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Weeeeeelllllllll, I think the mystery of the minnows disappearing from my bait pond is solved. They went super shallow. I had a tip from one of the ODWC biologists that had a similar problem. He floated his minnow trap at the surface and loaded his traps. Well you tried it again recently and he loaded them again. I will try this myself this week and see what happens. I expect it will work.:)
The nights have been great for sleeping and the morning are superb for doing yard work.
But the pond water is cooling off and with that comes more dissolved oxygen for the fish in ponds that have an excessive amount of organic compounds. The D.O. going up will reduce the risk of any more fish kills for the year. Fall fishing is picking up already too. The time period from now until almost Thanksgiving should be one of stable weather and slowly cooling water. Labor day is almost behind us and the crowds will be off the lake. It is now our time to enjoy Mother Nature's best fishing time,IMHO. It will soon be time to see Mother Nature's paint brush at work. The monarch butterflies have started their annual fall migration to Mexico approx 2 weeks ago.
LRippers, Stink, Reaper - Its time to get to work jerkin jaws.:D
The rain and cooler temperatures are cooling the lakes and ponds down. The water,as it cools, becomes heavier and sinks to the bottom causing a stirring effect. This stirring or blending also may cause organic matter to come to the surface and cloud the water. This natural action signals the coming of winter
Many people have cattails in their pond and want a safe spray to control them. There is 1 spray that can be used to safely to eliminate cattails. This spray will not harm the fish or the zooplankton. It is called "RODEO" by Mansanto. It will take probably 2 applications to effectively kill them. The plants need to be actively growing to allow the poison to be sucked into the plant. The poison travels to the roots and kills the rhisomes. If there is some overspray on the water it will not harm anything. This will kill any plant that is above the water surface. You should be able to get this product at Estes Chemical Co in OKC,Enid, or Paris Tx. You may have to explain what the chemical is designed to do as there may be a generic name for the product. Many times this is the case.
Mix according to directions and apply by pump up sprayer.
Hey this is Bill Lowery in Guthrie. We had talked on the phone last week. He is what I am dealing with. I am a avid Duck hunter and have hunted at Langston lake Since I was a Kid. This year though we have hit a snag! The person that usually handles the Duck blind drawing is a professor by the name of Dr. Hedge and he informed me this year that he has past everything to a Mr. Oliver(The lake is run by Langston University) anyway upon contacting Mr. Oliver he stated that there would be no more Duck Hunting at the lake. I contacted Dr. Hedge and he contacted the Vice President and now the President is taking it before her council. I asked if the public could speak or attend the meeting and the Vice Presidents aid stated no that it was a closed meeting! Is there anyone at Langston that you could contact to find out if we are just following Calf. Senator Pelosi's radical mentality. I know that they had shooting's on campus this year. But none of the facilty or students hunt at Langston. I feel that we the hunters are not getting a fair say in this matter. I am trying to get intouch with the DU President in Guthrie as well. Any help would be appreciated. I know this is short fused the meeting is Friday. Thank you for your time. Best regards William H. Lowery Jr. USN Ret.
Bill- I am past president of Yukon DU and I have several friends that are avid duck hunters. I am also aware of the mentality of Langston University and the town too. I have a friend that works at Langston and has for several years. I was going to contact him tomorrow on a different topic and I will ask him about this subject and be in touch.
When adding habitat, be it cedar trees, oak trees, PVC trees or condos or bamboo buckets, think of how you are going to fish it once it is installed in the pond or lake. Many years ago I build a pond and wanted to fish it for bass primarily. I enjoyed fishing plastic worms so I laid my oak and hickory trees in such a way that I could pull my plastic worms thru the branches and rarely get hung. I have grown older and now enjoy panfishing more. I am going to rethink my strategy for adding fresh cover or habitat to my old tired pond.
I harvested some bamboo today and am in the process of making boo buckets. I will sink them off the dock in approx 16 FOW. I know that the crappie will probably have their belly on the bottom this winter because the pond is only 16' at the dam and off the dock. I have placed a couple of brush piles near the dock but I am going to add the boo buckets near them so that there is more open cover to allow the crappie, bluegill and redear to suspend over during the transition periods and summer.
Strategically placing cover in ponds in accordance to the way you fish can increase your enjoyment and add valuable protection for the spawn to reduce predation and allow time to grow.
A bacterial infection can sometimes appear in a pond with poor water quality. How often you ask? I do not know. What caused it? I have my suspicions. My 1/4th acre minnow pond is in trouble. I am not able to harvest many minnows in my traps. The ones that I am getting have red spots on them. I have been advised by the best pond specialist in the state that this could be the root of my problem, a bacterial infection.
The pond is located in a wind protected area and is heavily used by cattle for drinking. My suspicion is that the lack of sufficient aeration from mother nature, extremely warm water from the hot summer and excess nutrients from the cattle have created an environment which is prime for an infection to develop. The cold of winter may cause it to go dormant or might kill it. I bet that the infection will go dormant to reappear next spring. In the meantime my harvest of minnows is virtually nil compared to the past year and a half. I will focus this fall on trying to figure out what happened. The infection can be killed out but it could be expensive. Is it worth spending alot of money to save a bunch of minnows? Probably not.
Tetracycline is an anti-bacterial additive that is commonly used in watering containers for chickens and other animals. It is very effective on bacterial problems. It has worked well for me when I have had other problems with the holding of an excessive number of fish. It should work fine in this situation, but treat a 1/4 acre pond, I don't think so.
I will be addressing this issue immediately and will post the result as soon as we figure out the best approach. My guess currently is to locate another pond that has good wind action, few cattle using it for watering and restock with rosies.:(
There is a second problem that may enter your minnow pond A virus that causes the minnows to start bleeding internally, it appears. The minnows have red spots, as if bleeding, that appear around the head and gill area. The virus must run its course before any of the minnows can show signs of improvement. Some of the minnows may die.
The virus is called viral hemorrahaging septicemia virus. The virus has caused havoc in the Northeast part of the country. Cornell University has done extensive research on this problem. Thousands of fish have died in the Great Lakes area. The ability to stop the spread of the virus is minimal, it appears. The recommendations are similar to stopping the spread of zebra mussels. Drain and wash out your boat and do not tranport bait fish to other waters. This may be what hit my minnow pond and seemingly killed off most of my rosies. I have some rosies left and I am going to monitor the pond to see if they bounce back next year.I trapped and transferred some of my rosies into my 300 gallon holding tank in OKC that had these symptoms. Recently I netted some and inspected them and they were free of the hemorrahaged spots. I do not know if the cold weather put the possible virus in remission or it just ran its course. Next summer if the pond is again full of rosies then I guess the virus ran its course and the minnows will be OK. I hope so. In the mean time I will trap rosies in other ponds that I stocked this year.