I'm just a novice, but like throwing ideas around.
My pic above shows the old barn by the pond. I considered putting clear plastic on the front side next year, and pulling aeration air out of the top side of that on warmer winter days, putting it into the four or five foot deep part of the pond to the left of the barn (in the pic). Or running it on warmer days, since we usually have more of those in west central Illinois than we had this year.
Would that warmer air make a difference, or not worth the "solar" effort? Depending on pump size and air tightness, I'd guess I could get 100 degree air on a 30 degree day, especially with snow reflecting extra light.
I'd read here (iirc) it's better not to just regularly aerate deep as it might chill the warmer water near the bottom, or mix it with colder water.
Snow is usually not all winter here, but I also wondered if running a pulse sprinkler wouldn't melt a lot of snow on a sunny afternoon ... since my pond is by the house. I'm not big on pushing snow around on the ice.
My new bluegill (right?) would make a nice splash for a little cat food.
These are the fry from the same year I put the one inchers in the pond, already about one inch themselves (BG, I assume) at end of August. Hopefully all small enough that they survived winter better.
