Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? My Pond Needs Help

Well my pond has a major problem with what i think is hydrilla. It cover maybe 70-80% of the pond and is around 1-2' below the surface. You almost cant fish it unless you go topwater or something weedless. Also pretty much every bass is about a #2 or #3. Last year I caught my self alone at least 1k bass and never hit the #4 mark not even once. That's not counting what friends and family caught. None of them had anything #4 or better either. Last year after some good info from here and thinking all along there was to many bass I decided to thin the heard. I prolly kept and ate about 200 #2 and #3 give or take maybe 20 or 30. The pond is from what i hear 10 acres i don't know if the island counts though. I decided today since it was a gorgeous 42 degrees to take some pics of the pond and what my normal bass look like so I can get everyone's opinion. well the bite was super slow and i missed 5 or 6 bites cause I never trimmed my weed guard or they only had the trailer. I did manage to catch one fish but it was not what i was trying to catch.

Some pics of the pond













Im pretty sure this stuff is hydrilla and i want it gone asap.





The one fish i did manage to catch for you guys to see. I guess shes about 8.5 but could of been pushing 10 possibly it was pretty heavy. The shoe is a 10.5.


This was the very first fish I caught this year. I caught it about a month ago right after ice out. She was about a #5-#6.

Since this fish I have caught 3 more #5 or higher including the one i got today. I also missed 2 right at the shoreline.
I maybe only caught around 100 LMB so far this year and 4 have been really nice. Last year they were half the size at best. I just don't get what the difference is now but im liking it.

hatrix,

Awesome pond and nice pictures!! The one difference is you kept a bunch of 2 and 3 pounders last year right? Well there you go you just made it possible for those other 3 pounders still in your pondn to grow, grow, grow. At least thats the first reason I could think of! Very nice fish. Your doing something right that's for sure! I am sure some other guys will be around to help you out on your weed issue. Do you have any grass carp in your pond? I am not sure if they are legal in Ohio or not? Good Luck Bud!

Thanks for the vote of confidence. I am starting to feel like im making small steps to owning a really killer pond. As for grass carp there around but I am not positive how many. I usually see them about 3 or 4 at a time. They spook easily though so its hard to walk up on them when there hanging out. Somehow they know im coming from like 50 feet away :P Tomorrow they say will be sunny so im going to try and get some pics of sunfish and what not in the shallows. I will catch a few bass to so you can see the size. I might even catch another lunker! I will keep my fingers crossed on that one. Do you think its possible the couple hundred fish i removed made that big a difference in size. I only bought the house in july and didnt remove any fish till around august/september.

If you have your forage base correct as far as minnows, RES and Bluegill I would say yes it's made a big difference. Be careful though you may be trading one problem for another. Remember 5 pound bass need a LOT to eat so make sure you have your pond stocked right and you look like your headed the right direction. Thats one of the things I can see coming is your forage base getting to small for all those BIG bass you got! Maybe some other guys here can bring some insight on that as I am no expert by any means. If you just bought the place I suppose your not sure what kind of forage base you have right? Wish you luck bud it looks great right now that's for sure. Enjoy it I know I would!

Later,

Well I don't know what RES stands for. Whatever it is I don't think I have any. As far as what in the pond I believe it to be only LMB bluegill/sunfish mostly sunfish grass carp and catfish. I caught one crappie about a week ago but i removed it. It was the only one I have ever seen in there.

hatrix:

That pondweed that is pictured is curly leafed pondweed. Here's more info on it: curly leafed pond weed

RES = Redear Sunfish. There's a thread in the archives with all the commonly used acronyms

The LMB looks pretty healthy. That last cold front shut down the fishing quick!

If you look in the archives there is also a thread with all the sunfish and pictures of them.

Well if those prices on removal are accurate and my math is not failing me it would be roughly $5000 to treat the 8 or so acres it covers. There are 2 other home owners here in the association and honestly I am not sure they have the $1.5k lying around. I know for a fact the family to my right does not since they recently lost a small fortune in investments and times are tuff for them. I believe the guy across the way does something every year to treat the pond but I can almost guarantee he doesn't put up that kind of money maybe $500 or so. Another item of high importance on the list this year is the stupid geese. There is about 50 of them here every day. They are loud and annoying with the windows open and they sh!t up everyone's yard. Is it possible for me to rake most of the weeds out? The pond is only about 15' at the deepest if i could just get it down to being only a few feet high that would be a good temporary solution. I have a tackle box full of really killer baits I can't even use. If the plant is not native where did it come from? Did the people who built the pond 15 years ago add it not knowing or maybe from birds like how a pond will have types of fish in it you never stocked?

Curly leafed pondweed is a native of Europe if I recall correctly.

You may want to consider fishy alternatives to vegetation control. Grass carp and tilapia will feed on curly leafed pondweed. Your infestation is thick and it will probably take a couple years to get under control. There are rakes out there to cut the pondweed, but that's a lot of cutting on a pond that size!

Geese, check with your neighbors, but if you are all on board the SSS plan may work... Check the acronyms if you're unfamiliar with that one. That, or wait til late summer when the legal hunting season comes in and find some hunters to introduce them to high velocity non-toxic shot then.

RES are not always stocked into ponds like BG almost always are. So you may very well not have any RES in your pond. If you don't, they make a great addition to almost any pond. I'd look for a hatchery that sells them and look at stocking them. But again, all it takes is money!

My first guess would be it came from all the birds you have there. Birds transfer more junk on there feathers and feet it's amazing. I don't know why anyone would plant such a weed? Raking would be one heck of a chore in that size pond. I have a one acre pond and it gets old real quick I couldn't imaging doing 15 acres.

Well I would not plan to rake the entire thing just some of the prime locations. I don't know what to do but something has got to happen. Its almost to the point where its unfishable. Using jigs and weedless plastics get old quick when that's about all you can use. I imagine it will only get thicker when we actually start having some nice weather and I want to try and stop it as best I can with minimal $ and effort.

Hey Hat,

Well that's one thing bad about a pond your size. Is when it comes to doing something on it, it takes alot more money that's for sure. I wonder if your game and fish commision there would help you out with the weed issue as you do have a nice size pond. This quote below came off of esshup's link he provided with the weed info. Maybe your DNR might help you out if you check with them. Cause I bet they don't want that junk spreading either from lake to lake from the birds. It's worth a shot anyway? Or maybe they can head you in a good direction.


"If you have Curly leaf in water close to shore-up to 100 feet out:
This is not covered by the open water permit. The lake association will pay for the treatment if you sign a DNR permission to treat form. We will be mailing out the forms in early 2009. Please understand that by allowing unhindered growth of curly leaf by your shoreline, you are providing a breeding ground for turion production that can affect the whole lake and increase the cost of open water treatment in the future."

Birds bring in a lot of stuff in their poo... Seeds and tubers

After what happened to me last year, I'm wondering if fish that eat aquatic plant material do the same thing if transferring fish from one BOW to another.

I guess it is possible...?

I think you need to make sure you know how big your pond is. Its hard to tell from the pics, but it just doesn't look like 10 acres to me.

1acre = 43560 sq ft
10 ac =435,600 sq ft

I would start by trying to get your hands on a handheld GPS and simply walk the perimeter to get the most accurate number. Short of that draw some lines using Google Earth and that should get you close.

As an Example, every person who has looked at my pond says its 1.5 acres...GPS says 1.15 every time. You can see how a 6 acre pond can quickly turn into "almost 10 acres" without actually measuring it.

If your pond is on here: http://acme.com/planimeter/ Use it and it will give you a very accurate idea how big it is...