times the splashing it was extremely loud and even attracted the attention of a doe and her two youngsters. The young bucks did this for about hour or so before finally going there separate ways.