If your locale is like mine it's a great time to head to the creek to fish watch.

[GolemGolem]

Went a little more remote about five miles out yesterday with the wife to Slickrock. It is as it sounds the river bottom is huge sheets of rock that are indeed very slick. It's been dry and hot and the water level is about half of normal, and it's normally shallow. Water around 90 degrees. It's a neat feeling having schools of Gambusia swarm around you in 1-2" of water, giant schools of minnows and sunfish in 2-6" of water, crawfish under almost every rock you turnover, saw some new little fish I have not seen before near the swarms of gambusia that reminded me of khuli loaches if they were a little smaller and had bright green stripes. The bigger sunfish were almost florescent with bright reds and blues herding the smaller ones back under rocks if you get too close.
Oh well I'm going back next week, today I think I'm actually going to go get the silicone to patch up my old 50gal.

 

[jjohnwm]

Sounds like a fun expedition. I love spending time like this; it's nice being able to play with nets and buckets as an adult, because once you reach a certain age you no longer give a s%&@ how silly others may think you look...

And your dry spell certainly does concentrate the fish and make them easier to observe and/or catch. My area, on the other hand, is having the wettest season on record. Flooding everywhere was extreme a few weeks ago, and the ground is still so saturated that when it rains again, the water quickly pools up on the surface with nowhere to go. My little backyard pond flooded so badly from excess rainwater that I was herding fish around my yard in an effort to shepherd them back into the pond!

Three inches of water crowded with fish isn't nearly so cool when you're actually supposed to be on dry ground!

 

[wednesday13]

Went a little more remote about five miles out yesterday with the wife to Slickrock. It is as it sounds the river bottom is huge sheets of rock that are indeed very slick. It's been dry and hot and the water level is about half of normal, and it's normally shallow. Water around 90 degrees. It's a neat feeling having schools of Gambusia swarm around you in 1-2" of water, giant schools of minnows and sunfish in 2-6" of water, crawfish under almost every rock you turnover, saw some new little fish I have not seen before near the swarms of gambusia that reminded me of khuli loaches if they were a little smaller and had bright green stripes. The bigger sunfish were almost florescent with bright reds and blues herding the smaller ones back under rocks if you get too close.
Oh well I'm going back next week, today I think I'm actually going to go get the silicone to patch up my old 50gal.

Sounds like u found log perch darters or a darter sp. of sorts. Def. Fun to explore low water i agree. Good time to dip net if ur allowed to collect fish in ur state. I do hate this time of year also tho ?… water temps nearing 80 degrees means no “ethical” pike fishing for me ?

 

[GolemGolem]

Lol, yeah and even so not too many eyes five miles down a gravel road ten miles from a town of 200.
Sounds like our spring and fall! I've had plans to put in a pond for ages, but have never had the budget + confidence in where all the buried electric and water lines are. If I ever do, I'll know your pain. Every couple years when the rain is inches an hour we'll get a small river flowing though the living room and kitchen. My experience of wet times is I won't see many fish, but I'll see way more turtles, frogs, and snakes.

 

[jjohnwm]

Absolutely correct! Flooding simply expands the area of water which the fish can access, spreading them out more thinly, while simultaneously deepening and often clouding the water making them that much more difficult to observe.

Put in that pond! It is such a fun and rewarding project, and I look forward to each new spring melt so that I can enjoy mine. I have just one piece of advice:

My pond is roughly 12 x 16 feet by an average of about 3 feet deep. I dug it entirely by hand.

Don't do that.