I'm going to be raising walleyes in Northern WI and I'm using natural ponds on the property. We plan on using a large seine to harvest fish next fall. The biggest potential problem we are facing is that there are a ton of weeds in our pond. The water color is very clear, most likely contributing to the amount of weed growth. I would like to use dye next spring to eliminated some growth but I think that would inhibit plankton bloom for my future fry. Im also considering a weed shear to manually remove as much veg as possible. The other problem is that our pond is 3 acres and I'm afraid manual removal will take a month of Sundays. The vegetation is about 95% submergent and the other 5% or less is lily pads. I will have to go grab samples from my lake and ID the type of weeds I'm dealing with and add that to this subject. In the meantime any advice or experiences could be of great help.

-Keep your hands scaley

The weeds are a catch 22. They provide cover for the YOY to hide in, both forage and predator YOY. They utilize nutrients that phytoplankton would use. The weeds using the nutrients contribute to the clear water, which allows sunlight to reach deeper into the water which allows more weeds to grow....

If the ponds don't have a good amount of water inflow and outflow in the spring, you could treat the weeds chemcially early in the year to get a phytoplankton bloom going, which woud reduce the amount of sunlight getting to the pond bottom, which would inhibit weed growth.

Are the other water parameters good to foster a phytoplankton growth? (hardness, alkalinity, N and P levels?)

Make sure the weeds in the pond are the type that don't propagate from cuttings, or you will compound the problem mechanically cutting the weeds or mechanically removing them.

agull, if you are planning on growing and harvesting by using a seine, I would definitely prepare the pond bottom for that! I'd remove all obstacles, structure and muck. Compact the bottom to have a solid, gradual grade to depth with very steep sides to inhibit plant growth and to keep the seine in contact with the pond bottom.

Some fish growers think the weeds are beneficial by creating natural filtration allowing more fish biomass to grow, however these ponds are pellet fed ponds vs predator based pond as you are creating. Harvest in the weedy ponds is by first using a herbicide such as diquat to burn down the plants. The other option that I think will work is to drain the pond rework the bottom so you have a flat deeper area to act as a sump. When you want to harvest, draw down the pond so only the sump has water and seine that area. Ideally you want to drain the pond each year to make sure all the fish are removed including any invaders such as bullheads and sunfish who tolerate winter kill well. Any fish present when fry are added will eat lots of WE fry. Draining the pond will also allow the bottom to dry out, organics to be decomposed quickly and lime to be added to help stimulate (proper alkalinity) the next plankton bloom.

Bill, I like the sump idea. I'll have to remember it.

Sumps or deep areas are good for shallow fish raising ponds that are harvested regularly with a seine. It is basically the same as many government hatcheries use in their ponds the sump is called a 'kettle'. I think TJ uses a deepened area in his SMB pond?.

Sumps are a great idea but it's important you don't get too many fish crowded into them and have low oxygen issues. The big governmental hatcheries usually run fresh water into them as they are removing the fish. And they are lined with concrete.

I wish I had build them in m two hatchery ponds! I did dig a small one by hand on the deep end of one of my small ponds and lined it with concrete blocks. Works good but would work better if it was bigger.

Just a thought. When I used to hand feed off my deck lots of fish would come to feed in one spot. If a large net was under the feeding area and attached to a teeter totter like counter balanced lift arm maybe all the harvesting could be just in the feeding spot with no worry about a weedy or irregular bottom.

A sump might be a good idea but probably not till next season. My pond is too large to harvest by hand also. We are talking about way to many fish to harvest only need feeders plus we will be feeding mainly minnows. I have talked to people that have used the chemical aquathol and I believe it would nock my weeds out quickly. My next question is will they decompose over a winter or will my seine be so full of dead weeds when I harvest that I can't even pull it?

Kill the weeds early enough so they decompose before harvest. Those that use this method kill weeds in fall when DO and natural circulation is high and harvest in spring. Your situation may not allow for a spring harvest due to winterkill.

You are correct Mr Cody I will have to have a fall harvest. Im hoping that the addition of oxygen through aeration will help facilitate decomposition during summer months. Im also planning on using Blue Shade(R) pond dye to control some of my growth during early spring when the fry are young to avoid any problems associated with young fish and my herbicide. My current pond status has 8-9 mg/L of DO but a large part of this is due to all the weed growth in the pond. During the winter, on the other hand I experience winter kill. I believe this to be do to large decomposition of my plant life. So by removing weeds and aerating I hope to be able to harvest in the fall with decomposed plant life. We also plan to only kill 50% of the pond at a time to reduce the PPM of herbicide the fish are exposed to and leave a little bit of plant life for cover.

Be advised that the blue dye will reduce the amount of zooplankton (rotifers and crustaceans) available for new walleye fry, thus decreasing the survival rate for stocked fry. Once the stocked fry get big enough to eat minnow fry then zooplankton are not as important to have in the pond.