Building Lake Corona

Wakey · Jan 1, 2021

JK, have you estimated the depth on the deep end of the pond?

Your threads are fun to watch, thanks for keeping us entertained.

jk96 · Jan 1, 2021

Wakey said:
JK, have you estimated the depth on the deep end of the pond?

Your threads are fun to watch, thanks for keeping us entertained.

I haven't. I'm guessing about 18' at the deepest point to the final waterline. On another note my laziness has bit me in the a**. Instead of driving to pick up a bar guard for the intake pipe I ordered one online. Still waiting on it. I figured only snow this time of year so no hurry and it saved my an hour and a half of driving. Here's the pond after our rain and ice event a few days ago. Now it's snowing today with about 4" of snow on the ground and more coming down.

2021-01-01_03-26-39

bindian · Jan 1, 2021

Did you do a New Year's Eve firework show?
hugs, Brandi

jk96 · Jan 1, 2021

bindian said:
Did you do a New Year's Eve firework show?
hugs, Brandi

Nothing this new year. Unfortunately all of the events were still cancelled do to covid.

MF243RedTop · Jan 2, 2021

jk96 said:
Working on a few artificial structures for fish while the pond bottom is still either dry or frozen. Here's the start of the first one. Need to finish adding the pex tubing to the sticks of pvc to create some branch like structure. This will be the largest as it's made of 20' sticks of pvc. Most left over from my siphon system.

2020-12-28_03-56-51

That's excellent structure for the little fishies..just make sure not too deep.
For a couple years after dad had his little pond dug, we would concrete live Christmas trees into 5 gallon buckets and toss in..

sld · Jan 2, 2021

Regarding getting help from the state of Missouri for fish stocking, read the fine print. I went thru a pond build in Kansas and they too would supply free fish for stocking. However, if you used them you had to grant permission to anyone who asked to fish.

I bought fish from a local hatchery. It is really not that expensive for fingerlings and I think I paid about 2 bucks for each 12" bass. Most hatcheries have a delivery program too which helps tremendously.

Ford850 · Jan 2, 2021

^^ That's how it used to be, and maybe still is, in Ohio. You get fish from the state, and you agree to open your property to the public.

buckeyefarmer · Jan 2, 2021

Ford850 said:
^^ That's how it used to be, and maybe still is, in Ohio. You get fish from the state, and you agree to open your property to the public.

But who knows? Do they publish a list?

bindian · Jan 2, 2021

sld said:
Regarding getting help from the state of Missouri for fish stocking, read the fine print. I went thru a pond build in Kansas and they too would supply free fish for stocking. However, if you used them you had to grant permission to anyone who asked to fish.

I bought fish from a local hatchery. It is really not that expensive for fingerlings and I think I paid about 2 bucks for each 12" bass. Most hatcheries have a delivery program too which helps tremendously.

That was what Texas had when I checked on stocking. No thank you. I stocked my own fish. Don't want folks coming and going, not telling me how many fish they caught, having accidents and suing me, parking in the wrong spots, leaving their trash. The list is endless on why you need to stock your own fish.
hugs, Brandi

EddieWalker · Jan 2, 2021

When I stocked my 4 1/2 acre pond, I was told by the owner of Tyler Fish Farm, a PhD, to only put feeder fish in there to get it started. Then add one type of predator the following year. I didn't listen and put in two predators, large mouth bass and channel catfish. I expected to have fished it a lot more then I have, and I now have a stunting issue with my predators because they do not allow my prey fish to grow. Another rule of thumb is 100 pounds of predator fish per surface acre. That could be 20 bass at 5 pounds each, or 100 at one pound each. Of course, with spawning and new fish being born every year, it becomes serious work to keep the overall population at 100 pound total of predator fish per surface acre. In my pond, we can catch 30 bass in a couple of hours that all weigh one pound. This is very common for us when we fish the pond. We take every bass out of there that we can so the others can have a chance to grow bigger.

In my pond, I stocked fat head minnows and copper nose bluegill for my feeder fish. Tyler Fish Farm said that they are the best combination for growing big bass and not taking over a pond. Other types of sunfish like crappie can quickly take over a bass pond and the bass will never do anything in that pond.

My current pond record for bass is 7 1/2 pounds