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Thanks for the info. My 1/2 acre pond is only 8' deep at full pool, that's why I'm looking at a smaller pump. I have lots of weed and algae problems with this pond. It's about 40 years old. Esshup, I checked out your website, but I couldn't find specific info, pricing etc. Would you guys recommend one or two diffussers for this type of pond? Thanks again.

I wanted to give everyone an update on what happened with this little project. Sorry it's been a while, just been really busy. So, in early March we went to the fish farm and purchased 45 catfish in the 4-6" range and a lb of fathead minnows. Surprisingly they were extremely busy with lots of people re-stocking ponds that had gone dry through the drought, so that was the only size they had. I backed way off the number I was shooting for because I now have delays on my main pond build, so this is going to have to be our fishing hole for a while and I didn't want to ruin it by over stocking. Anyways as we are putting the fat head minnows in the water explodes about 3' from us. Definitely a fish strike. Now I have tried fishing this tank multiple times and have never even gotten a bite, as well as 3 other people. Plus the previous owner said that he thought the tank went dry. We returned the next week with fishing poles and ended up catching 3 good size bass, around 10 small bluegills and another baby bass around 5". We culled out the big bass and ate them, I tossed the small one back since there's really no chance of him ever being able to eat our catfish and we tossed back all the bluegill minus maybe 2 that swallowed the hook entirely and were going to die. We've been back multiple times to fish since and we do know that there is at least one more big bass in the pond capable of eating our catfish fingerlings and are actively trying to catch him. The last time we were out there I thought I saw a much larger fish that looked like a carp that was a solid 18-20" long. Over all, I guess I was way off when estimating the depth of the pond if all of these fish have managed to survive through the droughts. We did set up our fish feeder the day we stocked the fish and have been feeding aqua max twice a day for 1 second.

So first question which I know may be a crap shoot, but any suggestions on how to manage this pond at this point? Of the 45 catfish we bought, one was pretty dead on arrival, and another was in bad shape. The rest were fine. No telling how many are alive right now. I'm not sure if the bluegill or catfish are an easier target for the bass. When we fish for the bluegills, we usually kill one each outing on accident (these don't go to waste, we keep them for bait). Also, the pond at full capacity clearly has room for more bluegills. We are only catching them in around 4-5 spots, and there's a solid 15-16 spots with structure around the pond where there should be blue gill. I should also note that we haven't seen a catfish since releasing them, although I wasn't expecting too until they got much larger. End goal now would just be to be able to catch eating size bluegill.

Second question is that we have had the feeder running for over a month now and nothing really seems to be coming up to the surface to hit the food. I have not been around when the feeder actually goes off in the morning or the evening, I have just tossed a handful out when I'm there usually in the middle of the day. I do see a few small blue gills start pecking at the food when it sinks. Should I only be feeding once a day until the fish start to hit the feed? I'm frankly a little shocked that they aren't more trained to the feed at this point.

Without manually digging or sucking them out?

Tía

Don’t really want to grow fish

Just want it back the way it was 3 years ago if that makes
Sense

Over the weekend I added two Dunstan Chestnut trees and replaced two that I killed by over-watering.

I've got six more to plant. Two are going in the house yard. I haven't decided where to put the last four.

Half a dozen of the trees in the grove have grown a foot or more out of the grow tube. It's time to pull those
tubes and replace them with wire cages.

3" BG under a cork is the quickest way to catch the HSB in my pond.

For NY, I'd look into Golden Shiners. There are no shad species that will survive the winter that won't cause problems down the road.

Here in N. Indiana Gizzard shad can grow from spawning to being too large for LMB to eat in less than a year. The local lake has Gizzard Shad in it. The last gill net survey the DNR did showed that they made up 60% of the fish biomass in the 365 acre lake.

I'd be expecting the current hatch to be available in late June or July. I just picked up 3"-4" LMB from there on Monday.

Send that excess wet stuff my way.

I have a Texas Hunter feeder set to go off in the morning and early evening. If I can't get the fertility up, perhaps I should add a second feeder to a different part of the pond to offset, as you suggest.

This is something I have not witnessed.. I'd like to hear from Cody on this.

RER , just spent a couple of very enjoyable hours reading of your Pond experience. Any Updates, Pray all is well.