Pond Boss Forums AERATION Systems questions Aerating a 140 acre lake

It is not practical for private persons to adequately aerate lakes unless they have lots of money for the project. A good way to combat winterkill is to plow snow off the lake in winter. This allows sunlight into the water where plants will produce oxygen. Early snow falls are bad in that, they will early in the winter, reduce sunlight and plant photosynthesis during long winters which often leads to winterkill. Hopefully wind action will blow off snow some areas to bare ice. This is good. It is better to plow snow in strips instead of clearing large areas. With MN winters an old pickup can be used plow 6 ft wide strips alternating between snow and plowed lanes. One can plow 3 surface acres per hour or about 30 acres in 10 hrs on a 100 ac lake. Ideally you want to remove around 30% of the snow. The more often you can remove some snow the less the changes of winterkill.

The other thing you could do is manage the fishery for fish that tolerate low dissolved oxygen such as yellow perch and northern pike. Pike will likely reproduce in 140 acres so lots of then will need to be harvested annually to keep their population from being overcrowded and stunded as "hammer handles".