Post a picture you took in the last week.

[Fish Felon]

The remains of one of the horses with the blinder it was wearing above it's head....

[Nershi]

Do you own the pond EmptyMag? Any duck habitat or fish stocking potential?

We own a part of it. Ive got a few wood duck boxes planned for next spring and a mallard nest. The neighbors all have them. I figure there is 50-80 birds using this pond on a regular basis. Seems more mallards show up in the evening to roost. Not sure about fish, currently none in it. Its all mud/silt bottom and only about 6-8ft deep in the middle I would guess. It also has a water control gate that lets water flow into the pond behind it. As far a s fish I'm sure it would freeze out every winter. The kids are looking to ice skate on it this winter.

I wonder if any sago or wild rice would grow in it???

It should grow wild rice assuming the bottom content is conducive. People say you need moving water which is not true. I got rice going in my dads little pond that has no flow. After a couple years of producing a good crop it had to be replanted. A little green rice goes a long way planting. I’m not sure how big your pond is but I’m guess a grocery bag full might do it. I got my dads pond started after emptying out the bottom of the canoe after an early season hunt in wild rice. I am sure they’d break some sort of AIS law.

I know nothing about sago.

If you want it to be a duck pond you are better off not having minnows or fish in it. I’ve always thought it’d be cool to have a private fish pond to stock. I have snuck in to a gravel pit or two in my day. Most of them are stocked with fish.

[Fish Felon]

You know, the whole "no fish = better for waterfowl" rule is by and large true, with exceptions. Out in the Dakotas it is. If you drew a line across the state of MN from the NW angle down to the North suburbs.....basically Carlos Avery cut East to WI.....I'd say the rule is a good one to follow on the SW portion of that approximate line.

The NE, East Central, & North Central areas of MN I don't think fish/minnows being in wetlands make that big of a difference, especially in a pond 6'-8' deep.

The biggest reason why fish are usually bad is because they compete with ducks for the same food, which are going to be of the small invertebrate/crustacean/zooplankton variety, stuff like freshwater shrimp.

In the area of the state where the wetlands are usually more boggy & brackish, I don't think fish being present make much of a difference for waterfront, if any. There's not any freshwater shrimp and a lot of what ducks eat for protein matter are larvae and bug hatches. There's never any shortage of mosquitoes hatching and hitting the surface from the shallows in stuff that has fish and doesn't have fish, in my opinion. As far as migration fowl they're food sources are wild rice, wild celery tubers, and all sorts of other plant matter....oh, and acorns....if you can find a spot where it sounds like kids throwing small rocks? Money. Acorns dropping into water is basically a guaranteed wood duck limit every hunt while they're still around. I even know a guy who has two thumbs and has baited....very successfully baited.....baited to unbelievable success.....using acorns......and he's this guy [pointing my thumbs back at me].

The nice thing about acorns is that you'll never get busted for baiting with them and they're the best bait there is. I've baited the same spot with acorns and corn in different years and acorns beat the ever living shit out of corn.....it's honestly not even fukcing close.

If you're ever over at a buddy's place and have a buddy who starts bitching about what a pain in the ass it is to sweep acorns off his deck, patio, or driveway? Make him an even better buddy. Bring the guy some 5 gallon buckets, or big trash can, along with his preferred case of beer or bottle of spirits....and tell him that you want all his acorns, badly. If the you don't want to tell him you're wanting them for poaching than make some shit up.....you're planting trees for the arbor day foundation.....but once you get someone to see how excited you are at the prospect of getting acorns? It'll become fun for them too. They'll go from, "Gosh Darn Freaking Acorns!" while hating sweeping them up to, "Man, my buddy [insert your name here] is really going to be excited....look at how many acorns I've got for him!" and really enjoy gathering them.....so really, you're doing a favor that benefits the both of you.

Dump those acorns in a shallow backwoods duck spot that is one you've never seen another guy at a week before opener, and then show up opening morning with a fukc ton of shells.....and more acorns to replenish it preferably.

The whole point of this diatribe is fish....again....don't eat this particular duck food. Fish don't really eat any duck food for migrating waterfowl in this NE third of the state. Besides some mild, insignificant competition with breeding ducks/ducklings for the same never ending supply of insect hatches.....there's little overlap between duck food and fish food like there is in the rest of the state and the Dakotas/Prairie wetlands.

If it's got moving water going through it, even just a small amount, it'll probably support fish without winterkill if it reaches 8' deep....as long as it's got the right type of water. If it's a heavy dark stain of brackish bog water then fish probably won't do very well, regardless of if it winter kills. At that depth in a deep snow years it might very well winter kill. But even if you just dump perch in it....or minnows, panfish, etc., all you need is 2 out of 3 winters to not winter kill and you're going to often, every other year roughly, five years in a decade, going to have some decent to phenomenal fishing. Usually the small bodies of water that fairly frequently winter kill are going to be your prime ones for growing fish fast in.....just ask the DNR.


Could you go on Google earth and take a screen shot of the pond and post it? Edit out any distinguishable landmarks of features....like nearby roads, buildings, anything that you think might give it away. I can guarantee you that you're never going to see me there....no desire to try to find it and more than enough spots of my own to hit in a regular season.

An aerial shot would give me/us a lot better idea of what you're working with and make possible recommendations off of.

[Fish Felon]

For instance, I could've told anyone who posted this picture of their pond that it wasn't suitable for fish.....


....yet the rich dumb **** who owns it dumped $16K worth of walleye fingerlings in it one year, and has been adamant ever since then that fish stocking doesn't work.

I'd be shocked if someone seining the thing for a month would be able to find 'a' minnow. I would've paid money to see the guy who delivered the fingerlings face when he got there and was told to dump them in that pond. The look on his face had to be priceless.

[emptymag]

It’s in town, well in city limits. I’d rather put a ice eater in it as some friends have permission for the first fields out of town this way.

[Fish Felon]

I read your post again.....missed a couple things on the first take.

Ice eater would be the shit with that set up. You'd be the man now dawg---Sean Connery voice.

I'd try to get freshwater shrimp going in it. I'm guessing this is in the West Central Southwest part of the state. If it's that depth and there's no fish in it....I'd rig up an aerator in a big plastic tub and go duck hunting up and around Devil's Lake. Find a slough, pothole, of even the West side of Devil's....any spot where you walk out of the water and your waders are covered in freshwater shrimp. Make a seining net out of window screen and try to fill up a tub with those little bastards and drive them home and dump them in. I know you can buy them but I'm all about stocking shit from the wild....it does better.

If you could get freshwater shrimp going it'd be the shit.

How bad is it for algae blooms? What's your best guess for a secchi disk reading (water clarity)? What's the pH? You can but cheap test kits to find out what your level of acidity/base is....contaminants, etc. I'd just use the cheap home kits you can buy for testing your tap water.

Knowing how bad the algae gets, the clarity, and the pH (taken at a few different times during the year) are going to largely determine what'll make it and what won't.

Or just say fuggit and call 'er good with the ice eater. Open water can be the best waterfowl attractant there is depending on the location and time of season.....late season with permission to the first fields outside town = money

I've got a feeling you're going to make a lot of friends really quickly in next couple of seasons if you get an ice eater put in.....just a hunch.

[emptymag]

This stuff just came up this week. Seems like I can see about 3ft down. There is drop off I can see right where those weeds started growing.

As far as shrimp go. I’ve got a few public spots that have a lot in them with in 30 miles of the place

[emptymag]

So after watching a stork grab a crappie outta the pond...I went about 25 for 50 on these dinks. Kids will have fun.

[emptymag]

Oldman tagged out on one that’s he’s been watching around his place the last week or so.

[maplelakeduckslayer]

Not bad for in the back yard...what are they about 8"?