Our lake in the Texas hill country has gone from 7.5 acres to about 1.5 acres now. There is NO rain in the forecast. I think the deepest part is probably 12-13 feet deep right now. What can I expect? Is it at a point where the fish will start dying now or does it need to be 1/2 acre and 3 feet deep to kill them off? Anyone recommend something I can do?

Are you aerating that water? I think that would be the best thing you could do for your fish right now.

How exactly does that help?

Well, you have your total fish population from your once 7.5 acre pond crammed into a 1.5 acre pond fighting for room, oxygen, food, etc... your water is concentrated as are all the nutrients. Your biological oxygen demand is through the roof ~ you are lucky you haven't had a fishkill yet...an aeration system will ensure that your fish can atleast use the whole water column of the water that is left...

Hey shannon,

It helps because you will be putting more Oxygen into the water which will help your fish stay alive longer in this crisis. If you truly have gone from 7.5 to 1.5 and you had the fish capacity for a 7.5 acre pond you are in trouble real soon if you don't get any rain! Or any air in that pond to help your fish breath. Now your craming said amount of fish from a 7.5 acre pond into a 1.5 acre pond. They are going to run out of air soon I would think unless you don't have that many fish in the pond. You need to setup something even if it's temporary to get some of that water moving and get more D.O. in that pond.

I crammed 1/2 ac into 1/10 ac or less for a few months when I renovated my pond. I aerated and only lost one 8" BG.

Another benefit of aeration is the off gassing of the "bad" gasses. Remember, all of the natural processes are still in effect.

Aerations is about both adding O2 and off gassing the bad stuff, and when you are taxing your system, you have two choices, do nothing and take your chances, or get involved.

Just my two cents.

It just seems like aerating is so expensive to get done. I dont want all the fish to die though. That's for sure. I'm going to do some serious research quick and pull the trigger on something. Thanks for ya'lls help.

I agree but search on here for RC51s homebuilt aeration kit. I believe he had about $350 into it and about the same results as a big money kit.

Is it just a drought??

Too diffacult to pipe water to the pond?

Are you taking advantage of this and adding anything, bottom structure, moving some dirt? make some more deep holes if that doesnt affect the sealing of the bottom.
Or even to put in new ariation at shallow spots on the lake.

Good luck, its better to have a pond going dry than no pond at all!!

Don't forget to fish some out. Better in your freezer than floating gills up.

Llano is a pretty tough area to have a pond. Rainfall, soil, etc.

While it's down, perhaps you can treat some of the exposed area for the next drought go round.

We normally have 44 inches of rain per annum and my pond is waaaayyy down. I am doing what I can to get silt out and stick it behind the dam.

Shannon here is a link to what RW is talking about. My system is good for about an acre to 1.5. At about 10 feet deep. I put it all together for about 350 bucks. It took some effort on my end though. There is another link in the air section area called Air complete with pics you can check that one out too. It whould be a good temp system for you in case of emergency like your in now. It would not be good enough though when you are pushing 3 plus acres without adding to it. Time is not on your side at this point though.

Here's a few tidbits of advice to decide whether to aerate or not.
1) Aeration mitigates all the "bad" things which happen to water during drought.
2) Aeration stabilizies the water and its environment and the temperatures.
3) Depending how old the fishery is, there are some economical concerns. To restock properly, if you have a 100% fish kill, will cost $400-600 per acre, depending what you choose to do. For a 7.5 acre lake, that's $3,000+ (if you do it correctly).
4) A mature fishery, that's say, five or six years old will take...drum roll please...five or six years to replace. If you chose to buy the fish (assuming a fish kill), replacement cost for fish that age would cost $1,500-2,500 per acre, depending how good the fishery is currently.
5) If the pond is full of overcrowded, stunted bass and isn't a good fishing lake...a fish kill might be good.
6) If the drought extends and the fish don't die, here's what happens...they will adjust their numbers to fit the size of their environment. Big bass will eat smaller fish and all fish numbers will drop. Then, when the lake fills up, those fish will spawn like crazy and re-stock the lake.
7) Your decision should be based on how good the fishery is, how good your water quality is and how much money you want to spend.

Oh man Bob is right I never thought of it that way. I guess because my pond is only 1 acre. But 7.5 acres could be a LOT of money to replace fish if you have good quality fish in it right now. 1000 bucks on an Air system could be chump change compared to what it may cost to replace your fish. Man Bob do you do this for a living or something you sure are good at it! LOL!

There are predictions that there will no appeciable rain in TX THRU October. Just another dynamic to keep in mind.

Our East Texas ponds continue to drop like rocks as well. we have been fishing like crazy on weekends and keeping nearly everything we catch. Last drought we lost a lot of our largest fish - so we have increased our slot size accordingly.

Yessir, I'm just the other side of Fork from you. Starting to lose some large trees now. Sad.

There is a reason that landscapes look the way they do

Talked with my neighbor last night and she told me that fish were beginning to die in the smaller of her 2 ponds which is about 3/4 of an acre. This is the pond where I caught my personal record 7 pounder just a few months ago. I talked to her about aerating, but the pond is just too far from the house. She has been inviting others to fish and try to reduce the fish population. Of note: she said that the fish do not bite at all in the day or evening. They are only catching fish early in the morning at sun up. I am heading out there this weekend and am not looking forward to it.

I haven't been to my place in 2 weeks but have to go this weekend. I'm pretty sure the forage pond will be dry. Don't know about the larger one but it has to be hurting. The last time I was there, the forage pond had about 16 inches of water and the bigger pond still had about 7 ft.

You and your neighbor may want to explore windwill aeration.

I feel your pain!

My 4+ acre pond is now less than an acre of surface water and we have NO money at all right now! Even a $350 aeration system is out of our reach. Besides, there's no electricity there. I've looked into windmill aerators but they're out of my price range too.

Bad time for a drought! We're just expecting a fish kill. Even the beavers have abandoned my pond.

We're trying to remove fish but they aren't biting much. The ones we're catching look very healthy, though. My pond is totally covered in cover - not a square yard that doesn't have stumps and limbs and trees - so, seining is out of the question.

It's a very sad situation but all we've been able to do is check on it and fret about it. And, pray for rain!

All those lush green grass areas in the photo were spawning areas this spring.


you can see from the water marks on our drain box how high the water is at full pool.

I made the decision between aeration and a well, to get a well drilled and have been pumping some water in for the last few days. I'm hoping to just keep it at it's current level of water and add enough oxygen to keep the fish alive until the rain comes. We've got some great fish in there that have been managed for 10 years and I dont want to start from scratch. I just hope the new, fresh water will get enough oxygen into the 1 acre of water to keep it from turning over. We'll see if I threw the dice the right way

My biggest issue now is my smaller lake that's usually 1 acre with 9 deep water and now it's down to about .5 acre and 3 feet deep. I've tried to use the cast net and a minnow seine but just no luck. Any ideas on getting fish out of this pond and into our better pond?

ashannon, sorry for you problems. We are pretty dry in W GA and my pond is dropping too. Concerning pumping the water from the well - I heard that it is best if you create some kind of splash to help get more "O" into the water. Maybe someone else will chime in on that. Maybe you're doing that already...

I'm still considering the aerator to get the lake in it's best shape possible. I know one argument for them is that the bottom half of the pond fish can't leave in because of O2 levels. Isn't the bottom half where big bass hang out?

They can't hang out there if they can't breathe.

Fish, no matter what size, will hang out where they are the most comfortable. Food within easy reach without expending too much effort, correct temperature, correct amount of light, and O2 levels all come into play. It's all a matter of balance.

Is there a way to tell if there are fish down there and to really get a good, solid answer to whether my specific pond would greatly benefit? I'm just trying not to spend the money unless I'm going to see a serious return.

Its what you're not going to see that will be the return.

Drag a seine thru it and see what happens.

LOL - that sounds like the way our government invests

We're still way, way down but the water did come up about a foot after a rain and some cooler, cloudier days.

So far, no floaters but there's still nothing we can do about it but fret. Rain in the forecast for the next 4 days so...

BTW: the weather/climate officials just announced that this was the hottest summer on record for Georgia and the 8th driest. It's been rough on all our waters here.

ashannon, remember that well water lacks oxygen. I am in the same boat as you with declining water levels. I have piped water from a well with 1 1/2" pipe layed over the ground. I hooked a fire hose to the end of it(takes a special fitting) & used a sprayer to try and get some oxygen into the water..du