A Sarpy County Farm Pond

[SKershaw]

Well, went out to the pond today to try fishing it. It was exceedingly windy and the water was even choppy. With the North wind, all the floating stuff was at the south end.

Here's what I saw:









Those are the biggest bass I have seen up close. I would really like to catch one. Sure hope there are more in there swimming.

I fished for about an hour and caught nothing and saw nothing (alive anyway).

Frog legs anyone???

Scott

[SKershaw]

Either of you gents been out to the pond lately?

Cold and windy as of recently. I can't catch fish! The man up stairs is playing an extended April fool's joke on me... Nothing biting.

Hope all is well!

[Angler Jay]

After reading all the posts I started to think about all the zooplankton that was in your samples. Maybe it would be a good idea to throw some spoonbill in the lake to help control its growth. I would say the zooplankton plays a role in the yellowish tint int he water also. Just a thought

[Fish Recycler]

I've not been out there, Scott.

Angler Jay, we'd have the only farm pond in the county with paddlefish, that's for sure!

[brademan76]

Would a paddlefish be able to survive? Especially when the pond freezes over in the winter?

[Shorty]

Possibly, this one came from a lake without a river flowing through it.

144 Lb Paddlefish Caught / News / KDWP Info / KDWP - KDWP

[Aquaman]

There have been other verified instances of paddlefish in larger, deeper sandpits. At least one in Nebraska that I believe ran in the 90+ category.

[brademan76]

Well that would be pretty awesome to have.
"What do you have in your farm pond Fred?"
"Oh ya know, lmb, bg, cc, and PADDLEFISH!"

[hiodon]

First of all, I wouldn't worry a whole lot about the zooplankton levels. That's probably just showing that you are working with a eutrophic body of water, almost inevitable through the agricultural belt. That's just a sign of high productivity, plenty of nutrients going into the system (ag runoff, goose poop, etc.) and providing plenty of phytoplankton for the zooplankton to feed on.

Second, the yellow tint is possibly due to suspended colloidal clays, or excessive bottom disruption by the common carp or maybe even bullheads. There are chemicals available that will break up colloidal clays, but for the life of me can't remember what they are called. Carp eradication would do you no harm. There aren't any bullheads in there are there?

Third, it was hit on earlier, but you should think about harvesting some (lots) of those bluegills. Getting rid of some of the biomass should result in less resource competition and bigger gills. The little largemouth bass could be being out-competed by the small gills. Elimination of some smaller bluegills should free up some of the resources and allow the gills to get bigger and more largemouth bass recruitment to occur.

Hopefully this is of some help. I can't wait to hear how it all works out. Best of luck!

[HuskerFanatic]

i fish some really deep sand pits just north of plattsmouth off of buccaneer bay road, and let me tell you there are a bunch of really big paddlefish in them. once when bowfishing i saw this giant submarine looking fish swimming towards me i got ready thinking it was a state record grass carp. but when it got closer i saw the long nose good thing i didnt shoot.

[Aquaman]

Just for the general information, alum, or aluminum sulfate can be very effective on colloidal clay suspensions. Colloidal clays are, if I remember correctly, same charge particles that repel each other, thus keeping them in suspension. They are also tiny particle size so their weight does little for settling. Alum causes the particles to "floc" or coalesce, making them heavy enough to drop out of suspension. Alum also bonds with phosphorous, creating aluminum phosphate, that makes the phosphorous no longer available for plant uptake, thereby reducing overall plant biomass within your system.

Aluminum is generally inexpensive, as far as pond chemicals go, but has to be monitored upon application to make sure that the water doesn't acidify to the point of being harmful to fish or invertebrate populations.

[burrodebo]

Originally Posted by Aquaman

There have been other verified instances of paddlefish in larger, deeper sandpits. At least one in Nebraska that I believe ran in the 90+ category.

This one came out of a sandpit.

[SKershaw]

Originally Posted by Aquaman

if I remember correctly, same charge particles that repel each other, thus keeping them in suspension. They are also tiny particle size so their weight does little for settling. Alum causes the particles to "floc" or coalesce, making them heavy enough to drop out of suspension.

To think a dentist knows so much about colloidal suspensions. We just had our test on suspensions in pharmacy school. I thought I would never use this stuff outside of pharmacy and amoxicillin suspensions. Gotta love that flocculation!!!

How do you make time for all this pond stuff? Geez!

[Chasin 'eyes]

If you need help with the reduction of the smaller gills I would be more than happy to take some off of your hands as our pond needs them badly.

[Aquaman]

Originally Posted by burrodebo

This one came out of a sandpit.

Yep, that's the one.

[Aquaman]

Originally Posted by SKershaw

To think a dentist knows so much about colloidal suspensions. We just had our test on suspensions in pharmacy school. I thought I would never use this stuff outside of pharmacy and amoxicillin suspensions. Gotta love that flocculation!!!

How do you make time for all this pond stuff? Geez!

You'll have to excuse me.....I'm feeling a little flocculant.

[Chad]

One of the nicest guys you'll ever meet has one of the coolest boats around. Check out this bad boy.

Jeff Blaser (Private Waters Specialist, NGPC) and his electrofishing boat


The sample wasn't encouraging. We found no bass and lots of small gills. A handful of near-spawn fatheads minnows were also present along with thousands and thousands and thousands of tadpoles. Predation is low if not non-existent. Bottom line, we need to prevent the winter kills and add LMB. On the up side, the Secchi Disk reading was good.


For those who aren't familiar with the electrofishing process, here are some pics and an overview.

On private waters, finding the boat ramp can be the hardest part sometimes.


Here is the electrofishing in progress. One man drives the boat and another wears insulated gloves and holds a long-handled net. If you look closely, you can see that I'm standing on a rubber mat. When weight is applied to the mat, the current flows into the water through two metal hoops that can best be seen in the first picture of this post running ahead of the boat. Jeff maneuvers the boat into spots likely to be holding fish such as stickups, vegetation, points, etc. I watch for fish to float to the surface, net them and deposit them in the live well directly behind me.


After just a short time on the water, we had all the gills we needed so we just drove around shocking gills for fun and leaving them on the water to wake up later.

"What the hell was that Bob?"
"War of the worlds, my friend. Our time is short."

Just kidding, we were actually looking for bass or crappie, but never found any.

Unneeded gills, waiting to wake up


Once we had all our fish, we pulled into a quiet cove to weigh measure and take scale samples from at least 10 fish in size classes of 10mm.


Scale samples were stored in envelopes. Later, Jeff will make slides and be able to determine the age, like looking at rings on a tree. Then we'll know if the number of gills is impacting/slowing their growth rate/potential.


When finished, we thanked Jeff and helped him load up his boat so he could head to the next private pit. This service is yet another reason I love the NGPC.

[Fish Recycler]

Outstanding overview, Chad.

Electrofishing is pretty cool, probably more cool when goliath fish pop to the top rather than a bunch of silver dollars with fins.

Thanks to everybody for the contributions so far!

[Aquaman]

That's a great post, Chad. Thanks for taking the time to get us up to date.

[Plasticsjunkie]

Great info. Thanks for the education!