Busy day at the pond

Today was really a busy day at the pond and commercial fish food, bread and hot dogs were on the menu. In attendance were just about everyone except La Torpeda and she didn't come yesterday either. I wonder what's keeping her? Hope she feels OK. There were all kinds of goin' ons today! First off when I got down there I went through the usual routine and looked in to see who was there. There were the usual gazillion bluegill and about half a dozen bass. As soon as I started throwing in the commercial feed (only about a cup) all the bass ran away... That was unusual... Oh well... I don't know what was up with that but they returned one by one in a few minutes and brought friends with them. I bet about ten or fifteen bass showed up today in total and I finally ran out of hot dogs before they were even full. Diamond Jim showed up starved to death and I bet ate a whole hot dog all by himself.

After the first couple of minutes I leaned down when I noticed a bit of movement on one of my cement blocks. There was the little brown snake I thought was longggg gone. I hadn't seen that little snake in a couple of months and thought maybe a hawk had gotten him. He's only about 2 and a half feet long. He disappeared really quickly and I didn't see him again for awhile.

About 15 minutes later I saw Smiling Sally heading to the far side of the pond. She eventually ended up where I feed Ole Sam Bass and caught a fish or frog or something over there. I could see her thrashing around and then lift up in the air real high and something wiggling. It's pretty far across the pond so I couldn't identify what she had exactly. I didn't see her again for about an hour until she swam up right where I was sitting.

She parked right over where Meanandlean hunts and they proceeded to eyeball each other for a LONG LONG time. Now you should be able to click on the photo and enlarge it. Mean and lean is just to the left of Smiling Sally and the two of them sat like that for 30 minutes. I kept trying to get a video because I thought any second one of them would jump or something but they wouldn't move. I even threw in a couple little pieces of hot dog and they just sat there mesmerized. They were both hunting and perhaps they were working in tandem. Who knows?

Chicken Lips' Fish

There's a little girl about 12 years old that lives across the street from me that comes over several times a week. This is her favorite fish in the pond and as I call the little girl affectionately, Chicken Lips, I have been calling this bluegill "Chicken Lips' Fish". It's very unusual in it's coloration - kinda a whitish gray with a few stripes towards it's tail. It's hard to tell in this photo but Chicken Lips' Fish is a plump little fish, almost like a tubby goldfish. She's about 5-6 inches long I guess. She acts just like the other bluegill as far as I can see but she's pretty cute - just like the little girl from across the street. I hope she never becomes a teenager!

Yesterday the pond was clear but there was a haze over the top that got worse the longer I stayed. We had rain last night and I hope it's still clear today. I sure hope my pond never gets back to where it was when I couldn't see my fish.

My next mower will have a bagger so I can get all the leaves and dead grasses from the area around the pond. I still want to leave the grass long but when the fall comes I'd like to get all the dead stuff I can up so it doesn't get in the pond. This year I can use a rake and bag it all. I guess I'll have to bite the bullet about what falls in the pond. I want to keep as much vegetation as I can out of here so the pond doesn't get fertilized.

Maybe by next year I can have some sort of aerator.

Smiling Sally Slither

Be sure to click on photo to enlarge.
This is Smiling Sally Slither. I see her fairly regularly at the pond swimming from one end to the other or slipping around the edges in the brush, HOWEVER, today is the second day I've come across her down in the nursery right in the middle of the babies. Yesterday I saw Sally put her smiling face under the water and try to catch one but she came up empty handed... uh... mouthed.. She sorta short in the hand department...

Anyway, today she was working in tandem with a bass and she was on one side while a bass was one the other and they had the babies in the middle. They had them hemmed in and were both trying their best to make a grab when I pulled up. Sally doesn't stick around when I get close and today was no different so when she spotted me she ducked for cover under the water and I could see her take off swimming until she was outta sight. One time I saw her carrying a frog in her mouth swimming across the pond.

Smiling Sally is probably about 3-4 or feet long and while she's swimming in the water always has one or two larger bass following her. Of course I don't really know why but while I probably should have been folding clothes and sweeping the kitchen floor yesterday I got to thinking on it and decided that just maybe when Smiling Sally slips up into the grasses along the edges, she may alarm bugs and frogs that might jump alarmed to escape her and just maybe jump into the water right into the waiting jaws of the bass? Could be... you never know... That's my story anyway... I can't think of another reason they might follow her can you? She's much too big for them to eat and I've watched the bass swim with her a lot and they don't look ever look like they intend to take a bite out of her.

You can enlarge this photo by clicking on it and see my fishies.

Today the weather was beautiful, the pond was clear, a lot of fish showed up when I went down around 2 PM. Diamond Jim didn't show today. Meanandlean showed up and worked real hard to catch one of the 200 bluegill that were there but was unsuccessful. What's up with that anyway? Are bass unsuccessful that often? Some of my bass look kinda skinny... There are a jillion bluegill of every shape and size for them to eat. They just don't seem to be all that good at catching them...

Well, I'm off to bed. I've got to think about aeration.

Diamond Jim

Diamond Jim is another character who ya just can't miss down there in the pond. There are so many fish that look alike but some just have to stand out in their own little ways for good or bad. Diamond Jim isn't bad really he's just a real flashy kinda guy that swaggers around making sure everyone is looking at him. He's the guy you see that's in his 50s or 60s cruising around town in a corvette with big flashy diamonds on his hands trying to regain his youth. He's always eyeballing all the other fish and swimming in such a fashion that everyone has to notice him. He would certainly dye his gray hair jet black if he had any but I'm afraid Diamond Jim is bald just like the other bass in there. Just like those silly old men out to get a young chick in their middle age, Diamond Jim looks pretty foolish and isn't fooling anyone. However, Diamond Jim does have one thing that none of the other fish in the pond have... Now I don't know if this is what makes him carry on and swagger up and down the edge of the bank so but it sure is noticeable. He has what looks like a big ole diamond right above his left eye which sparkles and glitters each time he makes one of his elaborate twists and turns. I think he's a big show off as I'll watch him swimming perfectly normally patrolling down the bank and then when he gets close to where I'm sitting he almost turns all the way up on his side and starts flashing that big ole rock up at me. What a ham... He doesn't want food or anything he just wants to show off I guess.

Now I don't know what caused him to get a big shiny diamond looking scale right there but it makes him stand out and with his behavior I always know when Diamond Jim is in the HOUSE!!!!!!!!! OH YEAH!

Well, I actually wrote all that above last night and didn't post it because I didn't have a photo of Diamond Jim and was hoping to get one today. It was partly cloudy but the sun did poke his head out long enough for me to get down there while it was out and get some pics. Thankfully Diamond Jim showed up and stayed long enough for me to get a bunch of photos of him, one of which was usable. I feel badly now after saying those mean things about him as I got to know him just a little bit better today. The age old lesson has gotta be learned still again by me... You just can't judge a book by it's cover... I think I had Diamond Jim all wrong. He was positively pathetic today. Shame on me for making fun of him...

My poor ole Mom and her husband came down today and helped me down at the pond. Her husband used to play football back in the dark ages when they still wore leather helmets but can still throw so took over my job of Quarterback today and passed all the balls so I could take photos. My poor ole Mom can barely throw a ball of bread five feet so we had to banish her to the chair to watch. Most of the bass ate and left but Diamond Jim stuck around cruising the bank hunting (he doesn't eat anything I feed). He was after bluegill today and didn't appear to be looking for flying bugs. There were tons of bluegills suitable for him and he did make many runs but just wasn't successful. Perhaps that's why he's kinda thin. Maybe he doesn't see too well out of the "Diamond" eye? Maybe I'm a mean, awful person for making fun of him? Maybe that's why he lies way on his side when he travels the bank like that? Gawdddd I'm awful.... Mean as I can be... I thought he was being flashy...

After at least a couple hours of unsuccessful hunting Diamond Jim came to a stop in front of us and just sat and watched us for a long, long time. We watched right back. My Mom threw in a piece of bread meaning to throw to the bluegill but as she can't throw worth a hoot it landed in front of Diamond Jim and much to our surprise he took it! He has never taken anything before! He turned and spit it back out but he was hungry enough that I guess he was sitting there finally telling us that he was ready to try to eat what we were throwing in.

I reached over for the bowl of meat I had brought for the bass - today's menu was wild turkey thigh meat cut into bite size pieces. I tossed a piece to Diamond Jim and he snatched it right up! He ate a few more pieces and then was full. By then it was time for us to head back. I felt good that Diamond Jim won't go to sleep hungry tonight. Today won't be the first time I've had to learn the lesson about judging a book by it's cover but just maybe I won't keep forgetting it if I can remember poor old Diamond Jim's little face.... By the way, Diamond Jim is about 2 inches shorter than a concrete building block.

Time for bed and if nothing really astounding happens tomorrow then I'll introduce Sally Slither Snake who I see often and got a couple photos of today. See ya at the bass pond..

La Torpeda

The photo will enlarge if you click on it.
Believe me, although I found this photo today I sure didn't take it today and I didn't even know I had it actually. I was going through a bunch on my little reader thingy in my camera and mostly they look gray because I don't have a fancy camera with fancy lenses and it's hard to see anything until I change the contrast. This changes the color but at least you can see the fish in the photos. I can see them just fine standing on the bank though with my trusty Walmart polaroid fishing glasses. I need a new pair as I'm real hard on them... Anyway, I was going through a bunch of gray photos and changing the contrast when up popped La Torpeda!!!!!!! I finally got one of her and isn't she just grand! I am so pleased to have gotten a photo of her next to my cement building blocks too so everyone can get an idea of her size. Although she's facing towards me kinda so you can't see her in all her glory she's about maybe about one and a half times as long as a block however long they are. The blocks are stacked two high and are out there as I plan to put a little platform out there to sit on because I'm way up on the bank taking pics and throwing food down. I'm getting real good and accurate at throwing though... except for venison which tends to stick to my fingers.


Anyway! Isn't she BIG and PRETTY! No one has ever caught her in my pond - at least as long as I've lived here. I just love to see her and she's getting to be more and more at ease with me and here lately she seems to be coming in everyday. She is my only bass (I think) that eats commercial fish food. She won't take anything else from me and isn't happy at all if I even try to feed her anything else. (She kinda acts like I'm throwing rocks at her.) I've watched her hunt in the past and it's pretty awesome. Winter is coming so it's too late to do much more out there but next summer watch out! If I can just get her to eat something else and get her tamed a bit maybe I can teach her some tricks!


Today was spittin' rain and gray and when I arrived at the pond I only found a few pals looking up at me. What is fun though is before I even pull up and get out of my cart and can look over the edge, they know I'm coming and are on their way. I can see ripples in the pond heading my way as I'm driving down my little gravel road. Ahhh, it sure is great to be so popular ;c) My cart is electric and doesn't make noise but they sure know when I'm coming. That may tell some of you fishermen something as you belch your way over to your spot... Don't even begin to think they can't see or hear you...


I was met by only a few regulars today. There was Crybaby and George and a few smaller bass I haven't named. La Torpeda was there much to my excitement and right up to the edge where I could see her well. She looked to be hunting but never did make a rush at anything. I threw in some commercial feed for her and she ate some of that. There were hardly any of the large bluegill about - only some very small ones - don't know what happened to the big and medium ones today but they were a no show. Seems it's like that sometimes, but as of yet, I have no idea why. I can't seem to find any factor that keeps them away on any particular day or time. I fed and then went around to the bluegill nesting spot and threw some bread in there (no one likes commercial food there and it just goes to waste or snapping turtles come get it).


I headed on to the back of the pond to see the babies. I have a hundred or more back there at any given time from 1 inch to 2 inches I guess. That area is heavily patrolled by bass I haven't named. The bass seem to be about a foot or more long. (You can click on pic to enlarge and maybe see babies) There are three different groups of babies back there. One group is for sure bluegill. Another is bass and there aren't a lot of them. Another might be either baby tiny bluegill or perhaps even fathead minnows - I just don't know. In any event when they see the cart coming the cute little things make the water wiggle. I just put that floaty fish food from Walmart in there for them - you know the flakes stuff you feed to goldfish. They like it and make the cutest little noises eating when a bunch of them have their little lips on the surface munching away. I throw bread in for them too. Usually while I'm there a bass or two will come calling and they never seem to see me they are so intent on getting a meal of a small fish. I've tried to offer them different things but the bass over there never take anything from me. They'll swim in real close and look over a group of babies, then swim on to the next group but sometimes they take one coming right up out of the water too shallow to swim. Amazing they get back in. One day I just might figure out what exactly they look for and why one looks tastier than the other. When I'm around other areas in the pond that area always stays active with bass chasing and eating the babies. Seems like about every few minutes there will be a run and major splashing over there. Needless to say I don't name the babies...

I'll write about the other side of the pond another day. I feed Ole Sam Bass over in another spot. He's mad at me again - I forgot to bring the grasshopper net today.... I'll probably have nightmares about the evil eye he gave me today... He's taken to making a run at me now when he's mad... Jeez... What nerve...

See ya back at the bass pond.