well, its time for an update. the soil report came back a few months ago. it recommended adding 1T/acre of lime. since my ponds are separated by a small spillway that only runs when the ponds are full, we decided to put lime in only one. this would allow me to monitor the progress. we also bought an automatic fish feeder and began feeding our bream. i bought a truck load of lime. totalled 27 tons of dolomite from birmingham. after i subtracted for moisture and relative neurtalizing value, we placed 20 tons of lime in 5 acres for 4T/acre. we began spreading the lime from small boat with a piece of plywood across the bow. we eventually ran out of time that weekend and just used the front end loader on the tractor to place several piles of lime around the edges. and the waiting began.
we continued fishing for harvest. the pond started showing some decreasing visibility in 2 months, but not a full blown bloom.
the state came out in mid may, and did an electro shock survey. it was a free service and they only shocked a total of 1 hour. we were able to remove 36 fish for 18 pounds. i wasnt impressed with the shock, but they did get a couple of 5 lbers and 1 two pounder. they also shocked up many bream. they also got a few fish they called chubs. so at that point, we had removed approximately 150 lbs of LMB.
I was still having problems with weeds. the water clarity hadnt helped so far, so i tested the water at the local pool store. it showed 50 ppm alkalinity, so i fertilized. i fertilized even though i had an established weed problem. i started with 50 pounds in the 5 acres but added 100 more two weeks later. i began noticing a brown phytoplankton bloom, but not 14 inches of visibility.
knowing that i was about to get busy, i added 40 carp to the 5 acre pond. that was mid june.
i returned this past weekend to assess the progress of the pond. the first thing i noticed was the color of the water. there was a green phytoplankton bloom and the visibility had decreased to the right level. i saw many carp around the edges, and to my surprise, there was no grass. the weeds were gone. im assuming this was due to the carp and the decreased penetration of light. i only caught 2 fish, but one was 5.5 lbs and healthy. the other was a juvenile, and was healthy also.
throughout the process, i was able to tag about 10 fish and hopefully, we will monitor their growth in the coming years. the fish ranged in size from 2-5 lbs.
in summary, the state biologist said the pond could be overcrowded. they thought i had made a dent in the population. they also said i had a healthy bream population. they suggested harvest until a balanced population was being caught. they thought i would see improvement next year.
so this year, i learned some valuable information for pond management. you have to harvest yearly. lime matters. it takes time.
and now for my plans for the future. we are going to add some new genetics to the pond. soon, we are going to add F1 hybrids. i am not sure on the quantity yet. but that will be the last variable for the pond.
we are in a drought in mississippi and my water level is down 2-3 feet. since my 10 acres of water are separated by the spillway, we are going to dig out the spillway between them so there is always water communication between the ponds. after that, i will probably get another load of lime for the other 5 acres next year. i would also like to get a population of threadfin, but due to the cost, it may be a couple of years.
i am pleased with the progress made this year. i will post again next year when i start harvesting again. im sure i will fish some more this year, but i dont want a lot of fishing pressure on the fish for the rest of the growing sesson.
in my eyes, this has been a success.
stay tuned. if you are reading this post with the same problem, hopefully this will give you some encouragement.
happy fishing!
