Years ago I had a pond dug in my back yard and stocked it. The bass grew to a decent size and there were other kinds of fish to feed them. But one thing about a pond you don't get in larger waters are seasonal observations about fish that I would have never thought possible. These are a few:
Too much snow that blocks light from pond weeds results in a fish kill. I had many nice size bass and other fish floating on the surface once the ice melted. All fish died because all the weeds could produce was carbon dioxide day and night along with the CO2 fish produced.
The bass were trainable up to a limit. I used to bring my bass boat alongside the shore after fishing and throw panfish to bass lined up in a row waiting to be fed. This would only occur from 4-5pm in summer and once one group of five or six ate, another group would take their place. I would have never guessed bass could be trained to feed from a human hand.
In a small pond bass are easier to catch at certain times of day and before the weather changes. As time went on I considered them like pets and mostly tested lures on pan fish close to shore which brings up finding how well the drop shot worked for the first time.
Pond weeds make the water pretty clear and so I rigged a small plastic worm on a drop shot rig hook 2' off bottom. As soon as one perch hit, other nearby fish struck - including a bass that came out of nowhere. I learned that the bite can be contagious (confirmed by catching a sh**load of crappies through the ice in a lake), but not where the fish and I could see each other! I learned other presentations and lure designs in that pond as the years went by - including a wacky rigged plastic mini-stick that caught panfish and bass.
I thought for sure that there would be few fish after a two year drought that lowered the water from its max of 7.5' to 2'. Heron would visit and kill fish when no one was looking, leaving bass dead on shore that were too large to swallow whole. But this year I found that though the population is very low, there are restocked fish that survived from years ago. This spring I've caught small yellow perch that were born in the pond along with a nice size crappie and one bass that had to be over 11".
As with bass learning to wait for fish to be thrown to them, over 2 dozen sunfish do the same when it comes to bread balls formed by rolling them between fingers. Even when I had no intention of feeding them, they would follow me along the shore edge I would walk waiting for an easy meal. Many fish have spawned and I can see the different sizes from 1"-2" fingerlings - easy prey for any fish.
I thought I had lost one of three weed eating carp after seeing only two swimming near the surface for years, but yesterday all three were spotted. Strange that they would go through a spawning ritual even though they are sterile hybrids made in a lab. I saw this behavior for the first time this year.
This is the first time I saw yellow perch egg masses floating and attached to cat tail stems. Whether they were fertilized I couldn't say having caught only one since last year. (For those that don't know how perch spawn, water temperature can be in the 40's and are unlike bass that lay eggs on bottom.)
The pond was near max last year, but dried to within a few feet of bottom. It's maxed out now but for how long? After that fish kill of over 120 lbs of fish and most weeds, I regretted ever having dug it. But then I remember the amazing lessons and events it has shown me over the years and think - what else would I have done with the land except mowing it ?
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Originally Posted by capt odie
@kennethandmacy