A Monster Lives In My Pond

You can click on all photos to
enlarge them.

I thought this was a real funny photo I took today of Meanandlean and the caption was just right for the expression on his face.

If you look closely at the bluegill you can see they don't believe a word of it...

The pond was real clear - a lot more clear than it's supposed to be. A healthy pond isn't supposed to be nearly as clear as mine is getting to be. I hate to add any lime though because I know one good rain and it will be back to poor visibility - like it should be I guess... Not that I'm happy about that. I'm going to enjoy the clear pond while I can as I had pea soup the last few years and this is the very first time I've had any visibility at all. My photos turned out all cloudy again but I moved my spot and took more photos and just a change about 20 foot away made all the difference in the world. I'm going to have to cut out a spot tomorrow so I can sit down and be able to see through the grasses.

Hotdog the snake is back today after a two days absence. He has completely digested those two fish I gave him a couple of days ago and doesn't even show a lump at all. He's back hunting his heart out again and, as usual, not catching a thing. I'll get to feeling sorry for him in time probably and have to feed him again.

Quite a few bass showed today but when the ole meanie came in they had to leave. The bluegill still haven't gotten over the fishing my sister did a week or two ago so they hang way out. I'm going to have to find out just how long fish can retain a memory. Seems like it's pretty long to me. Again, I'm amazed...

The water is such a pretty color now. Be sure to click on the photo. You can see the fish way, way out into the pond if they are near the surface.

My poor little dock thing I made myself... As you can see it's all shifted and twisted now. It wasn't like that until the water got really low and when it comes back up I guess it will turn itself back.

I didn't know it but I don't need all those barrels under it - probably just need one but I'd rather stick a needle in my eye than to put my feet down in that mud over there and try to get one or two out. The mud right over there is the yuckiest and you can actually sink up to your knees!!!!! That's like watching a horror movie all alone in the dark and you hear a large bang in your kitchen! I just am not going to do it. NOT ME! Right past the end of the dock the water gets real deep and goes as deep as about 15 foot - not now though!

You know I spend an awful lot of time just sitting and looking at the pond and I still get surprised by the things that go on in there but today I saw something that made my heart jump in my throat. I tried to get photos but wasn't able to time it right. When I was standing right where I was when I took these last photos and looking way out, I saw a shadow right under the surface of the water that was HUGE and MOVING! I waited for a bit and saw it several times. I had the commercial fish feed thrown in over there out where the deep green part is and that's where I saw it.

I jumped in my cart and rushed back to the house screaming for my husband. He has got to take it OUT! I can't imagine how many of my fish that creature must be eating everyday... It has to be a BIG catfish! Now I know I have ONE catfish that comes on the other side of the pond that's a bit shy that will take some hot dog pieces but it's small and I put it in myself this year. That thing I saw today was the creature from the black lagoon! I'm sick about it! My husband said he'd catch it for me. He's going to go to Walmart and get some larger hooks and livers or something and put some lines in the pond tonight. I think it's bigger than he thinks it is. He probably needs to catch a bluegill or two and put them on hooks and lay them in the bottom of the pond. I don't want him catching anything small - I want that big thing caught!

Well, when it's caught I'll be SURE to get photos.

Until tomorrow....

Stupid Me

The pond was beautiful and really clear and I was met by a whole slew of fish today, mostly bass. Most of my larger bluegill are still staying way out in the pond and won't come in to shallow waters. I thought I had gotten some really great photos but the glare from clouds evidently messed things all up. I thought I had some good ones of La Torpeda, my largest bass, too and she's a hard one to get photos of. Diamond Jim was there, George, Crybaby and many bass I don't even have names for and can't recognize by sight. Everyone was eating hot dogs just fine except for you-know-who who needed the extra encouragement of a fake "hot dog" wiggle worm on occasion which he very reluctantly ate - sometimes...

I made a video and as you see he isn't overly eager... He makes me sick... I can wiggle, wiggle, wiggle the worm and he'll come S L O W L Y sliding in like a snail almost yawning in boredom... He's a beast... I should catch him and put him in a frying pan but I won't. When I put a video in here it comes out real small and hard to see. I put the same video in photobucket and put a link to it and it might be a bit better: http://s232.photobucket.com/albums/ee58/bassponder/?action=view&current=wormeater.flv

I guess I had a spell of oxygen deprivation or great idiocy or just plain old stupidity today because I proceeded to do the darnedest thing that is going to really set me back some... The grey water ditch line is still being dug at my house so I had some of those big, giant, juicy worms. I know how much ole Meanandlean likes them so I thought I'd give him a special treat... See where I'm going here or are you as much of a bonehead as I am?

For the boneheads like me I will continue - Yes, I did it. I fed ole butthead four or five yummy worms! You think he would eat a hot dog chunk after that? I don't think so! He stayed right around wanting to eat more but he wasn't about to eat an old piece of Bar S Brand fake worm... Ain't no way Jose! Jeez Louise what did I do? He ran all the other bass out of the shallow waters again today.

Hotdog didn't show his face. He might be in his little house digesting his big meal of yesterday.

It rained a sprinkle while I was there. Didn't see any turtles.

I got a call back from the Kentucky State University Aquaculture Department. I had a long talk with them and an aerator was recommended for my pond that works real well, isn't made from cheap parts, doesn't require a lot of maintenance (I won't be cleaning out clogged lines), and actually aerates and just doesn't circulate water in the pond (which is what a lot of them do if you do the research). I still have to put electricity back there and won't be able to do that until next year but at least I know what I'm going to do now and that's a big relief.

Feeding Hotdog, Loading feed and Meanandlean

Remember you can click on the photos to enlarge them.

I fed today but I'll get back to what happened with that. First I'll tell you about what happened with Hotdog the snake. I get tired of seeing him trying to hunt and again and again missing. He sits in his little cement block house down there and every day he's there patiently waiting and hoping for a meal. I couldn't take it any longer... I caught two fish for him today and devised a way to get them down to him.

As you can see in the photos it was a real boner of an idea and was totally unsuccessful. I scared Hotdog out of his wits for one thing and he slid under the mud and hid for a half hour. Finally I hooked, the almost dead by then, fish around the tail and lowered it down with my rod intending to wiggle him when Hotdog came back from his hiding place. Well, the fish promptly fell off and I had to lean way over, almost falling in myself, and with the very tip of the pole I was able to kinda maneuver the fish over to the cement blocks. When Hotdog came out of hiding he was overjoyed to have found the fish and - OK you got me - so he might not have been OVERJOYED... BUT he SEEMED to ME, the OLD FISH WATCHER, at least kinda, sorta pleased - if a snake can be pleased - there (is that any better?).

Hotdog ate the fish and I caught him another which he also prompted ate. The second fish I just threw down there near him and he got it. Wish I would have done that the first time...

(The next day) I had to stop to watch the Bionic Woman on TV so I didn't finish this post last night and am continuing it now this morning (Thursday).

When I was very young my mother allowed me to have pet snakes along with other pets. I don't know if my father had a thing to do with it or not but my Mom wasn't afraid of anything I don't think except the big giant Florida cockroaches. I'm not afraid of too much myself and a little old snake surely won't bother anyone. I can't remember what day of the week the maid would come but my mom would put a cover over my snake cage. I know we lost at least one maid when she peeked under the cover... I believe she said that snakes gave her headaches? Bahahahha.... I'm certain my mother will read this and correct me if my memory is wrong...

The little neighbor girl from across the street came over last night and looked at these photos and the first thing she said is, "Why does everyone look so little?" She was talking about the photos of the fish and turtles and snake and all. In this photo of Hotdog she said that the fish looks like a tiny little minnow. I told her I think one of those cement blocks is about 16 inches long and that "minnow" I caught for Hotdog was a small one but was about 5 inches long.


What I think is happening in these photos is this... I am standing up on a bank and the grass is growing up near me. From the camera's point of view the grass looks like it's right there at the water's edge so it makes the fish look tiny. I took a photo yesterday to illustrate my point and also to show just how low my pond is this year and to show my little sitting spot where I feed and look down into the water. I need to get better chairs don't I? Nah! I'm the only one back there! The little green low thing you see behind the chairs is a hammock sitting place for my dog who always goes with me. I can keep it back there and water will run right through it. It's a handy thing to have.

What I'd really like to have right there where I feed is a ramp of some sort that goes about 15 foot out from the bank and down into the water. If it's a ramp then it wouldn't matter how high or low the water is and I could just adjust myself up and down the ramp. I have rolled things around in my mind on how to do it but I just don't know exactly the best way - if anyone has any ideas for a good DIY project PLEASE email me. Now would be a great time as the water is so low and I'd rather not put my toes down in the mud.

Well, back to feeding. I got all my hot dog chunks together and loaded them with the Purina gamefish food... If they won't eat it outright then perhaps I can sneak it to them... I have sneaked pills to dogs like that and wormer to horses and donkeys in bread sandwiches... You can smash bits of that stuff pretty easily into pieces of hot dog as it's hard. It does take a lot of time but so what. I suppose I could be in the house dusting or cleaning out the tub...

You know some of those ole bass would take those chunks, roll them around in their mouths a few seconds and out would pop the Purina chow... Jeez... They are like incorrigible brats pushing their peas off to the side... I'm going to call Purina - see if I don't. I feed Purina to my dog, cats, even my husband's "pet" Ole Slick (the slick tailed "cat" that visits the porch at night) and they seem to be perfectly happy so I'm not knocking Purina but I just think they can do a bit better on fish food. Even the bluegill who will eat just about anything will take the food but spit it out a dozen times before they will finally take it. On the other hand if I throw in just a piece of old bread they act like piranhas (one time I fell into the Amazon river and broke my foot way out in the boonies and thought I was going to get eaten by Piranhas - I'm still here - whew). Can't they make feed that at least tastes as good as a plain old bread crust? Maybe they could make a softer feed? I dunno maybe it wouldn't float. I'm sure they do the very best they can - they dang sure are experts and have been doing it forever grumble grumble... I'm still going to call..

Now this last little bit is about Meanandlean as he is always up to something. It seems I am always focusing on him but I'm really not it's just that he's the one right now that seems to be the one doing things on the feed lot down there. What he's up to now is this:

When I first got down there to feed there were about ten large bass and a bunch of little ones waiting for feed way up in the shallows (they had been hanging back lately). It was cloudy at the time and I couldn't tell if Meanandlean was out there or not. I couldn't take any good photos because of the clouds so I didn't bother - later it cleared when I fed Hotdog. I was busy loading the hotdogs and feeding and fed for about 15 minutes or so and then suddenly noticed all the bass had swam way out. I knew they hadn't been fed enough as I had more than half of my feed left but who knows with them? Anything could have set them off like a bird or something that I didn't see.

Well, I looked down and around the shallow end there squinting and searching around and guess who was down there looking up at me? Yep - the ole creep himself - Meanandlean... He had chased off all the other bass. I guess he thinks he's really something now that he's all fat and sassy. He never used to do that when I fed and he would always come and always look up at me but never chase the other bass out of the shallows. I think he did this once before the other day though.

I fed him some "worms" and then tried some chunks. He ate a few of each but spit some out at times too just to remind me who was in charge I suppose. At times some of the other bass would try to come in and he'd run them back out. Some would make it in when he wasn't looking but he'd see them eventually and turn and make a run at them. He's only about an inch bigger than most of them except for La Torpeda and she's a good bit bigger than he is. I have seen him chase even her before though. I starting throwing food way out to them so they could eat. Meanandlean would take some chunks from me when he felt like it and sometimes he would just leave them lay. I could see that the other bass were antsy and looking and wanted to run in and grab the hot dog chunks. A couple of times a bass did run in to get a chunk that Meanandlean had sitting right in front of him that he wasn't going to eat. Just as the other bass was about to get it Meanandlean would suddenly find it tasty after all and eat it. He's awful... I've seen dogs do that a lot but I never, ever in my wildest dreams thought a fish would ever do that...

It's 12:36 PM here and I haven't even cut up food. It's cloudy so won't be a good photo day. I gotta go!

Hotdog is alive and well

I went a bit early to the pond today and looked down and there was Hotdog! I am so glad he is alive and I didn't see any teeth marks on him. The wind is blowing a bit and everything cruddy in the pond is blowing right to that corner though, so he was real dirty. It's hard to tell if he has any marks because of the pond scum. I bet those pesky raccoons tried to get him and he escaped! Maybe tomorrow I'll catch him a nice fish for lunch! How on earth I'm going to give it to him I have no idea...

The rest of the larger bass and bluegill are pretty much still hanging back pretty far except for Meanandlean who came right up for his worms. He brought a pal with him today and he didn't try to run him off. I kinda remember that smaller bass hanging out with him in the past. He acts a lot like Meanandlean so I guess I'll just call him Mini Meanandlean. He wanted worms too and sat there gazing and shrugging off any attempts to feed chunks of hot dogs.

Meanandlean was being a real pain and if I didn't wiggle the "worm" just right he wouldn't take it. After a bit he decided that those hot dog worms weren't real worms after all and he wasn't going to eat them any more. Well, it's just too bad then. I decided it would just be a long cold winter for one skinny fish that is a lousy hunter then... He needs to start thinking about fattening up for the winter as the fish won't be coming to the surface for feed so I won't be there. Who knows what next Spring will bring and who will have survived.


You can always click on the photos to enlarge them. After staring up at me pitifully for about an hour I got aggravated with Meanandlean and started throwing chunks of hot dogs near him so the bluegills would get around him so maybe he could catch one of those and leave me alone. I had already run out of hot dog "worms" and wasted most of them (you can see three he wasted floating around him that he was too fickle to eat). That's Mini Meanandlean to his right in the photo by the way taking "Piti Me Too" lessons from Meanandlean. Well, anyway, I kept at it because I had had enough of his begging and low and behold Meanandlean ate a chunk of the hotdog - then ate another! He ate three pieces total then swam off with a disgusted look on his face... HA! I feel I've finally won something!


Now it's not even been a week since Meanandlean has been eating but I've put two photos of him together and look what a change in him:



You almost can't tell he's the same fish but that's him all right! I still wonder what makes him such a poor hunter and the others do ok? How did he get as big as he is to begin with even? You know I always see him trying to go after the really small bluegill too and never see him try to take any larger ones that I know he's big enough to handle. He's always trying for little bitty ones about an inch or two long. I wonder if he got finned a few times or something and had a bad experience? Maybe I need to build him his very own pond with nothing but placid little lazy goldfish - NAH!

Well, I need to go shopping - until tomorrow!

Hotdog is murdered

I think Hotdog the snake was murdered and eaten last night. Today when I went to feed the pond was all cruddy on the end where I feed so I didn't bother to take any photos. Hotdog's house (the cement blocks) are out of the water on the shore side now because the pond is so low. There were prints in the mud all near his house and because they were deep in the mud I couldn't be sure what made the prints but surely it had to be raccoons. They are always going near water and would never have resisted the temptation at putting their hands inside those cement blocks where Hotdog would have been. I sure hope they didn't get him but he wasn't there today so I'm afraid they did. I hate it... I sure liked watching that little snake.

Jeez, you can stay home, not watch the news, stick your head in the sand and still something is going to happen to disappoint you and make you feel sad. Oh well. I'll think about it tomorrow.

I need to start thinking about aeration and what I'm going to do. I've tried to educate myself on it some and oh boy is it confusing trying to get through all the hype! I think I need a paddle wheel aerator of some kind but don't know where to begin to look. I'll think about that tomorrow too.

I just threw food out blindly today because I could barely see the fish. As I was leaving and out of food I think I saw Meanandlean come to the shore. I'll look for him tomorrow. I hope to teach him some tricks next year but I don't have any good ones in mind yet. I hate to make any plans because I don't know if my fish are going to survive this drought.

One other thing. I haven't been kicked out of the pond boss forum yet for asking too many questions. http://www.pondboss.com/forums/

Until tomorrow.