Recently bought some land in western South Dakota. There is a 9 acre pond on our land that only contains bull heads and bluegills.

What I want to do is catch some bass from the neighbors bass dam, only 5 minutes away and put them in my pond. Neighbor is find with that. I'm just looking for advice on what to do and how to tell if my pond is deep enough to survive he winter

Welcome to PBF!

A 9 acre puddle. Wow! How big are the BG and BH you catch? Do you know the depth of the pond or are you asking how to measure it? If you're asking how to measure the depth, there are depth finders you can purchase that will map the depth while you cruise around in a boat. Another way is just a weight on a string you have marked off in one foot increments and just move around the pond in a boat and take samples.

Again, Welcome!

Bill D.

Thanks, seems like a great website so far! I actually do not own a boat so I can't quite do that. The bull heads are pretty small and the bluegills are pretty average size. I would think if those fish could survive so would large mouth bass. The guy we bought the place said the dam is about 8 foot deep. Too shallow for South Dakota winters ?

As long as the bass are free, go for it but, you need at LEAST a couple hundred. The BG make it thru the winter. IMHO thou, you have a 9 acre pond, time to invest in a minimum of a used 14 foot Jon boat and an electric trolling motor.

If they survive this winter I will be definitely investing in a little boat.

Any thoughts on what could be done if it is too shallow ? Would just shoveling the snow off of it and drilling holes to ice fish be enough or would I have to invest in an aerating system, are they pricey ?

If you keep the snow shoveled off you might be O.K.

You'd have to drill a lot of holes, as you want to keep a pretty large area ice free - I've seen ponds survive with less, but 10% of the surface area is what I recommend.

Usually the wind blows the snow off of it melts with 2-3 days... How long can the snow sit on the ice before it should be removed? Sorry for so many questions

Is it possible to drain, dig it out and start from scratch?