Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction 40 acre pond makeover

Hello everyone! My name is Ken, and I am new to the group/forum. Our county inherited a former quarry that has three closely adjacent ponds totalling around 40 acres. The largest two have a connector passage, clear water, and are heavily covered with submerged weeds. The deeper areas don't have weeds, but no boats are currently permitted. The water contains some bass and some bluegill, but submerged weeds hinder fishing, especially since it is only permitted from shore. Under all the weeds is a rock surface with enough mud to grow the submerged weeds. There is very little sand or fine gravel anywhere. It does have a lot of decent structure, mostly in the form of standing trees, but I rarely see any fish around them even.
I am wanting to send them a proposal to take over management of this property, and develop it as a much better fishery. I am looking for advice (and will expect questions), and I will aslo share some of my thoughts and ideas that I am already mulling over.
When you walk around the large two ponds, you hardly see any fish at all, although you will see an occasional bluegill or two, and in the evenings, a few small bass prowling near shore.
I realize that a number of tests will need to be done, but I believe it is a healthy body of water.
I have a few ideas I want to share, but guess I should wait to see who responds to find out if I should post them on this subject, or somewhere else . . . or both. ???
Here are some photos: Pandscorp
Here is the MapQuest view: MapQuest (switch to aerial view)
I look forward to your help.

Welcome to PB. Pics are a good start. Water quality is a good place to start. One possible reason if you have few fish is winterkill. Check on that as it can be a reoccurring problem. Then state the goals for the area. We can go from there.

Pics would be good, satellite maybe with some depths drawn in. Sounds like an awesome project. Pics will help alot through. First off what is your

Goals

I edited my post to include some pics and a mapquest link. I don't think there is any winter fish kill as depth is good to very good. There may be a lot of fish hiding in the weeds, but I know there could be a lot more, and they could be gotten to bigger sizes. I've seen some really neat ideas here on Pond Boss . . . I'll post some of my own strategies later, and look forward to other's inputs as well. It is a beautiful set of ponds(lakes).

Catch & Release is fine where it is needed, but often times controlled harvesting is necessary. This park is in a low income area, and could be utilized to help feed even more than it already does. Fishing right now is just too difficult, and with low results. I am convinced that this park could be turned in to something spectacular, and hoping members of this forum can help me.

Is there enough money in the budget to allow for an electrofishing survey? With a BOW that size, it's hard to get an idea of what's in there just by angling.

Yes, I do have access to electro shocking equipment, and already plan to do that along with the basic water analysis. I think that because of substrate and weed cover, there is a shortage of quality spawning area for both bluegills and bass. I want to learn what I can do to perform a full decent site survey without having to hire a professional conslutant.

Can you quantify the amount of harvest. Hungry people can eat a lot of fish. That also could be part of the few mostly small fish condition (assuming there are low fish #s). So could limited spawning areas.

Geez, I realize some folks are not totally sold on the idea of a hired gun, but you've taken it to a whole new classification!

Just playin' with you, pandscorp! We love ponds and fish and everything to do with them, and we also love to have some fun while we're at it! Welcome to Pond Boss - great looking body of water that looks from the pics and map to have some great potential.

See the links in this thread from the archives.

http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=92492#Post92492

Without the facts we are guessing in the dark - but that may help.

The points and some shore areas could be dug out to provide more shallow water spawning sites.

Lots of plants can mean lots of light penetration often caused by non fertile water (low plankton bloom - which is the base of the food web). This can also cause slow growth in fish (not enough to eat).

Not to downplay the value of hiring the professional, there simply are no immediate funds available, and I see little likelihood of our county moving on my proposal unless I can validate my recommendations. Everything I have is going into replacing my roof, and what I don't really have is going into my urban farming program (www.feeddayton.org). I am an extremely resourceful person, and have no shame in finding low cost ways to get things done as long as they still get done right. I have some free time for a few hours and am going to share some ideas on new posts.

I was just having fun with the misspelling of consultant in your post, pandscorp. Totally understand your point and where you're coming from on your approach to this project. Go back and re-read the post I referenced - the obviously unintended mistake was just too funny to me to pass it up!

What kind if weeds do you have?

I haven't ID'd the species yet, but the weeds are basically all submerged. The shorelines are all clear pretty much, and there are no floaters. Submerged vegetation is heavy, in many places covering the surface as it reaches the top. This limits the ability to fish what little is in there, and limits the options of how to fish too.

If you can get a strand of the weeds, take a close-up pic of it against a white background with a scale or ruler (or something) in the pic to give us an idea of size. ID should come pretty quick.

Thanks, I'll try to get over there this weekend. I'm guessing there may be multiple species, with one dominant.

It appears that the dominant weed is a milfoil . . . perhaps the eurasion variety if that overwinters in Ohio??? I put a pic up on my website page. pond/lake weeds.
It grows to the surface on long flimsy spagetti like stems and then lays down on the surface and keeps growing.
There doesn't seem to be as much as there has been in past years, but it is heaviest in the areas that are most accessable for shore fishing.

Yep, that looks like Eurasian Water Milfoil to me. Very hard to get rid of without going thru a whole lot of expense in a larger BOW. Nasty, nasty stuff.