Tractor and my pond

[plowhog]

I remember it like it was yesterday. A typical cool morning with coastal stratus low cloud cover. I was a young boy.

My mother wanted to take us to Santa Monica pier in Southern California for my sister's birthday. The stratus/fog was supposed to burn off and turn into a warm to hot day. My sister was turning twelve; I was ten. Driving there using the coast highway, we saw a turnout near the ocean. My mom pulled into that and we decided to enjoy the beach and ocean at that spot. Maybe go to the pier later.

After a short time in the water, it happened. I'll never forget the red frothy water around my mom. She turned, looked at us, and there was no sound. No screams. Maybe my mind has blocked that out, I don't know. Then she went under and was gone. She was taken by a shark.

For reasons I will never understand, my father wanted an open casket funeral. The funeral home dressed her fully clothed below the neck to disguise the damage. They first wanted gloves to hide the hands, but adding gloves in summertime seemed out of sorts. They arranged to have her hands clasped on her stomach with a bouquet strategically placed over them. I found the whole thing incredibly creepy.

Apologies of course, but yes I am apprehensive about being in the water with large fish. It took some time to get comfortable as the catfish in my pond were getting bigger, now about ten pounds. I recently saw a TV show called River Monsters that documented that very large catfish were taking people down in South America. Watching that certainly didn't help.

I'm going to lash up a new "grapple" using some scrap aluminum pole and pieces of stiff wire conduit. With a rope instead of fishing line. And thank you for advising about the shoreline getting slippery after you drag the soggy hulk across it. Dragging the muck out is hard enough. Dragging out a tractor would be worse!

 

[AxleHub]

Greetings Plowhog,

You wrote: "It took some time to get comfortable as the catfish in my pond were getting bigger, now about ten pounds. I recently saw a TV show called River Monsters that documented that very large catfish were taking people down in South America."

The concept of catfish is quite varied from region to region. Here in Wisconsin there are several types with a primary type being river catfish and their haunts of the upper Mississippi. in some of the old wing dams of the river there can be certain areas called "holes" where the depths can get 35 and 40 feet deep while still not being part of a lake or part of the big water areas. In those "holes" catfish can grow old and long - up to the 50 to 65 inch lengths. But when you're talking about such sizes - it is not something you catch on fishing rods or see hitting the surface areas - they stay down there because of temperatures and their feeding sources are not large items - but actually very small items. They don't come towards swimmers.

Now if you are talking about those foreign jumping carp that are in some parts of the river - those s.o.b. fish will fly into your boat in quantity - you don't even have to get wet to bump into fish. LOL (but really not a funny topic).

Possibly you might want to check on some other types of catfish that adapt their size to the size and depth of the pond.

 

[plowhog]

Thanks for the suggestion. I appreciate that. I think I'm ok with the "cats" in there now. I stopped feeding the fish maybe five years ago, and the sizes of all the fish have stabilized since then. I think the biggest are going to stay around 10 lbs due to the amount of food available or not available. btw, a family friend used to live in the South. As a young man, he would reach under banks into submerged holes, looking for catfish. If he found one, he'd grab it by the lower jaw and haul it out. You just had to hope you weren't grabbing a water moccasin.

I took my tractor to the pond, with my rope and new "grapple" made from old aluminum pole and electrical conduit. I could not throw it far enough to hit the floating mass. Don't have a boat but might need one. But later in the day the wind blew it closer to shore where I did hit it several times. I need a different lasso method. This one just hits the top, and when I pull it slides along the top and falls off heading for the bottom. I was hoping to use my tractor to yank the whole mess out but couldn't get "hitched up." It looks like it would be easy to grapple and pull it, but I think it weighs a lot more than I think it does. It barely budged the few times I got even a decent amount of hook into it.

I have not done this before. From what I read you are supposed to pull from the drawbar only-- right? To keep from tipping over backward?

 

[Tonyinohio]

Terrible tragedy PlowHog. So sorry to hear anyone witnessing that.

A few things I haven't read mentioned here:

Copper Sulfate works well in water deeper than 4'. Shallow water regardless of concentration will allow sunlight to penetrate to the bottom and pond plants will take root.

Carp in proper quantities will work well but their waste will contribute to the nitrates causing algae blooms.

I'm not a fan of running equipment near a pond edge especially a sloped bank. I lost a friend recently operating a ZTR near a ditch line: he slid in and flipped over. His coworkers found him hours later dead, pinned in less than a foot of water.

 

[boggen]

Thanks for the suggestion. I appreciate that. I think I'm ok with the "cats" in there now. I stopped feeding the fish maybe five years ago, and the sizes of all the fish have stabilized since then. I think the biggest are going to stay around 10 lbs due to the amount of food available or not available. btw, a family friend used to live in the South. As a young man, he would reach under banks into submerged holes, looking for catfish. If he found one, he'd grab it by the lower jaw and haul it out. You just had to hope you weren't grabbing a water moccasin.

I took my tractor to the pond, with my rope and new "grapple" made from old aluminum pole and electrical conduit. I could not throw it far enough to hit the floating mass. Don't have a boat but might need one. But later in the day the wind blew it closer to shore where I did hit it several times. I need a different lasso method. This one just hits the top, and when I pull it slides along the top and falls off heading for the bottom. I was hoping to use my tractor to yank the whole mess out but couldn't get "hitched up." It looks like it would be easy to grapple and pull it, but I think it weighs a lot more than I think it does. It barely budged the few times I got even a decent amount of hook into it.

I have not done this before. From what I read you are supposed to pull from the drawbar only-- right? To keep from tipping over backward?

toss unit out into water, then walk down the shore line with rope in hand. till your in a good position to pull unit across moss. then attach to tractor draw bar. this way ya not having to toss unit out over the water.

draw bar = normally just under the PTO shaft itself on rear of tractor.
do not get confused between a possible draw bar that connects between the lower lift arms. the lower lift arms can raise up, and shift were you are pulling from.

prefer to pull down the banks/shore lines. vs trying to pull directly across center of lake.
prefer not having to toss something out directly from bank/shore, and then pull directly back up onto to shore were i just tossed unit out.

==========
a wide grass plastic rake, to rake up grass clippings into piles, the tines on it, can be nice on them, but being plastic the plastic more likely bust.

a metal garden rake, is nice, but to heavy, more so once you put on an extension pole to really reach it out there 10 to 30 plus feet.

a swimming pool net with extension handle. is ok for floating algae, but well you be out there all day long. and the nets tend to be cheap plastic, so all you are able to do is pull stuff to shore line, and keep it in the water, till you get all the moss out of net. (just making a big mess right at the bank/shore line within the water)

 

[mbullock47]

To be safe, grass carp - or any other non-native species - should NEVER be introduced into a body of water that has ANY chance of overflow into another body of water. History is filled with the nasty results of the best of intentions.

Most grass carp that are available from a quality hatchery are sterile and cannot reproduce.

 

[AxleHub]

Sadly, the number of invasive fish we have in our lakes and streams and rivers that were not supposed to be able to reproduce is dizzying in quantity. Mother Nature is incredibly adaptable and too often humans make errors that weren't supposed to be allowed and soon we're over run with our mistakes.

As just a single example is Florida. The growth of alligators and snakes is exponential and with no natural predators. . is far out of control.

 

[rScotty]

Sadly, the number of invasive fish we have in our lakes and streams and rivers that were not supposed to be able to reproduce is dizzying in quantity. Mother Nature is incredibly adaptable and too often humans make errors that weren't supposed to be allowed and soon we're over run with our mistakes.

As just a single example is Florida. The growth of alligators and snakes is exponential and with no natural predators. . is far out of control.

That invasive species thing used to bother me & still does to some extent. But then I got to thinking about it and realized that WE are the main invasive species on this continent. That didn't make me feel much better, but it did soften my feelings towards invasives.
rScotty

 

[CincyFlyer]

I remember it like it was yesterday.!

What year did this occur?

 

[plowhog]

What year did this occur?

It didn't. I left my PC signed into the forum and got pranked. :grumpy: The floating mess cleared itself, not sure how. Maybe it sank.