New View

You probably have no idea the lengths I sometimes go to for a photograph for the weekly PhotoHunt theme. Or perhaps I should say heights in this case. Some of the weekly themes are relatively easy to meld with the general subject of the blog. Some present more of a challenge. This week's theme of 'view' was one of the challenging ones.

Of course I have lots of photo's with views of the pond. There are views from north, south, east, and west. There are views in sun and in rain. There are views featuring reflections of the trees, sky, and clouds. There are views from the center of the pond back to the shore. Believe me, I've got views. The problem was I have used a lot of those before in other posts. I needed a new view. Well, I got one. This view was taken from close to 25 feet above the pond. Now that is pretty high off the ground for taking photographs in my world. It took a tall tree, an extension ladder, and a limb saw to get the shot.

Actually I had an ulterior motive though. I was looking for fish. Big fish.

For the last week or so we have not seen the large grass carp nor have we seen many of the larger turtles. Normally the carp would always come up to eat when we throw out the fish food. In fact they would often be the first ones there and the most voracious.

I'm not sure why they disappeared all of a sudden. Evidently it has to do with the change of season, but the weather has remained fairly warm. I was surprised that they may already be going into their cold weather mode where they eat less, slow down their metabolism, and move to deeper water. Perhaps the cycle has more to do with the change in the length of the day than the specific changes in the weather.

Now these are big fish for a small pond. It's hard to show exactly how large in a photograph because there is usually not a good point of reference. They are about 24"-28" long and may weigh around 20 pounds. Some of you may recall the catfish used for the 'dark' theme in a prior PhotoHunt. These carp are probably twice the size of that catfish.
I knew that if I could look down into the water from a high point I might be able to spot them if they were toward the shallow end. And it just so happens I did. I spotted 3 together in water that was about 3-4 feet deep, but they were too far away and too deep in the water to get a photo.

We had a total of 5 of the grass carp in the pond. The three I saw were ones that were put in about 18 months ago and they grew tremendously fast over the first year. The other 2 have been in the pond for years, but we rarely see them now. Every time we write them off as dead and gone they show up.

It's easy to tell them apart from the younger ones as they are probably 50% larger. Usually they are too far away to get a photo, but I was able to get a short video of one of them this summer. I'll have to track it down and post it soon.

PhotoHunt