What does your pond look like ... Today?

[sissy]

WET It is raining out so wetter than usual

 

[Timothy]

Pond? What pond?

I know there's a pond out there somewhere....I've seen it!

 

[corgi]

Open water where the aerator/bubbler sits in the pond. Although the squirrels and birds
can get close enough for a drink, I don't think the edge where they are at would support the
weight of a deer. There were a few yesterday afternoon venturing out toward the open water,
presumably to get a drink.

There were about 20 of them and 8 younger ones had ventured within 10 feet of the open water.
One of our corgis was watching and barked a few times. My wife yelled downstairs to me that
they were heading toward the open water. I ran to the sliding door and opened it hard. They all
ran off, but I remember the prior owner of the property telling me about a deer that had died trying
to get out and do not want that experience to happen.

I'm contemplating putting some rope connected buckets with a 4 foot fence stake in each one, and then
running some rope with flagging or bags tied to the rope to close off a perimeter around the open water.
I could have rope tied at about 2 feet up and another at about 4 feet up. Then tie flagging or tinsel to the
rope. Then interconnect to all the buckets and shore so that as the ice goes out, I don't have to worry about
recovering the fence stakes and buckets. I can keep the fence poles secured in the bucket tied to the handles
with wire and the bucket upright with some rocks or snow in the bucket.

We love watching the deer, but I don't want to try to rescue one in 14 feet of water with hooves
that present a danger as well. My 30 foot extension ladder would allow me to crawl out to the open water but
then getting the deer out of the water could be dangerous.

 

[j.w]

@corgi Love your caring for the deer that way and hope whatever you can do will work. I saw a rescue on tv last night of two Clydesdale horses that fell in through the ice in 10ft of water. How they rescued them is they took a boat and carved a trail through the thick ice somehow to the horses and tied ropes around them and pulled them through the trail of open water to land where they then used heaters and blankets to warm them up. They had a bunch of people working on this tho, not just one. Worked out well for those two lucky horses!

 

[corgi]

@corgi Love your caring for the deer that way and hope whatever you can do will work. I saw a rescue on tv last night of two Clydesdale horses that fell in through the ice in 10ft of water. How they rescued them is they took a boat and carved a trail through the thick ice somehow to the horses and tied ropes around them and pulled them through the trail of open water to land where they then used heaters and blankets to warm them up. They had a bunch of people working on this tho, not just one. Worked out well for those two lucky horses!

I sectioned off about 2/3 of the open water with 3 buckets, some garden fence stakes and some rope. Overnight a couple of smaller ones, based on the size of the tracks, jumped or stepped over the rope and walked up to the open water and then left the way they came. That's the story the tracks are telling me. So I removed the buckets and rope and got out the chain saw. I opened up an area in the pond about 3 foot wide by 8 foot long next to shore. I did this by using the chain saw to cut this in 1 foot sections and then pushed them under the existing ice and out of the way. The ice was about 1 foot thick. I had to make quite a few passes with the chain saw to cut this into smaller 1x 1 foot pieces to make them managable. By pushing it under the existing ice, I've created a small open water area by shore where they can get to the water if they don't want to eat snow , (that is what they normally do). They visited the area overnight so hopefully they will no longer venture to the middle where the open water is at. I just have to keep this open water area I've made by shore open as winter is still not over. If it does freeze up a little, I can always bust it up with the ice spud.


As a side note, I got out the ice fishing rod for a few minutes yesterday and fished the pond for the first time since I restocked it in spring of '17.

In about 5 minutes I caught 3 perch. The first two were smaller males about 5 to 6 inches long, but the third one was a very fat, and full of eggs female that went about 13 inches. Of course I let them all go, but it was great to see that 13 incher. I know they were spawning in the pond in spring of '18 and it looks like it will be happening again this spring. I only fished it for 5 minutes and I really, really wanted to fish longer, but I also love the idea of having a pond full of stupid fish that wouldn't know a hook if it bit them in the face. lol

Love the pond.

 

[j.w]

@corgi Wow you went to a lot of work making a spot for them to drink. I hope they use it and now won't venture out onto that ice! Then you got to have fun fishing too! Will you fish eventually to catch and eat or do you just enjoy them being there for fun?

 

[addy1]

You are so good to the critters! Run for office you have my vote!

 

[corgi]

I love to fish. My faves for the dinner table are perch, bluegill, and walleye. My wife does not care for fish so I'm fishing for myself. There are so many lakes by me where I can catch easy limits, that keeping them out of our pond seems wrong, especially when I can drive 10 minutes in any direction and fish local lakes. I would, at some point, like to selectively harvest some of the perch in the pond as they are self sustaining. The hybrid bluegills I'll let go when I do start to fish the pond, unless they are too deeply hooked making their survival questionable after release. I will not fish it again this year. Just the supplemental feeding I do for the hybrids, which I start doing the beginning of April through the end of October. Maybe I'll start to fish it a little in 2020.

I'm the only angler in my state of Michigan that has two state records on the books. No other angler in Michigan can say that. Both were accidental catches while fishing for other species. I caught the state record whitefish while fishing for steelhead in the surf of Lake Michigan. I caught the state record black bullhead while fishing for bluegills. Both were caught years ago, yet I'm still the only guy with 2 state records. I have been dethroned on both of these prior records, but my name is still in the books, twice. Bragging rights.

I have a t-shirt that says, " Fishing is not just a matter of life or death, it's much more important than that."


You can see the deer, the tracks on the ice. and the buckets with rope I tried. the plastic bags tied to the rope would slide back and forth on the rope depending on wind direction. It did not work. The deer stepped over the rope and went right to the edge of the open water. Only a couple of smaller ones did this, and hopefully the opened area by shore will save me from saving one of them.

25 lbs of walleye

 

[Lisak1]

I've seen tracks on our pond, too, leading to the open water - appears to be mostly rabbits, but one was either a cat or a raccoon. I hope no one falls in BECAUSE THAT'S ALL I NEED!

 

[j.w]

@corgi oh boy you did great on the big fish contests! My hubby and I used to go out Salmon fishing here in Washington state. Caught some good eating! Trout too! Boats were packed from shore to shore on the lakes on open fishing for the Salmon.

Many yrs ago Salmon fishing:

Trout so good cooked in butter over the campfire!:

 

[corgi]

Salmon and trout from Lake Michigan's waters and tributaries is something I started as a young
man. I've been trolling Lake Michigan for trout and salmon since the salmon were reintroduced into
Lake Michigan back in the late 60's. I also love fishing with waders in the surf of the big Lake
to catch trout (steelhead) using 2 lb test leaders and long noodle rods I build. Great fun.
This is a catch of King salmon (chinook) caught trolling in Lake Michigan. This pic is from the early 90's. The bigger ones were
just over 30 lbs. Nice catch

This is a pic of the largest steelhead (rainbow trout) I've caught using 2 lb test and long rods and spawn. Wade out as far as one can, make a long cast, and wade back to the rod holders. Insert rod and go sit on the beach and wait for the rod to bend over.
This fish weighed 17 lbs. 4 oz and was caught on 2 lb test. My personal best was caught trolling with 12 lb test and weighed just over 22 lbs, however this 17 lb fish is much more a trophy considering the 2 lb test leader and the fact that I could only run so far out into the lake a couple of times during the half hour battle as it almost spooled me twice.

 

[j.w]

My dad used to fish for Steelhead a lot in the too cold rivers for me!

 

[sissy]

I could never kill anything .I used to fish as a child off the covered bridge in PA but always put them back in .Lots of catfish in the water up there .My pop pop used to catch to eat them .I don't eat meat either .That is why my veggie garden is worked so hard

 

[Troutredds]

The snow has finally left us; some future flurries predicted but nothing expected to stick around. I need to find a better swivel to for this wind spinner thingy. It hardly turns in the breeze but looks nice, anyhow.

 

[j.w]

@Troutredds everything around your pond always looks pretty and so neat and tidy