Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Restocking a "dead" pond

I am currently in the process of restocking a friend's 1/2 acre pond, which winterkilled about 10 years ago. The pond does have some fish in it but not many a few BG and a handful of LMB. The pond is loaded with bullfrog tadpoles and do I mean loaded. They are unbelievably thick in there. The pond also has a ton of Eurasian Milfoil around the edges that chokes out all the ideal spawning grounds out for the fish. I believe the milfoil and the loads of tadpoles have limited the fish to producing a healthy spawn each year and therefore explaining the low numbers of fish. I am in the process of pulling out much of the milfoil to allow the fish to get to the optimum spawning grounds and eliminate the possibility of another winterkill. I have stocked 15 adult BG, 25 adult YP, and 10 adult Pumpkinseed in the pond to help get a reproducing population of panfish established. I will stock some adult LMB and CC in the pond soon to help control the frog and tadpoles population. I believe the tadpoles strongly compete with fish fry, another explanation to why the pond has never recovered. Any thoughts or suggestions to help this pond out?

If you can, catch one of those bass in the pond and post a picture of it and calculate it's RW. You will be amazed what the experts here can suggest with a couple of pic's to go off of.

IME, A pond with lots of tadpoles...has lots of frogs. A small pond with LMB usually has very few frogs and thus very few tadpoles. Your area could be totally different though.

Dense milfoil will give bullfrogs refuge from LMB predation, good weed cover is part of the equation to having frogs present in good numbers. My dad's old pond had a high density of LMB, bullfrogs, and milfoil every year.

I do have my doubts that BF tadpoles are having an effect on YOY fry. My guess is that the winter kill 10 years ago created an unbalanced fishery with a small number of young LMB surviving. My guess is that the LMB in this pond are really fat, on the large side, and not very easy to catch on a regular basis.

One of the few bass I did see in the pond was a real pig. I'm just going to remove a bunch of the milfoil as I stated and do some stocking and will hope for the best. I think once I get it balanced out it should take off.

Around here the LMB don't like the taste of BF tadpoles and won't eat them.

Yeah I've noticed they don't like the tadpoles but, put a bullfrog in front of a LMB's nose...

One thing about Eurasian Water Milfoil. It will regenerate itself from any pieces left in the pond. So, if you pulling the plant breaks pieces off of it, each piece will turn into another plant.

My preferred way of dealing with EWM is a 10 ppb dose of Fluridone. It will only kill the EWM and any Curly leaf pondweed in the pond. (providing the pond doesn't have water flowing thru it).

I like using pond dye at ice out to shade it from the sunlight so it won't take off.