Neat!
Reminds me of when I decided our pond needed fish. First, let me explain a
little about the history of our pond. It started out life in 19 49 as an
"evaporation lagoon" for my father-in-law's locker plant. Basically it was
just a large hole that the floor drains of the plant drained into and the
waste water was confined. During the 1960's the lagoon was enlarged to it's
present size of 1 & 1/3 acre and during the enlargement springs
(groundwater) broke through the clay liner making the lagoon unusable for
its' intended purpose. My father-in-law did nothing to improve the pond and
it lay dormant for years with only bullfrogs, snapping turtles and round red
pond worms living in the waters.
In 1991 my wife and I bought the land and I thought it would be nice to put
some fish in. I knew nothing about stocking a pond but we had a summer home
in southern Va. on a small lake. One weekend I caught about 50 bream and
kept them alive till we got home and dumped them in.... like I said, I knew
nothing. The fish and the water they were in were about 50° The pond water
was somewhere around 65° That was the last I saw of my fish...UNTIL the
following spring I saw a flash of color next to the bank..... It was one of
the beam and it was HUGE. Those bream, instead of dying, had spend their
time gorging on those worms that carpeted the pond bottom and they grew and
grew. That spring they spawned and I had the beginnings of our fish pond.

btw The rest of my stocking was done with the advice of our county agent.

Marc




"GoldLexus" wrote in message
...
I have been outside doing some gardening today. While planting some plants
by the pond something caught my eye. I saw something gold at the bottom of
the pond and thought initially it was a leaf but yet it was too gold. So
I
got the pond skimmer and stirred the water and by George it was one (of
the
12) Gold fish my father in law put in last July!!! Only he is now 3 times
bigger! Can you believe it?!?!? That pond had frozen over with at least 3
inches of ice in January. We hadn't seen ANY fish since at least mid
August.
I thought that they all died....NOT. Boy I am amazed at how resilient this
little guy is. Anyway, I am usually just a lurker here but just had to
share.