Hole in the ice

Greetings from Montana....
We have two pond on our property....
One is approx. 15 ft in diameter and about 4 ft deep...
The other is approx. 200 ft long by 50 ft wide and ranges in depth from 3 ft to 10 ft in depth
This week (February 2010) I found that there were three holes in the ice... One in the small pond and two in the larger one...
They are about 1 1/2 inches in diameter and appear to perfect cylinder... Much in what you would see when boring a hole for ice fishing... Only smaller....
Around each of the holes the ice appears to be dirty...
Could there be some critter that is boring up through the ice and crawling around?
I have never seen this before this year...
Anyone have an idea?

Some other information about the ponds is that the ice right now is about 6" thick. I use the larger one for nesting waterfowl in the Spring (Wood Ducks and Geese). I introduces gold fish a few years back and while I have seen no evidence that they still exist, we do have a good population of Brook Trout in both ponds...

Chuck,

Sounds you have a couple of those great fishing holes whenever you want to serve trout on your plate.

Happy ponding,

Rich

Semper Fi!

I usually prefer the use of an 8" hole! It gives the fish a little more room to run!

Chuck, Sgt
'70~'74

SAEPE EXPERTUS, SEMPER FIDELIS, FRATRES AETERNI
(Often Tested, Always Faithful, Brothers Forever)

Semper Fi Chuck,

I enlisted in 1969 and was Honorably discharged in 1981. I was 0311, served my tour of Vietnam on the USS Midway (CVA-41), and 7200 with the Fourth Marine Reserve Airwing (Hawk Missile Battery) in San Jose, CA. until I was passed over for Gunny.

By the way, you have a bit more ice out there than we get out here in the Northwest. I live in town and no room for a bigger pond than what I have. Always wanted a large natural pond on a large piece of land with a natural stream running through it.

Happy ponding,

Rich

You Sir were tougher than I...
I lasted four years and got tired of being told I wasn't paid to think..
Did my WestPac tour from '72 to '73... Crewed CH-53's
Went back to school and went to work for DOD at a Naval Base called China Lake... Got to play with Hawk there for a couple of years 1985... Helped to interface a new radar developed by Hughes called FLEXAR... Spent some time in Texas with Marines using Hawk...It would allow acquisition of three targets simultaneously.. Pretty cool innovation for its time...
Still have a set of Blues... Wear them these days for our Birthday, Color Guards, and Honor Details....
Have you heard of a website called Together We Served?
Chuck

That sounds a little strange
Maybe you can put out a game camera
And see whats comming up

DrCase..
You're absolutely right.... And I did think about the game camera trick and I'm trying to find someone that already has one....
I also thought about going fishing... Drop one of my ice fishing rigs down the hole and see what I can snag... I know that there are turtles in the ponds... But all of the turtles that I have seen wouldn't be small enough to come out through these holes... Unless they were able to just poke their heads out... But then the ice is about 6" thick... They would have to have pretty long necks!
Well I'll try to get a picture of the hole with a reference and post it here in a day or two...
Another interesting fact is that even though we have sub freezing temps the holes tend to remain open... Not even the holes that I bore to ice fish stay open...

Welcome to the Forum Chuck
Sounds like you have a critter that goes to the water hole for a drink and maybe a little fishing.

I also served, Airborne Infantry, US Army 1966-68.

Thanks for the welcome.... And thank you for serving our Country!!!
We had a fresh snow that came in over night and produced maybe a 1/4" accumulation... But it did provide three nice sets of raccoon tracks... But it looked like this family was just passing through...
I am not the ponder that it appears most of these folks are... My ponds were originally created as watering holes for our cows and are creek fed... Then we noticed that Brook Trout migrating up stream from one pond to the next and that our Brittanys think that they are bears and lay in wait to ambush them as they go through the shallower areas...
As I mentioned before, I did throw some goldfish in a few years back but they probably became part of the food chain for the Brookies...
Now my main interest has become the waterfowl... We get Canada Geese and Wood Ducks that nest on them... So the Canadas come first and will show up in about four weeks... As soon as the goslings and ducklings can fly they are history... They go down into the valley where the adults can go through their annual molt on the larger bodies of water and we open the ponds back up to the cattle..
Escondido... There used to be a couple of good Bass lakes in your area,,, And while I can't exactly remember, there used to a great swap meet off the 76 or 78 near Oceanside.. I used to love Swap Meets... Haven't been to one in years..
Chuck