Recent content by SoSalty

Got to fish May 8, about 6:30 to 7:15 sunset. We used Walmart red worms. Fourteen small went into the creek. These 9 range from 10.5in to almost 13in. and fried up nicely. There's still a few bream of unknown size and quantity left in the pond. Though the shellcrackers did well I think 2...

There wasn't any algae growing but dyed the pond to prevent it. I did notice the head only of a large bream floating about. Gotta wonder; Otter, Muskrat, snake, or snapping turtle? Something causes big splashes along the shoreline but have yet to see it. It was a lot of fish to eat, too much...

Our groundhog ran across the yard on sun shiny Feb 1, so afterwards the pond nearly froze over a few more times. Average hi 'round here is 49 degrees (in Feb) which means it'll never be that; some days hi in 30's, others hi in 60's. When the water warmed into the 50's the shellcrackers became...

A few turtles with abundant food sources might not hurt. If the population explodes, as it is wont to do, it will self-correct, but only a long time after their target prey, fish for one, becomes decimated and there is a stressful die off or departure of those turtles. Trapping can be...

The pond attracts wildlife, but nature can be harsh, vicious, and self-destructive. I dozed the pond out to 0.2ac in fall'22. I asked wife to turn on pump 9/23. It was 220v but I used 2 110v switches. She flipped on 1, then the other. Of course, the pump burned out; my fault. That was at...

Oh happy day. There was an 11" Shelllcracker after only 3 yrs. I'd recognize 1, maybe a spot near the fin plus it's mannerisms, but it'd disappear. Possibly cranes or snapping turtle. Around yr 6, there were numerous 10.5" to 11". Yesterday I was fishing with worms hoping to get, what...

Several years and several fish feeders later, I've settled on a Moultrie directional feeder (spray painted). It was 1st used as a minnow feeder. For these Shellcrackers, the 2 gal. bucket needs refilling every 2 weeks. Algae would pop up in mats where it sprayed pellets. I've reduced the...

Well, why a Shellcracker pond? The pond forage base starts with phytoplankton, tiny plants and algae that turns your pond green. Then minnows, small bait fish, bream, then largemouth bass, usually, and of course there lots more that gets eaten in your pond but you get the idea. At every...

The original pond came in at 6500sq.ft. about 0.15 acre. Seemed like too much water washed out the fertility in the winter/spring, then it'd get low in the summer. We put in a 170 ft well to help. After burning out several pumps we learned that the well only recharged at a quart a minute, we...

Yep, got behind on follow up post/pics. I thought there wouldn't be much clay and budgeted for 40 trucks. We hit a band of grey clay 3-6ft so hauled in only 20 truck loads. At 7ft a spring appeared in spite of it being a dry dry August. Hoping for 6ft we stopped, packed a ft back in and...

Actually, this is a shellcracker from the pond several years later. El Gordo was 11 & 1/4" and had a bright red/orange gill flap. I've only a pic of him when he was smaller.

Years back, living in the Bakersfield desert, I looked forward to retiring in Alabama, and putting in a pond. The 5 acres we bought is beautiful, 560' of creek front all to ourselves. But alas, putting a pond in on Sand Mtn became my challenge, only 1 suitable location and limited to 0.2ac in...

Ohio can support both Northern and Southern fisheries, lucky you. SD51555’s idea of draining and starting over is well. . like getting to start all over. Only short coming of a rented pump is it’ll form a vortex and suck air the last 2-3 ft leaving surviving fish. Use a smaller slower pump to...

A top concern in pond management is harvesting your fish. You've seen this by not living there thus not being able to frequently fish to control populations. A previous post wisely recommended not stocking multiple major species in a single pond. That would help simplify yet since crappie...

Sorry to resurrect an old thread. But. . good advice in the above posts. Also get the mosquito minnow, the gambusia, little black 2" minnows that hang in the shallow weeds and are great both for eating the mosquito larvae and forage for bream. Also, take the topsoil where you start digging...