Pond Life

When we built our pond back in 2001, we stocked it with itty bitty little baby fish, bluegill, bass, perch and fathead minnows (I think the minnows were for the bass, who are voracious eaters). We spent quite a bit of money, and had this guy come out and dump them into our pond. He had this big truck with a bunch of large barrels filled with water and baby fish, and a huge pump unit thing. He backed up to the pond and poured them in, like a big faucet. The force of the water created a deep hole in the sand at the edge of the pond. All in all, about 500 little fish. Some did not survive the faucet ride.

Over the past 4 years, we’ve fed them, caught them and threw them back, worried over them when the Great Blue Herons came to visit and feed, and looked for them when the ice left the pond, to see how many survived the winters. We’ve also made plans to eat them when they’re big enough. Kev thinks we have about 100 to 150 or so left. We always plan to restock, and this year we’re going to buy more baby fish for sure.

The fish we purchase from a fish farm are genetically different from their wild counterparts in that they cannot reproduce. Restocking is a necessity. For assuring future fish dinners, that is.

Kev buys the fish food from a local elevator. It’s little brown pellets, like extra mini dog food (and our dogs love it, too). It stinks. Imagine what you think fish food would smell like. Yep, that’s it.

This week, quite a few fish have come up to feed, swimming out of the weeds at the edge of the pond, one after the other. Just when you think they're all done, out swim more... like the fish-in-a-pond version of the clowns-in-a-circus-car routine. Though they’re still quite lethargic, they seem to enjoy the feast. When it’s warmer, it’ll be a feeding frenzy, and the water will boil with the fish competing for those stinky, brown pellets.