My pond absolutely shocked me today!!!

About 10 years ago I had a hole 8' deep dug in the shape of a water lily and over the years have been stocking it with fish. The sunfish are trained to wait for me at the dock know the daily supply of bread balls I throw them. Unusual was that they started doing this in March due to almost no ice formed any time this last winter.

Most fish are suspended in deeper water until the spawning urge and insects bring them shallow. Today about 20 sunnies went crazy for the bread. If I had cast lures to them, no doubt it would have been simple to catch them. Crappie and perch are still in deeper water but some were caught on different days in March.

Surprising was the 2.5' weed-eating carp that slowly left a weedy cove they were feeding in, followed to deeper water by small bass and sunnies like in a school. I stocked a carp years ago, but assumed it died so I added 3 more - all four were only 1' long. I never thought fish would swim with them.

The sunfish I assumed were small and few as were the bass. Man was I wrong! Bass and sunnies had spawned in different years and I saw many different sizes of both. Plus, I caught fish in deeper water that uncluded nice size sunfish!

Soon the pads will grow to the surface in three areas and fish will have good ambush areas to attack prey. One bass head was left on shore by a heron so I assumed few decent stocked bass were left. Wrong again! While sunnies were going beserk (as usual) for bread balls, a 1 3/4 lb bass was watching and I later saw another in a different area.

I got to remember to use small barbless hooks when casting lures. These fish are super aggressive and too easy to catch. Soon the local lakes will be in pre-spawn and also easy to catch fish in. Hope the action is as good as in the pond.

This is a shot of it after it filled 5' from rains in Nov.- the present after a severe drought (bottom photo) I assumed killed most of the fish. You can see the bottom that was supposed to be covered by 6' of water.

Cool pond everyone who fishes dreams of being on the water and IMO water can be the ocean , a lake , river , stream or pond i'd take any . curious did you stock the carp too ?

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Surprising was the 2.5' weed-eating carp that slowly left a weedy cove they were feeding in, followed to deeper water by small bass and sunnies like in a school. I stocked a carp years ago, but assumed it died so I added 3 more - all four were only 1' long.

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So true about yearning to be near or on the water. The most peace and calm for me is being in a boat on a calm, partly cloudy day, casting, in anticipation of something biting my choice of lures. It's like nature saying, 'your choice was right - congratulations' - when I connect. Even if I don't get too many bites, I can enjoy a type of diversion TV can't give me that, in fact, is much of the time more annoying than most other activities.

Amazing how the pads spread. I only put a doz. in years ago and wasn't sure if they'd take. The bull rushes must have been spread by heron and geese that visit - and man did they spread! Had to cut a bunch last year.

I thought for sure all the fish would die when I saw the bottom less than 3.5' from the surface and then frozen over for a short time Nov. of last last year. It happened once before six years ago, which prompted me to dig two ditches connecting a wooded, forest/bog behind the pond, to two long, underground pvc pipes in order to direct as much water as possible to it. It filled like a motha with all the rain we had from Nov. until now! Better 8' than 3.

Stranger still is that the bass, sunfish and carp don't fear me when I'm near the shoreline so as long as I stay still or move slowly and don't make any sudden moves. Even casting to open water doesn't spook them.
Nature is a mystery to me, still, after all these years.

Very nice pond

Nice sir.

Having fished a lot of ponds, I’ve seen some of what you describe. I fished some gin clear tanks on Oklahoma where I could watch the behavior of the fish with different lures and techniques. It always helps with the attitude to just sit and watch what goes on.

nice pond

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I fished some gin clear tanks on Oklahoma where I could watch the behavior of the fish with different lures and techniques. It always helps with the attitude to just sit and watch what goes on.

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Man, I haven't seen the word tank used since I was in the Air Force in the 70's! I fish local ones near Wichita Falls and just over the border in OK. as much as I could!
Course, I didn't have a boat then, having to live with family off base in an apt., but did fish with an officer who was as avid an angler as me who owned a boat.
Man do I miss those days and Texans in general not to mention the 3 tornadoes I witnessed that were mesmerizing to say the least (but only so long as they continued north away from me!:pray)

I once stocked a tiny pond behind my apartment, it had running water coming in and going out and thats rare in Texas , them fish were just like you said , highly trained to come to the bread I fed them.
used to take the local little kids back there to let them hammer ....good times

Another thing that happens ever so often, like today, are the thousand or so blackbirds that covered the ground 3/4 around on and in the trees. Seems they do so before a major weather change, like tomorrow's severe thunderstorm and temperature hike into the mid 70's, followed by nighttime temperature below freezing later this week! Bet the fish would bite like crazy too! (No fishing for them in the next 48 hours.)

Too bad I didn't have the photo lense handy or you could see them better. The little black birds pictured are only half of what was on the round!
Attachment 454373

Good thing the truck wasn't parked back there. Probably take me an hour cleaning off the windshield!!

A better photo

Yes, those blackbirds can leave a mess, although they can’t hold a candle to geese!:Rofl
Bob

Two geese just came back - 2 hours ago! What are they up to?!

I think all the geese are moving to SE Virginia.

We got greater Canadian geese here in Texas that actually never migrate away , interesting to say the least , guess some geese are just a bit tired of traveling :Rofl

Most birds don’t do anything but eat and crap. The ones that don’t get shot and ate.

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Originally Posted by RJR

Most birds don’t do anything but eat and crap. The ones that don’t get shot and ate.

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You could say the same pertains to fish (except the shooting part).
Course, birds in general can't hold a candle to the beauty of freshwater fish - especially those posted by many of you. Looking at them is like a breath of fresh air!

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Originally Posted by Barnacle Bill

I think all the geese are moving to SE Virginia.

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Nah, Bill, we got most of them. They winter here in SE PA and never leave. They are truly “filthy beasts” on the ground. That said, I never cease to love seeing them come in for landing on the creek or small pond. On final approach, Wings flaps down, full spoilers they are a beautiful sight to behold.
Bob

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On final approach, Wings flaps down, full spoilers they are a beautiful sight to behold.

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...especially in spring with the pair of ducks that drop by. Course, they get to be too many, the dogs know what to do when told! Good thing they mostly paddle around and stay in the water on the far side of the pond. Don't affect the fish.
Caught two gills and a crappie this morning after the usual two hour stay, and better yet - no honking!

Beautiful looking pond Moon! Mine came in the form of a large planter with couple of goldfish in it. At time i thought of taking a line-N-hook to it just to break the winter dry spell here this part of the desert...Lol. Thanks for sharing!

My appologies for getting your user name wrong, Spoon!

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Beautiful looking pond Moon!

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Cool looking out and seeing deer drinking in early morning and especially fawns fool'n around with each other on the other side (though I did see an adult deer grazing no more than 150' from the house not long ago).

Now it's just a matter of putting in more y. perch and large crappie and letting everything else grow to size which won't happen if heron are allowed to eat my fish. nonono

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Originally Posted by Spoonminnow

Cool looking out and seeing deer drinking in early morning and especially fawns fool'n around with each other on the other side (though I did see an adult deer grazing no more than 150' from the house not long ago).

Now it's just a matter of putting in more y. perch and large crappie and letting everything else grow to size which won't happen if heron are allowed to eat my fish. nonono

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They are pretty good fishermen, spoon!:Rofl
Bob

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Originally Posted by BobC

They are pretty good fishermen, spoon!
Bob

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Heart breaking is seeing half eaten fish in the water and on land - mostly heads. Can't really blame 'em - I wouldn't eat a fish's head either. :puke

Of course, of the many gills, bass, yellow perch and crappie that are still doing fine, the sunfish have surprised me the most in that they come to me to be fed bits of white bread - no matter the time of day. Once they see me walking down the hill, they swim towards me from different directions and will follow me around the shore as I cast lures towards deeper water.
It would be too easy to catch such trusting pets so I avoid hooking them. Also nice is seeing many generations of bass and panfish - mostly from this pond's spawns. These are a few of the two doz. or more that party. (Note: only sunfish do this.)

Love the post man! A dream of mine is to have a nice pond someday that I can fish and hunt ducks on. Good for you sir!


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Update:
Recently when I throw bits of bread to the +2 doz. fish at my feet, two to three 1.5 lb bass are lying near the bottom looking at me probably wondering what I'm going to throw to them. They don't like the dog treats I threw and just watch the sunnies go berserk but never attacking them. After a while they get bored and slowly swim away. Today I could hardly keep fish off the hook - even lures allowed to drop deeper. Spring has sprung!

Also, I've started seeing different generations of sunnies and bass in all sizes. No point in stocking either of them, whereas crappie and perch will be added. Only small crappie have been caught this year and no perch.

Sounds like a great pond