I Drained My Backyard Pond (And Found THIS) | Pond Build Part 1

[music] Welcome back, danglers, here at the backyard pond. I've been waiting a long time to do this video. We're going to solve a big mystery today and we're going to find out exactly what is in my backyard pond. So over the course of living here over a year, we've got to, you know, evaluate the the pond and the kids have fished it. Uh the neighborhood kids come over, they fish it a lot. Um and we've seen a lot of catfish caught out of here. I have stocked it with with bass and some sunfish. Uh and the kids catch some sunfish and all that. And I've seen glimpses of carp. I've we've seen uh turtles like big snapping turtles, you know, snakes. I don't know if there's any bass left in here anymore. I just haven't been satisfied with the pond. Mainly because I want to come out here and be able to actually see into the water. That's that's one of the the biggest things about uh fishing that fascinates me and and I think everybody loves to see into the water a little bit. It's been so shallow. You know, I walked out here one time and some waiters and it's like four or 5 ft at the deepest. There's some critters in here that I think are stirring up the bottom and keeping this thing muddy. Plus, we also have soft water. There could be some other species in here I don't even know about. But we are going to find out by draining the pond. And the goal in this series is to restore the pond and create a better ecosystem for bass. So, how are we going to do this? Well, right now I have [music] a small pump hooked up to a inch and a half hose and we're pumping out the water. I don't know how long it's going to take. It might be a day. It might be 48 hour. I I don't know. It might take a week to drain this thing. But when it gets low, we're going to go in here and we're going to start scooping out species and and the sunfish species that we want to keep. you know, I I can't really keep them here in a in a holding tank long enough to do all the restoration, but there's some cool little ponds in the neighborhood, and I already spoke to uh one of the guys that has a pond, manages a pond in the neighborhood, and um there's some big bass in there already, and could use some more sunfishes in there. So, we're going to take the the sunfish species, hold on to those. any blue cats, uh, which I've stocked in here, channel cats, good kind of catfish that we want to maintain, we'll transport those. And then everything else has got to go. And the most exciting part is when this thing gets down to a puddle over here at the deepest part, which I estimate is about 4 1/2 ft right now. We're going to get to see everything that is still on this pond. And we're going to get out there in some waiters, maybe some shorts. It is July in Texas. So, this thing was about a foot lower just four days ago and we had three inches of rain and it came up. So, that just shows you how how quick it can it can fill up. It's so small. But when we get down to that last puddle, I think it's going to be an absolute soupy fish mess. They're going to be flopping around everywhere. It's going to be crazy. So, let the suction begin. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. [music] Heat. [music] >> [music] >> So, let's just do a quick test. Monitor our our [music] suction progress. I'm just going to take a stick. I'm going to mark the water line right now. Right here on the shallow end. We'll mark the edge [music] right there. Okay. [music] It has been an hour and 8 minutes. Let's go check [music] our stick. Well, we've definitely got some recession. [music] I'm going to say about 6 in. And this is the shallow end. So, that is not much for an hour. Got on Gemini a minute [music] ago. just brief calculations, you know, rough estimate of gallons [music] in the pond. I'm going to say it's probably about 60 feet uh length [music] and 40 ft wide maybe. It's kind of actually looks like state of Texas or kidney bean [music] or something. It looks kind of weird. Anyway, with the estimate and the gallons per minute, which I think this sucks, 30 gallons per minute, it's like 44 hours is what it was saying. That's not factoring in humidity, evaporation. I'm leaving for Colorado in 48 hours. So, I needed to suck [music] a little faster. Now, Dangler said it's been a couple years since me and the fam have gone up to Colorado. I love going fishing up there. [music] I think it's Emy's favorite thing to do is to go up to Colorado and [music] camp. So, I have spent the last week getting the old adventure wagon here prepped and ready. This is my little buddy here that I'm hoping we're going to be able to do some digging with. We're going to attempt uh I I hope I don't get it stuck. I'm also going to need sodium bitite, which is a a sealer. My pond luckily has a good clay content right now that does uh retain the water. My worry is that when I dig a little deeper, I might get into like some sier lomy stuff that could cause some seepage. We're going to be doing all this dirt work. It's going to take some time, a lot of effort. Want to make sure that water stays in the pond. But all I can do right now is wait. While I'm waiting, I'm going to do my prep for Colorado and run a time lapse for you guys so you don't have to wait along with me. HEAT. [music] HEAT. [music] >> [music] >> gave her a proper mow while we're waiting. Yard looking nice. And as you can see from the time lapse, we have dropped I'm going to say we've dropped a foot. Obviously, it looks like more in that shallow end, but around the steeper edges, it's dropped about a foot. So, I'm thinking we're about a quarter of the way there. My goal is before we leave, we'll be able to scoop some fish out. Like basically get get them into a puddle where we can corral them. I don't think we're going to be able to suck it completely dry. But if we can get it down to the puddle, get the fish out, and then let mother nature in Texas, 100° for a week, fry this puppy while we're in Colorado, 10,000 ft, 71°. Real nice. That would be ideal. And then when the mud gets crusty enough, we can start working it with the equipment, which is probably going to be the funnest part of this whole thing. But I don't know. I really want to see what is in here. Um, get in there and start grabbing some animals. [music] [music] >> [music] [music] >> Wow. Now, this end could definitely use some more digging right here. Pretty shallow. Danglers, we're late in the afternoon and the pond has receded even more now. It's time. It's time to go in. We got the uh the old kneeh high muddies on and we're about to get in that muddy. All right, let's plop down right here. Wow, it's already like getting crusty. Freshwater muscles. Look at these guys. M. Doesn't that look good? >> Ew. >> Swig that down with a chaser. Look. Raccoon prints. That's probably from last night. I can't believe how hard this is. This is actually really good that this this clay soil is is so compacted already. You know, this is going to help with retaining water. But I'm a little concerned as we go a little bit deeper, we might hit some sand layers and get a little more porous. So, oh, okay. This is interesting. I don't know how this got in here. Maybe OSG behind the camera, my beautiful camera lady, can uh >> That is ours, but it was >> ours. It is ours. >> Okay. >> It's black. >> What's the story behind this? >> Well, our broom broke and it was probably one of the kids that decided that it was funny to throw it in. I'm not really sure. >> Ben, did you throw this in? Uh, I don't know. >> I don't know. Yeah, that's a probably. Oh, there we go. >> That's getting soupy. >> Oh, there it is. >> Oh, here's another muscle. And it's it's closing. It's This one's still alive. It's fresh. Leave that one for the raccoons. This is a large bone. >> I was going to wonder if we were going to find any bodies in here. >> I found another one. So, this is actually a little concerning because >> I know this is not a deer bone. I hope that's a cowbone. There's another bone over here. I I do remember throwing like a deer leg in here. Like here's a Oh, big old bullfrog just jumped in the lake. This is off the back quarter of of a white tail. I did. >> I think I just threw that in there. I was feeling generous for the catfish. So, >> meat for the catfish. >> Meat for the catfish. I was like, you know, maybe this is a thing. After getting done cleaning, I can just Look at our bullfrog. Our bullfrog's chilling like in his little bathtub now. So, if he is on the bottom right now, that'll that shows you that there's really not that much water left in here. I'm actually going to try to I'm going to try to walk out. Yeah, I'm gonna see how far I can get. Okay. Yeah, that's real soupy. >> I'm a little concerned about me. >> It is. It is like brownies. >> Don't kill yourself. >> Okay. Well, moving on. We have some bricks. Some interesting bricks. They're cut in triangles. Don't know why that is. Rock pile for our future bass perhaps. These kind of looks like cement block or maybe it is petrified wood. >> I want to go out there. >> That's kind of interesting. I don't really know. I don't know what that's about. Oh my gosh. I've been looking for this. >> Oh, your arrow. It's an arrow right here. And I know this is mine because Oh, yeah. This is the really sad part. I just made these set of arrows. These are the Victory HLRs. If you know, you know. This is not one you want to find in the pond. But a super nice arrow. I made these up and wouldn't you know it, like one of my first test shots right into the pond. Now, I couldn't tell if it like went over the pond. I looked beyond the pond for a long time, but sure enough, it went in there. Uh shaft still looks good. We'll refletch that bad boy and I think it it'll be flyable. That's pretty cool. You know, sometimes toys toys just disappear at the house. You wonder where they are. Some apparently are in the pond. Is this yours, Ben? >> Yeah, I see. >> Little little toy truck. Is that >> yours? E. >> Ew. >> Plastic bags. >> Oh, it's a garbage bag. I thought it was clothing. >> Yeah. You know, trash. Trash sometimes flies in the pond. You don't catch it. >> Ew. >> So, this this is also giving us an opportunity to clean the pond out [snorts] and really see what's in here. This is the the exciting part right now. All the fish are essentially in in this puddle and you can see them start to disturb the mud. They're kicking up like >> smelly. >> They're getting to where you can basically net them. So, that's going to be the next thing. The bullfrog's like, "No, why are you draining this?" And honestly, I love to listen to him on the back porch. Little glass of whiskey. Hear that bullfrog. It's just >> sets the night off. This tree here is uh has always kind of been an issue with it dipping into the pond. And I think I'm going to trim that one back, but I like having some cover. OSG, she really wants a cypress tree in here. And I got to thinking earlier, maybe dig out this right corner a little more and um have that go up to into a little shallow spot with a with a cypress tree. I think that would be pretty cool. Get some some largemouth on some cypress knobs. I'll clean up these edges when we come in here with the equipment. We'll get all this other stuff out and then we'll start making some better habitat for these fish. Next up, let's move on to netting what's in here. Let's get ready to get dirty. Shout out micro. Oh my gosh. Yeah, that's too deep. That's too deep. Yeah, that's a hard pass. Hard pass. One step further. I'm knee deep. So much mud on my boots. I can hardly tell what's left or right. We're going cast net, y'all. >> Oh man. >> I mean, if I was really good at throwing this, you could make like four casts and probably get everything. But what's going to happen is and I throw it best with I when I put it in my mouth. So you can imagine like throwing that in there, getting the mud on it, putting it in my mouth. >> All right. So you don't know about a cast net either. Guess not. >> That's That makes two of us. So I'm going to coil this. >> What do you guys do? >> Then we're going to try to throw cast net. That's what we're trying to do. Then we're going to coil this like this. Okay. And then the idea is that you sling this. The weights make the net spread out and then you you catch them. You catch them. >> Okay. Kind [laughter] of like a Frisbee, but it's all >> uh Yeah. kind of like wrist. >> Kind of like a Frisbee. Um, but like if you were just going to It's like throwing a pizza pie. Like try to get a pizza to open up. That's kind of what it is. And usually I throw it with I take a piece and I put it in my mouth to like go ahead and spread it out. There's ways you can like throw it over your shoulder and do all this stuff and I don't really know how to do it. So, >> okay. We're here for the adventure. >> I'm here, baby. I'm here to get these fish. You can see them swirling at the top now. >> That's a fun little dance. >> Okay, here we go. Well, we got some fish. You can see that that that net really did not sink down far at all. We actually have a fish that we want to keep. So, >> Oh, no. You lost one. >> Did I? Oh, that's the one we want to keep. That's a good bluegill. The thing about these catfish, Ben, go get that bit that tub. So, back when I was in school, I had a I had a prof that would transfer bluegills using only some wet towels. Well, they can survive with moist gills. Look at that. Look at that, guys. We've got the gillies. I think I just mud stomped that catfish there. This is another That's a raccoon raccoon food situation. Clean this one off. Can you guys see? So, I can tell that one's got the larger mouth. Tell by its morphology there that that is a greeneared sunfish. They are actually not good for the rest of the sunfish population. Very aggressive. They can out compete bass sometimes. So, this is going to be a throwaway. We probably need like to have another small bucket. Ben, can you go get me a bucket out of the the shop, please? First time seeing that. >> I feel like it needed to sink down a little bit more. >> It was on the bottom. >> Was it? Oh, I guess it was. >> Yeah, it was on the bottom. There's not much left. >> I guess not. >> Like I could walk out there if it if the bottom was solid. >> Put them in there. Okay, your bucket's going to have the fish that we don't really want. >> All right, guys. We're going to attempt a another throw with the muddy cast net. [snorts] Let's see what this does. Yeah, that's terrible. I might catch something though. I did. Oh, yeah. We got more gills. We got more gills. All right, we got mostly bluegill. >> That cat fit us. >> I know that catfish, he's stuck on the other bucket. >> All the good fish we want in this bucket. >> Look what we caught. A spinner bait skirt. >> Oh my gosh. >> No telling where that's from. >> Some fish, >> Jimmy. We're catching We're catching bluegill. >> Oh yeah, that cat want to play with this fish. >> This is what we want. >> Oh, look at that one. He's a big jumper. >> Uhuh. Uhuh. The cat is going to eat our fish. >> Um, which bucket? >> Here we go. So, this is our bluegill. >> Which bucket? >> Nice healthy one right there. So, this is what we're after. This is what we're keeping. And there's there's a pond that is just a few hundred yards from here that has got some big bass in it. And it's got overhanging trees. And so we're going to take some of these bluegill. Always good to add some genetic diversity. Some of these I got from uh from Pond King, which is up in Gainesville. And the others were just here naturally. And many years ago, I I theorized that there was a flood that brought in uh so much water that it brought fish into this pond from this creek that's way back behind our house. And I think that's how the carp got in here. Uh at first I was thinking it was from like birds or something like that, but I think that's how they got in here was uh just a massive flood from a long time ago. So, um, eventually when we throw the snap, we are going to get a carp, and I know that there are some big ones in here. The other scary thing is, uh, there's some big snapping turtles. The kids have hooked into some big snapping turtles. I've seen them crawling across the yard, so I'm a little anxious to get out there in my boots, get my toes knee up. >> That was a great throw, actually. >> You got to be kidding me. I got a few. >> That was That was a throw of the century for me. >> I thought I was going to go back with everything. >> Catfish that lay here at the bottom. >> They do lay at the bottom. You're right. >> Uh-huh. >> Maybe that's why I'm not getting them. [music] >> Mhm. >> These mud cats, these are like the cockroaches of the catfish world and they will I feel like they'll survive anything. You know, I've heard stories of even even draining a pond, they'll they'll just dredge into the bottom and they'll survive. So, we're going to let this puppy dry out. >> Ew. We're going to come back to like catfish smell. Ew. You're getting all that on me. >> What? You You don't want some muck on this, >> sweetie? E. >> I mean, I don't I have money. >> Ben, I ought to get you out there. This is like a young man's game. You should be out there with a net. This is This is going to be so weird getting the tractor out here on this stuff. I haven't really gotten you guys a closeup of this yet, but >> So, if you're wondering about catfish, >> like, why am I get riding of catfish? The kids love catching catfish. It's fun. But these spec this species in part this species in particular like this is a decently old fish right here. They they are very small. They have a big mouth and they are just super aggressive and they stir up the bottom all the time. They're just not a great game fish. We're doing them. We're letting the birds eat them. Actually, I'm going to throw a bunch of these in the bucket and throw them in the creek behind the house. Think that's where they came from in the first place. But I'm sure the raccoons will have their fair share. But this is not a channel cat. This is not a blue cat, which there are in here. If we catch those channels, which there's some small channels, we'll recognize those and we'll save them. We're making progress, people. That's a terrible terrible throw. >> Oh, I just saw Look at that one. >> That's a carp. That's a carp. That's carp right there. >> You guys seeing that? >> Oh, the back. >> Oh gosh. A baby crappie. Now, where did he come from? >> Oh, yeah. >> Look at that, guys. >> That is a baby crappie. Little buddy. I think we'll keep him in a good pile. Crappie are generally not great in large populations for bass ponds, but this pond is has so many fish, honestly, for its size. It's crazy. Oh, Ben, what? Why did you do that? >> What? >> I didn't. >> You just threw the net in the middle. >> Just full send. Oh, what do we got? Catfish and bluegills. Slowly working on them. It is quite a show. You guys tuned in for a spectacular one here today. >> Yeah. I'm going to go I'm going to go over the boot. >> Hey, that big boy. >> Oh my gosh. >> Oh no. >> Look how many. Oh my gosh, there's little tiny micros. Little tiny micros from this year's spawn. Little tiny micros. They >> don't even fit in the net. >> Oh, absolutely not. They're tiny tiny. >> They're They're fingernail size. >> Look at that. >> Oh, wow. >> It's a mega. E. Is >> that the carp with his back sticking out? It is. >> That's what I mean. It's a beach whale. Go get him. I've been trying to catch this thing since I first saw it like a year ago. There's two of them out here. >> I hope I don't got this to go. >> You're going to scare them off thenhere to go. >> You get it. I got it real good for you. >> I got him. >> Look at this thing. This is a big size. Oh my. Oh my gosh. >> Look at that. >> Way down here. >> Oh my gosh. They're going crazy. They're going crazy. >> It fits. How does that >> Oh, that's a big That's a big crappie. >> Yeah. Get it. >> Oh, no. Ah, >> look at this crappie. >> Oh no, >> it's a fish out of water. >> This is legit like keeper crappie. >> Oh wow. Could have cost you yourself a knife. >> I'm trying to remember. I'm trying to remember if I put crappie. >> I think you did. I think you did. Did I? >> Mhm. >> I didn't. >> Maybe I did >> in the very beginning. >> Maybe I did. Okay. Okay. I see one of the bigger catfish going towards the pump. Well, look at them. They're swimming upstream. They're like salmon. >> They're freaking out. >> They are. They're freaking out. >> Oh, the catfish came right at me. >> Oh, there's some big catfish over here. Let me try to get out. Get over there. >> Take the catfish. Put them in the black bucket. I got another one. They're coming in quick. >> Oh no. I need to call boys. >> Oh yeah. Call the neighborhood boys. Call the bass bros. All right. We're going to we're going to run a load over to the pond. >> Why are you scared to sit down there? >> Because I don't want mud all over my shorts. >> Sit your pretty little butt on that seat. Look at that beautiful pond. Got a nice nice new home. >> Yeah, we'll have a nice life here. >> Bluegills will be eaten by the big bass. >> The guy that owns this pond, he's really cool and he lets the neighborhood kids fish here. So, >> did you get it in your mouth? >> No, I didn't. >> I did. >> It's unfortunate. >> Oh, got some clear water here. Yeah, I kind of just dumped him. Wanted to jolt the catfish a little bit. >> There you go. Good job. >> All right, there he goes. Catfish released. The crappie [music] is just chilling here. >> So is another catfish. Another catfish is sitting on the bottom. >> Oh, I hear our boys. >> All right, we better get back. All right, the bass bros. Basro's coming to help me out. >> Oh yeah, we're losing Crocs. >> I grabbed that by hand. >> Nice. right here. >> Oh yeah. >> Oh, >> there's a lot more fish. >> Oh no. >> Here. Get this carp. >> I got it. >> Whoa. In the net. >> Nice. What are all these bluegill right here? >> All blue. >> Oh, awesome. All right. Like, look at my son >> over here. >> The kids have gone absolutely feral. Look at this one. Look at him. >> There's the other one. Look at him. They They look camouflaged walking through the trees. >> Stunning. >> This is crazy. Wow. >> Oh my gosh. I need to throw the cast net over there. >> Holy cow. >> Oh yeah, >> there's some catfish. >> Folks, the loads of catfish are insane. It's getting dark here. We've caught so many. We're The pond's getting so low now. You can scoop them up by the dozens. Neighborhood boys, the Bass Bros. They helped me out scooping up these. Uh, shout out to the Bass Bros. scooping up these things with the nets. Major haul. So, [music] these are going to be uh fed to the raccoons or get thrown in in the creek. We've already done about four or five trips of those. Most of the carb got tossed back in the creek, but that is my pond, empty as can be. So, when we get back, this will be dry. We're going to get to work on uh digging this out, expanding on it. [music] So, I know you guys are want going to want to stay tuned for all that. But, thank you for tuning in for this draining of the backyard pond, and I will see you guys on the next one.