FISHING ROME POND
Maryland
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Abby
and I performed a morning wetland delineation and then an afternoon bathymetric survey of an NRCS, Soil Conservation District pond that we
are
removing, and restoring back to a wetland and natural stream
channel.
The alien invasive vine wisteria filled the air with
fragrance.
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The
insidious alien, garlic mustard carpets portions of the forest floor,
and smells
like garlic when crushed. We did observe spring beauty at
peak bloom and the emergence of tall meadow rue and jack-in-the-pulpit. |
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The
pond was deeper than we expected. After we calibrated our equipment we
then performed a detailed contour elevation survey of the Rome Pond, and
we
found it to be deeper than expected. We saw four bass nests,
with fish defending
the beds. We tried sight fishing, dropping lures
directly into the center of the nests. The males were agitated and
pushed the lures away, but were leery to bite.
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Of interesting note,
the mean temperature of the pond was about 68-degrees,
and around 70 to
71-degrees tight in on the banks. The back
of the pond had an obvious inversion layer where the water was a cold
60-degrees. This area of the
pond had three discrete, flowing spring
heads that discharge water into the pond.
The temperature change was
indicative of the cold, groundwater discharge mixing
into the pond (with
all groundwater being between 52 and 54-degrees).
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Abby
and I used 5-inch Senko worms to perform our creel survey.
We observed both largemouth bass and bluegill in all size classes.
I saw one female in the four-pound class, and caught two, 2-pound males. |
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Abby
had a minor boating accident that we will not talk about. |
Submitted by Mark Burchick
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