Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction Help on a very neglected farm pond....

Little quick info on me and the pond...I am 39 years old and live in east central IL...Love the outdoors and most everything involved with it...I have a beautiful wife and two wonderful little boys, age 8 and 5...

The pond is on a family members farm and has basically had no maintanance for 20 to 25 years...Meaning trees and small brush have over taken the banks surrounding area...

I would guess the pond is a 1/3 to 1/2 acres with no water supply except the natural under ground spring per my great aunt and an old windmill well that hasn't work in who nows how long?...

Guess the deepest point now is 6 maybe 6.5 feet... My cousin who is 64 and grew up on the farm said it was 11 to 12 feet deep when he was a kid...Water level in my opinion is still 2 to 3 feet lower than I remember as a kid..

Goals are to get it cleaned up and get fish back in the pond for a place to take the boys..Kinda jumped the gun last year and put fish in ...Thinking they didn't make it...

Asking for any direction on what to do and what not to do...I will do my best to get answers to any questions you guys might have...


Thanks, Sean..

One consideration is that well water and sometimes spring water contains no oxygen. And, both are underground water. If it's entering underground, that might be an issue.

Is the spring a constant flow that runs over?

No, there is no runover on this pond...Pretty much a round hole in the ground...There were always fish in the pond when I was young and my great aunt lived there..One of her sons moved in after she moved out and liked his privacy and just let everything grow up...

If I figure out this forum format I will post pictures of what we have done so far...

We started with tree and brush removal in November of 2011, then the pond part of the project got put on hold due to other parts of the farm that needed taken care of...We worked pretty much all of the last weekend and got a majority of the brush and trees removed..Now it is kind of to a point that I don't know what to do next...

The major issue is with it not being my property my wife won't let me sink money into it..So I guess most of what I can do is going to be on a very limited budget, without getting other in the family involved...

This is what everything looked like...Hedge and mulberries hanging in water and trees everywhere..This was yesterday after working all day Saturday..










This is the last one I took...We left the hedge on the fall left for wood duck cover...

Welcome to the forum. It looks like it was a busy weekend. If you want to measure the area of the pond, go here , find your pond and have at it.

Pond Boss has a great magazine that comes out 6 times a year, and they also have some good books for reference material. "Perfect Pond" is one that I'd start with.

First off, start by figuring what your goals are for the pond. (i.e. what to do with it, what type and size of fish you want). Be as specific as possible. Then, do a fish survey. Fishing, minnow traps, seining, etc.

That survey will give you a baseline on where to start. For instance, if your goals are to have the kids catch a bunch of panfish, & swim in the pond and all you find is bullheads, then it's time to drain, kill 'em and start with a fresh slate.

There's many, many options for you, even on a very limited budget. Read as much as you can here, even looking in the archives (you'll find a list of acronyms there). It's pretty overwhelming at first, but we'll guide you thru the steps needed to make the pond one of your dreams.

I guess goals for the pond for the three main people involved, being the owner, her BIL (the one kinda leading the charge on getting this going) and my family...The owner is the widow of my moms cousin...She is open for whatever, but money is tight with other things higher on the priority list...Her BIL lives in WI and wants to eventually build a small one room cabin on the north side for a place to stay when he comes to visit which is probably 4 to 6 times a year...I just want to get it back to a nice place to go and spend an afternoon and catch enough nice sized BG for dinner...

I guess the one thing I would like know sooner than anything is what can I put on the fresh cut stumps and vegetation so it doesn't come back...The stumps from the trees we worked on in 2011 are already sprouting pretty good...There is also a large amount of POISON IVY one the entire east bank..

With a max depth of 6 feet and low DO levels from
The underground water source aren't all fish in danger
Of winter killing every year?

1st off, thanks the replies and interest in my project...I will do my best to keep this updated when things change... I also understand that this is not going to happen over night without spending big CASH..

There is the first acronym (DO) that is not on the cheat sheet?...

I have already decided the fish are on the waiting list til we get the water level back up and get the weeds in the pond under control..NO MORE FISH LOSS...

With the drought we had last year I think I picked the worst possible year to waste the $200 on fish...

Weeds I know are present are milfoil, duck weed, cattails and scum algea in the hot summer...I will take some pictures and post as I go along for positive ID...

Please bear with me for this is all new to me...I am not afraid to work my tail off to make things happen and I love learning...I am also not afraid to share info on subjects I know well...

DO is dissolved oxygen.

The other side...I wish I had pictures from 2 years ago...

Cut stumps = Tordon RTU. Buy at either Tractor Supply or any farm fertilizer supply place. No applicators license needed. 1 qt. should do ya.

Some of those plants are indicators of high nutrient loading in the pond. Nutrients can come from leaves blowing into the pond, farm field run-off, etc.

For a good weed id, look at this thread: http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=226903#Post226903

To kill most of those, I'd use a Fluridone product, either Whitecap or Sonar AS. Not cheap, and it's not for ponds that have water flowing thru them. But, it works if the conditions are correct. Fluridone doesn't work on algae.

For a smaller pnd, look at stocking HBG and feeding them. Sprkplug raises some nice ones - exceeding a pound in a small pond.

I would stock about a pound or 2 of fathead minnows. That's relatively expensive to see if they live. Those things can tolerate a lot of water problems. If they don't make it, the water has issues..

Excellent, I have some Tordon, just wasn't sure about use at waters edge...

As for leaves blowing in the pond and farm feild run off...I am guessing those 2 are a given...There are no actual known tiles running into the pond, but this little pond is nothing but surrounded by farm ground...

I think that Dave meant that fathead minnows are "not expensive" rather than "relative expensive". I haven't bought any for 10 years, but they were about $10.00 per pound when I lasst bought them.

I believe you need to apply the Tordon as soon as possible, generally they tell you to squirt it on as you cut them. You may not be too late but I would do that next. I am not the expert here so if someone disagrees please let it be known.

The fatheads are a great idea...

Several of the stumps will have to be recut or flushed anyways...But no better excuse to get out of the house than telling the wife it has to be done NOW!!!

Outtdoorlivin, I think your hard work has produced excellent results. Nothing like a weekend spent with a chainsaw and brushcutter...nice going.

And I also recommend the Tordon, as well as Bing's advice to treat a fresh cut for good results.

Thanks for the kind words and advice...

Been reading alot today, holy cow there is alot to LEARN...

Several of the trees we removed from around the ponds edge were Walnuts...After reading here and other places on the net it sounds like they are not good to have around a pond...We left a couple of them that are nice mature trees that are probably producing walnuts, as well as leaves that are falling into the water...

I know the owner HATES walnuts and wanted them all cut down...Her BIL and I on the other hand wanted to leave a couple of the nicer mature trees?...

Do we need to remove the rest of them?..

Your only scratching the surface!

Walnuts produce a toxin that only allows other walnuts to grow near them, and there's a lot of nasties that come off of the husks if they fall into the water.

Somewhere rattling around between my ears is something remembering that maybe the Native American Indiana used walnut hulls to produce something like Rotenone that when poured in the water either stunned or killed the fish. Now I have to go looking for it...

I wasn't remembering wrong....
http://primitiveways.com/fish_poison.html

I'm still saying that after two years....


Walnut husks and water make a good natural weed/grass killer, so I've heard and would tend to believe. The acid in walnuts is a survival technique to prevent other trees from growing near it. I don't know what they would do to the water of a pond. Suppose it would have to do with how much volume goes in compared to the volume of water.

The Native Americans weren't the only ones.....my grandfather was known to do the same back in the day, but it was a matter of putting food on the table or going hungry. It most certainly works.

Drat! I forgot Horse Chestnuts were poisonous. Maybe it wasn't the best idea to plant 4 of them uphill to the pond. Have the nuts roll down in there with the husks and it may keep the crappie in check.

Joined this forum less than a week ago to learn management about a pond that isn't even mine...Crazy how things work because we just put in another offer on a house that has a pond tonight...

It is a house we tried to buy last October but couldn't come to an agreement...Well, they dropped their asking price to less than we offered last year...

Not a big fancy pond in the middle of no where with alot of acreage, but still a nice little piece of heaven...It is about the same size as the pond I am working on... It is stocked with LMB, BG?, and CC to my knowledge..

It is right on the edge of town with a couple of neighbors but they are all good people...WHAT DID I GET MYSELF INTO????

Sounds like good things happen to those who wait. Good luck.

Is it a shared pond?

No..It was originally supposed to be, but the owner of the property divided it and sold the entire property before the others were sold...

The neighbors house is 40 to 50 yards from the other side of the pond, but they are good people we have known for a long time...

I know things can change, but I am usually a pretty easy person to get along with...We will see what today brings with our offer...