Hi guys and gals,
I'll share my experience from beginning to end as I was able to get the GC out before I moved.
June, 2012 shortly after moving in, I nuked my 2 acre pond with Fluridone at 90PPB due to an infestation of Coontail and Duckweed (FA taken care of with Cutrine+). In October of 2012 I stocked 8 GC at 12", in hopes to help curb/control any Coontail that decided to come back. Then in June of 2013 I followed up with a second treatment of Fluridone at 45PPB, again to prevent the return of CT. My understanding is that Fluridone is a complete vegetation killer, and it did it's job.
From that point until moving out in November of 2016 I was never able to establish any vegetation in the pond. Was it due to the GC not allowing anything to establish? I had no clue as I imagine it could have been a number of reasons. Occasionally I would spot a GC but never enough to get a good glimpse at it's size. But boy did I wonder if they had grown and if so, how much, yet what could they have been feeding on?
Fast forward to November, 2016. Just prior to moving out and 2 months after removing my aeration system my pond suffered an O2 crash. Seeing all the fish piping for air, my son and a buddy and I started netting as many fish as possible.
Here's how the GC had grown in 4 years and I still have no idea what they had been feasting on.
By the way, we were able to pull 7 of the 8 I stocked and to say they beat the hell outta me while in the bow of my bass boat would be an understatement!
With knowing now they got that big and likely keeping the pond stirred up, I don't know if I would do it again. Hopefully one day I'll again be in a position to decide
.