Hello All!

I am new to this forum and have been online reading for the last couple of weeks. Great stuff here, by the way. I've recently purchased a piece of property in northern Minnesota which contains a 9 acre pond. Working through the ice, max depth I've found is 40 feet, seems like 50% may be great than 15-20 feet. I've iced fish it little to date, and caught no fish, but hope to create a fishery there. I've been mainly drilling holes to map it out.

I plan to test the water, should I do that now pulling water through a drilled hole, or should I wait until spring? Will there be a difference in results?

Thanks!

The main benefit and parameter to be sampling during ice cover is the dissolved oxygen. If you don't have a DO meter or way to test the DO then wait until spring for sampling. I would put your winter efforts to doing pond management homework and lining up some fish traps to help you sample fish this spring.

Here is some reading material:
TRAP Link

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=259781#Post259781

trap of bz
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=21794&page=2

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=169015&page=2

http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=21794&fpart=4"

40 feet in a 9 acre pond? Holy Moly! Is this a natural pond or gravel pit?

It's a natural pond. There are pretty steep hills around much of it, and large hardwoods trees on those slopes. Beautiful piece of property. I got a look at the water just prior to freeze up, and it sure looked nice and clean. I've driven past it for years and it never really seems to fluctuate. There are a number of springs in the area, so I assume a spring is in the pond.

Good for you North40. Maybe it will even support trout year around.

While surfing this site last night, found a great link to another site helping me (acccurately ??) measure surface area of my pond; http://acme.com/planimeter/

My pond grew 2 acres to 11 acres using this site. I can only imagine the number of fish I gained!!

If the water is clear it would be very interesting to see how deep the dissolved oxygen is produced naturally in relation to the location of the thermocline. Normally DO is produced at 2-3 times the Secchi disk depth.

Thanks North40.

I have been wanting to do that but did not want to pay Google Earth for their upgrade software to do it.

I thought I had 3.5 acres but turns out 3.1

Almost an acre on my refurb pond.

I believe the thermocline is at 32 feet. When I was drilling holes a couple weeks back, my flasher showed lots of feed back once I hit 32 feet, and consistently as I worked across the pond.

Being new to this, it appears the only way to check the DO is by using a monitor and sensor, and dropping it down correct? Should I get my hands on one, is it a process of taking a reading every foot or so?

I think I'll start reading about DO. All the years I've sepnt fishing and it makss me realize how little I knew about the actual fish habitat. I guess I didn't know what I didn't know.

Here is some information about thermocline and DO from the Common Pond Q&A Archives:
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=92639#Post92639

Here is lots of homework about pond carrying capacity from the Archives:
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=92440#Post92440

There is lots of very good Pond Management Info in the Archives. Lots to read before spring thaw.

Bill - Thanks much, I appreciate the assistance!

Did you ever take a water sample to test the alkalinity?

I'm in the process of working though low alkalinity (4.5) and working to get it up to something more reasonable above 20. Northern WI steep surroundings, exceptionally clear, but very infertile so not much weed etc.

I have not yet. I'm going to do so Memorial Day weekend, so I'll know shortly after, I assume. I'd also got a lead on a DO meter from the soil and conservation district.