Progress notes on Dad's trophy bluegill pond.

[Bruce Condello]

I don't know if it's the barley straw or the aeration system--or likely both--but right now the pond has secchi readings of over 3 meters. This is unheard of on any of the ponds on my farm. I have some Earthtec ready and available for the beginnings of an algae bloom, but maybe I won't have to use it for awhile. The fish are all basically still tiny. Way too little to provide a fishing experience. Maybe we're close to two years away from having a good fishery.

249 bluegill that are 3-4 inches.
35 slightly bigger age-2 bluegill
125 yellow perch that are also quite small. Maybe 5-8 inches.
4 steelheads just for the fun of it. They'll probably last another week or so until we harvest them out.

The feedings are very enthusiastic at least. :-)

I used the Earthtec (buffered copper sulfate) on the sediment/nutrient pond yesterday and I'll check it tomorrow to see if there was an effect. The secchi readings were .4 meter yesterday.

[Bruce Condello]

Today was the best I've ever seen the water quality in this pond anytime after July 1st. Generally at this time of the year the pond is getting a brownish, or bright greenish color to it, but today is was a gorgeous jade/clear with a secchi reading of 23 inches. It even smells better than previous years. Before is had a sort of "silage" smell. Now there's no odor at all. I've also noticed that the bottom of the pond doesn't look black, it looks very light brown--sort of like regular clay would look on dry land.

The water temperatures were around 61 degrees this morning. We're anticipating a warmup over the next ten days, so maybe the feedings will improve.

The following fish were added:

60 adult fathead minnows
1 age-2 bluegill @ 9.25 inches
12 HSB @ 5.5 inches

I sampled some YOY bluegill again and am seeing fish that are getting awfully close to 3 inches, and also a huge number of 1 inch fish. These littler bluegill like to peck and poke at fish pellets, but none are large enough to consume an Aquamax 400 pellet in one shot. They could probably eat Aquamax 300, but since it's a sinking feed I'm hesitant to feed it, since I wouldn't know if it's getting utilized or not.

[Bruce Condello]

Secchi readings are now at 21.5 inches, and pH was 8.1. DO was 8.4 ppm. Air temps during these readings were in the low 60's around mid-day. Quite a few YOY's are hovering around 2-2.5 inches. There are also tens of thousands of .75 inch YOY's. Major late spawn. I think the yellow perch will have tons to eat all winter.

[Bruce Condello]

Secchi readings came in at 22 inches today. The levels are mind-numbingly consistent. pH was 8.0 for about the hundredth time in a row. Dissolved oxygen was also 8ppm. Water temps were all the way down to 63 degrees due to an extreme cold front that has moved through. The air temps were around 53 when I measured the water parameters. Very little if any feeding activity. YOY's are looking bigger. Maybe some around 2.5 inches, which is decent given the incredibly late spawn.

[Bruce Condello]

I'm now applying just a little bit of copper sulfate four days each week. Less than an ounce each application. I'm hoping to eventually find a level at which I can keep the algae suppressed. I probably won't be applying full force until next April. I just want to avoid the huge bloom that I've seen in the past.

I don't want to entirely eliminate the algae either. Algae serves some useful purposes. It provides oxygen during the day. It provides nutrition for certain types of zooplankton, and it keeps nutrients suspended where they can exit a water body during a runoff event.

Negatives of copper sulfate are that you can kill your invertebrates, kill your beneficial bacteria, and kill your fish--so you gotta be careful. It can also kill your phytoplankton (single celled algae) all at once, which causes the dissolved oxygen levels to plummet.

[Bruce Condello]

Five pounds of feed in one day now! Whoa! The fish are hungry. Here's an example of how healthy the age-1 bluegill are...

Not bad, eh? The fish's mouth is probably still too small to catch with anything other than a dry fly, but he's a chunk.

This is gettin' fun...

[Bruce Condello]

Interesting how the water quality continues to nudge up ever so slightly. The secchi reading tonight was 23 inches, and the water just looks great! Kind of a nice jade green. Had a super fun experience tonight. I was throwing some Aquamax Grower 400 and a school of a couple hundred YOY bluegill came out of nowhere and started to hammer it! I couldn't tell exactly how big they were, but looked to be solid 3-inchers. The yellow perch were hard to judge the size, but they were also on a tear. I went through probably 5 pounds of feed.

[Bruce Condello]

One interesting thing to note. Because I am agressively aerating using a vertex aeration system, the water quality appears much better than last year. I've always considered yellow perch to be the "canary in a coal mine", figuring that they would stress or die before the bluegill if water quality issues were arising. Well, this year the yellow perch have fed well during the entire summer, including last week with air temps in the 100's and water temps near 90 F. I'm hoping this is an indication that I'm doing the right things with Dad's pond.

[Bruce Condello]

Wow! Water clarity has jumped to an incredible 21 inches now. Serious lack of rain in the neighborhood. The fish are very happy. Yellow perch are feeding agressively now, in spite of water temperatures in the low-80's. I would assume that this is due to the water being at full saturation for dissolved oxygen. A smallmouth was whaching YOY bluegill. Two days ago we ran a seine and we found hundred of YOY bluegill that were .75 to 1.25 inches, as well as quite a few YOY fathead minnows. Fascinating how vital the pond looks right now. The big pond is looking quite green, with a significant algae bloom. I would assume we're starting to look at the beginnings of a crash. Watch and see, I guess.

[Bruce Condello]

It looks like the water clarity has stabilized at 19 inches. It never changes. Fairly decent. I'd love it to be clearer, but I guess I shouldn't complain. The fertility of the water, plus the fact I'm feeding about 3 pounds each day makes the alga a part of life. I noticed earlier this week that I seem to have tens of thousands of fathead minnow fry and fingerlings. I also have thousands of YOY bluegill that range from .75 inches to 1.75 inches. It would seem that this would be ample forage for all the little yellow perch in the pond. Watching the feedings is interesting. I like to just show up on a whim and observe the little bluegill and yellow perch pop the pellets. I've been going sometimes every day just to watch and daydream. There still aren't any big fish in the pond, but I enjoy the fact that my Dad can wet a line.

I've also noticed that I have some HUGE bluegill, and I mean huge, huge, huge, huge bluegill that are working the cattails in my bigger pond. Nobody has been fishing it, so these bluegill are possibly getting a little less hookshy. I've tried to catch them before, but it's a virtual impossibility due to the extremely low densities. Oh well. If I want good fishing I can go to several friends ponds and try there.

I did see what appeared to be several dozen small redears hitting pellets yesterday, so it will be interesting to watch this as it develops.

[Bruce Condello]

Water clarity has crept up to 19 iinches. Last week we got another torrential downpour of 3.5 inches and the water muddied up drastically. Fortunately the fish have continued to feed agressively. Growth rates are really good.