Who loves fishing ?

[belleswell]

We won a $100 weekly port prize for this King Salmon we caught in a salmon derby a few years back.
31 lbs of string pulling muscle.




End of the line for another Steelhead caught on 2 lb test leader. Caught surf fishing at Frankfort/Elberta about a half mile south
of the breakwalls



That one went home with these to visit our smoker.

 

[Amarok]

The forecast was for up to 150 mm of rain this weekend, which would be more than we got all of last year. For you Yanks, that's about 4 fathoms.

I drove over the river on the way home and it is higher than I've ever seen and had enough floating lumber to build a fleet of Arks
(Maybe the unicorns will show up this time)


Won't be fishing the river for a bit. Maybe I can stock the new lake that has formed in my basement.

 

[belleswell]

The forecast was for up to 150 mm of rain this weekend, which would be more than we got all of last year

If the rain came with a thunder storm, then it should be ionized which is very good for the veggie garden. The veggies love a good soak of ionized rain.

 

[Amarok]

If the rain came with a thunder storm, then it should be ionized which is very good for the veggie garden. The veggies love a good soak of ionized rain.

I filled in my garden when I dug the main pond, so all the rain does is mess up the PH of my ponds and cause huge algae blooms.

(I've only just learned about adding lime as a buffer, which has made a huge difference)

 

[belleswell]

I filled in my garden when I dug the main pond, so all the rain does is mess up the PH of my ponds and cause huge algae blooms.

(I've only just learned about adding lime as a buffer, which has made a huge difference)

I use Aquashade pond dye in our pond to cut down on the algae. It dyes the pond a blueish green which cuts down on the wave length of light
that promotes algae growth. The other trick I use is about 10 to 15 lbs of rocks tied up in some half inch mesh netting used in gardens and
stuffed with barley straw. This promotes a break down of the barley straw and the microbial action that helps this requires the same nutrients
that the algae needs to flourish. It robs food from the algae in breaking down the barley straw. I usually have 4 or 5 of these large mesh bags filled with
barley straw and rocks with a rope tied off at the top of the mesh bag so I can pull them in the following spring and reuse the rocks for the next year when I repeat the process.


I bought 4 bales of barley straw for this when I found a farmer that was selling bales of barley straw for $8 a bale.
Compared to many, that is a bargain price.


I use a deep skimming net attached to a extendable 15' pole that lets me skim a bunch of algae from our pond.
Without the Aquashade pond dye and the barley straw bags, I would spend much more time skimming algae from our
pond.

Our yard is about 3 and half acres, all surrounded by trees, and with the 3 bag system on my riding mower, I have quite a pile of compost.
The composted grass clippings, leaf mulch, and algae all gets added together and it works wonders in our veggie garden.

 

[Amarok]

Am I getting wiser, or just older?
Either way , I was smart enough to make it a quick trip to the river after work this evening.

It was up well over 2m since last time I was there, maybe even closer to 3. The bank I often sit on is usually way above the water and I have to climb down to land fish. Today in the same spot the water was at my feet. It was roiling and swirling, with undercurrents and eddies, filthy, and carrying all sorts of debris, up to massive trees roots and all. It was truly terrifying to stand beside it.

If I had slipped, or if a section of bank caved in, there was no coming out. It was straight down with nothing to grab onto and a raging torrent waiting to tumble and batter my corpse.
Even for a fanatic, there is a line and today I found it.

Lake time?

 

[belleswell]

Baby Lund had been screaming at me to go fishing on some lakes close to home. A trip or two of bluegills and perch sound nice.




Big Lund wants to go chase some salmon on Lake Michigan









Or some walleyes on Lake Erie





I have two unfinished Loomis blanks that need to be tied up. I always like to add some thread art to.

 

[Amarok]

The river is higher than I've ever seen, and my spots aren't safe. Gonna have to hit a lake this weekend to get my fix.

In the meantime, I was clearing some space on my phone and found a pic of my PB burb. It was around 14 lbs and took a 5 inch Williams Whitefish, jigged vertically. This was during the tulibee spawn so it matched the hatch perfectly. It took me 10 minutes or better to land this beast with run after drag peeling run

2L bottle for scale

 

[Amarok]

I tried.

I knew if I didn't the "what if" would have bugged me, so I drove down to the river this morning.
I spent a while watching my slip bobber be pulled in every direction by the ever-changing, boiling, rampaging river while standing on the slippery bank with the ever present chance of a cave-in. I didn't get any action and it just isn't fun with that level of danger, not anymore.

There is a gusty wind and a "risk of a strong thunderstorm" taking lakes off the table, so here I sit with my keyboard and tea, content and knowing I tried.

 

[belleswell]

Hi @Amarok. I was wondering how big your 2nd pond you dug is? Is it large enough for some structure? Here are some pics of some
I put in our pond. It gives minnows and smaller fish a place to hang out and avoid being eaten.

These first ones are clay drain tiles I found at a lumber yard for dollar each. Cheap enough to where I bought about a dozen of them.




These next ones I bought from Pond King. I bought two of each and placed them around our pond. Pond porn for fish.
I also attached some nylon cord to each of them in case I want to move them or if they get covered with too much algae.

These first ones are called reeds and are about 3' tall.




These next ones are called Honey Hole shrubs and are about 3' tall and almost 6' across.




These last ones are called Honey Hole Trees and are almost 6' tall and almost 3' wide. Weighted on the bottom so they stand up as shown.

Of all of them, these are ones that bass like to hang out around to pick off minnows or small fish that venture too far from their safe spot.




11 inch Hybrid Bluegill

 

[Amarok]

Hi @Amarok. I was wondering how big your 2nd pond you dug is? Is it large enough for some structure?

No. It's basically just a runoff catcher. I took a worn out ice fishing sled and buried it, and then dug some shallower shelves around it and lined it with an extra pond liner I had. I ran a little airline out to it so it doesn't get stagnant and tossed in a few of the most hardy plants from the main pond.
It don't know but I'm guessing if it's 100 gals it isn't much more, maybe 120?(purely guessing). It's usually very hot and dry here in the summer so I just wanted a way to keep the runoff of what little rain we get from just draining away.


That artificial structure looks cool.
I actually have a few sections of hexagonal ceramic pipe in the main pond and the one in the basement. They generally get claimed by the spawners. I'm actually expecting to see baby rosie reds in the main pond any day now.