Meanandlean Gets Lucky and Ole Sam Eats Grasshopper

Click the photo to enlarge.

Look at poor Meanandlean's little face! His skin is hanging off the side and the top of his face is all skinned up! See? I told you it was pathetic. It has to be the concrete blocks and I'm going to go down there in a bit and throw a few rocks in.

One thing really good though did happen to him today while I was there. He FINALLY caught a meal. Whew! I thought that poor old bass was going to starve to death as bad as a hunter as he seemed to be. He always seemed to be missing every meal! Today I threw in a big piece of bread right in front of him and a bunch of bluegill made a dive for it as usual. He decided to dive right in the middle of them and make a grab for the bluegill! The first time he got a big bite of bread which he quickly gagged out but I threw in another piece of bread and that time I saw him swimming away towards the center of the pond with a pretty good sized trophy! Hooray for Meanandlean! I waited a good 45 minutes to see if he would return to hunt some more today but he didn't. I feel better about him knowing he might not starve to death.

Most of my other bass are still paranoid about what my sister did yesterday and although they ate they hung back further from the bank than they usually do. A LOT further. Maybe ten feet further! Also, every time I'd stand up a lot of them would start moving away - some at a pretty good clip. Dang. Doesn't take long for them to learn... I can't believe they would remember from yesterday but it seems those fish have a thing or two to teach ME...

I went around and fed the babies then on to see if Ole Sam Bass was around today (He hangs out on the far side of the pond). He was there and as I hardly ever get any photos of him I decided to take a little video of him eating grasshoppers. I guess I should remind you that Ole Sam won't eat any fish food or anything else I throw in except grasshoppers - green ones that is... Brown ones are yucky and I will have nightmares from the evil eye he gives me if I try to trick him. I took three little videos and am going to put up one here. It's a trick trying to aim a camera with my right hand and push the button and throw a grasshopper with my left hand but I managed. Ole Sam is a stinker and the meanest bass in the pond. He will even try to make a run at me from time to time but I'm much more afraid of the grasshoppers than I am of him. Enjoy the video and until tomorrow... See ya at the bass pond.

I've been busy!

This photo is an old one from the 12th of September. If you click on it it will expand.

I haven't been lazy and I've been feeding but I have an out of town guest and I haven't had a chance to post and certainly haven't been taking photos. I barely have had time to scurry my butt down there and have been pushing it to even get to the pond by 3 or 4 to feed. Yesterday my out of town guest (my sister) came with me and fished a bit (after I fed the bass and sent them on their way). She caught about 15 bluegill almost all of them eating size and one was a whopping 9 inch long and fat too. As usual, no one wanted to clean them so back in the pond they went.

Before she leaves to wing her way back across the U.S. we have to get some of them outta there! I have wayyyyy too many large bluegill in that pond!

Poor ole Meanandlean's face is all scraped up and cut. I know it's from chasing baby bluegill into those cement blocks and I've got to do something about it. I'm either going to turn the blocks on their side so there aren't any hidey holes or put rocks down there on each side so the fish can't swim in. I hate it that he's all scraped to hell like that. He's so skinny and such a poor hunter to begin with he needs all the help he can get. He comes up and looks at me and just pleads. I just can't stand it. I sure with I had some kind of food he would just try.

My sister picked up a net by the pond today while I was feeding without me knowing about it. She said she wanted to pick up Brownie (that's the smallest snake and he was out there today). I could have told her you can't pick up a net or fishing pole or anything with the water being clear unless you hide behind the weeds so the fish can't see you. Well, she did and there was an immediate splashing and then NO fish. They were all gone in an instant. I just left and went back to the house. She should have believed me. I don't know about fish in other ponds or in lakes or in the ocean but the fish in my pond are GONE when a fishing pole is brandished! You have to hide or the water can't be real clear or the sun has to be low like it was the day before. My fish think and I don't care what anyone says.

Oh yeah.. One more thing I've been meaning to mention... You may have to search back but there are bass on the other side of the pond I feed and one in particular is named Ole Sam Bass. None of those bass except one little one over there will eat anything except grasshoppers and then not the brown grasshoppers. Ole Sam Bass has taken to making runs at me on occasion... I ain't a bit skeered I'll have you know but I just thought I'd make a note of it. I thought it was a mistake at first. It's not. He's definitely not pleased with me for some reason and is making runs at me. Maybe I don't throw grasshoppers to his liking or maybe I don't throw them well. I don't know but he does it sometimes... Strange things are always going on down there at the pond. After the snake eating hotdog nothing surprises me anymore... Glad I caught that on tape!

You just can't believe what happened at the pond today. It was so funny! A new guy showed up and at first I thought it was Brownie but it wasn't. This snake is a bit larger than Brownie and prettier colored though not so large as Smiling Sally or as prettily colored as she is. Anyway Meanandlean was using her to hunt and things were going lousy as usual. He left after awhile and I saw him heading back and when I did I decided to try to get a little video with my camera. Well, my camera only takes a few seconds of video and I figured they'd just sit and stare at each other so I thought I'd throw a bit of hot dog in between them and perhaps it would attract one of the bluegills in there to liven things up a bit. Much to my surprise well... you'll have to click on the video link to see what happened... down at the pond today...

Meanandlean was at it again today. He's the funniest guy! This time he was using Rocky as a "wall" to help him catch bluegill. You might be able to see that Rocky has a bit of red on his back. That's how I can identify him from the other snapping turtles in the pond. He's been caught a couple of times and the little girl from across the street put a bit of paint on his back before she put him back in. He's the only snapping turtle that I've put back in the pond - the rest that I've caught have been relocated. I still have quite a few but I really don't know how many. I'll move more though. The pond continues to get murkier and it's so disheartening. One thing I did find today was a great forum on farm ponds and I spent hours reading. I subscribed to a magazine and I'll be asking advice and getting help there. I saw some pretty impressive before and after photos of ponds that looked to be in horrible condition and were cleared up so I'm so relieved that next summer I'll be able to have a great time again with my fish. I know I'll get some of them trained...

Another funny thing that Meanandlean did today - a bit later after I took the photo above Meanandlean was in another location and Rocky was walking by. Meanandlean acted like he was totally unaware of Rocky and Rocky actually stuck his head underneath Meanandlean and picked him up to get by. Neither one of them was going to give an inch to the other. Silly guys! Anyway - I did take a pic of Rocky when he first got his head under Meanandlean:

You can probably click on the pic to enlarge it.

The menu was still hot dogs, commercial feed and bread. I understand that Purina makes a good fish feed that maybe y fish will even like. After I get rid of what I have I'll try that. At the rate I'm going it'll be a year before the bag I have is gone. Maybe my neighbor's geese will eat it - or the raccoons that come around here at night...

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.