A Sarpy County Farm Pond

[daveycrockett]

really interesting post chad! any updates?

[Chad]

Originally Posted by daveycrockett

really interesting post chad! any updates?

Should be some news soon

[Chad]

UPDATE:

A recent early morning adventure found Teeg and I on a lonely stretch of Nebraska blacktop awaiting the arrival of Aquaman. Rumor had it, he could help us with our overpopulation of Bluegills. We waited...

Just when we were ready to pack it up and head home, an unmarked van pulled up with tinted windows. Aquaman got out. He offered us our choice of two pills. Take one and we'd wake up at home as if nothing had happened. Take the other and we'd awake on his private aquaculture farm (location unknown) to collect and claim an infusion of prime age 1 Largemouth Bass for our pond. We chose the second pill.

Aquaman (pictured here without a cowboy hat, but with fancy sunglasses and shirt sleeves)


With the exception of Aquaman's pharmaceuticals, which I'm quite sure were illegal, everything else was above board and legit with the NGPC. If you want to move fish in Nebraska from private water to private water, you need to go though Jeff Blaser. Note the signature.


We caught a whole slew of micro largemouth (around 100 were transferred), with Aquaman thoroughly schooling Teeg and I in the art of catching the tiny fish.

Before loading the fish for transfer, we were given a tour of the farm and had the privilege to fish a couple of the ponds. It's a wonderful spot in the world (wherever that spot might be) filled with the kind of Bluegill that OBG only dreams about. I also found a nice Redear along some shoreline vegetation that went for my black/olive woolly bugger. Unfortunately, I fumbled the release before we could snap a picture.

After the tour, we loaded the bass in coolers, added frozen water bottles and bubblers, and were off to our Sarpy-county pond to put the long-term hurt on the gills.

The fish did awesome during the transfer. After an acclimation process they were happy to swim off into their new waters.

This One Eats Bluegill Fry for Breakfast


This One was a Little Offended by My Hat


The release into flooded terrestrial vegetation, plenty of stuff to eat in there until they're a little bigger.


Success will be measured in years, and in order to make this transfer worth while, we need to "fix" the winter kill (at least improve the situation). Our strategy for that is to establish aquatic vegetation in the pond in order to sequester nutrients and limit the growth of filamentous algae after ice up.

In the months to come, watch this thread to see aquatics transplanted and a fishing pier built.

As always, more to come...

Thanks Aquaman!

[Shorty]

Our strategy for that is to establish aquatic vegetation in the pond in order to sequester nutrients and limit the growth of filamentous algae after ice up.

So, what type of aquatic vegetation are you looking for?

[Chad]

Originally Posted by Shorty

So, what type of aquatic vegetation are you looking for?

I'd like to see a diversity of vegetation, but our thought process hasn't moved much beyond cattails. I understand that they are easy to transplant and spread rapidly. The pond has good depth, so I'm not too concerned about the cattails taking over.

Open to ideas and suggestions.

[Shorty]

Open to ideas and suggestions.

Most of my experience has been dealing with too much aquatic vegetation.

Too much eurasian milfoil, coontail, sago, or horned pond weed. When it comes to aquatic vegetation, there is the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Did Blasser have any recommendations other than adding cattails?

[esoxjunkie]

I'm no biologist, but I have dabbled a bit in pond construction and management. I had really good luck with a water garden plant known commonly as Water Hyacinth (Eichornia Crassipies, or something like that).




It is a floating plant with an incredible root system that floats under the foilage and does an amazing job of filtering. It grows very well all summer, and forms into clusters like dense lilypads. Awesome habitat for all types of stuff.

It won't do much for you after the water cools though, because it dies off over the winter.

Just thought I'd throw that out there.

Jamie

[holdemplyer]

Originally Posted by Chad

We caught a whole slew of micro largemouth (around 100 were transferred), with Aquaman thoroughly schooling Teeg and I in the art of catching the tiny fish.

I thought you two were already well versed in that fine art.

Great thread, It will be interesting to see the progress of your pond over the years.

Alex

[Chad]

UPDATE: We dropped the water level of the pond 9 feet. This will allow the owner to build a fishing pier and allow us to better survey the terrain and add aquatic vegetation where appropriate.

(For those who may be joining us late, or have forgotten, we believe that adding aquatic vegetation will help to prevent winter kills by sequestering nutrients.)

So... what kinds of aquatic vegetation would you try to establish and where?

The "greener" zone around the pond is the exposed zone. It's what was under water before we had the NRD let the water down, and it's what will be flooded when we close the valve.

Northwest corner, looking south


Northeast corner (very interesting underwater point/flat) What would you do here?


Southeast portion... not much to do here, but check out that exposed structure.


Southwest portion (interesting shallow, small underwater shelf; you can also see the creek arm at bottom right)


With the water level dropped, the main thing that struck us about the pond was its depth and steepness of the banks. Perhaps this has something to do with the lack of vegetation present.

[Aquaman]

Originally Posted by Chad

....The "greener" zone around the pond is the exposed zone. It's what was under water before we had the NRD let the water down...

Good job. I'm glad you weren't one of those people who decided to expose the bottom nine feet and leave the top of the water column in place.

[Chad]

From Daryl.

Saw that the water level in the Sarpy County farmpond has been lowered. Isn't there any aquatic vegetation in the pond now? Not even some pondweed in shallow water? And if there isn't, why not? Yes, the steep banks will limit the area where aquatic vegetation potentially could grow, but even then you should have some vegetation in shallow water already.

Where and what kind? Anywhere, there probably is not going to be much difference in soils or apparently depths anywhere on the pond. Transplanting aquatic plants that are growing in other waters in the area would be your best bet, but if that pond has been around for any length of time at all there should already be some of those aquatic plants there now.

Water level manipulations like you have done are a good way to encourage the growth and expansion of aquatic vegetation. You might even see some aquatic plants showing up on their own.

Some of my random thoughts,

Daryl B.

P.S. Feel free to share this message with others if you wish.

Daryl,

For some reason, there isn't any aquatic vegetation currently. And the pond has been around for a couple of decades. In the spring, there was a brief algae bloom.

[Fish Recycler]

Thanks for posting up the photos, Chad.

I agree that it's strange to find a pond like this with no aquatic vegetation but Chad is right, the pond is virtually devoid of emergent or submergent vegetation.

In my dream-world, one of those flats would get covered with a thick bed of gravel, and then some bigger chunk rock scattered over that. Chances are, not gonna happen.

However, I do think that just adding vegetation will do wonders, so like Chad I wonder what vegetation mix is going to serve us best.

[Aquaman]

I would immediately start importing American Pondweed (Potemogeton). The seed heads are available in many ponds very near to you, I'm sure. Here's what it looks like.

[brademan76]

DANG! It looks like the pond would have a ton of agricultural runoff from those fields above it.

Chad, do you plan on hunting out of the pond when season rolls around?

[AnglerX]

Chad, Did you stock it and then open valve?

[Chad]

Originally Posted by AnglerX

Chad, Did you stock it and then open valve?

With those micro bass? Yes. We would have liked to do it the other way, but it wasn't possible. We may have lost some of them, but I'm sure we still have a good infusion of bass in there. We will also need to add more bass in the future.

[Aquaman]

I can't believe you guys let me get by with being such a smart*** earlier.

[Chad]

Originally Posted by Aquaman

I can't believe you guys let me get by with being such a smart*** earlier.

I thought you had made a very valid point.