Fellow FRC'ers,
Here is a "blog" modified update on the pond as of this weekend. Ellensburg and the pond have been effected by this unusual heat wave just like Seattle, so this should come as no surprise...1) Water temp at the launch was 66 degrees (surface temp); in fact several of you have reported this to me over the past week and a half that we had reached the stated 65 degree limit to trigger the closing of the pond.
2) Water temp toward the middle of the pond, at a depth of approx 10 ft was 59 degrees, and indeed I had most of my action with a sinking line.
3) While weeds are less than last year, they are starting to grow into the shallows as the water temp has increased
4) Somebody launched the feeding rafts on their own, we are closely monitoring the fish this year to see if we can reduce/eliminate the supplemental feeding and hence reduce the amount of released nitrogen in the water. This should help keep the weeds down, by deigning them this supplemental form of "fertilization". So far we have not seen an adverse effect on the trout, but please keep me informed if you see any un-healthy fish.
5) One of the feeding rafts was either just launched without concern about what would happen or, more likely, broke free of its anchor(s) and is now high and dry on the far side of the pond, directly opposite the launch. Gary has offered to re-locate it either to it's traditional position or somewhere else.
6) The cabin door was tied shut with a rope, so I untied to gain access and retied it upon leaving. Will make an assumption that wind has been forcing the door open? Also, please pack out all garbage, especially food debris as this will directly lead to a re-infestation of the cabin. There is still a lot of D-con present so don't let little ones roam in the cabin w/o supervision. Found no rodent bodies, but packed out some garbage that was left behind.
7) The FISHING LOG is now kept in the cabin, please remember to fill it out
8) I have respectfully requested of the landowners an influx of water to help reduce the temperature and oxygenate the water. I do not profess to understand how the water allotment works for farmers, so this is a request only as his lively hood depends more on his crops. This is so that we can maintain healthy fish and will keep the pond open for
trout fishing through the JULY 4th Weekend (Last Day July 5th) - unless the weather takes a severe turn either way.
9) Fishing was great, spent about an hour and a half with my son. I would hook them up and then let him play them - lost a lot of fish very quickly this way. One of few we landed was a beautiful hen bow which tipped my boga grips at 5 lbs, immediately cut away the leader as this fish had swallowed the olive green w/ gold cone head that was the "hot" fly - and LOL I didn't have another with me that day. Fish swam away quickly as we did not handle it's body, only lifted it out by lips to weight. Did OK on other patterns, but when the action waned so did my son's attention to fishing.
10) Summary... A) Anticipated Pond Closure with LAST DAY: Sunday July 5th B) Minimize handling of fish, and take extra time to revive them C) Rip some Lips and then Fill out Fishing Reports D) Try using this BLOG, you'll like it; and obviously if you are reading this you have!
Tight Lines,
Randy :-)
