I trust you slept well and have a blessed day just waiting for you to seize it!
Today the project is to focus on fish pond management. We have three ponds--one large, two small. The large pond (the one you see in the photos) has mudcats (flatheads), largemouth bass, and bream. We have seen one or two crawdads (I have only seen small crawdads, but Sooper has seen a larger one).
The upper pond has a different type of bream and I need to identify what kind. It does not seem to have any bass.
I am not sure what the back pond is...we know it has a box turtle and some minnows, but we have not been able to fish it. There has been someone who fished it when the previous owners had the house, but that was without the owners' permission.
Apparently mudcats are not the best for a home pond. They tend to be voracious (to which I can testify--it looks like a feeding frenzy from Shark Week when we put food out for them). There are differences in how people think they taste--some do not mind, some prefer channel cats.
We also have, I have discovered, too many largemouth bass. The result is that none of them are getting big and we have very few bream (but the ones we have are LARGE. Well the one we have. He is sort of my pet now lolol. I have seen a couple others, but not many.).
I tried to write our fish biologist for our district. A very neat program is that they will come look at your pond that is of a certain size and has both bass and bream in it, and evaluate it for you. However, the reply I got from the gentleman was...terse. I don't need the stress. So I am going to work on the ponds on my own.
I am going to try to finish my crawdad trap today. I will test it and see if I get any crawdads in at least the front two ponds and the canal. I can then evaluate the size of them. My thinking is possibly making either the upper pond or the back pond a crawdad fishery. I wonder if I can make the upper pond a bream and crawdad habitat? I love to catch and eat bream. I have the fondest memories of going fishing with a bobber and crickets at my grandma's and catching sunfish on a cane pole :) I still get a rush when I see the bobber go under the water.
For the main pond, I am thinking about fishing out the mudcats almost entirely, introducing channel cats, fishing out some of the bass, adding in either bluegill or redear, and adding a couple of grass carp to the back ponds, as the ponds are very reedy and vegetative.
The farmer's co-op is having a fish sale in June, so I have a few weeks to get my act together. This will involve:
a)Catching a few mudcats and seeing if we like the flavor.
b)Catching out a lot of the bass, again, seeing if the family likes the flavor.
c)Finishing the crawdad trap. Testing to make sure it works, then trying each water body. If we have an abundance, I might make a couple more crawdad traps. I am putting together a post for that :)
d)Catching all the mudcats we can (we will be able to dipnet a ton) and spending a day processing them and putting them in the freezer. If we do not like the flavor, we will be making dog food with them.
e)Fishing out a ton of the bass and doing the same with putting it up. I do not want to waste any fish.
f)Finalizing what fish will go in what pond and buying them from the co-op.
g)If the family does not like the taste of the mudcats, I will need to find a dog food recipe. Probably a good thing anyway since Little B has the tenderest digestion (gets very stove up) and could probably benefit from homemade food. Plus it is probably a ton cheaper. Anyone know of a good dog food recipe?
The crawdads are a different thing. I do not want to introduce a species if it is not normally here. I might just have to research what crawdads need and create a situation in one of the ponds that encourages whatever stock is there. I have some folk who will buy the crawdads, and we will eat it ourselves, so it is a good idea to start heartening the supply.
You know, it is not entirely unpleasant to see that this farm task requires a ton of fishing ;). Now that I have the filleting board and we have some plastic tables and some good quality knives, this is going to be a fantastic chore :)
This is me unhooking a mudcat. This scene is not actually this wide, but for some reason blogger turns the photo on its side then when it reverts, it makes it very wide.
Catfish have poisonous spines on their top and side fins (dorsal and pectoral)--they won't kill you or anything, but apparently they really hurt (but to take out the sting, you are supposed to rub the belly slime of the catfish on the wound...thank you, but I think I will stick with dermoplast ;) ). By flipping him upside down to secure the top fin, and sliding my hand on his belly so that my thumb and ring finger are pressed up against his pectoral fins and my pointer controlling his neck, I can pick him up and remove the hook without care.
Wish you could see my snake boots better--they are awesome pink cammo ;)
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