As the ice melts off our ponds we begin to monitor the water temperature and guess when the catfish and bass will be eager to eat. This year that date was April 8th. We fed a small amount of fish food to a few rather sluggish but hungry catfish, skipped a day and then fed a more more active group the following day. Tripp was fascinated by the fish activity.
Kathryn and I took a walk through the woods, but found 6″ of snow in several places. The ice cleared off of two of our ponds, but not this one.
With the help of the dogs we chased the Canada Geese off one of our ponds and then located our evergreen trees in the little triangle lot. The transplants we planted over the past two years needed to be uncovered and allowed to straighten up.
Eric had an AAU basketball tournament (MVE Spring Shootout) at Accelerate with games against Salt City and Tri-Valley Playerz. They lost close games to both, but Eric recorded 15 and 10 rebounds respectively.
As we hit the end of October and the temperatures cool the fish become less active. I have been actively feeding 3xs a week all summer and my bag of RISE fish food is nearly empty. On Wednesday we took the last 1/2 can of food to the pond and got only a few fish interested in eating. Not only were there only a few fish eating, those that did were slow in moving to the food.
See you in the spring, fishies.
I have been trying to feed our pond fish nearly every night getting them fat in preparation for winter. As the water temperature cools they will become more dormant and eat less.
It is pretty cool walking down to the pond in the evening. The water is calm and still; a reflection of the sky. Then either due to the vibrations of my footsteps and/or the 1st tiny plunks of fish food hitting the water, the calmness disappears. V-shaped swells steam across the surface of the pond as the catfish come into eat. Reminders of the movie JAWS.
Unlike the bass, which exhibit a single rise, pluck and return to the depths, the catfish bulldoze along the surface of the water with their mouths wide open; cramming in as much food as possible. In fact, I “lead” them across the pond by spreading a trail of food. We have about 20-25 monster catfish – in the 22-24″ range.
Even my supposedly vegan ‘grass’ carp is into the act, scooping up fish food. He/she is now a big carp and I believe may have sworn off vegetables forever in exchange for this preferred meal.