Folks at home welcome back to the Crimson Oak Pond and we're in Prime growing season for these largemouth bass right here in the peak of the summer so we're going to be adding thousands of bait fish to help support those big appetites of these Tiger Bass so this one's going to be action-packed and everybody's eating good in this episode and we even have a surprise appearance from our little bass fry named Truman that hatched a few weeks ago but let's jump right into it because the fish truck just showed up and we're going to be stocking 12,000 thread fin Shad today and I stock them two to three times per year but this is by far the most important stocking and if you're a pond owner I would highly recommend adding some thread fin Shad right around the full moon in May and that's because that kicks off the thread fin spawning season and each female Shad could lay between 2,000 to 24,000 eggs and don't just take my word for it because you're seeing it happen live in this video literally a couple days after we stocked them the Shad spawned and our banks are covered with hundreds of thousands of these tiny thread fin Shad so to do some quick MCH let's just say that out of the 12,000 Shad we added half of them or 6,000 are females so even if they laid the minimum amount of eggs which is 2,000 that could produce 12 million thread fin Shad which is incredible so I'm very excited that we got the timing perfect on this Shad spawn because they're going to help feed the Tiger Bass throughout the rest of the year and for a largemouth bass to gain one pound he has to eat 10 lb of forage and you know we're trying to get some 10 Pounders in here and that means each 10 pounder would have to eat need 100 lb of bait but between the thread fins bluegills baby tilapia and prawns we're well on our way to providing that and if you've ever seen a thread fin they've always got that nervous or frantic type of swimming pattern but an interesting fact about them is they don't have an air bladder so a thread fin has to swim constantly or else it would sink to the bottom but I had to slow some of these clips down so you could see them and the majority of these Shad are 1 to two in and hatched this past week but you will see a few adults mixed in there with them and one other interesting fact fact is thread fins only typically live 2 to 3 years so that's why it's important to get them in the pond let them reproduce and if you're ever able to keep that cycle going you may only have to stock them once and one other key feature to stocking thread fin Shad is you need a good Plankton Bloom and the timing was perfect on this we got our best Plank and Bloom about 2 to 3 weeks ago and it was almost too good and that's the primary food source for a thread fin Shad is Plankton and Zoo Plankton so by having that nice fertile Bloom the shad get big quick and that also leads to putting more weight on the bass and as you can see they are happy with the abundance of new bait in the pond so now let's take a trip over to Cedar Falls and if you go up to the top of the waterfall that's called the Wetland filter and over the past few weeks we added some tropical lies and the other day I was up here checking them out and look who decided to show up it's the little third generation Tiger Bass we call Truman so I was beginning to think the worst about Truman because we hadn't seen him since we put him in here and if you guys recall back in April when the bass spawned I used a little Dip Net to try to catch a few of them and I caught this little guy and let you all name him and you guys decided on Truman and how cool is that going to be raising a pet Bass from the first day of his life to maybe a potential eight or 10 pounder so I was thinking Truman's probably hungry and it just so happens that I've got a tank full of bait just his size so I head it over to the freshwater prawn tank and we're going to catch him a few and drop them in and get to see his first feeding and here's another water shot of the little guy he's obviously been eating something probably those tadpoles but if you look closely right there at the red arrow that's one of the prawns hovering over the rocks and Truman goes in to get him but it happened so fast I couldn't see for sure if he got him I had to slow it down and it turns out the prawn is a little faster than Truman so with all these rocks he's going to have a tough time catching the prawns so I decided to try some crickets and he was interested but Truman's going to learn a valuable lesson today you got to be quick he wasn't fast enough and the cricket got away so I decided to add something a little slower I dropped the worm in and Truman came up to inspect it but if you look closely you'll see two long whiskers sticking out of his mouth so at some point the cricket must have jumped back in the pond and he got him after all and it doesn't take much to fill up a 3-in Bass so he passed for now but he did come back later and decided to give the worm a shot but it looks like he didn't have enough room in that little belly Ste full from the cricket and he passed again now here's where the plot thickens the next day I showed up to do another feeding and at first I thought it was Truman Shadow but it's actually a second bass in this Pond I have no idea how that happened my best guess is there was another one in the dipet that I just didn't see but sure enough right there in plain sight we've got a spitting image and I bet they're going to make a dynamic duo so this little guy's going to need a name as well so leave me a comment Down Below on what you think we should name the new guy and also found it interesting that we got some snails in the Wetland field I guess pretty much any body of water they're going to make it into probably brought in from the birds and Cedar Falls is coming along nicely got all the lily pads blooming and there's no better place to hang out in the summertime than right here by the waterfall but now it's time to check in on all the pets that live here and these three guys are like my Shadows whenever I come around the pond we got tiger right there on the left Johnny and June on the right and if you've seen our previous videos we always work in a tandem and every day I walk up to the pond they swim over to the base of the waterfall and get in position because there's always a big school of shiners hanging out around the waterfall so my job is simple I have to step in the water spook them all out to the deeper end and that's where they get ambushed now take a moment to listen to that wonderful sound the top water blow up I can't tell for sure but I think that's June that swam all the way up in here to the waterfall that's right it's pretty shallow in here only about 12 in but this warm water's got them ready to eat man I could watch that all day there's some blooms on one of the tropical lies those turned out to be a great addition to the pond and something else I was really excited to see in our last video was our two pet bass in here named Johnny and June had a successful spawn and we've got a few dozen baby bass swimming right here in this shallow pocket so we're thinking about adding a few of them to the 300-gallon aquarium and today I just wanted to see how easy it would be to catch them and it was pretty easy to catch a couple of them so we'll plan on making that transfer for a few of them here soon we got Johnny hanging out over here by the beach hoping I'll run some more shiners his way and one of the baby turtles that lives right there under that Lily Pad so if you missed our last video we had a small mechanical issue with our volcano pump so I got the guys from Southeastern Pond to come out here and they've got the perfect lift on the front of their boat that'll Hoist the pump up which makes it a lot lot easier to get it out in the middle of the pond and set and it's best to put it in around that 6t depth range so for us that's right out in the middle of the pond and this time they're going to Anchor it down with four anchor ropes and try to strategically put them behind some of those structure piles so it doesn't interfere too much with the fishing and the volcano pump is back in action and that's going to help me sleep a lot better at night and you can see the water was really clear this spring and then you'll get that green pea soup look after the plank Bloom and you just really have to monitor it closely because if you get too thick of a bloom sometimes a random thunderstorm in the summer can rapidly kill that plank and Bloom off and create a dissolved oxygen issue but by having this volcano pump it's like an insurance policy that'll keep those fish kills from happening and here's another shot of the Pond from this week it took a little while but that planked and Bloom thinned out and now it's starting to look more like natural pond water all right got a nice Sunset out here at the pond I had a special request from a subscriber that said I should use the pit tag scanner right here at the base of the eagle Tower basically checking to see if an eagle had ever grabbed a fish and basically discarded the tag down here on the ground so we're going to start scanning hopefully this thing doesn't go off we'll just scan the area and no tags found so either the Eagles ate the tags or they hadn't captured a tagged bass and the bass are going to be happy because the thread fins aren't the only one spawning we're starting to see big groups of tilapia fry and you can see their swimming patterns are completely different but the one key giveaway is that there's a certain amount of baby tilapia that are going to be born albino and those guys really stand out so one of the perks of being friends with Greg the pong guy he's always sending us care packages these are going to hold some of the lies that we have right over here in the Wetland filter because I actually really like them right here in this area so you see those little green hooks right there those are really small pots that the lies came in we're going to plant them in these give the roots more Room to Grow even send along some fertilizer and these are perfect for the Wetland filter you can see the height on it compared to a normal bucket fill the bottom up here going add a little fertilizer little more sole on top look at the balloons on this guy that's a nice one you can tell it was already out of room all right just about there now we're going to add a little bit of gravel and make sure to leave the top of the Lily exposed and there we go time to add her back to the water all right we're going to start it off shallow right here but in case I hadn't already mentioned it these are tropical lies they only last one year perfect little spot for it just like it was meant to be right here in front of the waterfall all right it's time to adjust these just a little bit so the Victorian is the only one that has little stickers on the end of it and I know since Sarah's going to be playing right here at the beach we're going to scoot it over there and Scoot the tropical one a little closer but the good thing about these is that even though they're in that big heavy pot once you get them in the water you can easily just float them around those little stickers I was telling you about to help protect it and today's video is brought to you by element after long hot days out here at the farm it's important important to stay hydrated and in our previous videos you've seen the drink mix hydration packs but element is excited to announce a new way to stay hydrated with element sparkling and it offers the same zero sugar electrolyte formulation now in a bold 16 o can of sparkling water and element has formulated the perfect amount of sodium pottassium magnesium and zero sugar to keep you hydrated and the right amount of electrolytes can help you maintain steady energy improve cognitive function have fewer headaches and muscle cramps and also keep your skin hydrated and the sparkling flavors include Citrus salt watermelon salt grapefruit salt as well as the debut of the new black cherry lime flavor only available in sparkling so if you're interested in checking out the drink mix packets or the new sparkling go to drinkel .com/briowfc and each sample pack includes one packet of eight flavors but the best part is they have a no questions asked refund policy so do me a favor go check them out and join the salty Rebellion so here's something else that just showed up the past couple of weeks and that's a submerged vegetation and I'll hop in here and grab some of it so you can see it but after talking to the biologist they identified it as Cara grass and it's actually an algae not a grass but it's one of the more friendly types of grasses out there and the fish really love it you can see they're making pockets and things down in it the bass use it for an ambush Point tilapia use it for beding it'll also help some of them thread fins make it to adult size but car grass typically stays submerged and doesn't make it all the way to the surface but the biggest benefit is it's really easy to control and so if it gets out of hand you spray the banks and problem solved guys I just have to say it is unbelievable how many thread Finch Shad are swiming the banks of this Pond and it's basically anywhere you go around the bank if you look down there's going to be a steady stream of Shad that is never ending and the wild thing is when I come out early in the morning you'll see the Shad flickering up there on the surface right around the grass so I think some of them are still spawning it's incredible I've never seen this much bait in my life so this could potentially be the last time we have to stock the thread pins but the one other thing you have to look out for as a pond owner they can't survive harsh winners anytime that water temp drops below about 42 it could Wipe Out the whole population but I don't think we'll have that issue in this Pond they're much more likely to be wiped out by the bass because as you can see when the bass start feeding pretty heavily on them you'll lose some of them just to being knocked out onto the bank and there's a little trail of them you can see the bass were eating good but I was also thinking these baby thread fins are the perfect size for Truman and his counterpart so let's go catch a few and bring it up and have a feeding there's a good look at the size of them let's get him dropped in oh and he's doing that wounded thread fin circular pattern on the surface if that doesn't draw a strike nothing will Tran got him it's almost like I had to call him out of his little hiding hole let's drop another one in for the other guy he even came back for a second one couldn't even fit him in his mouth and I was wondering what they've been eating to survive this long but there's always bugs and tadpoles and other things like this around a body of water but I also wanted to check in on that third generation of bass that just hatched this spring at the same time as Truman and see how they were doing in the 5 acre pond so I put some underwater cameras around where those thread fans were hanging out and sure enough it lured a little school of them in and I'd have to say that Truman has been eating pretty good because I think they're almost identical in size with the one major difference being that these little guys in the 5 acre pond have to live in fear because at any moment a bigger bass could eat them while Truman's up there living a stress-free life and one of the snails in the pond is doing me a favor and helping me clean the lens on the camera Sun's going down Shad are still Rippling up there on the banks that's one of my favorite parts of the day got to come out here at Sunset feed the bass you can see we got them hanging out down here right around the dock and TOS some golden shiners on to them all right let's try to hand feed one and as you watch some of these fish feed pay close attention to their size there's several of them that are getting on up there some of these probably in the 3 lb class range but I suspect that with the abundance of red fins also the tilapia and prawns we should start seeing some bass around that 5 lb range this year and these fish are right at 2 years old we stocked them in June 2022 and we already had one named the goat that was pushing 5 lbs back in November but one interesting thing that I find about this particular strain of bass is they haven't really ever messed with the Blu gills too much so typically that's one of the primary food sources of the bass but I like to watch them at night when they're swimming around that green light and the bass don't really mess with the BL gills that much you see them swim right there by them like they don't really feel threatened but I have a feeling that's because as the bass were growing up there was an abundance of that smaller bait so that's what they targeted and got used to but once you see a bass start getting around the 5 lb range the Blu gills better watch out because it's much easier for a Bass to eat a half a pound blue gill than to chase a dozen thread pins around so I have a feeling once Blu Gill's hit the menu we're going to see some good growths so I had some some leftover crickets and I wanted to feed the bluegills and Cedar Falls but this particular bluegill learned a quick lesson and that's do not hesitate around a bass and these bass in particular have that aggression bred into them and I always forget how much bass like crickets I mean it makes sense because anything that swims on the surface like a frog they're going to eat it oh and this little Cricket better stay on that lily pad oh no he's swimming in the wrong direction got him but I'm happy to see that these three bass are getting along we just added tiger in with Johnny and June a couple weeks ago and sometimes when you add a new fish in they'll get really aggressive or territorial but I think the carrying capacity of this Pond is plenty big enough at 30,000 gallons to support multiple bass where they can all claim their own little Zone and not sit right there on top of each other and I'll have to keep some underwater cameras rolling because now that the tilapia are spawning in the 5 acre Pond they should start spawning in this Pond as well because that is the goal is to have a constant source of bait always reproducing and sustaining itself so you don't constantly have to add more food for the fish let's see if he saw the Cricket on top of the lies they don't miss much a bass eating directly off a lily pad is about the best sight you'll ever see all right we had a really good feeding session for everybody today all the fish should be happy now let's dive underwater and see what's going on beneath the surface and you can quickly see our little school of bass looks like most of them have made it we also got one of the little Turtles coming out so I decided to drop a few pellets in for the turtle and of course he better come quick because I know the bluegill is going to eat them but check that out the tilapia is also eating the protein pellets but I'm not that surprised because I have heard that tilapia will eat almost anything oh the turtle was late and he almost got one that's the name of the game today you got to be fast and not hesitate but the little turtle was going as fast as I think he could check that out tiger even ate one of the pellets and then spit it out he said no thanks one last shot of the turtle and the baby bass fry and here's the two female tilapia over snacking on some algae now it's time to check in on the squirrel house and so far far nobody has completely claimed it but as you can see several animals stopped by and check it out and we tried to build the entrance small enough to keep things like the raccoon out but you can see that did not work as planned that's a big raccoon and a tiny house you can even see him checking out the bed saying I wish that would have made it a little bit bigger for me so here's the little guy that we want to move in but unfortunately every time he stops by all the food and nuts and things we put out to draw them in are gone so we have not been able to lure them in just yet but this is the one that spends the most amount of time in this house and that's the mouse that we call Gus Gus Gus Gus is quick to come through and collect all the snacks we leave out and this is the one that we call gust Jr he's a little bit too late for the snacks tonight and you can also see a little timid hopped up on the bed we may have a new Resident and this is a different raccoon that stopped by later that night he's very intrigued you can see he's looking for the entrance but once he pokes his head in there I'm not sure if he saw Gus Gus or Gus Jr but thankfully he didn't try to enter because he is bigger than the last one I don't think Gus Gus is happy about gust junr being in there in his bed all right we got another opportunity the next morning still no snacks out and the same result but look at there now we got a pair of squirrels all right I just got everything cut down here at the Halfacre we are going to put out a soybean and corn mix so the Corn's really just there to get them coming and then we'll start going strictly soybeans because I hadn't put out cameras in a little while but I suspect the deer is starting to put on their antler growth and that protein always helps them out then we'll check in with the cameras and see what comes out tonight all right we got one of those same raccoons showing up here at the feeder you can also see the Bucks are in velvet and starting to put on some growth there's a few of them they're starting to Fork out now and a young buck in the daytime with a Hulk back in the background he's a little spooked right now but I like the daytime shots of them and hey there's our two little squirrel friends now that they're hang out at the feeder and the house we should probably just go ahead and name them so leave your comments Down Below on what you think we should name the pair of squirrels the raccoons getting a little feisty out here on cleanup Duty and that's probably the biggest buk we've seen so far but that's why we're putting out these protein pellets to help out with that antler growth and hey we even had Peter Cotton Tail show up also got some Young Bucks walking through the pond right here in Bonnie's valou all right it's time to catch a few of these bass see how big they've gotten they should be putting on the weight but you guys know the deal every time we catch one we scan it if it hadn't been tagged we'll use this to inject a tag we'll also get a weight on it and add it to our database and with all the Shad activity I got a couple different Shad style baits we got a top water Whopper plopper spinner bait Believe It or Not these fish have never seen a spinner bait so that may work out really good that's they're ready to eat the spinner bait got him that right at the bank nice one all right this is 56 9597 skyways 2.05 and this fish is named Nemo and I'm happy to see this data because I CAU her two times back in April and she was thin and post spawn but it's good to see her starting to put that weight back home got it mhm on the spinner bait right over that grass all right this fish been caught 57 0827 1.71 and this fish is named unit and it's the only fish that had a little bit of decline in growth since the last time we caught it but that was just 1 month ago and could have just been the difference in what that fish ate that particular day so spinner baits excel in these conditions when you got a little bit of wind on the surface you got the underwater grass cuz it can go right over the top of that grass and not get hung in it so perfect bait for today got him every cast and this is a gen two bass but check that out red tail like they're spawning here in June these fish always amaze me got little better than the last one all right this one's been called 69638 and it weighs 1.82 lb and this fish is Bera and you can pretty much find Bera feeding throughout the entire pond got him on top water well if they start eating top water today it's going to be fun all right this one's 1571 1208 it weighs 2.13 and this fish is named Dixie fourth time we caught her some good progress in weight there we go good one this one's so big can't jump out of the water nice one all right everyone's been C today 569975 this one weighs 1.80 and this fish is Cypress and it's been over a year since we caught Cyprus there he is finally got him to bite this feels like a good one too wow out out there we go we're getting a little bigger all right this fish has been caught 57601 2.13 this is Quasimoto another fish with a slight dip in weight but in March it could have been prawn and that's one of the heaviest times of the year so hopefully the next time we catch Quasimoto that weight will be much higher got him nice one all right this one's been caught 56 9736 this one weighs 2.20 and swim Shady putting on about a half a pound since March so I started running cameras on the feeders again because I'm interested to see if the bass will come over and start feeding on the bluegills right here when the feeders go off they did it a little bit last fall but now that they've gotten much bigger we should start seeing that and it's pretty obvious when it happens you see a big splash and a bluegill flying up in the air like you'll see in a couple of these clips Oliver you see the crab you see the crab yeah yeah you're not afraid of them are you going back in the water ready say byebye so Liz called me and Sarah over to do some investigative work because something was eating the ends off of all of her tomato plant stems and it didn't take long to find the culprit check out this guy just munching away very interesting Little Critter but Liah says you got to go all right folks that is going to wrap up this video make sure to hit that subscribe button to follow along with all these ponds and pets because you truly never know what you're going to see next hope you all enjoyed this video and we will see you all next time [Music]
