My BOW has several aquatic plants, one which was introduced deliberately (duck potato) and the others not (am pondweed, chara, cattails)

A few questions

1) Most of the duck potato is now out of the water by about six inches as the pond water level has dropped roughly 12 - 18 inches during recent hot spell. Should I try to replant the duck potato deeper, or will it survive okay until we get a good rain?

2) I have 150 lb of TP in the lake, both to control algae and feed LMB. (Also I've heard that very small TP help feed large BG.) Do TP eat chara? I haven't seen them chowing down on Am pondweed or Duck Potato, thank goodness. (The stupid beaver is another story.)

3) As the heat has increased and water level dropped, the chara is venturing deeper. Like six feet, or maybe a bit more.

Most of my BOW drops off rather quickly, so this is not an issue. Besides, my YOY fish, especially CNBG, need a place to hide.

But there is an issue at the back bays of my pond, which is shallower. There the chara has pretty much taken over, including coverage of spawning beds.

If TP don't control chara, would grass carp do so? I'm leery of using them, since the pond is flourishing now and the LMB are fat & growing fast. Yet the back bays are becoming unfishable, and it is only the middle of June.

Any thoughts on the risks & rewards of GC? I definitely do NOT want to get rid of all the plants, just control the chara at the shallow end. But maybe I should leave well enough alone.

Another thought on chara control that may be less risky than GC: Put it to sleep under a blanket.

My big silver tarp just arrived today. My original thought was to use it to offer shade & cooler temps, but now that I think about it the tarp might also help fight overabundant chara. Cut off the sunlight in an area and chara growth should be curtailed, especially in the four plus foot depths.

Obviously this won't cover the entire back bay area, but 20X36 feet should be large enough to see if it works.

GC in my experience will consume Chara. I stocked 3 12" GC into a .2 ac pond with entire basin active chara growth in Spring, by the fall we drained and seined the pond and roughly 50% of the chara had been consumed and GC had grown to about 20". Interesting to note the clean basin area was circular - didn't appear the GC touched anything outside the circular pattern. Looked just like a crop circle! So....in the absence of any other vegetation, I can confirm GC will utilize Chara as forage.

Crayfish also will readily consume Chara and filamentous algae based on my experience densely stocked. Realize your fishery consists of LMB, so the density required to achieve management may never be reached, but if you could pen crayfish in an specific area of Chara preventing predation or escape I bet you'd be blown away by the results. I don't believe this is possible...just an observation.

If you are only interested in clearing some areas, raking chara isn't difficult and while not a permanent solution, it's an immediate one...as is treatment via algaecide [copper sulphate]. These don't have the long term ramifications of stocking GC and may be perceived as a benefit by you. Not sure of your goals.

I've managed many macrophyte species in my 7 ponds over the last 10 years, in addition to planktonic and filamentous algae even some duckweed and cyanobacteria - Chara ranks as one of the easiest to manage and one of the least invasive/problematic. Just food for thought.

What about adding pond dye? (Black, green, brown). While it wont knock back existing chara, it could slow or stop any new from showing up in deeper waters.

Pond dye will block the UV spectrum necessary for plant growth, but that will also impact your foodchain [planktonic algae/zooplankton]. BG recruitment could suffer significantly with less zooplankton...one of the downsides to shading.

Thanks for the feedback! Don't want to dye because fish are more important to me than a "pretty" pond. GC I'm ambivalent about, just because I've heard too many stories of them eating all the plants, including the helpful ones.

Up until this year, my plant issue was too few. YOY fish just didnt have anywhere to hide, CNBG recruitment was pathetic. However, this year I fertilized a total of 75 lbs over a period of 3 weeks. Even though pH and alkalinity were up from last fall due to liming, still couldn't get a really good bloom & maybe it went mostly to the plants. Which greatly helped CNBG recruitment, but clogs shallow back bays.

It's really true: No BOW ever remains perfectly balanced for long.

Think I'll give the silver tarp a shot in one of the shallow bays. Much more precise in dimming light exactly where you want to dim it than pond dye, shouldn't harm the fishery much if at all.