Pond Boss
I currently have a ~2 acre pond that freezes completely over in the winter. It is fed by a small creek on one end and on the other end discharges over a dam.

Question: Should I aerate, or should the flow from the creek be sufficient?

I want to keep the ice on the pond for winter sports (Ice fishing, skating, etc). This is my first full year owning the property (including aeration). I planted some fish in the spring (RBT, HBG) and have noticed there are some residual fish (BG, Pike (10"), Perch, etc..). There are a plethora of minnows, but for the most part the all of the fish are small. To further add to the equation, I have had a run-in with River Otters this year...

I am trying to ascertain if the existing fish base was decimated by river otters... or winterkill and whether I need to aerate this winter. Thoughts?

Attached picture BlackPond.JPG
That sounds like one of those "it depends" questions.

It's my understanding that running aeration in the winter is to keep a hole in the ice so that gasses that build-up from the life in the pond can escape. That hole in the ice goes against your plan for safe ice sporting. Now, if you do not have much of a bio-load in the pond, you should not have much gas build-up and, hence, no real need for winter aeration.

My guess is that the stream runs all the time carrying DO2 into the pond and carrying any gas build-up out of the pond, you bio-load is normal to small, and having ice all season for skating and such is important to you and yours. All that said...I don't think you need aeration at all, in fact, I 'd like to hear some expert opinions as to why one would have aeration on a stream fed pond, other than aesthetics.

Welcome to the club, btw!
Have you had a winterkill ?
the picture mentions 100-1000 winter gpm flow rates....how was this measured/observed? Your spillway uses a notched weir overflow so you should be able to calculate the outflow based off the pool height over the notch base in comparison to the notch angle/width dimensions. Maybe you've already figured this out?

If I had to guess, my winter flow rates are between 50 and 250 gpm after ice up - 1.25 acre, 14' max depth, 8' average, never had a winter kill.
Thanks for the replies. I have only been in the house for 1 year now. When I moved in last year I didn't see much for fish other than some small (2-3") BG, lots of minnows and creek chubs. So my thoughts initially were that either 1. there was winterkill with the previous owner, or 2. Otter have depleted the pond. After living here for a year, I have heard lots of stories about people catching 36"+ pike out of the pond years ago... I haven't seen any evidence of it, but then again, I am probably not on it enough to tell.

This winter I plan to Ice fish it to see if there are any Pike in it the only evidence of Pike I have seen is below the spillway and they were small.

The previous owner put the Dam in ~15 years ago, but hasn't done anything to the pond... I added aeration and bacteria to try and take care of some of the muck this year.

As with most of us, it has become my grown up "fish tank"...

As for flow, I measure it across the Dam on a periodic basis to understand how much flow I have seasonally to couple the initiative of building a power generating waterwheel... but that is an entirely different discussion! Velocity is between 4-5Ft/s, so calculating the flow is as simple as sticking the depth and width of the water on both sides. We had an extremely dry year this year, so in July/August I saw times 0 Gal/Min, which is unheard of according to the previous owners... Probably the reason I also had a large algae bloom and lilypads.

The last time I went out to fish it I was happy to catch a few of my planter RBT, but am shocked that I never catch any BG or HBG.

I appreciate your thoughts and just wanted to say I enjoy reading the content on here.

Jason
keep a close eye on it this winter - maintaining that flow will help for sure!
Do you have any sort of dock or deck that jets into the pond? I am in mid, lower Michigan, around Midland, we have a fishing deck that I run the aeration right at the deck in about 2-3 feet of water, and close down the two I have in deeper water for the winter. This keeps the water open at the deck and allows the use of the pond for winter fun. I have a half acre pond 30 feet at the deepest, LMB, BG and CC and they have been in the pond for about 4 years. If you feel the need to aerate, this may be a plan for you.
Fishing dock is planned for the spring. Good suggestion! I’m impressed you have a 30’ deep 1/2 pond.
JJB, how thick is your ice? Are you eager to get out there for some hard water fishing?
There is about 18” now, but I was able to do my first trip over Thanksgiving, but it was only 2-3” thick then. I’m looking forward to spring now. Time to stock more trout and get rid of the otter. They put a hurting on the population last year!
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