I have wanted a pond all my life. If I had one on my property I would probably stock it with indeg...local fish. Around here some of them get huge. Muskies, pike channel cats ,carp, bass, bluegill...etc. Good luck with your new "tank" though.
Found a pond!!
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They are called cast nets, don't use them...they will tear up the fish (scales or slime coat).
You "harvest" the fish from the pond with seine nets and at least two people working from one end to the other.
First spend a little money and have the water professionally tested for everything including D.O. If this is low and you can't get electricity out there consider a paddle boat and stay with the turtles and some feeder minnows
.
If the bottom has silt (I know you said sand, but double check it) stay away from bottom feeders (cats, carp, eels etc.) they will screw up the water clarity and quality.
You don't want to put anything in to remove algae unless there is a BIG problem with it, use floating & submerged plants to help regulate it. You'll need the algae as food for the spawn.
Pacu won't take the cold and they are really hard to see from above.
Check your state laws on release of tropicals to the wild before you do.
I'm still not clear on how you never knew this pond there???
How much property do your parents have? Oh ya, where abouts are you?, the Wolverine states kinda big.
Dr Joe
.
So hurry up with the pix.
You "harvest" the fish from the pond with seine nets and at least two people working from one end to the other.
First spend a little money and have the water professionally tested for everything including D.O. If this is low and you can't get electricity out there consider a paddle boat and stay with the turtles and some feeder minnows
.If the bottom has silt (I know you said sand, but double check it) stay away from bottom feeders (cats, carp, eels etc.) they will screw up the water clarity and quality.
You don't want to put anything in to remove algae unless there is a BIG problem with it, use floating & submerged plants to help regulate it. You'll need the algae as food for the spawn.
Pacu won't take the cold and they are really hard to see from above.
Check your state laws on release of tropicals to the wild before you do.
I'm still not clear on how you never knew this pond there???
How much property do your parents have? Oh ya, where abouts are you?, the Wolverine states kinda big.
Dr Joe
.
So hurry up with the pix.
The sandy bottom & no fish thing kind of makes me think maybe it is spring-fed, from the bottom (like the springs we've got down here). If that's the case you might find the water temp. to be a bit more stable, and the pond might stay warmer in winter than you'd think (at least at the bottom where the spring feeds).
It would be cool of there were some native fish that came in albino, they'd be easier to see. The only thing I can think of is channel cats. I'd put in some minnows like rosies or even white clouds and let them breed, then check it in winter and see how cold it gets/how warm it stays, and do your real stocking come spring.
A monster wels, that would be sick. I'm picturing a coldwater monster pond, gar, musky, pike, wels, sturgeon...some common snapping turtles. Woo hoo.
It would be cool of there were some native fish that came in albino, they'd be easier to see. The only thing I can think of is channel cats. I'd put in some minnows like rosies or even white clouds and let them breed, then check it in winter and see how cold it gets/how warm it stays, and do your real stocking come spring.
A monster wels, that would be sick. I'm picturing a coldwater monster pond, gar, musky, pike, wels, sturgeon...some common snapping turtles. Woo hoo.
Gar, muskie, pike, walleye, sturgeon, and the like. The cool part would be that you could grow all these fish in your aquarium until they get too big for it. Also I would deffinatly watch this pond through the winter. You could be lucky or terribly sorry. It sounds like the pond is spring fed so most likely this pond will stay fairly warm all through winter or it will freeze solid...
Chad
Chad
Dr Joe;986131; said:They are called cast nets, don't use them...they will tear up the fish (scales or slime coat).
You "harvest" the fish from the pond with seine nets and at least two people working from one end to the other.
First spend a little money and have the water professionally tested for everything including D.O. If this is low and you can't get electricity out there consider a paddle boat and stay with the turtles and some feeder minnows
If the bottom has silt (I know you said sand, but double check it) stay away from bottom feeders (cats, carp, eels etc.) they will screw up the water clarity and quality.
You don't want to put anything in to remove algae unless there is a BIG problem with it, use floating & submerged plants to help regulate it. You'll need the algae as food for the spawn.
Pacu won't take the cold and they are really hard to see from above.
Check your state laws on release of tropicals to the wild before you do.
I'm still not clear on how you never knew this pond there???
How much property do your parents have? Oh ya, where abouts are you?, the Wolverine states kinda big.
Dr Joe
.
So hurry up with the pix.
I'm working on the pics, my girlfriend is kind of weary about me borrowing her digital camera because of a previous "incident" (Gee, It'd be a GRAND idea to wrap it in siran wrap to get underwater shots!).
Thank you for the advice about the casting nets, I will make sure to buy seine nets if/when the time comes.
The law, as far as I understood it, was if it is a private pond, or on your personally owned propertys, completely segregated from any other natural waterways, you may release a non-native species to it, as long as it is monitored. If you live on a public lake, Tropical releases, as imagined, are prohibited. However, if it is privately owned, it is yours.
As far as never knowing it was there, I never really just go exploring around my house. I used to when we moved here, but never very far. I'm not 100% on the acreage, but we own about 1.5 square miles of land.
As for the substrate, I am 100% sure it is all sand. There is no mud or silt. The algae isn't a problem, as it seems to be very well under control. The only worry I have a smaller population of Duckweed. I know how quickly it spreads, but I don't want to remove it, as I want to keep it as natural as possible (except fish of course
). As a test, I was considering buying about 20 Comet goldfish, and letting them go there for a year or two. I figure if they're doing alright, my new discovery will be fine for others (who will be brought in during the winter, whereas the goldfish will be left out). I am very willing to test it for long periods of time, 1 or 2 years, to insure the ultimate quality of the pond. Why be in a hurry, right? I'd like the best for the fish over quick results. As for the location, it is a town called Howell. It's about a 30 minute drive from Lansing. Smaller town, and the pond is located in a rather far-out outskirt of the town.
Deffinately check the water parms. To have a lake that is clear and in the middle of nowhere make me think it is spring feed. My grand parents had one on their property in the U.P. The problem with that is the water was ice cold all the time. Look into getting some game fish and forget about convicts, arrows, and the such. A tiger muskie that could be conditioned to being feed when you approach the water would be awesome.
Dr Joe;986131; said:They are called cast nets, don't use them...they will tear up the fish (scales or slime coat).
You "harvest" the fish from the pond with seine nets and at least two people working from one end to the other.
First spend a little money and have the water professionally tested for everything including D.O. If this is low and you can't get electricity out there consider a paddle boat and stay with the turtles and some feeder minnows
If the bottom has silt (I know you said sand, but double check it) stay away from bottom feeders (cats, carp, eels etc.) they will screw up the water clarity and quality.
You don't want to put anything in to remove algae unless there is a BIG problem with it, use floating & submerged plants to help regulate it. You'll need the algae as food for the spawn.
Pacu won't take the cold and they are really hard to see from above.
Check your state laws on release of tropicals to the wild before you do.
I'm still not clear on how you never knew this pond there???
How much property do your parents have? Oh ya, where abouts are you?, the Wolverine states kinda big.
Dr Joe
.
So hurry up with the pix.
FYI: a pond that size would need more than two people to seine it and be seined several times with the seine reaching from shore to shore to get MOST of the fish out.
I helped seine out a half acre catfish pond (yours is almost an acre) not to long ago and we had the seine as long as the pond was wide with seven people working it (two one each end and three on the mudline). We seined it twice then draind the pond and grabed asmany as we could out of the puddle at the bottom. Apparently theres still one or two cats in the pond too!
SO, you most likely can't get all of the fish out but you can get most of them.
Dr Joe;986131; said:They are called cast nets, don't use them...they will tear up the fish (scales or slime coat).
You "harvest" the fish from the pond with seine nets and at least two people working from one end to the other.
First spend a little money and have the water professionally tested for everything including D.O. If this is low and you can't get electricity out there consider a paddle boat and stay with the turtles and some feeder minnows
If the bottom has silt (I know you said sand, but double check it) stay away from bottom feeders (cats, carp, eels etc.) they will screw up the water clarity and quality.
You don't want to put anything in to remove algae unless there is a BIG problem with it, use floating & submerged plants to help regulate it. You'll need the algae as food for the spawn.
Pacu won't take the cold and they are really hard to see from above.
Check your state laws on release of tropicals to the wild before you do.
I'm still not clear on how you never knew this pond there???
How much property do your parents have? Oh ya, where abouts are you?, the Wolverine states kinda big.
Dr Joe
.
So hurry up with the pix.
FYI: a pond that size would need more than two people to seine it and be seined several times with the seine reaching from shore to shore to get MOST of the fish out.
I helped seine out a half acre catfish pond (yours is almost an acre) not to long ago and we had the seine as long as the pond was wide with seven people working it (two one each end and three on the mudline). We seined it twice then draind the pond and grabed asmany as we could out of the puddle at the bottom. Apparently theres still one or two cats in the pond too!
SO, you most likely can't get all of the fish out but you can get most of them.
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