The Lake

Discussion in 'Back to Basics' started by Thunder5Ranch, Jul 22, 2022.


  1. SB21

    SB21 Monkey+++

    I'll let him explain his plan ,, but yes ,, fish are in the future .
     
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  2. Wildbilly

    Wildbilly Monkey+++

    We only got 1" of rain, which to a farmer is almost no rain at all, you folks up there in the Ohio Valley stole OUR rain!:mad:
     
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  3. Thunder5Ranch

    Thunder5Ranch Monkey+++

    Yep have several fish hatcheries close by with good stock but not available again until next May/June My plan is to seed it with bluegill and redear (AKA shellcrackers) next year and give them a year to grow and establish and then toss in 1000 Largemouth bass in the 4-5 inch range. Then year 3 maybe 500-1000 Channel cat and a couple hundred flatheads. My next project after finish my part of the lake bed dirt work is to set up the catfish spawning beds.

    Not stocking even close to the rates per acre that are recommended. I am just seed stocking and in stages so the fish grow in population with the environment. I also want to give the crawdads, snails, clams and water bugs and plants time over 3 years before there is any serious bass and cats eating the bluegill and redear.
     
  4. Gator 45/70

    Gator 45/70 Monkey+++

    You just killed the pond with catfish, After a few years you won't have nothing but catfish trust me on that one!
     
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  5. Thunder5Ranch

    Thunder5Ranch Monkey+++

    Nope limited spawning habitat and cold water in most of the lake will keep their spawn rates in check. Now if I was stocking yellow bullheads that would be a different story :) Most ponds and small lakes the Channel Cat and Flat Heads won't even spawn because there is no structure suitable for spawning in them. The bigger problem here with catfish is them getting fished out and having to restock them. I am more concerned with what the Herons and Egrets will stock for me. Like Rock Bass, crappie and those damned hybrid bluegill they put in the city lake 6 miles away. We scooped the stock pond last week end to see what the birds had stocked in it. Rock Bass and Hybrid Bluegill! A butt load of painted turtles, 5 common snappers, 3 small alligator snappers and POE our big Alligator Snapper that has been living here since I built the stock pond and 3,000,000,002 crawdads of varying sizes. I don't hate Rock Bass, don't love them either. Hybrid Bluegill I loathe! They are right up there with bullheads on my hate list of fish.
     
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  6. Thunder5Ranch

    Thunder5Ranch Monkey+++

    So the lake is as done as I am going to get it. Now I have started building the dam for the North Arm Woods Catch Pond. Total area out side of the woods is a bit over 4 acres total including the woods flooded ravines will be 7.78 acres. Going to be quite a bit bigger and deeper than I had originally thought. Took this pic at the South end of where the dam will end up.
    DSC03194.JPG

    I put a deep and thick gold clay key way in and am building the core with 60%-65% gray clay. I am going to leave the center open with a drainage channel until the main lake fills. There is a whole lot of run off from the woods and the North field that will run through there in heavy rains. I have 534 feet of dam to build while waiting on the water to run off :) I am building it all with a tractor bucket, a 56hp tractor and the 6' box blade. Just because some folks have said I can't build a decent size dam with that set up.
    DSC03196.JPG

    Most of if not all of Mount Krap Major will be packed into the pond dam. To put Mount Krap in perspective it is 24' tall at the peak and 200' across the base. It is a mix of Gold Clay and Gray clay that was left over from building the main lake dam. What I am doing in the pond bed is scraping down as far as I can for as much depth as I can without breaking into the water table. I am mostly pulling gray clay but hit a stretch of the best gold clay here and there.
    DSC03201.JPG

    The top of the bucket arms are at 8' tall to put the big mound of top soil at the ponds arm forks in perspective
    DSC03202.JPG

    The dam will end 40' into the beans 540' from the end of the dam on the South End where I am standing to 40 feet into the beans. North side of the dam is current 6' 9 inches tall and will top out at 11'5" tall Core is 24' wide. I pull clay in and compact it and then pull the higher clay content sub soil up to it to make the slopes and compact it with the tractor and blade going up over and back down. So far I have shaved 2' of pond bed down and in the main body it will be 75% 9'-10' deep sloping up to the banks at around 2.5' to 3' deep. Gets down to 6" to a Foot Deep on the North slope.
    DSC03193.JPG

    Ok I admit it......... I like it! It tells me exactly how deep any given area is and how tall the dam needs to be. Also exactly where the high water line will be......... without Mrs T5R being recruited to look through the transit or walk around with the rod. Kit came with two other gizmos I am liking as well. A Laser Detector, do not even need the stick to find high water lines just raise the sensor up and down until it screams and gives a green light until you get the green light down on the ground. Other Gizmo is a handheld laser range finder that works out to 1800 feet. I am finding that to be the handiest Gizmo ever, really takes the work out of calculating area sq ft and converting to acres. Got a feeling my old measuring wheel is going to be spending A LOT of time on the shop wall :( Along with my spools of nylon measuring cord.
    DSC03200.JPG

    Sitting in my chair at the Kooling and Fueling Station as the sun is just about down. Enjoying the view of Mount Krap Major and thinking about how much better that view will be when Mount Krap Major is a Dam instead of a big eye sore in my pictures :) At my current rate of scraping the pond bed, I have about 3 days left scraping there before it is too spongy every place to shave anymore off. 2 days of mowing down and then ripping the waterway to the woods, 2 days of going back and forth pulling the 4" of top soil off there. A half day of compacting the sub soil clay mix in that arm. Then heading to easy street and tearing Mount Krap down. I figure a week solid of moving Mount Krap and packing it into and on the dam. At that point I will most likely close the drainage channel for the pond area up and pack it tight with a pile of damp gold clay I am hanging onto just to pack into the center gap that will bond well with the core and then make the slope in the center from the same gold clay and compact it tight. Will be much easier to build the dam up being able to go all of the way across with a ton in the tractor bucket and a ton and half getting dragged with the box blade. Cough the Quick connect part that broke on the loader is supposed to be here a week from now. Having the big bucket back in action will double the speed that I can move the Mountain ;) From where I am sitting to the tree line where the ravine heads NE into the woods is 1650 feet, I know this because when this was a pasture.hay field it took exactly 5 rolls of 330' field fence to go here to there :) And that new laser range finder gizmo shooting the dead tree at the tree line where the ravine starts tells me 1670 feet. With Red Dead I had to debate a while on walking back to the cabin or taking one of the tractors. I am Lazy I drove the little BX back :) LOL my camera sucks and is like my blind spot truck mirrors, images appear closer than they really are!
    DSC03208.JPG

    Last view and pic of the sun before it was down for the count.... And the conclusion of another day here at KAMP KRAP
    DSC03189.JPG

    And back at the Krap Kave I had to make this meme since no one else seems to notice Biden doing what has destroyed others careers.
    Biden WP.
     
  7. Gator 45/70

    Gator 45/70 Monkey+++

    Nope, Catfish are like teenagers growing, They will eat you out of everything in the cupboard and then eat the cupboard once they reach a large enough size and will hit everything like a bass, sneks frogs bait cast lures like a goldleaf black and chartreuse.
    Been there done that.
    Fingerling stocking, Put a couple of floating wooden pallets and anchor to the bottom.
    This provides shade and shelter.
    Catfish need their own pond, Cat food in a deer feeder, Set on a timer is the way to go if you don't have time everyday to toss out food.
    I've helped clean out a couple ponds after the catfish pretty much got big big and whipped out all the spawn fingerlings.
    When's the fish fry pop's?
     
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  8. Gator 45/70

    Gator 45/70 Monkey+++

    Put some 30ft deep holes in the pond, Fish go deep in the cold.
     
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  9. Thunder5Ranch

    Thunder5Ranch Monkey+++

    Not really been my experience or anyone I know. Grandpa's old pond built back in the late 50s has channel cats in it smallest one I ever caught in it was 18 pounds. And to catch a Cat at all in that pond was extremely rare. The pond was best known for Big Bass and hand size Bluegill. Grandpa stocked it one time with 1000 catfish in the 1960s They just do not successfully spawn because there is no structure suitable for catfish spawning in the pond. They lay eggs but they just do not hatch but do provide a feast for the little bluegill and bass. Now what did kill that pond and absolutely ruined it was when the new owner stocked it with black crappie about 9-10 years back. Now it is rare to catch anything but stunted crappie and you can throw a bare hook out and catch them every damn cast. The new owner is to the point of renting a couple of big and draining the pond as low as it will go and letting lack of oxygen in the water that can't be pumped out kill everything and starting over.

    The biggest mistake people stocking channel catfish make is over stocking them. Neighbor here stocked a 4 acre pond with 400 per acre and has nothing but half starved catfish that ate everything else. They do not reproduce and if healthy would all weigh in the 5-6 pound range now as it is they all look like they have been filleted and the skin put back on. If he had stocked at say 10-15 per acre he would still have a nice bluegill and bass pond with an occasional good catfish fight.

    I will have some limited spawning along the dam because of the rip rap below the waterline. But catfish will be the last thing I stock. Next year will be Bluegill and Red Ear only. Already have billions of baby crawdads swarming into the lake as the holes cover with water. Watched a hole that was covered up in todays rain with a solid stream of 1/16th and smaller crawdas swarm out of a couple of holes for a solid 10 minutes. The painted Turtles, common snappers and hand full of alligator snappers have fully migrated from the stock ponds into the lake and brought the snails and clams along on their shells. Starting to see a water snail here and there on the grass standing in the water and recently saw the first little clam. So the remainder of this year until May/June of next year the base food source for gills and ears will be well established. Easily 100,000 crawdad towers in the lake bed area and every one full of baby crawdads waiting to flood out as soon as the hole is covered.

    We have 3 species of crawdads Virile, Devil, and White Rivers. Had a bunch of University Kids doing crawdad research that heard about our massive crawdad population but now bodies of water anywhere near by to support the population come out 10 years back and spent a week luring them out of holes to ID all of the species, even used some ground radar to see what was going on under the ground in 6'x6' squares THERE IS A WHOLE UNDERGROUND CITY OF CRAWDADS DOWN THERE!!! Learned that every hole and tower goes down to a water filled pocket that are 6" to 12" diameter and those pockets are connected to other pockets via tunnels in the low spots the pockets are 1' to 4' down and on the hill tops they are 4' to 10' down and all are down in the water table. They eat plant roots and worms and in heavy rains come to surface to forage and dig new holes. I found it all very interesting. They found it interesting and say this place is rather unique to have billions and billions of crawdads that spend 98% of their lives deep under the ground with no water source other than our little aquifer that is 2' to 10' feet below the surface over errr under 3/4 of the farm. Most population are the Devils, then the White Rivers and finally the Virile's.

    The lake changed the entire crawdad dynamic here. instead of remaining in the burrow network they are coming out and into the lake as the lake rises over the holes. Hell the lake has changed the everything dynamics. The Resident family of muskrats in the larger stock pond have relocated to the lake, not a big bullfrog left to be found in the stock ponds. The Turtles seemed to have loaded up their Uhauls and left the stock ponds. More damn leopard frogs and Spring Peepers around the lake than I can count. Our Killdeer birds had a great nesting season and the babies grew up to make the flock around 200 strong that rarely leave the lake banks running around snatching up bugs, baby crawdads and splashing around in the shallows. Looks like around 30ish White tail deer hitting the lake for a drink every morning now before heading to the beans and grass to bed down for the day. Hard to get a accurate count as they blend in so well with color of the clay in the lake bed. Found the first Bobcat tracks at the water edge two days ago, now find a fresh set every morning since. The Red Foxes and the handful of gray foxes found it fast. More Coons, possums and skunks hitting it nightly LOL the coons have little piles of crawdad shell and claws where they sit and fish them out and eat them..... and every coon turd I find now is rich in crawdad shells as well. Pretty much everything wild here has changed its usual activity pattern and the prime place to be is the lake. One exception that I expected that is not happening, not a single track or sign of the coyote packs around the lake. I know they know it is there, I see their tracks and crap on the dirt road and at the dirt entrance to the dam up to the spillway but not a single track or turd in the lake bed. I am hoping that changes because I want to eliminate about 70% of their population while they are drinking :) Way too many coyotes out here! I really need to get 6-8 more game cameras and put them around the lake. Might remember to grab them when I go to town this afternoon. I hate going to town anymore the Urban Feral Humans make the packs of Coyotes look tame and gentle!
     
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  10. Thunder5Ranch

    Thunder5Ranch Monkey+++

    I hate to say this but TG for yesterdays 3/4" Rain Downpour! I really need a few days off of the tractor!!! And more rain expected tomorrow and Monday :) It will be Next Thursday before I will be able to get back to dragging dirt to the Woods Pond Dam :) I have scraped as far down as I can in the pond bed. Tractor tires have started making 4" deep depressions, LOL about one more pass and I will be down in the water table and that Elmers craft paste MUD that it makes. So I started on the Mount Krap Foot hills yesterday morning and it is a damn steep grade up and down from the *Ramp* No big deal when it was dry. Impossible after yesterday afternoons down pour. I gave it a whirl just see, I made two attempts to drive the tractor up and twice made it less than half way before sliding backwards back down to the base. LOL Slick packed Clay is as bad as a sheet of ice.

    Kind of sucks in one way the dam was building fast dragging the clay down and I could have had the dam built, compacted and sloped in another two weeks. Kind of good as well because after 2 weeks solid doing 12-14 hour days going around in circles and hotter than hell most of the time...... I really do need a few days off the tractor. I also really need to go to town and get a few groceries like Gatorade and Dog food...... the girls love their boiled off the bone possum stews but like it a lot better when it is boiled whatever and kibble :) I also could stand to kill a couple of big possums and get another 20 gallons of possum stew in the freezers. I freeze it in quart bags and then heat a quart up and mix it with 3 quarts of cheap dog food. and that is a days food for my girls. I need to cut Poo back a bit though she is getting FAT! and I need to up POP's because she always drops weight in the summer. Cough Poo is lazy and POP is over active :) LOL POP walks beside the tractor non stop, Poo lays beside a pool of water sun bathing and occasionally swimming around while keeping a look out for any threat or danger that might need ripped to shreds and eaten. She is only dangerous if you are something that does not belong here ;)
     
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  11. Gator 45/70

    Gator 45/70 Monkey+++

    The college kids were really after a crawfish boil and you're supplying the crawfish!!!
    lol
     
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  12. Thunder5Ranch

    Thunder5Ranch Monkey+++

    Not much to eat in these at least not like the big red swamp daddies from KY Lake backwaters on South.

    Something I am thinking about trying my hand at is raising fresh water prawns. We have just about the perfect climate here to raise them without heating or cooling the water and they only need 3-4 feet deep water. One of vendors from the market days raises them a bit south of me and passed a package of them to me to try. Not at all what I was expecting from Southern IL Raised Giant Shrimp! So been learning about it through stealth observation and on farm tours. LOL everyone recognizes me with the wild hair and bushy beard, no one recognizes me with the beard and hair shaved and wearing my glasses. Very common for people to come up to me and say hey your Mr T5R and then the conversation goes one of two ways "I love your stuff" or "I hate your guts and hope die screaming." The latter usually from the far left nut jobs that hate walmart but always seem to be in walmart or Sams Club. In Stealth Mode they just done recognize me. So I learned pretty quickly that me being a liberal lightning Rod was not good for places and people I visited as they were deemed guilty by association and they and their businesses suffered due to the boycotts, protest and general trashing on social media platforms. So Mike does not go visiting other places unless they are folks that don't give two shits what the leftist think and don't want their business anyway. Earl goes and visits those places and learns on behalf of Mike :)

    Anyway I have been studying freshwater prawn for a couple of years now. In particular the ponds to raise them structure, filtration and oxygenation as well as the best feeds for them. Pelleted Cattle and Hog feed seems to be what all 3 of the farms in a 200 mile radius that raise them use. Their ponds are just 1/2 and 1 acre 3.5 feet to 5 feet deep, oxygenation two use paddle wheels, one use water spouts. None use any real filtration during the 120 day growing period and just drain the ponds and flush clean them prior to winter. Only about $2000 profit per acre after I would take my 150 pound cut of them for myself :) Kind of like the hogs and cattle...... I like getting paid to put food in my personal freezers :)

    Sadly most homesteads/Hobby Farms/ Prepper Sanctuaries are money pits that are viable only so long as they are being financially supported. Very few actually generate the revenue to be self supporting and generate a profit above sustenance level. I kind of intentionally by accident took a different path and side income became the full support of the farm and myself financially. .. then it just kept growing with Word of Mouth Advertising. I could post right now that I have 2000 pound of whole steer burger available for $6.50 per pound (I don't) and the freezer with it would be empty before the sun set. And I would go to sleep tonight with another $9,500 in pure cash profit in the safe and steer for myself in the personal freezer. Not bragging as it took a lot of time and effort to build my reputation and the word to spread that hey this guy has nothing but top quality. Then the food trailers were a profit multiplier that $6.50 per pound turned into $18.00 per split up into patties on a bun. I AM LAZY and I never intended to work as hard as I have the last 15 years prior to semi retiring! Those 20 hour days just about got the better of me! Where I can take solace is that my health recovered, I no longer have to do anything I don't want to do, if I want to go out and buy a $40,000 kubota tractor I can without hurting myself financially and while I semi retired...... I could just as easily never do anything again for profit and be full retired at 55 years old. But if I am going to raise and finish one steer for myself it ain't any harder to raise and finish 5 and make $9500 at the same time I am putting beef in my own freezer. Same amount of work to raise 10 hogs as it is to raise 2. Don't even have to make a post about it anymore, my long time loyal customers will start calling and messaging me around the end of September telling me they want a side of beef and a Hog in November. These prawns the same thing no more work to raise a acre of them than it would be to raise a 1/4 acre of them. LOL my exception is fruits and vegetables..... takes a lot more work to grow a 12 acre market garden and orchard than a 1 acre personal garden!!! I ain't gonna raise vegetables for anyone other than myself ever again! Damn people even the loyal ones want to haggle over my $1.00 per pound tomatoes and bell peppers and tell me I am to high prices......... Blah they grow their own if thats the way they feel ;)
     
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  13. Thunder5Ranch

    Thunder5Ranch Monkey+++

    Little Tractor Doing a Big Job.
     

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  14. Thunder5Ranch

    Thunder5Ranch Monkey+++

    Workin Workin Workin
     

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