outdoor stock tanks...successes and failures
- Thread starter jjohnwm
- Start date
They're plain ordinary feeders, got them from a neighbour who buys fish and then loses interest in them by the time she gets them home. That was a couple years back, they're in the 7-plus-inch range now. Lost a bunch to a heron earlier this summer, but still have maybe 15-20, not sure of the surviving number. They go outside into this pond for the summer and then back down into the basement fishroom for the winter.
I'm amazed at how thoroughly I have fallen for these fish. They are colourful, active, tame, show up wonderfully from above, don't fight with each other or anybody else....they are common as dirt but rarity just isn't something that matters to me. They are, by almost every metric, the perfect aquarium fish.
They also spend most of the summer chasing each other around and doing the nasty, and I wind up with dozens or hundreds of fry as a result. I've given a bunch away to other folks, I've blenderized a bunch more and added them to my home-made gel fish food, and last winter I started to use them as bait for ice-fishing. They live in my freezer for the most part, but when they first come out of the pond I need to keep them alive long enough for them to turn orange; the fry are all a natural greenish-bronze colour until they get up around 2 inches in length. Experimentation shows that, at times, a bright-orange bait outfishes a natural one by a wide margin.
So...I love them as pond fish, I love them as aquarium fish, I love them as fish food, I love them as fishing bait...may have to try them battered and pan-fried myself.
Haha, that’s awesome mate. A well written & informative response. I was hoping you wouldn’t just give a 1 sentence answer. Lol
As a fisherman myself, I do wonder what you target when ice fishing
Both of my brothers live in Dryden Ontario, and are avid fisherman, targeting mostly walleye, but crappie also thru the ice in the winter.
As a fisherman myself, I do wonder what you target when ice fishing
Both of my brothers live in Dryden Ontario, and are avid fisherman, targeting mostly walleye, but crappie also thru the ice in the winter.
The #1 target of most ice fishermen in these parts is Walleye. I love bringing a couple eater-size Walleyes home for a fish fry, but personally I think they are among the dullest fish to actually catch. Hooking a Walleye results in a tussle that is very reminiscent of hooking an old rubber boot that wobbles a bit as it is pulled through the water.
My favourite fish to catch, in terms of enjoyment, are Pike and Burbot. Big predatory guys who put up a good fight, and best of all they are hardy fish that recover quickly when released with little or no mortality. I won't keep either one for the table unless it is badly hooked and seems unlikely to recover, but that's a rare occurrence.
Back in Ontario, I hugely enjoyed deeper water ice fishing for Whitefish (had a smoker specifically set aside for them...) and Lake Trout (always live-released whenever possible), but now I have to travel a fair way to get into good numbers of them and rarely do so.
In both places, Perch are common and are always on the menu when we fish. I rarely go out targeting Perch but if we stumble upon a feeding school of them we take full advantage. We also have a wonderful local fishery for big Channel Cats but very rarely catch them through the ice.
My favourite fish to catch, in terms of enjoyment, are Pike and Burbot. Big predatory guys who put up a good fight, and best of all they are hardy fish that recover quickly when released with little or no mortality. I won't keep either one for the table unless it is badly hooked and seems unlikely to recover, but that's a rare occurrence.
Back in Ontario, I hugely enjoyed deeper water ice fishing for Whitefish (had a smoker specifically set aside for them...) and Lake Trout (always live-released whenever possible), but now I have to travel a fair way to get into good numbers of them and rarely do so.
In both places, Perch are common and are always on the menu when we fish. I rarely go out targeting Perch but if we stumble upon a feeding school of them we take full advantage. We also have a wonderful local fishery for big Channel Cats but very rarely catch them through the ice.
Yeehaw! Another half-year of winter has come and gone, and the Goldies spent it basking in the luxury of their basement tank in the fishroom. I lost one of them, one of those mysterious and unheralded deaths that caught me somewhat off guard, but generally speaking they did great. They'll be moving into the inground pond in a couple weeks.
Today, with the last major drifts of snow melting in the yard, I spent the day placing and filling the stock tanks and beginning to prepare them for the summer. It tends to be a fairly muddy, messy job, as the snowmelt that pools on my yard is pumped out into the field in the same corner of the yard where the stock tanks are located. This means that setting each tank in place and getting it levelled is not a dry, comfy endeavour.
All the tanks are now filled with snowmelt. This very soft, neutral-pH water will be mixed 50/50 with my hard, somewhat alkaline well water before the fish go outside, in order to minimize any shocks to the fish during transfer. I drip-acclimate...actually, more like bucket-acclimate...all the fish from the basement when they go outside. But the tanks are first filled to the brim with the meltwater just to fully weight them and allow them to settle into place, allowing me to check and, if necessary, adjust the level before moving in any fish. Tomorrow I will move a number of flowerpots containing Cattail tubers from the now-thawed inground pond where they overwinter and back into the stocktanks. Shortly after that my water lily tubers will come outside from the dark corner of the basement fishroom.
It's not strictly fun...but it's a task that is filled with and accompanied by lots of anticipation as I look ahead to the summer outdoor breeding season.
That pasture behind the tanks is now alive with a huge number of Boreal Chorus Frogs, who were joined today by the first few Wood Frogs. During the day, they're loud; when nights become a bit warmer than they are now (still below freezing most nights) the chorus of frogs after dusk will drown out normal speech and require raising one's voice to be heard. That will last for several weeks in early May.
My wife becomes a bit fed up after the first few such nights; I am secretly pleased...
Today, with the last major drifts of snow melting in the yard, I spent the day placing and filling the stock tanks and beginning to prepare them for the summer. It tends to be a fairly muddy, messy job, as the snowmelt that pools on my yard is pumped out into the field in the same corner of the yard where the stock tanks are located. This means that setting each tank in place and getting it levelled is not a dry, comfy endeavour.
All the tanks are now filled with snowmelt. This very soft, neutral-pH water will be mixed 50/50 with my hard, somewhat alkaline well water before the fish go outside, in order to minimize any shocks to the fish during transfer. I drip-acclimate...actually, more like bucket-acclimate...all the fish from the basement when they go outside. But the tanks are first filled to the brim with the meltwater just to fully weight them and allow them to settle into place, allowing me to check and, if necessary, adjust the level before moving in any fish. Tomorrow I will move a number of flowerpots containing Cattail tubers from the now-thawed inground pond where they overwinter and back into the stocktanks. Shortly after that my water lily tubers will come outside from the dark corner of the basement fishroom.
It's not strictly fun...but it's a task that is filled with and accompanied by lots of anticipation as I look ahead to the summer outdoor breeding season.
That pasture behind the tanks is now alive with a huge number of Boreal Chorus Frogs, who were joined today by the first few Wood Frogs. During the day, they're loud; when nights become a bit warmer than they are now (still below freezing most nights) the chorus of frogs after dusk will drown out normal speech and require raising one's voice to be heard. That will last for several weeks in early May.
My wife becomes a bit fed up after the first few such nights; I am secretly pleased...
Thank you so much! That was a project from last summer; it's made mostly out of recycled stuff from the sheds and barns on the property. The roof is made of sections of culvert which had been originally repurposed by the previous owner into a horse shelter. I had re-repurposed it for use as a firewood cover, but it was just loose sections laying on top of the wood pile; major PITA moving the pieces to get at the wood as the winter proressed. Finally last year it was re-re-repurposed into the roof you see here. The gate was originally an old farm gate that was just laying out in the field. I cut it in half and mounted one half at each end of the shed, so I can get in from either end; new wood goes in one end, and the older wood is accessed from the other end come winter. I pile carefully, and while some pieces could conceivably work their way out, it didn't happen all winter so I'm okay with it. Some fire-engine-red Rustoleum on the metal parts finished it off.Looking good on the outdoor ponds!
I just love the firewood shed, especially the look of the roof. Do you ever have any firewood escape through that gate, it seems they might escape through the openings.
This was my first winter using it; what a joy after years of struggling with a loose pile of wood with curved steel chunks set on top! And tall enough to stand up inside!
Today I moved all the plant pots with cattail tubers into the stocktanks, and then brought in some wood for a fire tonight; it's only a few degrees above freezing and it snowed on and off all day, so I'm looking forward to that. As I walked back to the house with an armload of wood, a heavy snow squall hit. I leaned my chin forward to help balance the too-large burden and spotted a tick coming off the wood onto my arm. Ticks in the snow; only in Manitoba...
Lol, I just did some temperature checks. The water in the basement tanks in which the fish overwinter ranges between 57F and 61F, dependent upon how tall their stands are.
The water in the inground pond is 39F at the surface and 36F at the bottom. The stock tanks are all 42F to 44F.
It's gonna be awhile....
The water in the inground pond is 39F at the surface and 36F at the bottom. The stock tanks are all 42F to 44F.
It's gonna be awhile....
