Some of you may have seen my previous post either here or under controlling unwanted plants. Bill Cody has convinced me that having a professional firm come out to recommend a way forward and provide a cost estimate to fix our pond. Can anyone recommend a pond manager in the Kansas City, MO area or know of a firm that would be willing to travel here to take a look? Thanks in advance for your help.

Brian

Start with Shawn Banks www.midwestlake.com,If he cant help he may be able to direct you to who can.

Thanks Ted, I'll give him a try!

Shawn is a good choice !!

I fully endorse Shawn Banks to help anybody in the KC area. That man knows the entire realm of pond management. He has helped me on many occasions. He is creative, hard working and conservative. I think the world of him.

Thanks for the recommendations, I will contact him tomorrow to see what we can do!

Conservative?

I will let Bruce answer what he meant. My take was he meant is in his recommendations and use of resources (his and the owners).

Calm down Cecil there is no conspiracy. Word usage in its common form.

Not upset Eric. Just didn't know we meant. I hear that word in a different context on a daily basis.

I understand -- just jerking your chain a bit !

Will not oversell you.

Got it.

It's a term used probably more in dentistry than pond management. LOL

I talked with Jeff Slipke at Midwest Lake Management, and his recommendation was to treat with Fluridone at 90ppm to tackle water meal, aerate, and add beneficial bacteria to decrease the muck layer and help guard against an FA bloom. Bill Cody has suggested decreasing the size of the pond while digging out muck to get a fresh start. I have seen dredging equipment
http://www.piranhapump.com/ that would allow us to remove the silt, although it would be a drawn out, labor intensive project. Still more research to do to find the best compromise for the long haul. Thanks for the recommendations.

Deciding between advice given from Jeff Slipke and Bill Cody, is like choosing what football play to run after consulting with Bobby Bowden and Knute Rockne.

What's the size of the pond? It might be more beneficial to drain and dig it out and start fresh.

I second that. I had my .62 acre pond "dipped" with a monster size excavator several years after it was built and it was the best thing I ever did.

I agree ^. In the long run it will save you money to drain and re-dig, that's what I did. I bought a submersible trash pump at a yard sale for $35 and pumped the pond out myself.

It is currently 2.5 acres, but almost half of that is only 3 feet deep, and that is why Bill Cody recommended making it smaller on redigging.

Talking with Jeff more, he thought I was dollar constrained and gave me the lowest cost way to have a usable pond. He is right, I am dollar constrained, but I want to get an estimate on the full range of options and then see if I can find the money. Like the pond, this is a fluid process with lots of compromise.

I am looking at it long term not short term. Midwest Lk Management is looking at it short term. Both are options as noted by Bruce's post above . Yes - I think that the large area of shallow water is a majority of everyone's pond problems. For all - note that practically all your pond problems occur in shallow water not in the central deep portion of the pond. Constantly battling plant growth that insists growing in shallow nutrient rich water gets quite expensive, labor intensive, and creates lots of aggravation for the long term. BWH is on a low budget thus my suggestion to down size the pond when rebuilding which will reduce the total cost. A 0.5 to 1 ac pond can be very practical, productive, and enjoyable if it is relatively low maintenance compared to a large, shallow, weed infested, expensive to maintain, headache.

Every year you pour a significant amount of money into trying to make a problematic pond usable and attractive is taking away money from the ultimate pond fix of rebuilding it assuming the pond condition warrents rebuilding.

Understandable. I did not know the exact details of the situation but there are always alternatives and different ways to achieve one's goal. This is what is great about Pond Boss. There are a variety of solutions possible.

I thought I'd provide an update on our pond. We were unable to do anything on it until the landowner I co-owned the pond with sold me his land. I guess I could have done something, but did not want to spend money to maybe increase the value of his land that I wanted to buy at some time, and he was unwilling to spend anything. We hired a construction contractor in August, punched several holes in the dam, drained it and pushed the muck out of it. While doing this, we made the pond deeper and used the spoils to shrink the size of the pond. Now the minimum depth is closer to 7 feet, and the maximum depth is 13 feet. The pond is a little smaller at about 2.3 acres versus 2.5 acres originally. We also had the contractor remove a fair number of willows so we have better access to the pond; before there was only about 30% of the pond we could get to easily. We still have lots of renovation to do around the pond, but after some big Thanksgiving rains, the pond is only a few feet shy of full. We couldn't be happier. The dirt work ran over 3 weeks, and we feel fortunate the total price tag came in right around $30,000. Now to plan some aeration, habitat, and start stocking next spring. Let me know if you have any questions.

Congrats! Midwest can help you stock the pond, now. What type fishery are you interested in?

We were looking at doing the Conservation Department standard of Blue Gill, Catfish and Largemouth Bass. Our understanding is we'd do Blue Gill and Catfish in the spring and then Largemouth Bass in the fall. What we're less sure of us how to build habitat that is meaningful, whether or not to fertilize, and whether or not to feed the blue gill. We're also not sure how to lay out an aeration system.

FWIW I think the BG, CC and LMB is pretty much a standard recommendation from most government offices thru the midwest. Illinois has added RES to the mix for south of highway 80. It is the old school stocking recommendation and IMHO, overtime, has worked more often than not. IMO it is a good plan if you are happy and satisfied with a pond with those 3 fish. I suspect that those recommendations go all the way back to family farm ponds intended to provided an occasional meal with minimal management.

If you want the catfish to spawn, you should put some den-like structures in for that purpose. Old tires are sometimes used. They don't require much. If you don't want them to spawn, you should try to avoid structures that would encourage them. I haven't seen whether the hybrid blue cats are sterile.

When thinking of habitat, I would keep in mind the bottom of the pond, which presumably is already completed. I would want deep areas and shallower areas (structure) well out in the pond: bars, mounds, and trenches. In other words, not a smooth bottom like a bowl, but also not sudden dropoffs that would pose a hazard to people wading near shore.

When I stocked my pond, I put LMB, BG, and CC plus RES all in at the same time, early in the spring. That worked well for me. My pond was no more than ¼ ac, and I went with 25 fingerlings of each species.

Great to hear you got your pond renovated to your satisfaction. Nice that you came back to your old thread and updated it.

Enjoy the journey!